TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, FEB. 23, the 54th day of 2019. There are 311 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1954, the first mass inoculation of schoolchildren against polio using the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh as some 5,000 students were vaccinated.
In 1685, composer George Frideric Handel was born in present-day Germany.
In 1822, Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.
In 1836, the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.
In 1848, the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, died in Washington, D.C., at age 80.
In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.
In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.
In 1942, the first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, Calif., causing little damage.
In 1945, during World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised two American flags (the second flag-raising was captured in the iconic Associated Press photograph.)
In 1965, film comedian Stan Laurel, 74, died in Santa Monica, Calif.
In 1998, 42 people were killed, some 2,600 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, by tornadoes in central Florida.
In 2004, the Army canceled its Comanche helicopter program after sinking $6.9 billion into it over 21 years.
In 2005, a jury was selected in Santa Maria, Calif., to decide Michael Jackson’s fate on charges that he’d molested a teenage boy at his Neverland Ranch. (Jackson was later acquitted.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Peter Fonda is 79. Pro and College Football Hall-of-Famer Fred Biletnikoff is 76. Author John Sandford is 75. Countryrock musician Rusty Young is 73. Actress Patricia Richardson and former NFL player Ed “Too Tall” Jones are 68. Rock musician Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) is 67. Singer Howard Jones is 64. Rock musician Michael Wilton (Queensryche) is 57. Country singer Dusty Drake is 55. Actress Kristin Davis and tennis player Helena Sukova are 54. Actor Marc Price is 51. TV personality/businessman Daymond John (TV: “Shark Tank”) is 50. Actress Niecy Nash is 49. Rock musician Jeff Beres (Sister Hazel) is 48. Rock musician Lasse Johansson (The Cardigans) is 46. Film and theater composer Robert Lopez is 44. Actress Kelly Macdonald is 43. Rapper Residente (Calle 13) is 41. Actor Josh Gad is 38. Actress Emily Blunt and actor Aziz Ansari are 36. Actress Dakota Fanning is 25.