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Today in History: February 23

0303 Emperor Diocletian orders the general persecution of Christians in Rome.

1540 Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado begins his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest.

1615 The Estates-General in Paris is dissolved, having been in session since October 1614.

1778 Baron von Steuben joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge.

1836 The Alamo is besieged by Santa Anna.

1846 The Liberty Bell tolls for the last time, to mark George Washington's birthday.

1861 Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union.

1885 John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap fails to open.

1926 President Calvin Coolidge opposes a large air force, believing it would be a menace to world peace.

1942 A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.

1944 American bombers strike the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo.

1945 U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

1946 Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita is hanged in Manila, the Philippines, for war crimes.

1991 French forces unofficially start the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border.

2008 B-2 Spirit of the USAF crashes at Guam. Crew survives but aircraft written off, the most expensive air crash in human history (aircraft alone cost $1.2Bn). B-2 had a perfect safety record before the crash; not one B-2 ever crashed

2020 President Moon Jae-in puts South Korea on high alert, empowering the government to lock down cities after 602 cases of COVID-19 reported with six deaths

2021 Covid-19 antibodies survey in Nigeria suggests 4 million people have had the virus in Lagos state alone, more than officially recorded for whole of Africa

Born on February 23

1883 Victor Fleming, film director (The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind)

1924 Allan MacLeod Cormack, physicist, developed the CAT scan.

1994 Dakota Fanning (29th Birthday) American actress (I Am Sam, Man of Fire), born in Conyers, Georgia

JOTD
At a wedding I whispered to a guy next to me,

"Isn't the bride a right ugly dog"
"Do you mind. That's my daughter you're talking about"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were her father''...
"I'm not . . . I'm her fricking mother.