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Today is Saturday, February 22, the 53rd day of 2025. It is 312 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On February 22, 1980, the “Miracle on Ice” took place at the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, while the Olympic Hockey Team of the United States made the Soviet Union upset, 4-3. (The American team won the gold medal two days later with a 4-2 victory over Finland.)
Also on this date:
In 1732 the first president of the United States, George Washington, was born in Westmoreland County in the Virginia Colony.
In 1784, an American merchant ship, the Empress of China, left New York for the first trade trip from an American ship to China.
In 1959 the inaugural Daytona 500 race was held; Although Johnny Beauchamp was initially declared the winner, the victory was later awarded to Lee Petty.
In 1967, more than 25,000 American and South Vietnamese troops Operation Junction City launched, aimed at breaking a Vietcong bolwerk near the Cambodian border.
In 1997, scientists in Scotland announced that for the first time they had successfully cloned an adult mammal, a sheep that they called ‘Dolly’.
In 2010, Najibullah Zazi (NAH-JEE-BOO-LAH ZAH’-ZEE), accused of buying products from Beauty Primary Mass Destruction. (Zazi was opposed to life in prison, but spent almost ten years after his arrest helping the US to identify and prosecute terrorists; he received a 10 -year prison sentence followed by accompanying release.)
In 2021 the number of American dead of COVID-19 was 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Today’s birthdays:
- Actor Paul Dooley is 97.
- Actor James Hong is 96.
- Actor Julie Walters is 75.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Julius InVeering is 75.
- Golf hall of Famer Amy Alcott is 69.
- Actor Kyle Maclachlan is 66.
- Golf hall of Famer Vijay Singh is 62.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Pat Lafontaine is 60.
- Actor-Comedian Rachel Dratch is 59.
- Actor Paul Lieberstein (TV: “The Office) is 58.
- Actor Jeri Ryan is 57.
- Actor Thomas Jane is 56.
- Actor-Singer Lea Salonga is 54.
- Tennis Hall by Famer Michael Chang is 53.
- Singer James Blunt is 51.
- Actor Drew Barrymore is 50.