CARLATA BRADLEY

John Glenn made space history on this day in 1962 when he orbited
the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first
American to do so. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury
capsule (above).

Here’s what John Glenn saw while orbiting the Earth. 

Friendship 7 capsule after splashdown.

The successful mission concluded with a splashdown and recovery
in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.

Sir Sidney Poitier is 92-years-old today.

Actor, director, and diplomat Sidney Poitier became the first
African American to win an Oscar after performing in Lilies
of the Field (1963). The films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
(1967) To Sir, with Love (1967) and In the Heat of the Night
(1967), additionally bolstered his fame. The American Film
Institute called him one of the 25 Greatest Male Stars of All
Time in 1999.

1961

TV movie, 2001

Donald Newcombe (June 14, 1926 – February 19, 2019), nicknamed
Newk.

(Fox News) – According to a team statement, Dodgers great Don Newcombe
passed away Tuesday after a lengthy illness.

Newcombe was the first winner of the Cy Young award in 1956 and also won
MVP and Rookie of the Year awards.    

The team called Newcombe “one of the greatest pitchers in Dodger history
and one of the franchise’s final links to Brooklyn and the days of Roy
Campanella and Jackie Robinson.”

BRIAN THOMAS

During World War II on this  day in 1945, about 30,000 United States
Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima 
from the Imperial Japanese Army.  

William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. is 79-years-old today.

Singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive
Smokey Robinson was the founder and front man of the Motown
vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter
and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as
"The Five Chimes" until 1972 when he announced a retirement
from the group to focus on his role as Motown’s vice president,
but Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the
following year. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1987.

George Anthony Mendonsa (February 19, 1923 – February 17, 2019)

(Fox News) – The 18-year-old sailor shown kissing a woman in New York’s
Time Square in an iconic photo that captured the ecstatic celebrations at
the end of World War II died Sunday in Rhode Island. 

According to family members, George Mendonsa was two days short of his
96th birthday when he died at an assisted living facility in Middletown.

Mendonsa’s daughter, Sharon Molleur, told the Providence Journal her father
had fallen and had a seizure before he was pronounced dead. He lived at the
facility with his wife of 70 years.

Mendonsa was shown kissing a woman he never met, Greta Zimmer Friedman,
a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945. Known as V-J Day,
it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States. People spilled into the
New York City streets to celebrate the news.

Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, in the United States,
holiday (third Monday in February) popularly recognized as honoring
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The day is sometimes
understood as a celebration of the birthdays and lives of all U.S.
presidents.

The origin of Presidents’ Day lies in the 1880s, when the birthday
of Washington—commander of the Continental Army during the
American Revolution and the first president of the United States
was first celebrated as a federal holiday.

In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which  
moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays. The change was
designed to  schedule certain holidays so that workers had a number
of long weekends throughout the year, but it has been opposed by
those who believe that those holidays should be celebrated on the
dates they actually commemorate.  (Encyclopedia Britannica)