Today in History: February 13, Bruno Richard Hauptmann found guilty of killing the Lindbergh baby
Col. Charles A. Lindbergh testifies on the witness stand at the courthouse in Flemington, N.J., on June 27, 1932. Lindbergh is testifying against John Hughes Curtis, Norfolk shipbuilder, who is accused of hoaxing authorities during the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Col. Lindbergh told of his negotiations with Curtis, who had told Lindbergh that he had been in contact with the kidnappers who took the Lindbergh baby. (AP Photo)
Today in History:
On Feb. 13, 1935, a jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)
On this date:
In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.)
In 1933, the Warsaw Convention, governing airlines’ liability for international carriage of persons, luggage and goods, went into effect.
In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the U.S. Supreme Court. (He was succeeded by William O. Douglas.)
In 1965, during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, an extended bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese.
In 1972, the film “Cabaret,” directed by Bob Fosse, based on John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical of the same name, starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, was released.
In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.
In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
In 1996, the rock musical “Rent,” by Jonathan Larson, opened off-Broadway less than three weeks after Larson’s death.
In 2000, Charles Schulz’s final “Peanuts” strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died in his sleep at his California home at age 77.
In 2002, John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.)
In 2011, Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who had helped topple President Hosni Mubarak.
In 2013, beginning a long farewell to his flock, a weary Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final public Mass as pontiff, presiding over Ash Wednesday services inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
In 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, the influential conservative and most provocative member of the U.S. Supreme Court, was found dead at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas; he was 79.
In 2017, President Donald Trump’s embattled national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned following reports he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia.
In 2018, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said he had paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn actress who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Trump.
In 2021, former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate at his second impeachment trial, the first to involve a former president, in which he was accused of inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6; seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict, but it was far from the two-thirds threshold required.
In 2022, playing in their home stadium, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl.
In 2023, David Jude Jolicoeur aka Trugoy the Dove, one of the founding members of the hip-hop trio De La Soul, died at age 54.