On This Day in History - February 18th - Almanac

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2025 with 316 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include Britain's Queen Mary I in 1516; physicist Alessandro Volta in 1745; physicist Ernst Mach in 1838; artist Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1848; automaker Enzo Ferrari in 1898; writer Wallace Stegner in 1909; actor Jack Palance in 1919; actor George Kennedy in 1925; writer Len Deighton in 1929 (age 96); writer Toni Morrison in 1931; cartoonist Johnny Hart in 1931; filmmaker Milos Forman in 1932; artist/musician Yoko Ono in 1933 (age 92); writer Jean M. Auel in 1936 (age 89); musician Dennis DeYoung (Styx) in 1947 (age 78); actor Cybill Shepherd in 1950 (age 75); actor John Travolta in 1954 (age 71); actor John Pankow in 1955 (age 70); filmmaker John Hughes in 1950; TV personality Vanna White in 1957 (age 68); actor Greta Scacchi in 1960 (age 65); actor Matt Dillon in 1964 (age 61); musician Dr. Dre in 1965 (age 60); producer/TV personality Tracey Edmonds in 1967 (age 58); actor Molly Ringwald in 1968 (age 57); TV personality/personal trainer Jillian Michaels in 1974 (age 51); musician Trevor Rosen (Old Dominion) in 1975 (age 50); actor Ike Barinholtz in 1977 (age 48); musician Regina Spektor in 1980 (age 45); actor Park Sung-hoon in 1985 (age 40); actor Sarah Sutherland in 1988 (age 37); actor Logan Miller in 1992 (age 33); musician J-Hope (BTS) in 1994 (age 31); musician DK (Seventeen) in 1997 (age 28); musician Vernon (Seventeen) in 1998 (age 27).

On this date in history:

In 1841, the first filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It ended March 11.

In 1865, after a long Civil War siege, Union naval forces captured Charleston, S.C.

In 1930, dwarf planet Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

In 1954, the Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles. L. Ron Hubbard, who founded the church based on his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, died in 1986.

In 1967, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," died in Princeton, N.J., at the age of 62.

In 1979, snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the first known time. It fell a second time in 2016 and a third time in 2018.

In 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., stock-car racing's top driver, was killed in a crash in the final turn of the final lap of the Daytona 500. He was 49.

In 2003, nearly 200 people died and scores were injured in a South Korea subway fire set by a man authorities said apparently was upset at his doctors.

In 2004, 40 chemical and fuel-laden runaway rail cars derailed near Nishapur in northeastern Iran, producing an explosion that killed at least 300 people and injured hundreds of others.

In 2006, 16 people died in rioting in Nigeria over published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that enraged Muslims around the world.

In 2008, two of four masterpieces stolen from the Zurich museum a week earlier, a Monet and a van Gogh, were found in perfect condition in the back seat of an unlocked car in Zurich.

In 2013, eight men disguised as police disabled a security fence, drove two vehicles onto a Brussels airport tarmac and stole diamonds worth $50 million.

In 2014, violence erupted between protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, eventually resulting in 98 dead with an estimated 15,000 injured and 100 believed missing.

In 2021, NASA's Mars rover Perseverance made a robotic landing on Mars, starting a high-tech mission to hunt for signs of life in an ancient lakebed.

In 2024, Fifty-five people died following an ambush in Papua New Guinea's remote Highlands region amid a years-long series of clashes among warring tribes.

A thought for the day: "Good girls go to heaven; bad girls go everywhere." -- American writer Helen Gurley Brown