February 20
February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 314 days remaining until the end of the year (315 in leap years).
Events
Up to 1900
- 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.
- 1798 - Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
- 1799 - The Blackbrook Reservoir in Leicestershire, England, breaks.
- 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
- 1846 - Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Krakow to incite a fight for independence.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Olustee takes place in Florida.
- 1865 - The Uruguayan War ends.
- 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.
- 1877 - Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake is first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.
- 1878 - Pope Leo XIII is elected.
1901 – 2000
- 1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
- 1909 - The Futurist Manifesto is published by the French journalist Le Figaro.
- 1913 – King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
- 1915 - The "Panama-Pacific International Exhibition", a World's Fair, is held in San Francisco, to show the city's recovery from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
- 1919 - Emir of Afghanistan Habibullah Khan is murdered during a hunting trip.
- 1921 – The movie The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres.
- 1929 - American Samoa becomes a US Territory.
- 1931 – California gets the go-ahead by the United States Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
- 1933 - United States Congress proposes the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, which will end Alcohol Prohibition.
- 1935 - Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot on the continent of Antarctica.
- 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 movie 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 do so.
- 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 (SEATO) disbands.
- 1978 - The last Order of Victory is given to Leonid Brezhnev.
- 1986 - Silvio Berlusconi takes over AC Milan.
- 1987 – Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store.
- 1988 - Nagorno Karabakh votes to separate from Azerbaijan and join Armenia. War breaks out soon after.
- 1989 - An IRA bomb destroys a section of the British Army Barracks at Ternhill, England.
- 1991 - The giant statue of Albanian leader Enver Hoxha is brought down in Tirana by protestors.
- 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.
- 1993 - New Scientist magazine reports the discovery of the youngest-observed star. Named VLA 1623, it is around 10,000 years old.
- 1998 – The afternoon newspaper Nashville Banner publishes its final edition.
From 2001
- 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, 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.
- 2013 - Kepler-37b, the smallest-known planet outside the Solar System, is discovered.
- 2014 - After several people had been killed during clashes two days earlier, protests in Kiev, Ukraine, erupt into violence again, with at least 20 people reported to have been killed. The EU imposes sanctions on Ukraine later the same day.
- 2016 - Prime Minister David Cameron announces that the United Kingdom is to hold a referendum on its membership of the European Union, on June 23.
Births
Up to 1900
- 1469 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian cardinal (d. 1534)
- 1631 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (d. 1712)
- 1633 - Jan de Caen, Dutch portrait painter (d. 1702)
- 1726 - William Prescott, American Revolutionary colonel (d. 1795)
- 1753 - Louis-Alexandre Berthier, French marshal (d. 1815)
- 1759 – Johann Christian Reil, German physician (d. 1813)
- 1794 – William Carleton, Irish novelist (d. 1869)
- 1802 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1870)
- 1811 - Henry Hastings Sibley, American politician (d. 1891)
- 1815 - Louis Le Chatelier, French engineer and chemist (d. 1873)
- 1819 – Alfred Escher, Swiss politician and railroad entrepreneur (d. 1882)
- 1829 - Antonio Guzman Blanco, President of Venezuela (d. 1899)
- 1839 – Benjamin Waugh, British social reformer (d. 1908)
- 1844 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (d. 1906)
- 1844 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian seaman and adventurer (d. 1909)
- 1848 - Edward Henry Harriman, American railroad executive (d. 1909)
- 1860 - Karl Mantzius, Danish theatre and movie actor, director and writer (d. 1921)
- 1866 - Carl Westman, Swedish architect and designer (d. 1936)
- 1867 – Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (d. 1931)
- 1874 - Mary Garden, Scottish operatic soprano (d. 1967)
- 1879 - Hod Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1907)
- 1881 - Dora Altmann, German actress (d. 1971)
- 1882 - Elie Nadelman, Polish-born American sculptor (d. 1946)
- 1886 – Béla Kun, Hungarian politician (d. 1939)
- 1887 – Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada (d. 1967)
- 1888 - Georges Bernanos, French soldier and writer (d. 1948)
- 1898 – Jimmy Yancey, American musician (d. 1951)
- 1899 – Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman (d. 1992)
- 1900 - Maryam Jinnah, second wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (d. 1929)
1901 – 1950
- 1901 – Muhammad Naguib, 1st President of Egypt (d. 1984)
- 1901 – René Dubos, French microbiologist (d. 1982)
- 1901 - Louis Kahn, American architect (d. 1974)
- 1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer (d. 1984)
- 1904 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet Premier (d. 1980)
- 1906 - Gale Gordon, American television and radio actor (d. 1995)
- 1909 – Heinz Erhardt, German comedian, entertainer and actor (d. 1979)
- 1912 - Muriel Humphrey Brown, United States Senator and Second Lady of the United States (d. 1998)
- 1914 - John Charles Daly, American broadcaster (d. 1991)
- 1916 - Jean Erdman, American dancer and choreographer
- 1917 - Juan Vicente Torrealba, Venezuelan musician and composer
- 1918 – Leonore Annenberg, American billionaire (d. 2009)
- 1920 - Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, sister of John F. Kennedy (d. 1948)
- 1920 - Karl Albrecht, German businessman (Aldi Süd) (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Forbes Burnham, 1st Prime Minister and 3rd President of Guyana (d. 1985)
- 1923 - Victor G. Atiyeh, 32nd Governor of Oregon (d. 2014)
- 1924 - Gloria Vanderbilt, American socialite and clothing designer (d. 2019)
- 1925 - Tochinishiki Kiyotaka, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1990)
- 1925 – Robert Altman, American movie director (d. 2006)
- 1926 - Richard Matheson, American science fiction writer and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1926 - Bob Richards, American pole vaulter
- 1926 - Alfonso Sastre, Spanish playwright, essayist and critic
- 1926 - Ken Olsen, American engineer (d. 2011)
- 1926 - Philip S. Goodman, American screenwriter, producer and director (d. 2015)
- 1927 – Sidney Poitier, American-Bahamian actor, director and diplomat
- 1927 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban musician (d. 2005)
- 1928 - Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat and sister of John F. Kennedy
- 1929 - Eduardo Mac Entyre, Argentine artist (d. 2014)
- 1929 - Toshiro Mayuzumi, Japanese composer (d. 1997)
- 1930 – Willie Cunningham, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007)
- 1930 - Ken Jones, English actor (d. 2014)
- 1930 - Gianfranco Parolini, Italian movie director and screenwriter
- 1931 - John Milnor, American mathematician
- 1936 - Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and coach
- 1936 – Larry Hovis, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1937 – Robert Huber, German chemist
- 1937 - Roger Penske, American racing driver and entrepreneur
- 1937 - Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress
- 1940 – Jimmy Greaves, English footballer
- 1941 - Giuseppe Arzilli, Sammarinese politician
- 1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian musician
- 1942 – Phil Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1942 – Mitch McConnell, American politician
- 1942 - Claude Miller, French movie director and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1943 - Mike Leigh, English writer and director
- 1944 – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer
- 1944 – Lew Soloff, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2015)
- 1945 – Annu Kapoor, Indian actor
- 1945 - George F. Smoot, American astrophysicist
- 1945 - Henry Polic II, American actor (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Brenda Blethyn, British actress
- 1946 - Richard Cocciante, French-Italian singer and songwriter
- 1946 - Sandy Duncan, American singer and actress
- 1947 – Eggert Magnusson, Icelandic businessman
- 1947 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (d. 2006)
- 1948 – Christopher A. Pissarides, Cypriot-British economist
- 1948 - Pierre Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite (d. 2022)
- 1950 – Walter Becker, American guitarist
1951 – 1975
- 1951 – Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1951 - Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1997)
- 1952 - Abdala Bucaram, former President of Ecuador
- 1953 – Poison Ivy, American musician
- 1953 - Riccardo Chailly, Italian conductor
- 1954 – Anthony Head, British actor
- 1954 – Patty Hearst, American heiress
- 1954 - Jon Brant, American musician
- 1960 – Kee Marcello, Swedish guitarist
- 1960 - Joel Hodgson, American comedian
- 1961 – Imogen Stubbs, British actress
- 1961 – Ion Geolgau, Romanian footballer
- 1962 - Pierre Quinon, French pole vaulter (d. 2011)
- 1962 - Atul Chitnis, German-Indian technician (d. 2013)
- 1963 – Ian Brown, British singer (The Stone Roses)
- 1963 - Charles Barkley, American basketball player
- 1963 - Joakim Nyström, Swedish tennis player
- 1964 - Rudi Garcia, French footballer
- 1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model
- 1966 - Dannis Mitchell, American athlete
- 1967 – Kurt Cobain, American rock musician (Nirvana) (d. 1994)
- 1967 - Kath Soucie, American voice, film, stage and television actress
- 1967 - Lili Taylor, American actress
- 1968 - Ted Hankey, English darts player
- 1969 - Kaiji Takayama, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1969 - Sinisa Mihajlovic, Serbian footballer
- 1969 - Danis Tanovic, Bosnian movie director and screenwriter
- 1971 – Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
- 1971 - Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (d. 2017)
- 1971 - Shawn McKenzie, American programmer
- 1971 - Calpernia Addams, American writer, actress, activist and musician
- 1972 - Brent Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1972 - Neil Primrose, Scottish musician (Travis)
- 1973 – Kimberley Davis, Australian actress
- 1974 - Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer
- 1975 - Nicolas Wallin, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1975 – Brian Littrell, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
From 1976
- 1977 – Ed Graham, British drummer (The Darkness)
- 1978 – Lauren Ambrose, American actress
- 1978 - Jay Hernandez, American actor
- 1980 – Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
- 1980 – Arthur Abraham, Armenian-German boxer
- 1980 – Artur Boruc, Polish footballer
- 1980 - Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer
- 1981 – Tony Hibbert, English footballer
- 1981 - Elisabeth Görgl, Austrian skier
- 1982 - Jason Hirsh, American baseball player
- 1983 - Justin Verlander, American baseball player
- 1984 - Trevor Noah, South African comedian and television host
- 1984 - Ramzee Robinson, American basketball player
- 1985 – Yulia Volkova, Russian singer
- 1986 - Diego Reis, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 - Miles Teller, American actor
- 1988 - Jiah Khan, Indian actress (d. 2013)
- 1988 – Rihanna, Barbadian singer and actress
- 1990 - Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer
- 1991 - Antonio Pedroza, English-Mexican footballer
- 2014 - Princess Leonore, Duchess of Gotland, Swedish royal
Deaths
Up to 1900
- 702 - K'inich Kan B'Alam II, King of the Mayan city of Palenque (b. 635)
- 1154 - Wulfric of Haselbury, English saint (b. 1080)
- 1171 - Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (b. 1138)
- 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)
- 1778 - Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)
- 1790 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
- 1799 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician (b. 1733)
- 1803 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
- 1806 - Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American military and political leader (b. 1725)
- 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tyrolian patriot (b. 1767)
- 1871 – Paul Kane, Canadian painter (b. 1810)
- 1893 - P. G. T. Beauregard, American general (b. 1818)
- 1895 – Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist (b. 1817)
1901 – 2000
- 1907 – Henri Moissan, French chemist (b. 1852)
- 1910 - Boutros Ghali, Egyptian politician (b. 1846)
- 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)
- 1929 - Maryam Jinnah, second wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (b. 1900)
- 1948 - Robert P. Lamont, 5th United States Secretary of Commerce (b. 1867)
- 1952 - Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola, President of Ecuador (b. 1888)
- 1961 – Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b. 1882)
- 1963 - Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian conductor (b. 1914)
- 1963 - Jacob Gade, Danish composer (b. 1879)
- 1965 – Fred Immler, German actor (b. 1880)
- 1966 – Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
- 1968 - Anthony Asquith, British movie director and writer (b. 1902)
- 1969 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
- 1970 - Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (b. 1885)
- 1972 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist (b. 1906)
- 1972 - Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)
- 1976 – René Cassin, French judge (b. 1887)
- 1982 – René Dubos, French microbiologist (b. 1901)
- 1992 - Dick York, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
- 1996 – Solomon Asch, American psychologist (b. 1907)
- 1999 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
- 2000 - Anatoly Sobchak, Russian politician (b. 1937)
From 2001
- 2003 - Orville Freeman, 29th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1918)
- 2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American writer (b. 1937)
- 2007 – Carl-Henning Pedersen, Danish painter (b. 1913)
- 2007 – F. Albert Cotton, American chemist (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Alexander Haig, American politician (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Vitaly Vorotnikov, Soviet-Russian politician (b. 1926)
- 2012 - Katie Hall, American politician (b. 1938)
- 2012 - Sullivan Walker, American actor (b. 1939)
- 2013 - Antonio Roma, Argentine footballer (b. 1932)
- 2014 - Walter D. Ehlers, American soldier (b. 1921)
- 2014 - Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician (b. 1923)
- 2014 - Garrick Utley, American television journalist (b. 1939)
- 2014 - Reghu Kumar, Indian composer (b. 1953)
- 2014 - Tea Ista, Finnish actress (b. 1932)
- 2014 - Cuthbert A. Pattillo, American air force general (b. 1924)
- 2015 - Henry Segerstrom, American politician (b. 1923)
- 2016 - Fernando Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest and politician (b. 1934)
- 2016 - Ove Verner Hansen, Danish actor and opera singer (b. 1932)
- 2016 - Nando Yosu, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1939)
- 2017 - Vitaly Churkin, Russian diplomat (b. 1952)
- 2017 - Mildred Dresselhaus, American scientist (b. 1930)
Observances
- World Day of Social Justice
- Rihanna Day (Barbados)