Milestones: February 20, 2024

February 20, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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POSTAL SERVICE ACT — THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE, WHICH HAD ITS ORIGINS AS A POSTAL SERVICE DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, was renewed as a Cabinet department when President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act on Feb. 20, 1792. The new law placed the postmaster general in charge, guaranteed inexpensive delivery of all newspapers, articulated the right to privacy and granted to Congress the authority to expand postal service to new areas of the nation. During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin had served as postmaster general for Philadelphia starting in 1737. He later served as the colonies’ postmaster general from 1753-74. He supported the efforts of a Patriot printer named William Goddard, who proposed a Constitutional Post to Congress after the royal equivalent proved unreliable. Benjamin Franklin promoted Goddard’s plan and served as the first postmaster general under the Continental Congress beginning on July 26, 1775, nearly one year before Congress declared independence from England.

Franklin was a capable postmaster who streamlined delivery along routes that were properly surveyed and marked. He also established overnight postal travel between New York and Philadelphia and created a standardized rate system with weight and distance as criteria.

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NAZI RALLY AT MSG — EVEN THOUGH THE UNITED STATES AS AN ALLIED FORCE FOUGHT NAZI GERMANY, THERE WERE ANTISEMITIC GROUPS WHO PUSHED TO BRING NAZISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY TO AMERICA. Just six and one-half months before Adolf Hitler’s Sept. 1, 1939, invasion of Poland, Madison Square Garden in Manhattan was the scene of a Feb. 20, 1939 rally to celebrate Nazism in Germany. The rally attracted more than 20,000 Americans who performed the Nazi salutes toward a portrait of George Washington, which was surrounded by the swastika symbols. Banners at this rally bore messages urging Americans to halt what they called “Jewish domination.” The event was called a “Pro-American rally” and had uniformed youth members of the German American Bund antisemitic group in attendance.

The number of people protesting the rally, however, was five times greater, but there was reported police brutality toward the protesters. Many of them were Jewish Americans who warned that what was happening in Germany could happen in the U.S.

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FLYING ACE GETS HIS OWN AIRPORT — IT TOOK A VERY SHORT TIME FOR LT. EDWARD O’HARE TO BECOME A FLYING ACE during World War II on Feb. 20, 1942, during a mission to recapture a territory in the Pacific Theater. The Japanese forces had captured Rabaul in Papua New Guinea to add to its empire. Papua New Guinea sits to the north of Australia and to the east of Indonesia; Rabaul is on the tip of New Britain, part of the Bismarck Archipelago. Japan set its sights next on the Solomon Islands to the east, and the Allies sought to prevent this. A Navy fighter pilot, Lt. O’Hare took off from the aircraft carrier Lexington, with the mission of disrupting Japan’s stronghold on Rabaul through a bombing raid. Upon sighting Japanese bombers heading directly toward the Lexington, O’Hare shot down five Japanese G4M1 Betty bombers, bringing a swift end to the Japanese attack. However, the Allied raid on Rabaul was aborted now that Japan knew the U.S. Navy was present.

O’Hare was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and precise aim. Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was named for the flying ace who saved the day on Feb. 20, 1942.

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DRAMATIC LANDING — JOHN HERSCHEL GLENN JR. WAS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED INTO SPACE ABOARD THE FRIENDSHIP 7 SPACECRAFT ON THE FIRST ORBITAL FLIGHT BY AN AMERICAN ASTRONAUT on Feb. 20, 1962. Glenn, a native of Ohio, had become passionate about flying as a child. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and becoming a decorated pilot. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 selected him and six other men to be America’s first astronauts, on a mission to keep up with the Soviet space program. Glenn experienced a smooth launch and a wonderful view during his space flight, but then the mission developed problems. The capsule began overheating after the first few orbits, and Glenn wound up surviving a fiery landing into the Atlantic Ocean with the retrorockets kept in place. This unconventional move was done to protect the seals on the capsule.

On Oct. 29, 1998, after serving in the U.S. Senate, Glenn became the oldest person to enter space, at age 77, when he made a return trip aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

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YOUNGEST FIGURE SKATING MEDALIST — TARA LIPINSKI, AGE 15, WON THE GOLD MEDAL IN WOMEN’S FIGURE SKATING at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, on Feb. 20, 1998. She became the youngest gold medalist in her sport. Lipinski and teammate Michelle Kwan were both considered favorites for the gold medal. Kwan had the artistic edge, but Lipinski’s program was deemed more technically challenging, and the jurist panel awarded her the gold. Michelle Kwan took home the silver medal, and China’s Chen Lu won the bronze.

Lipinski retired from figure skating in 2002. Four years later, she was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

See previous milestones, here.