Today is Wednesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2016. There are 318 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 17, 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” winning a six- game match in Philadelphia (however, Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in a rematch in 1997).

On this date:

In 1815, the United States and Britain exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

In 1863, the International Red Cross was founded in Geneva.

In 1865, during the Civil War, Columbia, South Carolina, burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in.

In 1904, the original two- act version of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “ Madama Butterfly” received a poor reception at its premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

In 1913, the Armory Show, a landmark modern art exhibit, opened in New York City.

In 1925, the first issue of The New Yorker magazine (bearing the cover date of Feb. 21) was published.

In 1933, Newsweek magazine was first published under the title “News-Week.”

In 1944, during World War II, U. S. forces invaded Eniwetok Atoll, encountering little initial resistance from Imperial Japanese troops. ( The Americans secured the atoll less than a week later.)

In 1959, the United States launched Vanguard 2, a satellite which carried meteorological equipment.

In 1964, the Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon departed the White House with his wife, Pat, on a historic trip to China.

In 1986, Johnson & Johnson announced it would no longer sell over-the-counter medications in capsule form, following the death of a woman who had taken a cyanide-laced Tylenol capsule.

The Associated Press