February 17th

President Barack Obama signed a $757 billion economic stimulus package into law..

Kosovo declared itself a nation in defiance of Serbia and Russia.

President George W. Bush named John Negroponte to be the first national intelligence director.

The new Transportation Security Administration took over supervision of aviation security from the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration.

World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer 'Deep Blue,' winning a six-game match in Philadelphia.

Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings that also wounded 19 people.

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.

President Richard M. Nixon departed on a historic trip to China.

Golda Meir sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Israel.

The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.

Newsweek magazine was first published.

The “Armory Show” opens in New York. The art exhibition featured works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh and marked the advent of artistic modernism in the United States.

Giacomo Puccini's opera 'Madama Butterfly' had its world premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine.

Columbia, S.C., burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in.

The Confederate submarine Hunley, equipped with an explosive at the end of a protruding spar, rammed and sank the Union's ship Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, S.C.

A precursor of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is founded. The “Committee for Relief to the Wounded” was created by a group of citizens in Geneva, Switzerland.

Baltimore became the first U.S. city lit by gas.

The electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was broken by the House of Representatives who elected Jefferson president.

Italian philospher, alchemist, and Copernican theory advocate Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy by the Inquisition.

Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire for peace.