On this day: February 20

POSTED: 04:12 PM PST Feb 19, 2013    UPDATED: 11:00 PM PST Feb 19, 2013 

The Post Office is born, World War II gets its first flying ace, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, and a fire at a Great White concert leaves 100 dead, all on this day.

OTD February 20 - Robert Peary
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NOAA Photo Library

1920: American polar explorer Robert Edwin Peary, who made the first successful expedition to the North Pole in 1909, dies at the age of 63 in Washington, D.C.

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