February 15
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Featured Event
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
“Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!”
On this day in 1898, an explosion sank the USS Maine while it lay at anchor in Havana Harbor. It had arrived a few weeks earlier to protect U.S. interests in Cuba. At the time, Spain ruled Cuba, although the leaders of a decades-long independence movement had taken control of much of the island. About 350 men were onboard the ship; more than 70 percent of them were killed. Investigations by Spanish and American authorities disagreed on the cause of the explosion, though that did not matter for some American newspapers, which used the slogan “Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!” to stir outage in the United States. The result was the Spanish-American War and, eventually, independence for Cuba. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
In a private collection
Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze.
Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician Galileo, born this day in 1564, made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion and astronomy, as well as to the development of the scientific method.
Famous Birthdays
More on February 15
NASA
2008
More than five months after his single-engine airplane went missing in Nevada, American adventurer Steve Fossett was legally declared dead; his body was recovered later in the year. [Read about nine mysterious disappearances of people other than Amelia Earhart.]
U.S. Department of Defense
1989
Under President Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan after occupying the country since 1979. [Sort fact from fiction in our Russia quiz.]
UPI/Corbis-Bettmann
1978
Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. [How much do you know about boxing?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1965
Canada officially adopted the Maple Leaf Flag following a royal proclamation. [Test your knowledge of Canada.]
The Simpsons TM and © 2007 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
1954
Matt Groening, who created the comic strip Life in Hell and the television series The Simpsons and Futurama, was born in Portland, Oregon. [Take our Simpsons quiz.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1933
An assassin’s bullet meant for the U.S. president-elect, Franklin D. Roosevelt, wounded Mayor Anton J. Cermak of Chicago, who died three weeks later. [Read about nine infamous assassins and the world leaders they dispatched.]
Brown Brothers
1927
The silent film It was released in American theaters, and Clara Bow, the star, became Hollywood’s first “It girl.” [How much do you know about women in classic cinema?]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1861
Mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead—best known for his work on Principia Mathematica, which he wrote with Bertrand Russell—was born in England. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about mathematics.]
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ62-27885)
1820
Susan B. Anthony, a pioneer crusader for the women’s suffrage movement in the United States, was born in Adams, Massachusetts. [Test your knowledge of the Nineteenth Amendment and women’s suffrage.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2017656824)
1764
Auguste Chouteau settled St. Louis at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. [Discover St. Louis’s 10 claims to fame.]