TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, FEB. 17, the 48th day of 2017. There are 317 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1947, the Voice of America began broadcasting in Russian to the Soviet Union.
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 1897, the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting in Washington.
In 1925, the first issue of The New Yorker magazine (bearing the cover date of Feb. 21) was published.
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.
In 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).
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Hal Holbrook is 92. Actor-comedian Barry Humphries (aka “Dame Edna”) is 83. Country singer-songwriter Johnny Bush and actress Christina Pickles are 82. Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown is 81. Actress Rene Russo is 63. Actor Richard Karn is 61. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 55. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Michael Jordan, actor-comedian Larry, the Cable Guy and TV personality Rene Syler are 54. Rock musician Timothy J. Mahoney (311), actor Dominic Purcell and Olympic gold medal skier Tommy Moe are 47. Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 45. Actor Jerry O’Connell and country singer Bryan White are 43. Actor Conrad Ricamora (TV: “How to Get Away With Murder”) is 38. Actor Jason Ritter is 37. TV personality Paris Hilton and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt are 36. Singersongwriter Ed Sheeran is 26. Actress Sasha Pieterse is 21.