On This Day in History - February 20th - Almanac

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2018 with 314 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include American Revolutionary War hero William Prescott in 1726; photographer Ansel Adams in 1902; actor Gale Gordon in 1906; fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt in 1924 (age 94); film director Robert Altman in 1925; author Richard Matheson in 1926; actor Sidney Poitier in 1927 (age 91); auto racer Bobby Unser in 1934 (age 84); singer Nancy Wilson in 1937 (age 81); auto racing businessman/team owner Roger Penske in 1937 (age 81); singer Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1941 (age 77); hockey Hall of Fame member Phil Esposito in 1942 (age 76); actor Sandy Duncan in 1946 (age 72); actor Peter Strauss in 1947 (age 71); actor Jennifer O'Neill in 1948 (age 70); socialite Ivana Trump in 1949 (age 69): heiress Patty Hearst Shaw in 1954 (age 64); actor Anthony Head in 1954 (age 64); comedian Joel Hodgson in 1960 (age 58); basketball Hall of Fame member Charles Barkley in 1963 (age 55); actor French Stewart in 1964 (age 54); model Cindy Crawford in 1966 (age 52); actor Andrew Shue in 1967 (age 51); musician Kurt Cobain in 1967; pop singer Brian Littrell (Backstreet Boys) in 1975 (age 43); actor Jay Hernandez in 1978 (age 40); actor Chelsea Peretti in 1978 (age 40); comedian Trevor Noah in 1984 (age 34); actor Miles Teller in 1987 (age 31); singer Rihanna, born Robin Rihanna Fenty, in 1988 (age 30); actor Jack Falahee in 1989 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1816, The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini opened in Rome.

In 1872, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.

In 1938, Anthony Eden resigned as Britain's foreign secretary to protest the "appeasement" policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain toward Nazi Germany.

In 1947, British Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee told the House of Commons that it was the government's "definite intention to take necessary steps to effect the transfer of power to responsible Indian hands by a date not later than June 1948."

In 1947, a portion of the Iraq Petroleum Co.'s pipeline, which carries oil from the rich fields in the Euphrates Valley to the Mediterranean at Jaffa, was blown up at two places in North Palestine in a new outburst of underground violence.

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. He landed safely after three orbits in a Mercury spacecraft. The previous year, Russian Yuri Gagarin was the first person to orbit Earth.

In 1991, U.S. troops penetrated Iraq, capturing up to 500 Iraqi soldiers.

In 1998, Tara Lipinski, 15, of the United States became the youngest winner of a ladies Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

In 2003, fire broke out during a rock concert at a West Warwick, R.I., nightclub, killing 100 people.

In 2008, a missile interceptor launched from a U.S. Navy ship knocked down a dying satellite 130 miles over the Pacific Ocean. Officials said the satellite contained 1,000 pounds of frozen toxic fuel.

In 2010, a minaret and part of the roof fell into a historic 18th-century mosque during services, killing at least 38 people and injuring 71 more in the ancient city of Meknes, Morocco.

In 2016, Cyclone Winston, the strongest tropical cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere with winds topping 180 mph, made landfall in Fiji. The storm would ultimately kill 44 people.

In 2017, the government of South Sudan declared a famine, saying 100,000 were affected by food insecurity.

A thought for the day: Fly-fishing author John Gierach wrote, "The solution to any problem -- work, love, money, whatever -- is to go fishing, and the worse the problem the longer the trip should be."