On Feb. 23, 1954, the first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.
On Feb. 23, 1868, W.E.B. DuBois, the American sociologist who co-founded the N.A.A.C.P., was born.
On This Date:
1685 - Composer George Frideric Handel was born in Germany.
1822 - Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.
1836 - The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 - U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican general Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.
1848 - John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, died at age 80 in Washington, D.C., two days after suffering a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives.
1861 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore.
1870 - Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.
1965 - Stan Laurel of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy died at age 74.
1991 - President George H.W. Bush announced that the allied ground offensive against Iraqi forces had begun.
1997 - Scientists in Scotland announced they had cloned an adult mammal, producing a lamb named Dolly.
1999 - A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted white supremacist John William King of murder in the dragging death of an African-American man, James Byrd Jr.
2000 - Carlos Santana won eight Grammy Awards for his album "Supernatural," tying the record set by Michael Jackson in 1983 for "Thriller."
2003 - Norah Jones won five Grammy Awards for the album "Come Away With Me."