Today is Thursday, Feb. 27, the 58th day of 2025
with 307 to follow.
The moon is new. Morning stars are Jupiter and Mars. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
On this date in history:
In 1844, the Dominican Republic was granted independence from Haiti.
In 1933, it was announced that President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt would use a 263-year-old tattered Dutch Bible that had been in the possession of his family since 1670 for his inauguration on March 4.
In 1942, opening salvos were fired in the Battle of the Java Sea, during which 11 American-British-Dutch-Australian Command warships were sunk by the Japanese, resulting in the deaths of approximately 3,400 sailors. The USS Houston (CA-30), which was sunk during the Battle of Sunda Strait on March 1, 1942, was located in 2014.
In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting presidents to two terms, was ratified.
In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement began a 71-day occupation at Wounded Knee, S.D., to protest the federal government's failure to live up to its agreements with Indian nations.
In 1974, the first issue of People magazine was published.
In 1982, an Atlanta jury convicted Wayne Williams of killing two of 28 young African Americans whose deaths over a two-year period had shaken the city. Williams was sentenced to life in prison.
In 1990, the Soviet Parliament approved the creation of a U.S.-style presidential system that gave Mikhail Gorbachev broad powers and established direct popular elections for the office.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush ordered a halt to the allied military offensive against Iraqi military forces, saying: ''Our military objectives are met.''
In 1999, Nigeria's transition to civilian rule was nearly completed with the election of Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military leader, as president.
In 2007, a suicide bomber set off a device outside Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan that killed 23 people. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was visiting the American military base and identified by the Taliban as the target of the attack, escaped injury.
In 2010, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile, killing more than 500 people. The quake generated a tsunami, destroyed or heavily damaged nearly 500,000 homes and caused a massive electrical blackout. Chile's president declared a "state of catastrophe."
In 2013, about 150,000 people gathered at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City for Pope Benedict XVI's final general audience.
In 2015, Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov died from a fatal gunshot wound. In the days before his death, Nemtsov expressed fears of being killed by the government, but the government prosecuted Chechen men for his death.
In 2022, former President Donald Trump won an informal straw poll of whom attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference would support in a Republican presidential primary.
