TODAY IN HISTORY

On Feb. 20, 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department.

In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v.

Massachusetts, upheld compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s health.

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

a bomb left by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski exploded behind a computer store in Salt Lake City.

In 1987,

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

In 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.