Today in History

1547   Ivan IV crowns himself the new Czar of Russia in Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.  
1786   The Council of Virginia guarantees religious freedom.  
1847   John C. Fremont, the famed "Pathfinder" of Western exploration, is appointed governor of California.   
1865   General William T. Sherman begins a march through the Carolinas.
1900   The U.S. Senate recognizes the Anglo-German Treaty of 1899 by which the UK renounced its rights to the Samoan Islands.  
1909   One of Ernest Shackleton's polar exploration teams reaches the Magnetic South Pole.  
1914   Maxim Gorky is authorized to return to Russia after an eight year exile for political dissidence.  
1920   The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris.  
1920   Allies lift the blockade on trade with Russia.
1939   Franklin D. Roosevelt asks for an extension of the Social Security Act to include more women and children.  
1940   Hitler cancels an attack in the West due to bad weather and the capture of German attack plans in Belgium.  
1942   Japan's advance into Burma begins.  
1944   Eisenhower assumes supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
1945   The U.S. First and Third armies link up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of the Bulge.  
1956   The Egyptian government makes islam the state religion.  
1965   Eighteen are arrested in Mississippi for the murder of three civil rights workers.  
1975   The Irish Republican Army calls an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.  
1979   The Shah leaves Iran.  
1991   The Persian Gulf War begins. The massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq — Operation Desert Storm — ended on February 28, 1991, when the shrub declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms.