Today is Wednesday, February 22, the 53rd day of 2006.
There are 312 days left in the year

Highlights in history on this date:

1495 -     French forces under King Charles VIII enter Naples in Italy.

1630 -       English settlers in America discover how to make popcorn.

1747 -   A day of fasting and prayer is held to rid Table Valley of a locust plague.

1759 -       French abandon siege of Madras, India, on arrival of British fleet.

1819 -      Spain cedes Florida to the United States.

1828 -       Peace of Turkmanchai by which Persia cedes part of Armenia, including Yerevan, to Russia.

1848 -   Revolt erupts in Paris due to failure of Louis Philippe's reign.

1862 -   American Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as Confederate President.

1871 -   Birth of John Langalibalele Dube, noted clergyman and political leader. He was the first president of the African National Congress in 1912 and founder of the Ohlange Institute in Natal and the Ilanga lase Natal newspaper.

1879 -   Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a five-cent store in Utica, New York.

1924 -   Calvin Coolidge delivers the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House. 
              

1942 -     Tribesmen in the Philippines wipe out a Japanese regiment during World War II.

1945 -       US Third Army crosses Saar River, south of Saarburg, Germany, in World War II.

1964 -   Ghana becomes one-party socialist state.

1972 -   Qatar's heir apparent, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, overthrows oil state's emir Sheik Ahmed in bloodless coup.

1975 -     Military government of Ethiopia announces that 2 300 guerrillas have been killed in fighting in Eritrea.

1980 -     In a stunning upset, the US Olympic hockey team defeats the Soviets at Lake Placid, New York, four-to-three.

1986 -   Philippines armed forces break with the government of President Ferdinand E Marcos, precipitating his downfall.

1990 -   Last Stalin statue topples in Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.
Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and other African National Congress officials arrive in Natal at the start of an ANC "peace mission" to the unrest areas of the province.

1991 -       US President George Bush demands that Saddam Hussein begin unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait by noon of following day or risk ground war with allied forces.
President FW de Klerk and ANC deputy president Nelson Mandela share a public platform for the first time as they jointly receive the Johannesburg Press Club's Newsmaker of the Year award. Mandela calls for an interim government before negotiations, while De Klerk opposes the idea.

1992 -     Shi'ite militias in Lebanon agree not to fire rockets into Israel, ending a week of heavy fighting with Israeli troops.

1993 -        Artillery duels between Israel's militia and pro-Iranian guerrillas kill a UN peacekeeper and a villager in southern Lebanon.

1994 -   US authorities say that the CIA's former top Soviet spycatcher Aldrich Hazen Ames actually spied for the Soviet Union. He is later sentenced to life in prison.

1995 -   France accuses five Americans of political and economic spying and orders them to leave the country.

1996 -   Russia and the head of the International Monetary Fund reach a deal for a loan of more than $10bn.

1997 -   Fleeing fighting, 30 000 refugees from Rwanda and Burundi leave their refugee camp in eastern Zaire.

1998 -  Tamil separatist rebel gunboats attack a 12-ship convoy carrying soldiers to northern Sri Lanka, killing up to 80 people.

1999 -     Fighting flares in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav army as the deadline for peace talks in France nears.

2000 -     Space shuttle Endeavor and its crew of six return to Earth with more than a week's worth of radar images that will be transformed into the finest maps of the planet.

2001 -      In a landmark human-rights decision, the United Nations international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia find three Bosnian Serb soldiers guilty of enslaving Muslim women during the 1991-95 ethnic conflicts between the Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia.

2005 -   Icelandic immigration authorities agree to grant the former   American chess champion Bobby Fischer a special passport for foreigners that would allow him to travel to Western Europe.

Today's Birthdays:

    George Washington    first US president (1732-1799)

  Arthur Schopenhauer   German philosopher (1788-1860)

      Frederick Chopin   Polish composer (1810-1849)

    John Mills   British actor (1908-2005)

  Jonathan Demme   US director (1944)

    Drew Barrymore   US actress (1975).