The Almanac
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2017 with 312 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury.
Evening stars are Neptune, Venus, Mars and Uranus. Those born on this
date are under the sign of Pisces. They include George Washington,
first president of the United States, in 1732; German philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer in 1788; poet/diplomat/editor James Lowell in 1819;
Englishman Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, in
1857; German physicist Heinrich Hertz, discoverer of radio waves, in
1857; Hall of Fame baseball umpire Bill Klem in 1874; poet Edna St.
Vincent Millay in 1892; actor/TV producer Sheldon Leonard in 1907;
Robert Pershing Wadlow, at 8 ft. 11.1 inches tall, the tallest person
in recorded history, in 1918; actor Robert Young in 1907; actor John
Mills in 1908; television announcer Don Pardo in 1918; actor Paul
Dooley in 1928 (age 89); U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in 1932;
baseball Hall of Fame member George Sparky Anderson in 1934; filmmaker
Jonathan Demme in 1944 (age 77); author Richard North Patterson in 1947
(age 70); three-time Formula 1 driving champion Niki Lauda in 1949 (age
68); basketball Hall of Fame member Julius Dr. J Erving in 1950 (age
67); actor Julie Walters in 1950 (age 67); Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin
in 1962; golfer Vijay Singh in 1963 (age 54); actor Kyle MacLachlan in
1959 (age 58); actor Rachel Dratch in 1966 (age 51); actor Jeri Ryan in
1968 (age 49); actor Drew Barrymore in 1975 (age 42); singer/songwriter
James Blunt in 1974 (age 43). On this date in history: In 1819, a
treaty with Spain ceded Florida to the United States. In 1855,
Pennsylvania State University was founded in State College, Pa. It was
originally called the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania. In 1862,
Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States
of America. In 1879, Woolworth, the first chain store, opened in Utica,
N.Y. In 1959, the Daytona 500 was run for the first time. Lee Petty won
the race. In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan commercial
airliner, killing 108 of the 113 people aboard. The military apparently
believed the airliner was a security threat in Israeli-controlled
airspace. Israel's defense minister later said there was an error in
judgment by the military. Israel paid reparations to the families of
the victims. In 1980, in one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympics
history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of collegians and
second-tier professional players, defeated the defending champion
Soviet team, regarded as the world's finest, 4-3, at the Winter Games
in Lake Placid, N.Y. In 1987, artist Andy Warhol died of heart failure
at age 58. In 2004, rebels attacked a refugee camp in northern Uganda,
killing at least 192 people. In 2005, a powerful earthquake struck
Iran, killing more than 500 people. In 2010, U.S. President Barack
Obama announced his plan for a healthcare reform bill. In 2011, a
6.3-magnitude earthquake severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand's
second largest city, killing 185 people and injuring as many as 2,000.
In 2012, a commuter train plowed into a barrier at a Buenos Aires
station, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds more. In 2014,
Ukraine's Parliament ousted President Viktor Yanukovych following a
period of violence that killed scores of people. In Italy, Matteo
Renzi, 39, was sworn in as the youngest prime minister in the country's
history A thought for the day: "One's philosophy is not best expressed
in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. -- Eleanor
Roosevelt .
