Today in History: February 13, the World War II bombing of Dresden

Today is Friday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2026. There are 321 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 13, 1945, Allied forces in World War II began a three-day bombing raid on Dresden, Germany, killing as many as 25,000 people and triggering a firestorm that swept through the city center.

Also on this date:

In 1935, a jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was executed the following year.)

In 1965, during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, an extended bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese.

In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, who was captured by U.S. forces as an enemy combatant in 2001, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.)

In 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, the influential conservative member of the U.S. Supreme Court, was found dead at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas; he was 79.

In 2017, President Donald Trump's embattled national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned following reports he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia.

In 2018, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said he had paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels), a porn actor who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump.

In 2021, Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate at his second impeachment trial -– the first to involve a former president -– in which he was accused of inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict, less than the two-thirds threshold required.