Today in History 2-18


Today’s Highlight in History:


On this date:

In 1735, the first opera presented in America, “Flora, or Hob in the Well,” was performed in present-day Charleston, S.C.


In 1885, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the U.S. for the first time.

In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.


In 1953, “Bwana Devil,” the movie that heralded the 3D fad of the 1950s, had its New York opening.


In 1970, the “Chicago Seven” defendants were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968 (those convictions were later reversed).

In 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its debut “flight” above the Mojave (moh-HAH’-vee) Desert.

In 1983, 13 people were shot to death at a gambling club in Seattle’s Chinatown in what became known as the Wah Mee Massacre. (Two men were convicted of the killings and are serving life sentences; a third was found guilty of robbery and assault.)


