At this time is Thursday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2025. There are 314 days left within the 12 months.
At this time in historical past:
On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn turned the primary American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Undertaking Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft, which circled the globe 3 times in a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds earlier than splashing down safely within the Atlantic Ocean about 200 miles northwest of Puerto Rico.
Additionally on this date:
In 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the USA Put up Workplace Division, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first woman Mary Todd Lincoln, died on the White Home from what was believed to be typhoid fever.
In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, obligatory vaccination legal guidelines supposed to guard the general public’s well being.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded individuals, epileptics, insane individuals,” amongst others, from being admitted to the USA.
In 1939, greater than 20,000 individuals attended rally held by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group, at New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard.
In 1965, America’s Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed into the moon’s floor, as deliberate, after sending again hundreds of images of the lunar floor.
In 1998, American Tara Lipinski turned the youngest-ever Olympic determine skating gold medalist when she gained the women’ title on the Nagano (NAH’-guh-noh) Olympic Winter Video games; American Michelle Kwan gained the silver.
In 2003, a fireplace sparked by pyrotechnics broke out throughout a live performance by the rock group Nice White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 individuals and injuring over 200 others.
At this time’s birthdays:
- Racing Corridor of Famer Roger Penske is 88.
- Hockey Corridor of Famer Phil Esposito is 83.
- Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is 83.
- Movie director Mike Leigh is 82.
- Actor Brenda Blethyn is 79.
- Actor Sandy Duncan is 79.
- Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is 71.
- Basketball Corridor of Famer Charles Barkley is 62.
- Mannequin Cindy Crawford is 59.
- Actor Andrew Shue is 58.
- Actor Lili Taylor is 58.
- Singer Brian Littrell (Backstreet Boys) is 50.
- Actor Lauren Ambrose is 47.
- Actor Jay Hernandez is 47.
- MLB pitcher Justin Verlander is 42.
- Comic-TV host Trevor Noah is 41.
- Actor Miles Teller is 38.
- Singer Rihanna is 37.
- Singer-actor Olivia Rodrigo is 22.