Alice Roosevelt Longworth(last surviving child of Teddy Roosevelt)β
Rene Dubos(environmentalist, microbiologist)β
Dick York(actor)β
Gene Siskel(film critic)β
Sandra Dee(actress)β
John Raitt(actor)β
Hunter S. Thompson(journalist and author who unleashed the concept of gonzo journalismβ in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegasβ)β
Born
Ansel Adams(photographer)β
Sidney Poitier(actor)β
Phil Esposito(hockey player)β
Charles Barkley(basketball player)β
Cindy Crawford(model)β
Lili Taylor(actress)β
Trevor Noah(television host, comedian)β
Rihanna(singer)β
Olivia Rodrigo(singer)β
Events
George Washington signed the Postal Act, creating the Federal Postal System with a per-mile rate structureβ
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York Cityβ
Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premieredβ
An auto-airplane combination, Arrowbile, completed for testingβ
V-2 rocket launched fruit flies to 68-mile altitudeβ
Carolyn Cummins gave birth to the first of her five children. The second was born in 1953, 3rd in 1956, 4th in 1961 and the 5th in 1966. All five children have the same birthday.β
Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. He made 3 trips around the earth in his Mercury-Atlas spacecraft, Friendship 7, in just under 5 hoursβ
U.S.S.R.βs Mir space station launchedβ
The Station nightclub experienced the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killing 100 people and injuring more than 200. The fire started when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, the rock band playing that night, lit flammable soundproofing foam behind the stageβ
Regeneration of Silene stenophylla from 30,000-year-old fruit tissue announcedβ
Weather
A tornado tracked 15 miles from Shreveport to Abner, Louisiana, killed 8 people, and injured 50β
The temperature in Los Angeles, California, hit 95 degrees F, a record high for the month of Februaryβ