Today in History February 15

706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.

1493 – While on board the Nina, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter that was widely distributed upon his return to Portugal describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.

1870 – Stevens Institute of Technology is founded in Hoboken and offers the first Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering.

1879 – Women’s rights: President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing 274. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.

1933 – In Miami, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate US President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.

1945 – World War II: Third day of bombing in Dresden.

1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1992 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.

2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happened unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.

Yelena Bonner and Andrei Sakharov during their exile in Gorky

1458 – Ivan the Young, son of Ivan III of Russia (d. 1490)

1471 – Piero the Unfortunate, Italian ruler (d. 1503)

1564 – Galileo Galilei,  astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (d. 1642)

1710 – Louis XV of France (d. 1774)

1797 – Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (d. 1871)

1809 – Cyrus McCormick, American journalist and businessman, co-founded International Harvester (d. 1884)

1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (d. 1902)

1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist and activist (d. 1906)

1874 – Ernest Shackleton, Anglo-Irish captain and explorer (d. 1922)

1923 – Yelena Bonner, Jewish Soviet-Russian activist (d. 2011)

1928 – Norman Bridwell, American author and illustrator, created Clifford the Big Red Dog (d. 2014)

1929 – Graham Hill, English race car driver and businessman (d. 1975)

1935 – Roger B. Chaffee, American lieutenant, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)

706 – Leontios, Byzantine emperor

706 – Tiberios III, Byzantine emperor

1965 – Nat King Cole, American singer and pianist (b. 1919)

1988 – Richard Feynman,  physicist/academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)