This Day in History February 18
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This Day in History
February 18
1885 Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the classics of American literature
1929 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the winners of the first Academy Awards—the World War I movie Wings wins Best Picture
1930 Pluto, once considered the 9th planet in our solar system, is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh—Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006
1943 Siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, leaders of the German youth group Weisse Rose (White Rose), are arrested by the secret police for opposing the Nazi regime—they were beheaded as “political traitors” on February 23 (ages 24 and 21)
1954 American actor and singer John Travolta, who has starred in many hit movies and television shows, is born in Englewood, New Jersey
1990 At the BRIT Awards in London, English band Queen receives an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music—it is singer Freddie Mercury’s last public appearance with the band, as he dies the following year
2001 Dale Earnhardt Sr., one of the greatest NASCAR drivers in history, dies in a crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500 at the age of 49
2003 An arsonist ignites a gasoline-filled container inside a subway train in Daegu, South Korea, engulfing two trains and killing 198 people
2006 A week before Carnival, the Rolling stones play a free concert to an estimated 1.5 million people at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2012 “Call Me Maybe,” a catchy pop song by Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, goes viral via a lip dub video by Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez—the attention helps send the song to #1
2020 Apple announces that the coronavirus is projected to reduce iPhone sales by $5 billion during 2020 because of manufacturing shortages at plants in China—sales of Apple laptops and iPads increased in 2020
2020 The Boy Scouts of America file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid declining members and child sexual abuse allegations
2021 Controversial conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh died of lung cancer yesterday at the age of 70—President Trump awarded Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom a year ago
2021 The biggest players in last month’s GameStop trading frenzy face a congressional hearing today in the House Financial services Committee—Keith Gill, the investor who spearheaded the GameStop buying frenzy, and the CEOs of Reddit, Robinhood, Citadel Securities, and hedge fund Melvin Capital will attend
2021 A new brutal winter storm will rampage across parts of the U.S. over the next couple of days, with more than 100 million Americans in its path
2021 NASA’s rover Perseverance will touch down at Jezero Crater on Mars today after a 7-month, 293- million-mile journey—the rover cost $2.4 billion
2021 The 6th annual SheBelieves Cup, a 4-team invitational women’s soccer tournament begins tonight in Orlando, Florida—this year’s participants are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the 3-time-champion United States
2021 The White House announced a sweeping immigration bill today that would create an 8- year path to citizenship for millions of immigrants already in the country and provide a faster track for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children—the bill will face a tough battle in Congress
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