Major Mike | Today in History 02/15/17

The wreck of the American battleship USS Maine in Havana harbour, 1898 (© Spencer Arnold/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

(1898) USS Maine blows up in Havana harbor

Over 260 US crewmembers are killed when their battleship, the USS Maine, explodes after anchoring in Havana Harbor, off the coast of Cuba. The suspicion that Spain mined the vessel will kindle support for the Spanish-American War.

USS Maine (ACR-1) is an American naval ship that sank in Havana Harbor during the Cuban revolt against Spain, an event that became a major political issue in the United States. Commissioned in 1895, this was the first United States Navy ship to be named after the state of Maine. Originally classified as an armored cruiser, she was built in response to the Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and the increase of naval forces in Latin America. Maine and her near-sister ship Texas reflected the latest European naval developments, with the layout of her main armament resembling that of the British ironclad Inflexible and comparable Italian ships. Her two gun turrets were staggered en échelon, rather than on the centerline, with the fore gun sponsoned out on the starboard side of the ship and the aft gun on the port side, with cutaways in the superstructure to allow both to fire ahead, astern or across her deck. She dispensed with full masts thanks to the increased reliability of steam engines by the time of her construction.

Keel laid: Oct 17, 1888
Launched: Nov 18, 1889

wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

President-elect Franklin Roosevelt is shown as he assured a crowd of supporters that he had received no injury after Joe (Giuseppe) Zangara attempted to assassinate him at a public reception in Bayfront Park, Miami, Florida, the night of Feb 15, 1933 (© AP)

(1933) Franklin Roosevelt survives assassination attempt

Speaking from the back of an open car near Miami, Florida, President-elect Roosevelt is missed by Giuseppe Zangara’s bullets, but they bring down five others, including Chicago’s mayor, Anton Cermak, who will die 19 days later.

Giuseppe “Joe” Zangara was the assassin of Anton Cermak. Zangara was an Italian American anarchist who shot Cermak and four others in Miami, Florida on February 15, 1933, during a speech by United States President–elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt himself may have been the intended target, but was unharmed.

Born: Sep 07, 1900 · Ferruzzano, Italy
Died: Mar 20, 1933 · Raiford, FL
Height: 5′ 1″ (1.55 m)
Highlights
1900: Zangara was born on September 7, 1900 in Ferruzzano, Calabria, Italy.

1923: After serving in the Tyrolean Alps in World War I, he did a variety of menial jobs in his home village before emigrating with his uncle to the United States in 1923.

1929: He settled in Paterson, New Jersey and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1929.

1933: Zangara was an Italian American anarchist who shot Cermak and four others in Miami, Florida on February 15, 1933, during a speech by United States President–elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1933: On March 20, 1933, after spending only 10 days on death row, Zangara was executed in Old Sparky, the electric chair at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

wiki/Giuseppe_Zangara

The computer ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) developed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 (© Apic/Getty Images)

(1946) ENIAC unveiled as the first general-purpose computer

The University of Pennsylvania formally dedicates their room-filling computer that the press has dubbed a ‘Giant Brain.’ The six main programmers, all women, have initially programmed ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) to run computations on the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb.

ENIAC was amongst the earliest electronic general-purpose computers made. It was Turing-complete, digital, and could solve “a large class of numerical problems” through reprogramming.

Inventors: John Mauchly · J. Presper Eckert

wiki/ENIAC

A Soviet soldier waves as his armored convoy makes its way back to the Soviet Union along a north Afghanistan highway, Feb 7, 1989 (© Boris Yurchenko/AP)

(1989) Soviet forces leave Afghanistan

After almost a decade of fierce fighting against the Mujahideen, the Soviet Union announces that the last of its troops has left Afghanistan. In the West, the war is deemed ‘the Soviet’s Vietnam.’

The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known as the mujahideen fought against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Between 850,000–2 million civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. The war is considered part of the Cold War.