February 18 ...

In 1546 the leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, died in Eisleben, Germany. In 1564 Michelangelo died in Rome. In 1685 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas. In 1735 the first opera was performed in America. The work was Flora (or Hob in the Well) and was presented in Charleston, SC. In 1841 the first continuous filibuster in the US Senate began. It lasted until March 11th. In 1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, AL. In 1865 Union forces captured Fort Sumter and Charleston, SC. In 1885 Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the US for the first time. In 1901 Winston Churchill made his maiden speech in the British House of Commons. In 1930 the planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930. In 1932 Sonja Henie won her 6th world women's figure skating title in Montreal, Canada. In 1952 Greece and Turkey became members of NATO. In 1970 the "Chicago Seven" defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention. In 1972 the California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty. In 1977 the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert. In 1988 Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as the 104th justice of the US Supreme Court. In 2001 veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years.