Today is Tuesday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2020. There are 317 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 18, 1970, the “Chicago Seven” defendants were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968 (those convictions were later reversed).

On this date:

In 1546, Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben.

In 1564, artist Michelangelo died in Rome.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1885, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the U.S. for the first time (after being published in Britain and Canada).

In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1994, at the Winter Olympic Games in Norway, U.S. speedskater Dan Jansen finally won a gold medal, breaking the world record in the 1,000 meters.

In 1997, astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is 93. Singer Yoko Ono is 87. Singer-songwriter Bobby Hart is 81. Singer Irma Thomas is 79. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 73. Actress Sinead Cusack is 72. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 70. Actor John Travolta is 66. Game show host Vanna White is 63. Rapper Dr. Dre is 55. Actress Molly Ringwald is 52.

Thought for Today: “Opinion is that exercise of the human will which helps us to make a decision without information.” — John Erskine, American author and educator (1879-1951).