On this day in...

On this day in...
1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 – Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
1896 – The Tootsie Roll is invented.
1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution.
1927 – President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.
1998 – Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and "Crusaders."

Births...
1937 – Tom Osborne, American football coach and politician
1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor
1943 – Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
1955 – Tom Bodett, American voice actor, radio personality, and writer
1955 – Howard Jones, British pop singer
1955 – Flip Saunders, American basketball coach
1963 – Bobby Bonilla, American baseball player
1983 – Emily Blunt, British actress

Remember Tom Bodett from the Motel 6 commercials? We'll leave the light on for you. Classic.