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This day in history

This day in history: 20 February

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day160 · 95

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Key facts

309 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 20 February.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2016: Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Eleutherius of Tournai

Christian feast day: Eucherius of Orléans

Christian feast day: February 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto

Christian feast day: Frederick Douglass (Episcopal Church (USA))

Christian feast day: Julia Rodzińska

Christian feast day: Wulfric of Haselbury

Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine)

World Day of Social Justice

Events

2016Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

2015Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services.

2014Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters die in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, many reportedly killed by snipers.

2010In Madeira Island, Portugal, heavy rain causes floods and mudslides, resulting in at least 43 deaths, in the worst disaster in the history of the archipelago.

2009Two Tamil Tigers aircraft packed with C4 explosives en route to the national airforce headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in a kamikaze style attack.

2005Spain 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.

2003During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.

2002A cooking gas cylinder explodes on board an Egyptian National Railways train in El Ayyat, causing a fire and killing over 370 people.

1998American figure skater Tara Lipinski, at the age of 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

1991In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania's long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters.

1988The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

1986The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.

1979An earthquake cracks open the Sinila volcanic crater on the Dieng Plateau, releasing poisonous H2S gas and killing 149 villagers in the Indonesian province of Central Java.

1971The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.

1968The China Academy of Space Technology, China's main arm for the research, development, and creation of space satellites, is established in Beijing.

1965Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.

1962Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.

1959The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.

1956The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.

1952Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.

1944World War II: The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.

1944World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Atoll.

1943The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.

1943World War II: American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.

1942World War II: Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

1939Madison Square Garden Nazi rally: The largest ever pro-Nazi rally in United States history is convened in Madison Square Garden, New York City, with 20,000 members and sympathizers of the German American Bund present.

1935Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.

1933Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign.

1933The U.S. Congress approves the Blaine Act to repeal federal Prohibition in the United States, sending the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution to state ratifying conventions for approval.

1931An anarchist uprising in Encarnación, Paraguay briefly transforms the city into a revolutionary commune.

1931The U.S. Congress approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.

1920An earthquake kills between 114 and 130 in Georgia and heavily damages the town of Gori.

1913King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.

1909Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.

1905The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

1901The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.

189420 February bombings by Désiré Pauwels during the Ère des attentats (1892-1894).

1877Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

1872The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.

1865End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance.

Born on this day

2004Jared McCain, American basketball player

2003Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer

2002Gavin Bazunu, Irish footballer

2000Josh Sargent, American soccer player

1999Jarrett Culver, American basketball player

1998Emam Ashour, Egyptian footballer

1996Clarke Schmidt, American baseball player

1995Elle Purrier St. Pierre, American track and field athlete

1994Kateryna Baindl, Ukrainian tennis player

1994Luis Severino, Dominican baseball player

1993Jurickson Profar, Curaçaoan baseball player

1991Angelique van der Meet, Dutch tennis player

1991Hidilyn Diaz, Filipino weightlifter

1991Sally Rooney, Irish novelist

1990Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer

1988Ki Bo-bae, South Korean archer

1988Rihanna, Barbadian singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and actress

1987James Johnson, American basketball player

1987Luke Burgess, English rugby league player

1987Martin Hanzal, Czech ice hockey player

1987Miles Teller, American actor

1986Julio Borbón, American baseball player

1985Julia Volkova, Russian singer and actress

1985Killian Dain, Northern Irish wrestler

1985Ryan Sweeney, American baseball player

1984Brian McCann, American baseball player

1983Jose Morales, Puerto Rican baseball player

1983Justin Verlander, American baseball player

1981Tony Hibbert, English footballer

1980Artur Boruc, Polish footballer

1980Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player

1980Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer

1977Gail Kim, Canadian wrestler

1977Stephon Marbury, American basketball player

1975Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor

1975Liván Hernández, Cuban-American baseball player

1974Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer and manager

1971Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer

1971Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (died 2017)

1969Danis Tanović, Bosnian director and screenwriter

Died on this day

2025David Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma (born 1941)

2025Jerry Butler, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1939)

2025Peter Jason, American actor (born 1944)

2024Andreas Brehme, German footballer (born 1960)

2024Yoko Yamamoto, Japanese actress (born 1942)

2021Mauro Bellugi, Italian footballer (born 1950)

2021Nurul Haque Miah, Bangladeshi professor and writer (born 1944)

2020Joaquim Pina Moura, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP (born 1952)

2017Mildred Dresselhaus, American physicist (born 1930)

2017Steve Hewlett, British journalist (born 1958)

2017Vitaly Churkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (born 1952)

2016Fernando Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest and politician (born 1934)

2015Govind Pansare, Indian author and activist (born 1933)

2015Henry Segerstrom, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1923)

2015John C. Willke, American physician, author, and activist (born 1925)

2014Garrick Utley, American journalist (born 1939)

2014Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (born 1923)

2014Walter D. Ehlers, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1921)

2013Antonio Roma, Argentinian footballer (born 1932)

2013David S. McKay, American biochemist and geologist (born 1936)

2013Kenji Eno, Japanese game designer and composer (born 1970)

2012Katie Hall, American educator and politician (born 1938)

2012Knut Torbjørn Eggen, Norwegian footballer and manager (born 1960)

2010Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (born 1924)

2009Larry H. Miller, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1944)

2008Emily Perry, English actress and dancer (born 1907)

2006Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (born 1919)

2006Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist and author (born 1920)

2005Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (born 1937)

2005John Raitt, American actor and singer (born 1917)

Quote of the day

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Socrates

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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