February 20

Events1472 - Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland, due to a dowry payment.1547 - Edward VI of England crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.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.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 earthquake1844 - Birth of famous solo mariner Joshua Slocum in Mount Hanley, Nova Scotia1859 - Don't know! ... but this date is on the coat of arms of Venezuela1864 - Battle of Olustee1872 - 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.1909 - Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro1913 - 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 U.S. 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 Parícutin volcano begins to form in Paricutín, México.1944 - World War II: "Big Week" ended with American bomber raids on Nazi aircraft manufacturing centers.1944 - World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.1947 - State of Prussia ceases to exist1952 - Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League. 1959 - The Avro Arrow program 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.1976 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.1987 - Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store.1991 - A gigantic statue of Albania's long-time dictator, Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital, Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters. 1998 - American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.1998 - The Nashville Banner daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA publishes its last edition.1999 - First hockey game occurs at the Air Canada Centre. The Toronto Maple Leafs win 3-2 in overtime vs the Montreal Canadiens.2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.2005 - 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.
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