Updated February 21, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Feb. 22, 1980, in a stunning upset, the United States Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-to-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)
On Feb. 22, 1892, Edna St. Vincent Millay, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who personified romantic rebellion, was born. Following her death on Oct. 19, 1950, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1819 Spain ceded Florida to the United States. 1862 Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy. 1865 Tennessee adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery. 1879 Frank Winfield Woolworth opened a five-cent store in Utica, N.Y. 1924 Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House. 1932 Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was born in Boston, the youngest child of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy. 1935 It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House. 1959 The inaugural Daytona 500 race was held in Daytona Beach, Fla. 1980 The U.S. hockey team beat the Soviets 4-3 In a stunning upset at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. 2001 A U.N. war crimes tribunal convicted three Bosnian Serbs on charges of rape and torture in the first case of wartime sexual enslavement to go before an international court. 2006 Insurgents destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrines, the Askariya mosque in Samarra, setting off a spasm of sectarian violence. 2011 A magnitude-6.1 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, killed 184 people. 2011 Somali pirates shot to death four Americans taken hostage on their yacht several hundred miles south of Oman. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress Drew Barrymore turns 37 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
Actor Kyle MacLachlan turns 53 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1918 Don Pardo, TV announcer (“Saturday Night Live”), turns 94 1944 Jonathan Demme, Director, turns 68 1950 Julius Erving, Basketball Hall of Famer, turns 62 1952 Bill Frist, Former Senate majority leader, turns 60 1955 David Axelrod, Senior White House adviser, turns 57 1963 Vijay Singh, Golfer, turns 49 1965 Pat Lafontaine, Hockey Hall of Famer, turns 47 1966 Rachel Dratch, Actress, comedian (“Saturday Night Live”), turns 46 1968 Jeri Ryan, Actress (“Boston Public”), turns 44 1972 Michael Chang, Tennis Hall of Famer, turns 40 1977 James Blunt, Singer, turns 35
Historic Birthdays
Edna St. Vincent Millay 2/22/1892 – 10/19/1950 American poet and dramatist.Go to obituary »
58 Charles VII 2/22/1403 – 7/22/1461
King of France from 1422 to 146167 George Washington 2/22/1732 – 12/14/1799
American general and first president of U.S.82 Rembrandt Peale 2/22/1778 – 10/3/1860
American painter, writer and portraitist72 Arthur Schopenhauer 2/22/1788 – 9/21/1860
German philosopher72 James Russell Lowell 2/22/1819 – 8/12/1891
American poet, critic, essayist and diplomat73 August Bebel 2/22/1840 – 8/13/1913
German co-founder of the Social Democratic Party77 Bill Klem 2/22/1874 – 9/16/1951
American National League baseball umpire90 David Dubinsky 2/22/1892 – 9/17/1982
Russian-bn. American labor leader83 Luis Bunuel 2/22/1900 – 7/29/1983
Spanish director and filmmaker91 Sean O’Faolain 2/22/1900 – 4/20/1991
Irish short-story writer and teacher80 Peter Hurd 2/22/1904 – 7/9/1984
American painter, printmaker and illustrator73 Giulietta Masina 2/22/1921 – 3/23/1994
Italian motion-picture actress
