TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 20
1513 Pope Julius II dies. He will lay in rest in a huge tomb sculptured by Michelangelo
1725 New Hampshire militiamen partake in the first recorded scalping of Indians by whites in North America.
1768 1st American chartered fire insurance company opens in Pennsylvania
1792 U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act that created the U.S. Post Office.
1809 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the power of the federal government is greater than any individual state in the Union.
1815 The USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely on May 15, 1815. The Cyane was purchased and became the USS Cyane.
1839 Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia
1877 1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
1919 Foundation NHL club Toronto Arenas are permitted to cease operations due to financial difficulties; later become Toronto St. Patricks and then Maple Leafs
1927 Golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath
1942 Lt. Edward O’Hare downs five out of nine Japanese bombers that are attacking the carrier Lexington.
1944 Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspaper
1954 The Ford Foundation gives a $25 million grant to the Fund for Advancement of Education.
1959 The FCC applies the equal time rule to TV newscasts of political candidates.
1962 John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. Glenn witnessed the Devil’s Cigarette Lighter while in flight.
1979 11 ‘loyalists’ known as the “Shankill Butchers” are sentenced to life in prison for 19 murders; the gang was named for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians in Belfast
1987 Bomb blamed on Unabomber explodes by a computer store in Salt Lake City
2001 FBI Agent Robert Phillip Hanssen was arrested and charged with spying for the Russians for 15 years.
2001 The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal’s patent on production of cleaner “reformulated” gasoline sold in California
2003 During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 300 others.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
