Video: 'U.S.S. Maine - Decades TV Network'

(Tuesday, February 15, 1898, 9:40 p.m. Cuba Standard Time) — The U.S. battleship Maine, sent to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, blew up suddenly, without warning, and sank quickly tonight in Havana Harbor in Havana, Cuba, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain.

The cause and responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry investigated. Nevertheless, popular opinion in the U.S., fanned by inflammatory articles printed in the “yellow press” by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, blamed Spain.

Video: 'Remember the Maine Documentary'

Video: 'Theodore Roosevelt Biography' (Feb. 15, 1898, at 5:32)