Today’s Highlights

On Feb. 2, 2013, former Navy SEAL and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle was fatally shot along with a friend, Chad Littlefield, at a gun range west of Glen Rose, Texas; Eddie Ray Routh was later convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On this date

1536: Present-day Buenos Aires, Argentina, was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653: New Amsterdam — now New York City — was incorporated as a city.

1848: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, officially ending the Mexican-American War.

1925: The legendary Alaska Serum Run ended as the last of a series of dog mushers brought life-saving medication to Nome, the scene of a diphtheria epidemic, travelling 674 miles in just six days.

1943: The remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered.

1990: In a dramatic concession to South Africa’s Black majority, President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

2014: Oscar-winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, widely considered one of the greatest actors of his generation, was found dead in his New York apartment from an accidental drug overdose.

2021: The Senate approved Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, making him the first openly gay person confirmed to a Cabinet post.

2022: Four men were charged with being part of the drug distribution crew that supplied a deadly mix of narcotics to actor Michael K. Williams of “The Wire.”