Today is Thursday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2010. There are 316 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Feb. 18, 1885, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the U.S. for the first time (it had been published in Canada and England the previous December).

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 1735, the first opera presented in America, “Flora, or Hob in the Well,” was performed in present-day Charleston, S.C.

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

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

In 1960, the 8th Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Richard Nixon.

In 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).

In 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden “flight” above the Mojave Desert.

In 1984, Italy and the Vatican signed an accord under which Roman Catholicism ceased to be the state religion of Italy.

In 2001, auto racing star Dale Earnhardt, Sr. died from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.

Ten years ago

Iranians voted in an election that gave reformers a majority in the parliament, long a bastion of hard-liners. Announcer Bob Hite Sr., whose rich voice introduced “The Lone Ranger” on radio, died in West Palm Beach, Fla. at age 86.

Five years ago

Explosions tore through Baghdad and a nearby city on the eve of Shiite Muslims’ holiest day, killing three dozen people. Uli Derickson, the flight attendant who’d helped save passengers during the 1985 TWA hijacking, died in Tucson, Ariz. at age 60.

One year ago

President Barack Obama launched a $75 billion foreclosure rescue plan aimed at saving homes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a two-day visit to Indonesia. Eric Holder, the nation’s first black attorney general, said in a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month that the United States was “a nation of cowards” on matters of race. Pope Benedict XVI received House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Vatican, telling her that Catholic politicians had a duty to protect life “at all stages of its development.” The remnants of New York’s Shea Stadium were demolished.

Today’s Birthdays

Former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown is 88. Actor George Kennedy is 85. Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) is 83. Author Toni Morrison is 79. Movie director Milos Forman is 78. Singer Yoko Ono is 77. Singer/songwriter Bobby Hart is 71. Singer Irma Thomas is 69. Singer Herman Santiago (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 69. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 63. Actress Sinead Cusack is 62. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 60. Singer Juice Newton is 58. Singer Randy Crawford is 58. Rock musician Robbie Bachman is 57. Rock musician Larry Rust (Iron Butterfly) is 57. Actor John Travolta is 56. Game show host Vanna White is 53. Actress Greta Scacchi is 50. Actor Matt Dillon is 46. Rapper Dr. Dre is 45. Actress Molly Ringwald is 42. Actress Sarah Brown is 35. Singer-musician Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) is 33. Actor Tyrone Burton is 31. Rock-singer musician Regina Spektor is 30. Actor Shane Lyons is 22.

Thought for Today

“What is man but his passion?”

— Robert Penn Warren, American author, poet and critic (1905-89)