February 20th in History
![](https://timespinnerpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/February_20.jpg)
“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.