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Almanac for Feb. 20, 2026

Today is Friday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2026. There are 314 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe three times aboard Project Mercury's Friendship 7 spacecraft in a flight lasting 4 hours and 55 minutes before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Also on this date: In 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service. In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of ...

Remembering the Rev. Jesse Jackson

President Trump called the Rev. Jesse Jackson “a force of nature” and so he was. Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84, was the last great orator of the civil rights movement. He could bring an audience to cheers or to tears with the power of his personality. I once accompanied him to a ...

Poll: Many Democrats still down on their party

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic candidates have notched a series of wins in recent special elections — but a new AP-NORC poll finds views of the Democratic Party among rank-and-file Democrats have not bounced back since President Donald Trump's victory in 2024. Only about 7 in 10 Democrats ...

Almanac for Feb. 19, 2026

Today is Thursday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2026. There are 315 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1942, during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the internment of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.-born citizens. Also on this date: In 1473, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland. In 1847, the first rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, who had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada near the California-Nevada border for nearly four months. In 1878, inventor Thomas ...

Eileen Gu’s terrible choice

It isn't easy being Eileen Gu. The champion freestyle skier said the other day, after she had to settle for a silver medal in an event at the Olympics, that "sometimes it feels like I'm carrying the weight of two countries on my shoulders." Gu would be carrying the weight of only one ...

What to know about the ‘equal time’ rule

Stephen Colbert's comments that network executives pulled his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico over fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration has prompted a conversation about the rules governing how media outlets treat political ...