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Today is Tuesday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2002. There are 329 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Feb. 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices; critics charged Roosevelt was attempting to “pack” the court. 

On this date: 

In 1631, the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and his wife arrived in Boston from England. 

In 1783, Sweden recognized the independence of the United States. 

In 1881, Phoenix, Ariz., was incorporated. 

In 1887, Verdi’s opera “Otello” premiered at La Scala. 

In 1917, Congress passed, over President Wilson’s veto, an immigration act severely curtailing the influx of Asians. 

In 1917, Mexico’s constitution was adopted. 

In 1958, Gamel Abdel Nasser was formally nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic. 

In 1962, French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria’s independence. 

In 1981, a military jury in North Carolina convicted Marine Pfc. Robert Garwood of collaborating with the enemy while a prisoner of war in Vietnam. 

In 1994, white separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Miss., of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, and was immediately sentenced to life in prison. (Beckwith died Jan. 21, 2001, at age 80.) 

Ten years ago: The House of Representatives authorized an investigation into whether the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign conspired with Iran to delay release of the American hostages. (The task force investigating the “October Surprise” allegations later said it found no credible evidence of such a conspiracy.) 

Five years ago: Switzerland’s “Big Three” banking giants announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families. Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced a $10 billion merger with Dean Witter. U.S. Ambassador Pamela Harriman died in Paris at age 76. 

One year ago: Four disciples of Osama bin Laden went on trial in New York in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. (The four were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.) Flanked by a jumbo refund-check stage prop, President George W. Bush asked Americans to get behind his proposed tax cuts. A disgruntled former factory worker killed five people, including himself, at an engine plant near Chicago. 

Today’s Birthdays: Comedian-actor Red Buttons is 83. The Rev. Andrew M. Greeley is 74. Country singer Claude King is 69. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron is 68. Actor Stuart Damon is 65. Financial writer Jane Bryant Quinn is 63. Television producer-writer Stephen J. Cannell is 61. Actor David Selby is 61. Singer-songwriter Barrett Strong is 61. Football Hall-of-Famer Roger Staubach is 60.