Today In History

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2020. There are 317 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1885: Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the U.S. for the first time (after being published in Britain and Canada).

ON THIS DATE

› 1861: Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.

› 1930: Photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

› 1988: Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

› 1994: At the Winter Olympic Games in Norway, U.S. speedskater Dan Jansen finally won a gold medal, breaking the world record in the 1,000 meters.

› 1997: Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tuneup of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane.

› 2001: Auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is 93. Singer Yoko Ono is 87. Singer-songwriter Bobby Hart is 81. Singer Irma Thomas is 79. Singer Herman Santiago (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 79. Actress Jess Walton is 74. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 73. Actress Sinead Cusack is 72. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 70. Singer Randy Crawford is 68. Rock musician Robbie Bachman is 67. Actor John Travolta is 66. Actor John Pankow is 65. Game show host Vanna White is 63. Actress Jayne Atkinson is 61. Actress Greta Scacchi is 60. Actor Matt Dillon is 56. Rock musician Tommy Scott (Space) is 56. Rapper Dr. Dre is 55. Actress Molly Ringwald is 52. Country musician Trevor Rosen (Old Dominion) is 45. Actor Ike Barinholtz is 43. Actor Kristoffer Polaha is

43. Singer-musician Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) is

43. Actor Tyrone Burton is 41. Rock-singer musician Regina Spektor is

40. Opera singer Isabel Leonard is 38. Roots rock musician Zac Cockrell (Alabama Shakes) is 32. Actor Shane Lyons is 32. Actress Sara Sutherland is

32. Actress Maiara Walsh is 32.