Today In History

Today is Monday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2023. There are 314 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY

On Feb. 20, 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.

ON THIS DATE

› 1792: President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department.

› 1862: William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-yearold son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House, apparently of typhoid fever.

› 1905: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s health.

› 1907: President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the United States.

› 1933: Congress proposed the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to repeal Prohibition.

› 1938: Anthony Eden resigned as British foreign secretary following Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s decision to negotiate with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

› 1965: America’s Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon, as planned, after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.

› 1987: A bomb left by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski exploded behind a computer store in Salt Lake City, seriously injuring store owner Gary Wright.

› 1998: Tara Lipinski of the U.S. won the ladies’ figure skating gold medal at the Nagano Olympics; Michelle Kwan won the silver.

› 2003: A fire sparked by pyrotechnics broke out during a concert by the group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others.

› 2005: Death claimed actor Sandra Dee at age 62; musical actor John Raitt at age 88; and counterculture writer Hunter S. Thompson at age 67.

› 2020: A poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found more Americans expressing some concern about catching the flu than about catching the coronavirus.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Racing Hall of Famer Roger Penske is 86. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is 82. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is 81. Actor Sandy Duncan is 77. Actor Peter Strauss is 76. Rock musician Billy Zoom (X) is 75. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is 72. Actor John Voldstad is 72. Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is 69. Actor Anthony Head is 69. Country singer Leland Martin is

66. Actor James Wilby is 65. Rock musician Sebastian Steinberg is

64. Comedian Joel Hodgson is 63. Model Cindy Crawford is 57. Actor Andrew Shue is 56. Actor Lili Taylor is 56. Actor Andrea Savage is 50. Singer Brian Littrell is 48. Actor Lauren Ambrose is 45. Actor Jay Hernandez is 45. Actor Chelsea Peretti is 45. Country musician Coy Bowles is

44. Actor Michael Zegen is 44. Actor Majandra Delfino is 42. Comedian Trevor Noah is 39. Actor Jake Richardson is 38. Actor Daniella Pineda is

36. Actor Miles Teller is

36. Singer Rihanna is 35. Actor Jack Falahee is 34.