TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20, the 51st day of 2019. There are 314 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2003, a fire sparked by pyrotechnics broke out during a concert by the group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others.
In 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department.
In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House, apparently of typhoid fever.
In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s health.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act that excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the United States.
In 1938, Anthony Eden resigned as British foreign secretary following Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s decision to negotiate with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
In 1942, Lt. Edward “Butch” O’Hare became the U.S. Navy’s first flying ace of World War II by shooting down five Japanese bombers while defending the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in the South Pacific.
In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Rabinowitz, ruled, 5-3, that authorities making a lawful arrest did not need a warrant to search and seize evidence in an area that was in the “immediate and complete control” of the suspect.
In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft, which circled the globe three times in a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.
In 1965, America’s Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon, as planned, after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.
In 1971, the National Emergency Warning Center in Colorado erroneously ordered U.S. radio and TV stations off the air; some stations heeded the alert, which was not lifted for about 40 minutes.
In 1987, a bomb left by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski exploded behind a computer store in Salt Lake City, seriously injuring store owner Gary Wright. Soviet authorities released Jewish activist Josef Begun.
In 1999, movie reviewer Gene Siskel died at a hospital outside Chicago at age 53.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Socialite Gloria Vanderbilt is 95. Actor Sidney Poitier is 92. Racing Hall-of-Famer Bobby Unser is 85. Actress Marj Dusay is 83. Racing Hall-of-Famer Roger Penske is 82. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is 78. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Phil Esposito and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are 77. Movie director Mike Leigh is 76. Actress Brenda Blethyn and actress Sandy Duncan are 73. Actor Peter Strauss is 72. Rock musician Billy Zoom (X) is 71. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, country singer Kathie Baillie and actor John Voldstad are 68. Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst and actor Anthony Head are 65. Country singer Leland Martin is 62. Actor James Wilby is 61. Rock musician Sebastian Steinberg is 60. Comedian Joel Hodgson is 59. Basketball Hallof-Famer Charles Barkley and rock musician Ian Brown (Stone Roses) are 56. Actors Willie Garson and French Stewart are 55. Actor Ron Eldard is 54. Model Cindy Crawford is 53. Actor Andrew Shue and actress Lili Taylor are 52. Actress Andrea Savage is 46. Singer Brian Littrell is 44. Actresses Lauren Ambrose and Chelsea Peretti, and actor Jay Hernandez are 41. Country musician Coy Bowles and actor Michael Zegen are 40. Actress Majandra Delfino, actor Jocko Sims and singer-musician Chris Thile are 38. Actress-singer Jessie Mueller is 36. Comedian Trevor Noah is 35. Actor Jake Richardson is 34. Actress Daniella Pineda and actor Miles Teller are 32. Singer Rihanna is 31. Actor Jack Falahee is 30.