TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT Feb. 20, 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. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1792

President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department.

1907

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

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.

1965

America’s Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon, as planned, after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.

1987

A bomb left by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski exploded behind a computer store in Salt Lake City, seriously injuring store owner Gary Wright.

2009

President Barack Obama warned a gathering of mayors at the White House that he would “call them out” if they wasted the money from his massive economic stimulus plan.

2014

Protesters advanced on police lines in the heart of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, prompting government snipers to shoot and kill scores of people.

2018

Students who survived the Florida school shooting traveled to Tallahassee to urge state lawmakers to prevent another massacre, but the legislature halted any effort to ban assault-style rifles.