On This Day: February 18

This is the 49th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: Klondike

The Klondike River is a tributary of the Yukon River in western Yukon Territory, Canada. With its major tributary, the North Klondike, it rises in the Ogilvie Mountains and flows westward for 100 miles to join the Yukon at Dawson, the river's historic settlement. The Klondike became famous in 1896 with the discovery of gold in Bonanza Creek and other small tributaries. Thousands of prospectors exhausted the most readily accessible deposits. The surrounding territory bears the river's name, which is from the Kutchin name tron-duik 'hammer river.'

Holidays

Feast day of St. Colman of Lindisfarne, St. Flavian of Jerusalem, St. Simeon of Jerusalem, St. Theotonius, and St. Helladius of Toledo.

Gambia: Independence Day.

Nepal: National Democracy Day.

Zambia: Kuomboka.

Events

1678 - John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" was published.

1688 - Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania adopted the first formal antislavery resolution in America.

1735 - The first opera produced in the colonies was performed in Charleston, South Carolina, entitled "Flora."

1865 - The mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered control of the city to Union Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig.

1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published.

1908 - U.S. postage stamps were first sold.

1930 - The ninth planet of our solar system, Pluto, was discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh.

1970 - The "Chicago Seven" defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.

2001 - FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested and charged with selling American secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia over a 15-year period.

Births

1516 - Mary Tudor, Queen of England known as "Bloody Mary," daughter of Henry VIII, King of England, and Catherine of Aragon.

1795 - George Peabody, American merchant and philanthropist.

1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American craftsman, glassmaker, and jewelry designer.

1862 - Charles M. Schwab, American, president of both U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.

1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian auto racer, auto manufacturer.

1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American feminist, publisher, author.

1933 - Yoko Ono Lennon, Japanese-born American singer, wife of John Lennon.

1934 - Audre Lorde, a writer, poet, and activist.

1953 - Robbie Bachman (born Robin Bachman), Canadian drummer and founder of Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

1957 - Vanna White, American television personality.

1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress.

1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, American serial killer, sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Deaths

1564 - Michelangelo (born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni), an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer.

1902 - Charles Lewis Tiffany, American founder of Tiffany & Co.

1906 - John Batterson Stetson, American hat manufacturer.

1964 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier a Canadian inventor and businessman, and the founder of Bombardier in Quebec.

1977 - Andy Devine, raspy-voiced American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick.

1981 - John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft industrialist.

1998 - Harry Caray (born Harry Christopher Carabina), American sportscaster.

2001 - Dale Earnhardt, Sr., American race car driver, from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500.