February 20th in History

“Freedom of Speech,” one of the Four Freedoms posters by Norman Rockwell for the US Office of War Information

(Courtesy US National Archives, NAID 513536)

Today in History

  • The United States Post Office is established (1792)
  • Rossini’s The Barber of Seville premiers (1816)
  • New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens (1872)
  • Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet premiers (1877)
  • Lieutenant Edward “Butch” O’Hare (later namesake of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport) becomes the US’s first flying ace of World War II (1942)
  • The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms (1943)
  • Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth (1962)
  • Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest person to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating (1998)

Birthdays

  • Ludwig Boltzmann, physicist (1844)
  • Joshua Slocum, first man to single-handedly sail around the world (1844)
  • Ansel Adams, photographer (1902)
  • Alexei Kosygin, Soviet leader (1904)
  • Gale Gordon, actor (1906)
  • Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge Over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes (1912)
  • Gloria Vanderbilt, fashion designer (1924)
  • Robert Altman, filmmaker (1925)
  • Richard Matheson, author (1926)
  • Sidney Poitier, actor (1927)
  • Amanda Blake, actress (1929)
  • Bobby Unser, race car driver (1934)
  • Robert Penske, race car driver and entrepreneur (1937)
  • Nancy Wilson, singer (1937)
  • Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer-songwriter (1941)
  • Phil Esposito, ice hockey player and manager (1942)
  • Mitch McConnell, US Senate Republican leader (1942)
  • Sandy Duncan, actress (1946)
  • J. Geils, singer-songwriter (1946)
  • Jennifer O’Neill, actress (1948)
  • Ivana Trump, socialite, first wife of Donald Trump (1949)
  • Anthony Head, actor (1954)
  • Patty Hearst, kidnap victim, author and actress (1954)
  • Charles Barkley, basketball player (1963)
  • Cindy Crawford, supermodel (1966)
  • Kurt Cobain, musician (1967)
  • Fred Jackson, football player (1981)
  • Justin Verlander, baseball player (1983)
  • Trevor Noah, comedian (1984)
  • Rihanna, singer-songwriter (1988)

Deaths

  • P. G. T. Beauregard, Confederate general (1893)
  • Frederick Douglass, abolitionist (1895)
  • Robert Peary, US admiral and explorer (1920)
  • Percy Grainger, pianist and composer (1961)
  • Chester W. Nimitz, US admiral (1966)
  • Walter Winchell, journalist 91972)
  • Dick York, actor 91992)
  • Ferrucio Lamborghini, car manufacturer (1993)
  • Gene Siskel, film critic (1999)
  • Sandra Dee, actress (2005)
  • Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author (2005)
  • Curt Gowdy, sportscaster (2006)
  • Alexander Haig, politician (2010)
  • Garrick Utley, television journalist (2014)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine)
  • Love Your Pet Day
  • World Day of Social Justice
  • World Pangolin Day

February 20 is the 51st day of the year. There are 314 days (315 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.