History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 16th. A collection of treasures from King Tut’s tomb are currently in London as part of a four year long world tour. They’ve been an object of fascination since this day in 1923, when British archaeologist Howard Carter first entered the ancient pharaoh’s sealed burial tomb. Inside lay a sarcophagus with three coffins nested inside one another.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 15th. The term “fake news” has been making headlines the last few years, but the concept is not necessarily new. In 1898, the Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Cuba’s Havana Harbor, killing some 260 crew. Almost immediately, so-called yellow journalists published sensational headlines blaming Spain for the tragedy, and within a couple of months, the Spanish-American War had begun.

Happy Valentine’s Day, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 14th. Life on earth got a whole lot safer on this day in 1929, when the discovery of penicillin was announced to the world. British bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming had stumbled upon the discovery several months earlier when he returned to his lab from vacation. That’s when he noticed that some petri dishes containing staphylococcus cultures had been contaminated and grown mold.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 13th. Diamond prices have jumped more than 1000% in just 40 years. So we can only imagine what this one would cost--on this day in 2004, the universe’s largest diamond was discovered in the form of a White Dwarf star in the center of the constellation Centaurus. The star is actually a chunk of crystallized carbon that weighs in at about 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 12th. With the third impeachment trial in American history now behind us, we look back to this day in 1999, when the five-week impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton came to an end. The Senate voted to acquit the president on both articles of impeachment: perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in 1868.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 11th. He was admired by people around the world, and his name remains synonymous with the fight for social justice--on this day in 1990, Nelson Mandela, the leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, was released after 27 years in prison.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 10th.

“All the News that’s Fit to Print”...If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been printed on the front page of one of the country’s largest and most well-respected newspapers, The New York Times, since this day in 1897.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 8th.

On the heels of President’s Trump impeachment trial, we look back 47 years to another notorious presidential scandal: On February 8th, 1973, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to appoint a 7-member committee to investigate what we now know as Watergate.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on February 7th. The British have given America Shakespeare, James Bond and Harry Potter, but none of these imports caused more of a sensation than the Beatles, who arrived in New York on this day in 1964. Three thousand screaming fans caused a near riot when the Fab Four stepped off the plane at JFK, just six days after the release of their first U.S. #1 hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here's what happened on February 6th. Today it’s Meghan and Harry making news, but back on this day in 1952, it was then-Princess Elizabeth, who was crowned Queen Elizabeth II of England at just 27 years old. Her 68 years on the throne make Elizabeth, who is now 93, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. Surprising fact? Elizabeth never expected to be queen.