February 20

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

2006 Calendar

February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 314 days left, 315 in leap years.

1 Births
2 Deaths
3 Events
4 External links

[edit] Births

1925 - Robert Altman, film director
1967 - Kurt Cobain, rock musician

[edit] Deaths

2005 - Hunter S. Thompson, writer

[edit] 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.