On This Day: February 20

This is the 51st day of the year.

Fact of the Day: comet

It is said that on this day in 1491, an unnamed comet came within 860,000 miles of the Earth. By comparison, the closest approach that Halley's Comet made to Earth was 3 million miles on April 10, 837 AD.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Eleutherius of Tournai, St. Eucherius of Orléans, St. Tyranno, St. Zenobius, and St. Wulfric.

Events

1725 - New Hampshire militiamen participated in the first recorded scalping of Indians by whites in North America.

1792 - President George Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office.

1809 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state.

1811 - Austria declared itself bankrupt.

1872 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.

1959 - The FCC applied the equal time rule to TV newscasts of political candidates.

1962 - Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, flying aboard Friendship Seven.

1998 - American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

2003 - Fire broke out at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island; more than 100 people died and 200 others were injured in the stampede.

Births

1726 - William Prescott, Revolutionary War hero at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

1902 - Ansel Adams, American landscape photographer.

1927 - Sidney Poitier, American Academy Award-winning actor.

1934 - Bobby Unser, race car driver, born in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

1937 - Roger Penske, American race car driver, race team owner, and entrepreneur.

1951 - Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1954 - Patty Hearst, American newspaper heiress.

1966 - Cindy Crawford, American model and actress.

1967 - Kurt Cobain, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Nirvana.

Deaths

1895 - Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Baily), abolitionist, writer, and public official.

1920 - Robert Peary, American arctic explorer.

1966 - Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz was the Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces for the United States and Allied forces during World War II.

1972 - Walter Winchell, American journalist and broadcaster.

1985 - Clarence Nash, American voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Donald Duck for Walt Disney Studios.

1993 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer.

1999 - Gene Siskel, film critic, born in Chicago.

2005 - Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author, credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism.

2006 - Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster, well-known as the longtime "voice" of the Boston Red Sox.