# What happened on February 20 in history?

**Date:** February 20  
**Events recorded:** 54  
**Years spanned:** 1339 – 2016  
**Full page:** https://thisday.info/events/february/20/

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## Featured Event

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

[Read more on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan)

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## Events on this date

- **1339** — The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan))
- **1472** — Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney))
- **1521** — Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sets out from San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n))
- **1547** — Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VI))
- **1553** — Yohannan Sulaqa professes his Catholic belief and is ordained as bishop shortly after; this marks the beginning of the Chaldean Catholic Church. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimun_VIII_Yohannan_Sulaqa))
- **1685** — René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier%2C_Sieur_de_La_Salle))
- **1792** — The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Service_Act))
- **1798** — Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Alexandre_Berthier))
- **1813** — Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Belgrano))
- **1816** — Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioachino_Rossini))
- **1824** — William Buckland formally announces the name Megalosaurus, the first scientifically validly named non-avian dinosaur species. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Buckland))
- **1835** — The 1835 Concepción earthquake destroys Concepción, Chile. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1835_Concepci%C3%B3n_earthquake))
- **1846** — Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B3w_Uprising))
- **1864** — American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War))
- **1865** — End 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_War))
- **1872** — The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art))
- **1877** — Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky))
- **1894** — 20 February bombings by Désiré Pauwels during the Ère des attentats (1892-1894). ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_February_1894_attacks))
- **1901** — The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_Hawaii))
- **1905** — The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States))
- **1909** — Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_of_Futurism))
- **1913** — King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_O'Malley))
- **1920** — An earthquake kills between 114 and 130 in Georgia and heavily damages the town of Gori. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Gori_earthquake))
- **1931** — The U.S. Congress approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress))
- **1931** — An anarchist uprising in Encarnación, Paraguay briefly transforms the city into a revolutionary commune. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism))
- **1933** — The 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress))
- **1933** — Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler))
- **1935** — Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Mikkelsen))
- **1939** — Madison 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Square_Garden))
- **1942** — World War II: Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II))
- **1943** — World War II: American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_studio))
- **1943** — The 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saturday_Evening_Post))
- **1944** — World War II: The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Week))
- **1944** — World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Atoll. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enewetak_Atoll))
- **1952** — Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Ashford))
- **1956** — The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marine_Academy))
- **1959** — The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow))
- **1962** — Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury))
- **1965** — Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for  the Apollo program astronauts. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_8))
- **1968** — The China Academy of Space Technology, China's main arm for the research, development, and creation of space satellites, is established in Beijing. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Academy_of_Space_Technology))
- **1971** — The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System))
- **1979** — An 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake))
- **1986** — The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union))
- **1988** — The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_Autonomous_Oblast))
- **1991** — In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania's long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirana))
- **1998** — American 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Lipinski))
- **2002** — A cooking gas cylinder explodes on board an Egyptian National Railways train in El Ayyat, causing a fire and killing over 370 people. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_El_Ayyat_railway_accident))
- **2003** — During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White))
- **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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Spanish_European_Constitution_referendum))
- **2009** — Two 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_suicide_air_raid_on_Colombo))
- **2010** — In 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. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira))
- **2014** — Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters die in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, many reportedly killed by snipers. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan))
- **2015** — Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafz_train_crash))
- **2016** — Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Kalamazoo_shootings))

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## Notable births on February 20

- **2004** — **Jared McCain** — American basketball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_McCain))
- **2003** — **Olivia Rodrigo** — American actress and singer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Rodrigo))
- **2002** — **Gavin Bazunu** — Irish footballer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Bazunu))
- **2000** — **Josh Sargent** — American soccer player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Sargent))
- **1999** — **Jarrett Culver** — American basketball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarrett_Culver))
- **1998** — **Emam Ashour** — Egyptian footballer ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emam_Ashour))
- **1996** — **Clarke Schmidt** — American baseball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke_Schmidt))
- **1995** — **Elle Purrier St. Pierre** — American track and field athlete ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elle_Purrier_St._Pierre))
- **1994** — **Kateryna Baindl** — Ukrainian tennis player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kateryna_Baindl))
- **1994** — **Luis Severino** — Dominican baseball player ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Severino))

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## Notable deaths on February 20

- **2025** — **David Boren** — American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma (born 1941) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boren))
- **2025** — **Jerry Butler** — American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1939) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Butler))
- **2025** — **Peter Jason** — American actor (born 1944) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jason))
- **2024** — **Andreas Brehme** — German footballer (born 1960) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Brehme))
- **2024** — **Yoko Yamamoto** — Japanese actress (born 1942) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Yamamoto))
- **2021** — **Nurul Haque Miah** — Bangladeshi professor and writer (born 1944) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurul_Haque_Miah))
- **2021** — **Mauro Bellugi** — Italian footballer (born 1950) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauro_Bellugi))
- **2020** — **Joaquim Pina Moura** — Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP (born 1952) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquim_Pina_Moura))
- **2017** — **Vitaly Churkin** — Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (born 1952) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaly_Churkin))
- **2017** — **Mildred Dresselhaus** — American physicist (born 1930) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Dresselhaus))

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## About this page

This is a machine-readable Markdown summary of [thisday.info/events/february/20/](https://thisday.info/events/february/20/).  
Historical data is sourced from [Wikipedia/Wikimedia](https://www.wikipedia.org) under [CC BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).  
Editorial framing and site content © thisday.info.