Today In History

Today is Thursday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2023. There are 311 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY

On Feb. 23, 1954, the first mass inoculation of schoolchildren against polio using the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh as some 5,000 students were vaccinated.

ON THIS DATE

› 1685: Composer George Frideric Handel was born in present-day Germany.

› 1822: Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.

› 1836: The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.

› 1861: President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office, following word of a possible assassination plot in Baltimore.

› 1903: President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with Cuba to lease the area around Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

› 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, California, causing little damage.

› 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.)

› 1998: Forty-two people were killed, some 2,600 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, by tornadoes in central Florida.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Football Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff is 80. Author John Sandford is

79. Actor Patricia Richardson is 72. Former NFL player Ed “Too Tall” Jones is 72. Rock musician Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) is 71. Singer Howard Jones is 68. Rock musician Michael Wilton (Queensryche) is

61. Country singer Dusty Drake is 59. Actor Kristin Davis is 58. Former tennis player Helena Sukova is

58. Actor Marc Price is

55. Actor Niecy Nash is

53. Rock musician Jeff Beres (Sister Hazel) is

52. Country singer Steve Holy is 51. Rock musician Lasse Johansson (The Cardigans) is 50. Film and theater composer Robert Lopez is 48. Actor Kelly Macdonald is 47. Rapper Residente (Calle 13) is

45. Actor Josh Gad is 42. Actor Emily Blunt is 40. Actor Aziz Ansari is 40. Actor Tye White (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 37. Actor Dakota Fanning is 29.