On this day …
February 23, 2016
- In 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was published, making it the first Western book printed with movable type.
- In 1836, the Battle of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.
- In 1847, American forces under the command of Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista.
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The Battle of the Alamo lasted 13 days and ended with the deaths of all Texas defenders. - In 1896, the Tootsie Roll was invented.
- In 1903, Cuba leased Guantanamo Bay to the United States in perpetuity.
- In 1927, physicist Werner Heisenberg, in a letter to Wolfgang Pauli, described his uncertainty principle for the first time.
- In 1934, Leopold III became the King of Belgium.
- In 1941, plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
- In 1954, the first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh, Pa.
- In 1974, the Symbionese Liberation Army demanded a $4 million addition to its ransom for kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst.
