Today In History
Today is Saturday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2018. There are 317 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1968: The original Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located on the campus of Springfield College in Massachusetts, was opened to the public.
ON THIS DATE
› 1864: During the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.
› 1865: During the Civil War, Columbia, South Carolina, burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in.
› 1897: The forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting in Washington.
› 1925: The first issue of The New Yorker magazine (bearing the cover date of Feb. 21) was published.
› 1933: Newsweek magazine was first published under the title “News-Week.”
› 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
93. Actor-comedian Barry Humphries (aka “Dame Edna”) is 84. Country singer-songwriter Johnny Bush is 83. Actress Brenda Fricker is 73. Actress Becky Ann Baker is 65. Actress Rene Russo is 64. Actor Richard Karn is 62. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 56. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is 55. Actor-comedian Larry, the Cable Guy is
55. TV personality Rene Syler is 55. Actor Dominic Purcell is 48. Olympic gold and silver medal skier Tommy Moe is 48. Actress Denise Richards is 47. Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 46. Rock musician Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) is 46. Actor Ashton Holmes is 40. Actor Conrad Ricamora is 39. Actor Jason Ritter is
38. TV personality Paris Hilton is 37. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is 37. TV host Daphne Oz is 32. Actor Chord Overstreet is 29. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is 27. Actress Meaghan Martin is 26. Actress Sasha Pieterse is 22.