February 20
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February 20 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 314 days remaining after February 20 until the end of the year (315 in leap years).
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[change] Births
- 1469 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian cardinal (d. 1534)
- 1631 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (d. 1712)
- 1759 – Johann Christian Reil, German physician (d. 1813)
- 1794 – William Carleton, Irish novelist (d. 1869)
- 1802 – Charles Auguste de Bleriot, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1870)
- 1819 – Alfred Escher, Swiss politician and railroad entrepreneur (d. 1882)
- 1839 – Benjamin Waugh, British social reformer (d. 1908)
- 1844 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (d. 1906)
- 1844 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian seaman and adventurer (d. 1909)
- 1867 – Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (d. 1931)
- 1886 – Bela Kun, Hungarian politician (d. 1939)
- 1887 – Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada (d. 1967)
- 1898 – Jimmy Yancey, American musician (d. 1951)
- 1899 – Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman (d. 1992)
- 1901 – Muhammad Naguib, 1st President of Egypt (d. 1984)
- 1901 – Rene Dubos, French microbiologist (d. 1982)
- 1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer (d. 1984)
- 1904 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet Premier (d. 1980)
- 1909 – Heinz Erhardt, German comedian, entertainer and actor (d. 1979)
- 1918 – Leonore Annenberg, American billionaire (d. 2009)
- 1923 – Forbes Burnham, 1st Prime Minister and 3rd President of Guyana (d. 1985)
- 1925 – Robert Altman, American film director (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Sidney Poitier, American actor
- 1927 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban musician (d. 2005)
- 1930 – Willie Cunningham, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007)
- 1936 – Larry Hovis, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1937 – Robert Huber, German chemist
- 1940 – Jimmy Greaves, English footballer
- 1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian musician
- 1942 – Phil Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1942 – Mitch McConnell, American politician
- 1944 – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer
- 1944 – Lew Soloff, American jazz trumpeter
- 1945 – Annu Kapoor, Indian actor
- 1946 – Brenda Blethyn, British actress
- 1947 – Eggert Magnusson, Icelandic businessman
- 1947 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (d. 2006)
- 1948 – Christopher A. Pissarides, Cypriot-British economist
- 1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite
- 1950 – Walter Becker, American guitarist
- 1951 – Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1953 – Poison Ivy, American musician
- 1954 – Anthony Head, British actor
- 1954 – Patty Hearst, American heiress
- 1960 – Lee Marcello, Swedish guitarist
- 1961 – Imogen Stubbs, British actress
- 1961 – Ion Geolgau, Romanian footballer
- 1963 – Ian Brown, British singer (The Stone Roses)
- 1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model
- 1967 – Kurt Cobain, American rock musician (Nirvana) (d. 1994)
- 1971 – Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
- 1973 – Kimberley Davis, Australian actress
- 1975 – Brian Littrell, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
- 1976 – Ed Graham, British drummer (The Darkness)
- 1978 – Lauren Ambrose, American actress
- 1980 – Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
- 1980 – Arthur Abraham, Armenian-German boxer
- 1980 – Artur Boruc, Polish footballer
- 1981 – Tony Hibbert, English footballer
- 1985 – Yulia Volkova, Russian singer
- 1988 – Rihanna, Barbadian singer
[change] Deaths
- 1194 – King Tancred of Sicily (b. 1138)
- 1408 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English politician (b. 1342)
- 1431 – Pope Martin V (b. 1368)
- 1513 – John, King of Denmark (b. 1455)
- 1618 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)
- 1762 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1771 – Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Marain, French geophysicist (b. 1678)
- 1773 – King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
- 1790 – Joseph III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
- 1803 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
- 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tyrolian patriot (b. 1767)
- 1871 – Paul Kane, Canadian painter (b. 1810)
- 1895 – Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist (b. 1817)
- 1907 – Henri Moissan, French chemist (b. 1852)
- 1916 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist (b. 1844)
- 1919 – Habibullah Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (b. 1872)
- 1920 – Robert Peary, American Arctic explorer (b. 1856)
- 1920 – Jacinta Marto, Portuguese religious figure (b. 1910)
- 1961 – Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b. 1882)
- 1965 – Fred Immler, German actor (b. 1880)
- 1966 – Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
- 1972 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist (b. 1906)
- 1976 – Rene Cassin, French judge (b. 1887)
- 1982 – Rene Dubos, French microbiologist (b. 1901)
- 1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
- 1996 – Solomon Asch, American psychologist (b. 1907)
- 1999 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
- 2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American writer (b. 1937)
- 2007 – Carl-Henning Pedersen, Danish painter (b. 1913)
- 2007 – F Albert Cotton, American cemist (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Alexander Haig, American politician (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Vitaly Vorotnikov, Soviet-Russian politician (b. 1926)
[change] Events
- 1472 – Orkney and Shetland are annexed to the crown of Scotland.
- 1547 – Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
- 1724 – The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London.
- 1725 – The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.
- 1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
- 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, was executed.
- 1816 – Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville debuts at Teatro Argentina, with a fiasco.
- 1835 – Concepción, Chile is destroyed by an earthquake
- 1864 – Battle of Olustee
- 1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
- 1873 – The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
- 1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
- 1913 – King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
- 1921 – The film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres.
- 1931 – California gets the go-ahead by the United States Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
- 1942 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
- 1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- 1943 – The Paricutín volcano begins to form in Paricutín, México.
- 1944 – World War II: "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on Nazi aircraft manufacturing centers.
- 1944 – World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
- 1952 – Emmett L. Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
- 1952 – The film The African Queen opens at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.
- 1959 – The Avro Arrow programme to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
- 1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth.
- 1965 – Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
- 1974 – Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick claims he began experiencing intense gnostic visions on this date.
- 1976 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
- 1987 – Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store.
- 1992 – Ross Perot announces his intention to run in the 1992 U.S. presidential election on CNN's Larry King Live.
- 1992 – The FA Premier League is formed and takes over as the professional league in England from season 1992–93.
- 1998 – The afternoon newspaper Nashville Banner publishes its final edition.
- 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
- 2002 – In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.
- 2003 – In Rhode Island, in the USA, The Station nightclub fire kills about 100 and injures over 200.
- 2005 – Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
- 2005 – Jeff Gordon wins his third Daytona 500.
- 2010 – Floods and mudslides hit the Portuguese island of Madeira, killing 43 people.
[change] Other websites
February 19 – February 21 – January 20 – March 20 – listing of all days
