On Feb. 11, 1812 the term “gerrymandering” was born when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting law that favored his party.
In 1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Ill., for Washington.
In 1869 the Midwest’s first women’s suffrage convention opened in Chicago.
In 1929 Italy signed the Lateran Treaty, establishing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.
In 1945, during World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin.
In 1970 Japan became the fourth nation to put a satellite in space, preceded by the Soviet Union, the U.S. and France.
In 1975 Margaret Thatcher became leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, making her the first woman to head a major political party in that country.
In 1979 Iranian troops supporting Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar were called back to their barracks, leaving him no choice but to resign, at which time conservative cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power.
In 1990, after 27 years in prison, black activist Nelson Mandela was freed in South Africa. He would be elected president.
In 1993 President Bill Clinton announced the nomination of prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation’s first female attorney general after two earlier candidates stumbled because undocumented immigrants had worked for them.
