By United Press International

Today is Monday, Feb. 27, the 58th day of 2006 with 307 to follow.

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People Born 27 February

  Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces. They include-

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - poet, educator, linguist. Born in 1807 in Portland, Maine. Died 1882 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of his many poems follows:

Ultima Thule: dedicated to GWG

With favoring winds, o'er sunlit seas,
We sailed for the Hesperides,
The land where golden apples grow;
But that, ah! that was long ago.

How far, since then, the ocean streams
Have swept us from the land of dreams,
That land of fiction and of truth,
The lost Atlantis of our youth!

Whither, ah, whither? Are not these
The tempest-haunted Orcades,
Where sea-gulls scream, and breakers roar,
And wreck and sea-weed line the shore?

Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!
Here in thy harbors for a while
We lower our sails; a while to rest
From the unending, endless quest.

 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black - born 1886

  David Sarnoff, RCA board chairman and father of American television - born 1891

  soprano Marian Anderson - born 1897

  novelist  John Steinbeck born 1902

  former Texas Gov. John Connally in 1917

   The following actors:

Joan Bennett born 1910

Joanne Woodward in 1930

Elizabeth Taylor in 1932

Howard Hesseman in 1940

Mary Frann in 1943

Adam Baldwin in 1962

    consumer activist Ralph Nader in 1934

    former first daughter Chelsea Clinton in 1980.

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On This Date in History:

1933 - Adolf Hitler`s Nazis set fire to the German parliament building in Berlin, blamed it on the communists and made that an excuse to suspend German civil liberties and freedom of the press.

1942 -   opening salvos were fired in the Battle of the Java Sea, during which 13 U.S. warships were sunk by the Japanese, who lost only two.

1964 -  the Italian government asked for suggestions on how to save the renowned 180-foot Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

  

1975 -   the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $21.3 billion anti-recession tax-cut bill.

1982 -   an Atlanta jury convicted Wayne Williams of killing two of 28 young blacks whose deaths over a two-year period had shaken the city. Williams was sentenced to life in prison.

1990 -  the Soviet parliament approved a US-style presidential system that gave Mikhail Gorbachev broad new powers and established direct popular elections for the post.

Also in 1990 -   a federal grand jury in Anchorage, Alaska, indicted Exxon Corp. and its shipping subsidiary over the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1991 -   allied troops liberated Kuwait City.

Also in 1991 -  a 14-month investigation ended with the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee singling out Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., for discipline over dealings with S&L executive Charles Keating.

1992 -   Elizabeth Taylor celebrated her 60th birthday by closing Disneyland for an elaborate private party with her celebrity friends.

1994 -     the 17th Winter Olympic Games ended in Lillehammer, Norway.

1998 - the Dow Jones industrial average closed at an all-time high of 8,545.72, the first time it closed at more than 8,500.

1999 -  Nigeria`s transition to civilian rule was nearly completed with the election of Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military leader, as president.

2003 -    Iraqi President Saddam Hussein denied Baghdad had any connection with al Qaida or its leader Osama bin Laden and that Iraq would set fire to its oil fields and blow up its dams in response to a U.S.-led invasion.

Also in 2003 -  Amnesty International reported that the Ivory Coast`s main rebel group slaughtered dozens of Ivorian policemen and their children during a horrific October rampage.

2004 -   two studies commissioned by the U.S. Roman Catholic church showed at least 4 percent of priests were involved in child sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002, with the peak year 1970 in which one of every 10 priests eventually was accused of abuse.

2005 -     a half-brother of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, accused of playing leading role in organizing and funding the insurgency in Iraq, was handed over to coalition officials by Syria.

Also in 2005 -    the United Nations took a first step aimed at curtailing worldwide smoking by announcing its tough tobacco control treaty had gone into effect.

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A Thought for the Day:

Marion Anderson - soprano born 27 February 1897 - saying she had forgiven the Daughters of the American Revolution for withdrawing its invitation to perform because she was black, said,

'You lose a lot of time hating people.'