February 15, 1898: The battleship U.S.S. Maine explodes in Havana Harbor, killing 268 men. Sensationalist newspaper headlines fuel pro-war public sentiment, and William Randolph Hearst, publisher of the New York Journal, offers a $50,000 reward for the "detection of the Perpetrator of the Maine Outrage." The U.S. declares war against Spain on April 25.