Today is Saturday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2025
with 312 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
On this date in history:
In 1819, a treaty with Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1855, Pennsylvania State University was founded in State College, Pa. It was originally called the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania.
In 1862, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States of America.
In 1879, Woolworth, the first chain store, opened in Utica, N.Y.
In 1959, the Daytona 500 was run for the first time. Lee Petty won the race.
In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan commercial airliner, killing 108 of the 113 people aboard. The military apparently believed the airliner was a security threat in Israeli-controlled airspace. Israel's defense minister later said there was an "error in judgment" by the military. Israel paid reparations to the families of the victims.
In 1980, in one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympics history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of collegians and second-tier professional players, defeated the defending champion Soviet team, regarded as the world's finest, 4-3, at the Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1987, artist Andy Warhol died of heart failure at age 58.
In 1998, a series of tornadoes raked central Florida, killing 42 people and injuring more than 200 others.
In 2005, a powerful earthquake struck Iran, killing more than 500 people.
In 2006, robbers took more than $43 million in cash from the Securitas bank depot in Kent, England, Britain's largest ever theft.
In 2011, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city, killing 185 people and injuring up to 2,000.
In 2012, a commuter train plowed into a barrier at a Buenos Aires station, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds more.
In 2014, Ukraine's Parliament ousted President Viktor Yanukovych following a period of violence that killed scores of people.
In 2018, the U.S. women's ice hockey team won the Olympic gold medal for the first time in 20 years with a 4-3 victory over Canada in the Pyeongchang, South Korea, Games.
In 2018, President Donald Trump signed a law making the Gateway Arch in St. Louis a national park.
In 2022, all three white men convicted of murder in the death of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia were again found guilty, this time on federal hate crime charges.
