64 years ago today
John Glenn Orbits the Earth
On February 20, 1962, Marine Corps Colonel John Glenn climbed into his Mercury capsule Friendship 7 and became the first American to orbit the Earth, completing three circuits of the globe in just under five hours before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The mission came at a tense moment in the Space Race — the Soviet Union had already achieved the first orbital human spaceflight with Yuri Gagarin in 1961 — and Glenn's success was received as a moment of national triumph that brought Americans into the streets and generated ticker-tape parades in major cities. Glenn was so beloved that President Kennedy refused to allow NASA to risk his life on another mission for years. He would return to space 36 years later in 1998, at age 77, becoming the oldest person ever to fly in space. Glenn served four terms as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and is remembered as one of the defining heroes of the American space program.
Ansel Adams
Photographer & Environmentalist
Ansel Adams is the most celebrated landscape photographer in American history, known for his stunning black-and-white images of the American West and particularly Yosemite National Park. His technical innovations, including the Zone System for exposure, transformed photographic practice.
Sidney Poitier
Actor & Director
Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field in 1963, and used his enormous cultural influence to challenge Hollywood's treatment of African Americans. His films In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner remain landmarks of American cinema.
Kurt Cobain
Singer-Songwriter (Nirvana)
Kurt Cobain was the frontman, guitarist, and primary songwriter of Nirvana, whose 1991 album Nevermind brought alternative rock and grunge to a mainstream global audience and redefined popular music. Cobain's raw, introspective songwriting made him one of the most influential figures in rock history before his death at 27.
Rihanna
Singer-Songwriter & Entrepreneur
Barbadian singer Rihanna has released eight studio albums and accumulated fourteen number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. She founded the Fenty Beauty cosmetics line in 2017, which became a billion-dollar brand celebrated for its unprecedented range of skin tone shades.
Gordon Brown
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Gordon Brown served as Chancellor of the Exchequer for ten years before becoming Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010. He led Britain's response to the 2008 global financial crisis and played a key role in the coordinated international bailout of the banking system.
Cindy Crawford
Model
Cindy Crawford was one of the most recognizable supermodels of the late 1980s and 1990s, her face and her distinctive mole appearing on the covers of hundreds of fashion magazines globally. She helped define the era of the celebrity supermodel.
Olivia Rodrigo
Singer-Songwriter & Actress
Olivia Rodrigo's debut single "drivers license" broke multiple streaming records in 2021 and her debut album SOUR debuted at number one, making her one of the most successful breakthrough artists in the history of the pop charts.
Edward VI Crowned King of England
Nine-year-old Edward VI was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey following the death of his father Henry VIII, ushering in a period of radical Protestant reform under the influence of his uncle Edward Seymour as Lord Protector.
Rossini's Barber of Seville Premieres
Gioachino Rossini's comic opera The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome to a chaotic, largely hostile reception — partly organized by fans of an earlier opera on the same subject — but soon became one of the most beloved and frequently performed operas in the repertoire.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Opens
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its doors in New York City, beginning as a collection housed in a temporary location before moving to its permanent home in Central Park. It would grow into the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere.
Swan Lake Premieres at the Bolshoi
Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake received its world premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow to a lukewarm reception. It would only achieve its enduring fame after a dramatically revised production in St. Petersburg in 1895, two years after the composer's death.
Frederick Douglass Dies
Frederick Douglass, the escaped enslaved person who became the most prominent African American voice of the nineteenth century as an abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman, died in Washington D.C. at approximately 77 years of age, just hours after addressing a women's rights rally.
John Glenn Orbits the Earth
John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, completing three circuits aboard Friendship 7 and returning as a national hero at a pivotal moment in the Cold War Space Race with the Soviet Union.
Soviet Space Station Mir Launched
The Soviet Union launched the core module of the Mir space station, which would be continuously inhabited for much of its 15-year operational life and serve as a symbol of Soviet and later Russian scientific achievement as well as a platform for international cooperation.
Station Nightclub Fire Kills 100
A fire ignited by pyrotechnics during a rock concert at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others — one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history, raising serious questions about fire safety codes.
Hunter S. Thompson Dies
Hunter S. Thompson, the founder of Gonzo journalism and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, died by suicide at his compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. His ashes were later fired from a cannon to the strains of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."
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Start a conversation →Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist & Statesman
Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery to become the most powerful African American voice of the nineteenth century — writing, speaking, and agitating for abolition and racial equality for five decades — died in Washington, D.C.
Hunter S. Thompson
Journalist & Author
Hunter S. Thompson, creator of Gonzo journalism and author of the countercultural classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, died by suicide at his Colorado home at age 67.
Gene Siskel
Film Critic
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, who with Roger Ebert created the most influential film criticism platform in American television history, died from complications following brain surgery at age 53.
Ferruccio Lamborghini
Automotive Entrepreneur
Ferruccio Lamborghini, who founded the Lamborghini automobile company in 1963 after reportedly being told by Enzo Ferrari that a tractor manufacturer had no business criticizing the Ferrari's clutch, died at age 76.
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