TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, FEB. 18, the 49th day of 2017. There are 316 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1977, the space shuttle prototype Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its debut “flight” above Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1546, Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala.
In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.
In 1943, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Chinese leader, addressed members of the Senate and then the House, becoming the first Chinese national to address both houses of the U.S. Congress.
In 1960, the 8th Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
In 1967, American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer died in Princeton, N.J., at age 62. In 1970, the “Chicago Seven” defendants were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the AntiRiot Act of 1968 (those convictions were later reversed).
In 1997, astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tuneup of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane.
In 2001, auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is 90. Author Toni Morrison is 86. Movie director Milos Forman is 85. Singer Yoko Ono is 84. Singer-songwriter Bobby Hart is 78. Singers Irma Thomas and Herman Santiago (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) are 76. Actress Jess Walton is 71. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 70. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 67. Singers Juice Newton and Randy Crawford are 65. Rock musicians Robbie Bachman and Larry Rust (Iron Butterfly) are 64. Actor John Travolta is 63. Game show host Vanna White is 60. Actor Matt Dillon and rock musician Tommy Scott (Space) are 53. Rapper Dr. Dre is 52. Actress Molly Ringwald is 49. Actor Tyrone Burton is 38.