DAY IN HISTORY

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Today is the 51st day of 2019 and the 62nd day of winter.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1792, President George Washington signed into law the Postal Service Act, establishing the U.S. Post Office Deptartment.

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits aboard the Mercury program’s Friendship 7 spacecraft.

In 1986, the Soviet Union launched the core module of the Mir space station.

In 2003, a pyrotechnics display during a Great White concert set fire to the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 people.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Ansel Adams (1902-1984), photographer; Robert Altman (1925-2006), filmmaker; Richard Matheson (1926-2013), author/ screenwriter; Sidney Poitier (1927- ), actor; Nancy Wilson (1937-2018), singer/actress; Patty Hearst (1954- ), actress/socialite; Charles Barkley (1963- ), basketball player/broadcaster; Cindy Crawford (1966- ), fashion model; Kurt Cobain (1967-1994), musician; Lili Taylor (1967), actress; Trevor Noah (1984- ), comedian/tv host; Miles Teller (1987), actor; Rihanna (1988- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY’S FACT: More NASA astronauts (31 men and women, as of 2019) have come from New York than any other state.