Daily Calendar for Thursday, February 20, 2025

Frederick Douglass (abolitionist) – 1895
Walter Winchell (journalist) – 1972
Alice Roosevelt Longworth (last surviving child of Teddy Roosevelt) – 1980
Rene Dubos (environmentalist, microbiologist) – 1982
Dick York (actor) – 1992
Gene Siskel (film critic) – 1999
Sandra Dee (actress) – 2005
John Raitt (actor) – 2005
Hunter S. Thompson (journalist and author who unleashed the concept of gonzo journalism” in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”) – 2005

George Washington signed the Postal Act, creating the Federal Postal System with a per-mile rate structure– 1792
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City– 1872
Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premiered– 1877
An auto-airplane combination, Arrowbile, completed for testing– 1937
V-2 rocket launched fruit flies to 68-mile altitude– 1947
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.– 1952
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 hours– 1962
U.S.S.R.’s Mir space station launched– 1986
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 stage– 2003
Regeneration of Silene stenophylla from 30,000-year-old fruit tissue announced– 2012

A tornado tracked 15 miles from Shreveport to Abner, Louisiana, killed 8 people, and injured 50– 1912
The temperature in Los Angeles, California, hit 95 degrees F, a record high for the month of February– 1995