Calendar for February 20th, 2010

2011: George Washington's Birthday (observed)

2001: Washington's Birthday (observed)

2001: Family Day (Alta., Ont., Sask.)

2006: Full Snow Moon

2006: Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday

1792: George Washington signed the Postal Act, creating the Federal Postal System with a per-mile rate structure

1872: The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in NYC

Died 1895: Frederick Douglass (abolitionist)

Born 1902: Ansel Adams (photographer)

Born 1927: Sidney Poitier (actor)

1937: An auto-airplane combination, Arrowbile, completed for testing

Born 1942: Phil Esposito (hockey player)

Born 1955: Kelsey Grammer (actor)

1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. He made 3 trips around the earth in his Mercury-Atlas spacecraft, Friendship 7, in just under 5 hours

Born 1963: Charles Barkley (basketball player)

Born 1966: Cindy Crawford (model)

Born 1967: Lili Taylor (actress)

Died 1972: Walter Winchell (journalist)

Died 1980: Alice Roosevelt Longworth (last surviving child of Teddy Roosevelt)

Died 1982: Rene Dubos (environmentalist, microbiologist)

1986: U.S.S.R.'s Mir space station launched

Born 1988: Rihanna (singer)

Died 1992: Dick York (actor)

Died 1999: Gene Siskel (film critic)

2003: The Station nightclub experienced the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killing 100 people and injuring more than 200. The fire started when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, the rock band playing that night, lit flammable soundproofing foam behind the stage

Died 2005: Sandra Dee (actress)

Died 2005: John Raitt (actor)

Died 2005: Hunter S. Thompson (journalist and author who unleashed the concept of "gonzo journalism" in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)