Today in History: February 20, John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the Earth
Today is Thursday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2025. There are 314 days left in the year.
Today in history:
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 about 200 miles northwest of Puerto Rico.
Also on this date:
In 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service.
In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House from what was believed to be typhoid fever.
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, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons,” among others, from being admitted to the United States.
In 1939, more than 20,000 people attended rally held by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization, at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
In 1965, America’s Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed into the moon’s surface, as planned, after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.
In 1998, American Tara Lipinski became the youngest-ever Olympic figure skating gold medalist when she won the ladies’ title at the Nagano (NAH’-guh-noh) Olympic Winter Games; American Michelle Kwan won the silver.
In 2003, a fire sparked by pyrotechnics broke out during a concert by the rock group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 people and injuring over 200 others.
Today’s birthdays: Racing Hall of Famer Roger Penske is 88. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is 83. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is 83. Film director Mike Leigh is 82. Actor Brenda Blethyn is 79. Actor Sandy Duncan is 79. Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is 71. Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is 62. Model 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. Comedian-TV host Trevor Noah is 41. Actor Miles Teller is 38. Singer Rihanna is 37. Singer-actor Olivia Rodrigo is 22.
By The Associated Press
