Today is Monday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2019. There are 316 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On Feb. 18, 2001, auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.
On this date:
In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
In 1943, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Chinese leader, addressed members of the Senate and then the House, becoming the first Chinese national to address both houses of the U.S. Congress.
In 1972, the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty.
In 1977, the space shuttle prototype Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its debut “flight” above Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1997, astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane.
Today’s birthdays: Singer Yoko Ono is 86. Singer-songwriter Bobby Hart is 80. Singer Irma Thomas is 78. Actress Jess Walton is 73. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 69. Singer Randy Crawford is 67. Actor John Travolta is 65. Actor John Pankow is 64. Game show host Vanna White is 62. Actress Jayne Atkinson is 60. Rock-singer musician Regina Spektor is 39.
Thought for today: “Temperament is temper that is too old to spank.”
— Charlotte Greenwood, American actress-comedian (1893-1978).
— Associated Press
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