TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT
2008: Raul Castro replaces brother Fidel as Cuba's president.
OTHER EVENTS
1525: Spanish army, using muskets for first time in war, routs French and Swiss forces at Pavia, Italy, as 14,000 men are slain in battle.
1530: Charles V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy by Pope Clement VII at Bologna -- the last imperial coronation by a pope.
1830: King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates in the face of an insurrection in Paris, giving way to the Second Republic.
1920: Nazi Party is organiSed in Germany.
1945: Egypt's Premier Ahmed Pasha is assassinated after announcing Egypt's declaration of war against Germany.
1946: Juan Peron is elected for first of three presidential terms in Argentina.
1991: Hours after last-minute Soviet diplomatic efforts fail, allied forces launch a ground offensive against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq.
1995: Breaking its silence with a rare fury in trans-Atlantic diplomacy, the US Embassy accuses France's interior minister of lying about a spy scandal.
1996: Cuban Government fighter planes shoot down two small aircraft belonging to an exile group flying off the coast of Havana.
1997: Nine army officers in Zaire declare that they will join the rebels under Laurent Kabila who seek to topple Mobuto Sese Seko.
1999: The second killer avalanche hits western Austria in as many days, raising the death toll to 38.
2002: The Winter Olympic Games concludes in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Germany winning the most medals in the games: 12 golds, 16 silvers and seven bronzes for a total of 35.
2003: Vojislav Seselj, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, surrenders to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is charged with eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes.
2004: A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rocks a picturesque but impoverished region of northern Morocco, killing more than 550 people.
2006: Suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia carry out a bold attack on the world's largest oil- processing facility but are stopped from breaking in by guards who fire on their cars, exploding both vehicles and killing the attackers.
2009: President Barack Obama makes his first address to Congress, warning the US has to start reckoning with its economic problems.
2011: Discovery, the world's most travelled spaceship, thunders into orbit for the final time, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey that marks the beginning of the end of the shuttle era.
2012: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton blasts Russia and China as "despicable" for opposing UN action aimed at stopping the bloodshed in Syria.
2013: Pope Benedict XVI bestows his final Sunday blessing of his pontificate on a cheering crowd in St Peter's Square.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, king of Spain and archduke of Austria (1500-1558); Wilhelm Grimm, German author (1786-1859); George Augustus Moore, English novelist (1852-1933); Bettino Craxi, first Socialist prime minister of Italy (1934-2000); Paula Zahn, US news correspondent (1956-)
-- AP
2008: Raul Castro replaces brother Fidel as Cuba's president.
OTHER EVENTS
1525: Spanish army, using muskets for first time in war, routs French and Swiss forces at Pavia, Italy, as 14,000 men are slain in battle.
1530: Charles V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy by Pope Clement VII at Bologna -- the last imperial coronation by a pope.
1830: King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates in the face of an insurrection in Paris, giving way to the Second Republic.
1920: Nazi Party is organiSed in Germany.
1945: Egypt's Premier Ahmed Pasha is assassinated after announcing Egypt's declaration of war against Germany.
1946: Juan Peron is elected for first of three presidential terms in Argentina.
1991: Hours after last-minute Soviet diplomatic efforts fail, allied forces launch a ground offensive against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq.
1995: Breaking its silence with a rare fury in trans-Atlantic diplomacy, the US Embassy accuses France's interior minister of lying about a spy scandal.
1996: Cuban Government fighter planes shoot down two small aircraft belonging to an exile group flying off the coast of Havana.
1997: Nine army officers in Zaire declare that they will join the rebels under Laurent Kabila who seek to topple Mobuto Sese Seko.
1999: The second killer avalanche hits western Austria in as many days, raising the death toll to 38.
2002: The Winter Olympic Games concludes in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Germany winning the most medals in the games: 12 golds, 16 silvers and seven bronzes for a total of 35.
2003: Vojislav Seselj, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, surrenders to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is charged with eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of war crimes.
2004: A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rocks a picturesque but impoverished region of northern Morocco, killing more than 550 people.
2006: Suicide bombers in Saudi Arabia carry out a bold attack on the world's largest oil- processing facility but are stopped from breaking in by guards who fire on their cars, exploding both vehicles and killing the attackers.
2009: President Barack Obama makes his first address to Congress, warning the US has to start reckoning with its economic problems.
2011: Discovery, the world's most travelled spaceship, thunders into orbit for the final time, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey that marks the beginning of the end of the shuttle era.
2012: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton blasts Russia and China as "despicable" for opposing UN action aimed at stopping the bloodshed in Syria.
2013: Pope Benedict XVI bestows his final Sunday blessing of his pontificate on a cheering crowd in St Peter's Square.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, king of Spain and archduke of Austria (1500-1558); Wilhelm Grimm, German author (1786-1859); George Augustus Moore, English novelist (1852-1933); Bettino Craxi, first Socialist prime minister of Italy (1934-2000); Paula Zahn, US news correspondent (1956-)
-- AP