Today in history

On Feb. 20, 1437, Scotland’s King James I was murdered by political enemies in the Scottish city of Perth. In 1790 Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II died. In 1792 President George Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office.

In 1809 the Supreme Court ruled that the power of the federal government is greater than that of any one state. In 1839 Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia. In 1895 abolitionist Frederick Douglass died in Washington; he was 77. In 1924 fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt was born in New York. In 1925 film director Robert Altman was born in Kansas City, Mo. In 1927 actor Sidney Poitier was born in Miami. In 1933 the U.S. House completed congressional action on an amendment to repeal Prohibition.

In 1941 singer Buffy SainteMarie was born in Saskatchewan.

In 1942 Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as “Big Week.” In 1950 Walter Becker, a founding member of the jazz-rock band Steely Dan, was born in New York.

In 1960 basketball great Charles Barkley was born in Leeds, Ala.

In 1962 astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the

globe three times inside the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. In 1965 the Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the Moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.

In 1974 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to test President Richard Nixon’s willingness to cooperate with its impeachment inquiry, asking the White House for specific items of Watergate evidence.