Discover what happened on February 20 in history, including major historical events, notable celebrity birthdays, and fun Days of the Year celebrations.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1792 – President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act that created the U.S. Post Office.
1809 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the Federal government was greater than that of any individual state.
1839 – Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.
1872 – Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that made paper bags.
1872 – Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the machine that manufactured toothpicks.
1880 – The American Bell Company was incorporated.
1909 – The Hudson Motor Car Company was organized. Major financial backing came from Detroit department store founder J.L. Hudson. Hudson would eventually join American Motors.
1933 – The U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on the 21st Amendment to repeal Prohibition.
1943 – American movie studio executives agreed to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
1962 – John Glenn made space history when he orbited the World three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.
1965 – Ranger 8 crashed on the Moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the Moon’s surface. The spacecraft was taking pictures of possible landing sites for the Apollo astronauts.
1971 – The Emergency Broadcast System was accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
1974 – Cher filed for divorce from Sonny Bono.
1976 – KISS placed their footprints on the sidewalk outside the Grauman Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1979 – The PBS TV show “This Old House” premiered.
1987 – After 11 years, David Hartman left ABC TV’s “Good Morning America”.
1987 – A bomb exploded in a computer store in Salt Lake City, UT. The blast was blamed on the Unabomber.
1997 – Ben and Jerry’s introduced their ice cream Phish Food. It was named after the rock group Phish.
1997 – The Trinity Broadcasting network announced it dropped singer Pat Boone’s Gospel America show after he recorded a heavy metal album and appeared on the American Music Awards in black leather and a studded dog collar.
1998 – Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies’ figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.
2001 – A man led police on a 10 mile-an-hour chase on a tractor and was jailed. The driver was chased after being spotted driving while drinking a beer. Residents of Janesville, WI, lined the chase route and some even took photos. The driver eventually stopped in a church parking lot and told officers he didn’t think he would be arrested there. He was.
2002 – It’s revealed that Lance Bass of ‘N Sync was hoping to become an astronaut and take part in a November mission to the International Space Station.
2003 – The Station nightclub in West Warwick, RI caught fire during a pyrotechnics display at a Great White concert, killing 100 people including the band’s guitarist, Ty Longley and injuring nearly 200. It’s the worst such disaster in U.S. history.
2004 – Apple released their iPod Mini.
2008 – The U.S. Navy destroyed an inoperable spy satellite with a missile from the USS Lake Erie.
2015 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average set a record high when it closed above 18,100.
2016 – Six people were killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo, MI.
2016 – A 4-inch lock of John Lennon’s hair sold for $35,000 to a memorabilia collector at an auction in Dallas, TX.
BIRTHDAYS:
John Milnor – 95 years old (1931) – Mathematician and academic
Roger Penske – 89 years old (1937) – Race car driver and businessman
Mitch McConnell – 84 years old (1942) – Lawyer and politician
Sandy Duncan – 80 years old (1946) – Actress, singer, and dancer
Peter Strauss – 79 years old (1947) – Actor and producer
Jennifer O'Neill – 78 years old (1948) – Model and actress
Poison Ivy – 73 years old (1953) – Singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Jon Brant – 72 years old (1954) – Bass player
Patty Hearst – 72 years old (1954) – Actress and author
David Corn – 67 years old (1959) – Journalist and author
Bill Gullickson – 67 years old (1959) – Baseball player
Joel Hodgson – 66 years old (1960) – Comedian, actor, and screenwriter
Steve Lundquist – 65 years old (1961) – Swimmer
Charles Barkley – 63 years old (1963) – Basketball player and sportscaster
Jeff Maggert – 62 years old (1964) – Golfer
French Stewart – 62 years old (1964) – Actor
Cindy Crawford – 60 years old (1966) – Model and businesswoman
David Herman – 59 years old (1967) – Comedian and actor
Andrew Shue – 59 years old (1967) – Actor and activist, founded Do Something
Lili Taylor – 59 years old (1967) – Actress
Andrea Savage – 53 years old (1973) – Actress and comedian
Liván Hernández – 51 years old (1975) – Cuban-American baseball player
Brian Littrell – 51 years old (1975) – Singer-songwriter and actor
Stephon Marbury – 49 years old (1977) – Basketball player
Lauren Ambrose – 48 years old (1978) – Actress
Jay Hernandez – 48 years old (1978) – Actor
Chelsea Peretti – 48 years old (1978) – Actress, comedian, writer, and singer-songwriter
Michael Zegen – 47 years old (1979) – Actor
Majandra Delfino – 45 years old (1981) – Actress and singer-songwriter
Justin Verlander – 43 years old (1983) – Baseball player
Brian McCann – 42 years old (1984) – Baseball player
Ryan Sweeney – 41 years old (1985) – Baseball player
Julio Borbón – 40 years old (1986) – Baseball player
James Johnson – 39 years old (1987) – Basketball player
Daniella Pineda – 39 years old (1987) – Actress
Miles Teller – 39 years old (1987) – Actor
Jack Falahee – 37 years old (1989) – Actor and singer-songwriter
Elle Purrier St. Pierre – 31 years old (1995) – Track and field athlete
Clarke Schmidt – 30 years old (1996) – Baseball player
Jarrett Culver – 27 years old (1999) – Basketball player
Josh Sargent – 26 years old (2000) – Soccer player
Olivia Rodrigo – 23 years old (2003) – Actress and singer
Jared McCain – 22 years old (2004) – Basketball player
TODAY IS:
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For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, www.daysoftheyear.com, and www.nationaldaycalendar.com.
