The TIME Magazine Vault

Cape Canaveral Fl February 20 1962 Astronaut John Glenn Jr Photographed In Space

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Feb. 20, 1962: John Glenn in Orbit

On the 20th of February, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

TIME breathlessly covered the landmark event in a cover story, remarking that, "In his flight across the heavens, John Glenn was a latter-day Apollo, flashing through the unknown, sending his cool observations and random comments to the earth in radio thunderbolts, acting as though orbiting the earth were his everyday occupation."

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Feb. 16, 1962

‘More Than a Brother’

President Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy walk next to eachother with their arms folded outside the Oval Office. View from

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The Chemistry of Love

As Valentine's Day brings its annual celebration of love, romantics won't be the only ones finding their hearts swelling. Scientists, TIME reported in a 1993, love love too—though that wasn't always the case. "Love is ecstasy and torment, freedom and slavery. Poets and songwriters would be in a fine mess without it. Plus, it makes the world go round," the story noted. "Until recently, scientists wanted no part of it. The reason for this avoidance, this reluctance to study what is probably life's most intense emotion, is not difficult to track down. Love is mushy; science is hard."

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Feb. 13, 1939

Pablo Picasso, ‘Art’s Acrobat’

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ANC leader Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie raise fi

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Feb. 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela Freed

"Mandela. The name reverberates like a mantra through South Africa these days, half in excitement, half in anxiety. Mandela will soon be free. Mandela will solve the problem. If Mandela can't do it, who can? South Africa is at a crossroads," TIME reported in early February of 1990. "For the first time since the National Party came to power in 1948 and began introducing the laws of apartheid, or separateness, there exists a widespread acceptance of the need to change."

"Soon" came on Feb. 11, 1990, when Mandela was released from a prison in Cape Town.

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