SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2012

Today is Saturday, February 11, the 42nd day of 2012. There are 324 days left in the year.

1531 ― Henry VIII recognized as supreme head of the Church in England

1573 ― First European, Francis Drake sees the Pacific (from Panama)

1808 ― Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

1852 ― First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street, London)

1889 ― Meiji constitution of Japan adopted; first Diet convenes in 1890

1945 ― Yalta agreement signed by FDR, Churchill and Stalin

1971 ― U.S., U.K., USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons

1978 ― China lifts a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens

1990 ― Nelson Mandela (political prisoner for 27 years) freed in South Africa

1999 ― Pluto is once again the farthest planet from the sun in our solar system