Today in history: Feb. 15
In 1965, singer Nat King Cole, who despite facing extreme racism throughout his short career sold more than 50 million records that included massive hits such as “Mona Lisa” and “Route 66,” died in Santa Monica, California. He was 45.
1764: St. Louis
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In 1764, the site of present-day St. Louis was established by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau.
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt
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In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks later.
1965: Nat King Cole
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In 1965, singer Nat King Cole, 45, died in Santa Monica, California.
1967: Chicago
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In 1967, the rock band Chicago was founded by Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane (LAHK’-nayn), James Pankow and Robert Lamm; the group originally called itself The Big Thing.
1992: Jeffrey Dahmer
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In 1992, a Milwaukee jury found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15 men and boys. (The decision meant that Dahmer, who had already pleaded guilty to the murders, would receive a mandatory life sentence for each count; Dahmer was beaten to death in prison in 1994.)
2005: Paul Shanley
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In 2005, defrocked priest Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges.
2013: Russia Meteor
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In 2013, with a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across Russia's western Siberian sky and exploded, injuring more than 1,000 people as it blasted out windows.
2020: Diamond Princess
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In 2020, the U.S. government said Americans who were on board a cruise ship under quarantine in Japan because of the coronavirus would be flown back home on a chartered flight, but that they would face another two-week quarantine; about 380 Americans were aboard the Diamond Princess.
2021:Johnny Pacheco
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Salsa music idol Johnny Pacheco died at 85 in New York, where he’d been hospitalized with pneumonia.
2022: Sandy Hook lawsuit
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In 2022, the families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.
2023: Raquel Welch
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In 2023, Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and ’70s, died at age 82.
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Today's other top stories include another shot at a lunar landing, a look at why illegal crossings are down at the southern border, and improvements coming to airports around the country.
Donald Trump's hush-money trial will go ahead as scheduled with jury selection starting on March 25, a New York judge ruled Thursday, turning aside demands for delay from the former president's defense lawyers.
