🌟 Editor's Note
Good morning — it’s Friday, February 20. We're exploring the birth of the USPS, the MET, New Guinea, the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden, "African Queen", and much more — quickly, sharply, and with an eye for clean sources. Let's go!
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🚀 Time Machine
-1472
Norway ceded Orkney and Shetland to Scotland as a dowry payment.
-1792
The US Postal Service was founded, with postage ranging from 6 to 12 cents depending on distance.
-1872
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York.
-1873
John Moresby was the first European to discover New Guinea and claim it for the United Kingdom.
-1919
Habibullah Khan, Afghanistan's leader who tried to keep the country neutral in World War I, was assassinated while hunting.
-1939
Madison Square Garden hosted a Nazi rally six months before Hitler invaded Poland, with over 20,000 people raising Nazi salutes, with around 100,000 protesters gathered outside in NY.
-1944
US forces take Enewetak Atoll with 37 Americans killed or missing and 94 wounded; Japanese losses are 800 dead and 23 prisoners.
-1947
Earl Mountbatten of Burma becomes the last viceroy of India to oversee the independence.
-1951
"African Queen", directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, was released in the US.
-1962
John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on Friendship 7.
📸 Snapshot
One of the strangest burials in American history: Sandra Ilene Hara West was buried in a concrete-encased Ferrari 330 America dressed in an elegant white lace nightgown, 1977
🗨️ Last Words
“My last words to you, my son and successor, are: Never trust the Russians.”