TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Feb. 20.

Today’s highlight

On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft, which circled the globe three times in a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.

On this date

In 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, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s health.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act, which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the United States.

In 1933, Congress proposed the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to repeal Prohibition.

In 2003, a fire sparked by pyrotechnics broke out during a concert by the group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others.

Today’s birthdays Racing Hall of Famer Roger Penske is 85. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-marie is 81. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is 80. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., is 80. Actor Sandy Duncan is 76. Actor Peter Strauss is 75. Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is 68. Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is 59. Actor French Stewart is 58. Actor Ron Eldard is 57. Model Cindy Crawford is 56. Actor Andrew Shue is 55. Actor Lili Taylor is 55. Comedian-tv host Trevor Noah is 38. Actor Miles Teller is 35. Singer Rihanna is 34.