TODAY IN HISTORY

Saturday, February  04, 2012 AP Highlight in History:  On Feb. 4, 1801, John Marshall was sworn in as chief justice of the United States.   AP Photo
On this date in: 1783 Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War. 1789 Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. 1861 Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States of America. 1913 Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Ala. 1938 The Thornton Wilder play "Our Town" opened on Broadway. 1941 The United Service Organizations (USO) was formed. 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta. 1948 The island nation of Ceylon - now Sri Lanka - became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth. 1974 Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army. 1977 The album "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac was released. 1997 A civil jury found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. 1999 Four plainclothes New York City police officers fired 41 bullets at Amadou Diallo in front of his Bronx home after mistaking his wallet for a gun. The unarmed West African immigrant was killed. 2003 Yugoslavia was dissolved and replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro. 2004 The Massachusetts high court declared that gays were entitled to marry. 2004 The social networking website Facebook was launched. AP Photo/Paul Sakuma		Video Highlights of This Day in History Today's Birthdays: Rock singer Alice Cooper turns 64 years old today. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill Name Profession Age Conrad Bain Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes") 89 David Brenner Comedian 76 George A. Romero Director 72 Lawrence Taylor Football Hall of Famer 53 Clint Black Country musician 50 Rob Corddry Actor 41 Natalie Imbruglia Rock singer 37 Gavin DeGraw Rock singer 35 Carly Patterson Gymnast 24 Former Vice President Dan Quayle turns 65 years old today. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak