Friday, 20th February 2026

20th February in the Stars – Star Sign Pisces

Today, the zodiac sign Pisces celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality People born on February 20th blend the dreamy nature of Pisces with emotional depth amplified by lunar influence. Master Number 22 bestows them with exceptional spiritual power and drive to manifest visions into reality. These individuals are sensitive, intuitive, and possess a magnetic, empathetic presence that naturally draws others near.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strengths lie in creativity, intuitive understanding, and inspiring others toward meaningful change. However, they risk becoming lost in daydreams, overreacting emotionally, or clinging to unrealistic expectations. The key challenge involves anchoring visionary ideals with practical, grounded action.

Love In relationships, these natives are deeply emotional and crave soul-level intimacy and spiritual connection. They give generously but require equal emotional security and validation in return. Their idealistic approach can lead to disappointment when partners fail to meet lofty expectations.

Caree & Finance These people thrive in creative, spiritual, or helping professions where intuition guides their work. Art, therapy, healing practices, and social services channel their talents effectively. Financially, they can be naive; structure and business acumen help monetize their gifts.

Health Emotional balance is crucial for their wellbeing, as stress manifests psychosomatically in the body. Meditation, creative expression, and consistent movement stabilize both mind and spirit. Awareness of escapist tendencies and healthy boundaries protects long-term vitality.

That night, the moon was in its waning gibbous phase.

Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 20th February

Name Days in Your Language: Aimee, Alaric, Alarica, Alarice, Ami, Amy, Amya, Cyd, Cydney, Desmond, Sid, Sidney, Sydnee, Sydney, Ulric

Someone born on this day would be just 108 days old today — roughly 2,592 hours, 155,570 minutes, or 9,334,230 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 51. day of the year. In 2026, 20th February falls on a Friday.

There are 314 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 8 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 19th February

On this day, 158 notable people were born on 19th February — spanning from 1358 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

20/02/2004

Jared McCain, American basketball player

Jared Dane McCain is an American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a consensus five-star recruit and ranked among the top players in the 2023 class. McCain played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils before being selected by the Philadelphia 76ers as the 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NBA draft.

20/02/2003

Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She began her career as a child, appearing in commercials and the direct-to-video film An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success (2015). She rose to prominence with her leading roles in the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark (2016–2019) and the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019–2022).

20/02/2002

Gavin Bazunu, Irish footballer

Gavin Okeroghene Bazunu is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for EFL Championship club Southampton and the Republic of Ireland national team.

20/02/2000

Josh Sargent, American soccer player

Joshua Thomas Sargent is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Major League Soccer club Toronto FC and the United States national team.

20/02/1999

Jarrett Culver, American basketball player

Jarrett Ryan Culver is an American professional basketball player for the Sendai 89ers of the B.League. He played college basketball for the Texas Tech Red Raiders, and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns with the sixth overall selection of the 2019 NBA draft.

20/02/1998

Emam Ashour, Egyptian footballer

Emam Ashour Metwally Abdel Ghany is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly and the Egypt national team.

20/02/1996

Clarke Schmidt, American baseball player

Clarke Douglas Schmidt is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). Schmidt played college baseball for the South Carolina Gamecocks, and was selected by the Yankees in the first round, 16th overall, of the 2017 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut in 2020.

20/02/1995

Elle Purrier St. Pierre, American track and field athlete

Elinor Purrier St. Pierre, better known as Elle Purrier St. Pierre, is an American track and field athlete who specializes in middle-distance and long-distance running. She won a gold medal in the 3000 meters at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow. Purrier is a two-time Olympian for the United States, making the final in the 1500m at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.

20/02/1994

Kateryna Baindl, Ukrainian tennis player

Kateryna Baindl is a Ukrainian inactive tennis player. On 19 February 2018, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 62. On 22 October 2012, she peaked at No. 139 in the doubles rankings. She has won one singles title on the WTA Challenger Tour as well as five singles and 13 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Luis Severino, Dominican baseball player

Luis Severino, nicknamed "Sevy", is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the New York Yankees and New York Mets.

20/02/1993

Jurickson Profar, Curaçaoan baseball player

Jurickson Barthelomeus Profar is a Curaçaoan professional baseball outfielder for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, and Colorado Rockies. He has played on the Netherlands national team in international competition.

20/02/1991

Hidilyn Diaz, Filipino weightlifter

Hidilyn Francisco Diaz-Naranjo is a Filipino weightlifter, educator, and airwoman. The first Filipino to win an Olympic gold medal, she holds two Olympic records in weightlifting for her performance at the women's 55 kg category for weightlifting at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Angelique van der Meet, Dutch tennis player

Angelique van der Meet is a former professional Dutch tennis player.

Sally Rooney, Irish novelist

Sally Rooney is an Irish author. She is the author of the novels Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021), and Intermezzo (2024). The first two works were adapted into the television miniseries Normal People (2020) and Conversations with Friends (2022). Her bestselling novels have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, have been translated into over 47 languages, and have garnered critical acclaim and commercial success. Literary commentators regard Rooney as one of the foremost millennial writers, and in 2022, Time named her among the 100 most influential people in the world.

20/02/1990

Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer

Ciro Immobile is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for French Ligue 1 club Paris FC.

20/02/1988

Ki Bo-bae, South Korean archer

Ki Bo-bae is a South Korean recurve archer and three-time Olympic gold medalist. She was the winner of the women's team and women's individual events at the 2012 Summer Olympics and of the women's team event again at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she also took bronze in the individual competition. Her tally of four Olympic medals places her among the most decorated archers in Olympic history.

20/02/1987

Luke Burgess, English rugby league player

Luke Burgess is an English former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Salford Red Devils in the Super League. Luke Burgess is the brother of fellow rugby league players Sam, George and Tom Burgess. He previously played in the NRL for the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

Martin Hanzal, Czech ice hockey player

Martin Hanzal is a Czech former professional ice hockey centre. He was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round, 17th overall, of the 2005 NHL entry draft.

James Johnson, American basketball player

James Patrick Johnson is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the starting power forward for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons from 2007 to 2009. He was drafted 16th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls.

20/02/1986

Julio Borbón, American baseball player

Julio Alberto Borbón is an American former professional baseball center fielder who most recently served as the first base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs, and Baltimore Orioles.

20/02/1985

Killian Dain, Northern Irish wrestler

Damian Mackle is an Irish professional wrestler. He performs on the independent circuit under the ring name Big Damo. He is also the co-owner of the independent promotions DEFY Wrestling and Progress Wrestling. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Killian Dain.

Ryan Sweeney, American baseball player

Ryan Joseph Sweeney is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.

Julia Volkova, Russian singer and actress

Yulia Olegovna Volkova, better known by the alternative spelling of Julia, is a Russian singer best known for being a member of the Russian girl group t.A.T.u., along with Lena Katina. Formed in Moscow, Russia by Ivan Shapovalov in 1999, the group signed a record deal with Universal Music Russia, and eventually Universal's sub-label Interscope Records in 2001.

20/02/1984

Brian McCann, American baseball player

Brian Michael McCann is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros. A seven-time All-Star and a six-time Silver Slugger Award winner, he won the 2017 World Series with the Astros. He is one of only four catchers to win the Silver Slugger Award six times and the only catcher to win the award in both the National League and American League.

20/02/1983

Jose Morales, Puerto Rican baseball player

José Guillermo Morales is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher. He played stints in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Minnesota Twins and Colorado Rockies between 2007 and 2011. He played for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

Justin Verlander, American baseball player

Justin Brooks Verlander is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has also played in MLB for the Houston Astros, New York Mets, and San Francisco Giants. A three-time Cy Young Award winner, an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award recipient, and a two-time World Series champion, Verlander is considered to be one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.

20/02/1981

Tony Hibbert, English footballer

Anthony James Hibbert is an English former professional footballer. A one-club man for his entire career, coupled with his down-to-earth demeanour, Hibbert earned a cult hero status among Everton fans.

20/02/1980

Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player

Imanol Harinordoquy is a French former rugby union player. He typically played as a number 8 for Stade Toulousain at club level in the Top 14 and for France internationally. Before signing with Biarritz ahead of the 2004–05 season, he played club rugby at Pau.

Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer

Luis Gabriel Rey Villamizar is a Colombian former professional footballer who last played for Liga MX club Monarcas Morelia on loan from Club América.

Artur Boruc, Polish footballer

Artur Boruc is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

20/02/1977

Gail Kim, Canadian wrestler

Gail Kim-Irvine is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her tenures in TNA Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In TNA, she was the inaugural and record setting seven-time Knockouts Champion and she also was a one-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Madison Rayne. In WWE, she won the WWE Women's Championship in her first match.

Stephon Marbury, American basketball player

Stephon Xavier Marbury is an American former professional basketball player and coach. A point guard, Marbury played college basketball for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for one season. He was selected as the fourth overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks; shortly thereafter, he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. A two-time NBA All-Star and two-time member of the All-NBA Team, Marbury played for five teams in a 13-year NBA career that ended in 2009. He then played in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) until his retirement in 2018. During his time in the CBA, Marbury won three CBA championships, was named Finals MVP in 2015, and made three CBA All-Star Games. He also served as head coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters from 2019 to 2023.

20/02/1975

Liván Hernández, Cuban-American baseball player

Eisler Liván Hernández Carrera is a Cuban-born former professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball. Over a 17-year career, he played for nine different teams and was named to two All-Star Games. He was named the MVP of the 1997 World Series with the Florida Marlins. He is the half-brother of pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernández.

Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor

Brian Thomas Littrell is an American singer and a member of the Backstreet Boys. He is also a contemporary Christian music artist and released the solo album Welcome Home in 2006. He is the father of country singer Baylee Littrell.

20/02/1974

Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer and manager

Karim Bagheri is an Iranian professional football coach and former midfielder who most notably played for the Iranian national team and Persian Gulf Pro League club Persepolis, where he also serves as assistant coach. He holds the record for most international goals scored as a midfielder.

20/02/1971

Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer

Jari Olavi Litmanen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a second striker. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national team between 1996 and 2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010. Litmanen is widely considered to be Finland's greatest football player of all time. He was chosen as the best Finnish player of the last 50 years by the Football Association of Finland in the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003. He also finished 42nd in the 100 Greatest Finns voting in 2004. The Association of Football Statisticians' compendium of 'Greatest Ever Footballers' listed Litmanen as the 53rd best footballer ever. Litmanen was inducted into the Finnish Football Hall of Fame in 2015.

Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (died 2017)

Joost van der Westhuizen was a South African professional rugby union player who made 89 appearances in test matches for the national team, scoring 38 tries. He mostly played as a scrum-half and participated in three Rugby World Cups, most notably in the 1995 tournament, which was won by South Africa. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest scrumhalves in the history of this sport.

20/02/1969

Kjell Ove Hauge, Norwegian school principal and track and field athlete

Kjell Ove Hauge is a Norwegian retired shot putter and discus thrower, turned educator, later Head teacher. As an athlete he represented Gloppen Athletics club. Since July 2013 Hauge is Principal at Kuben Upper Secondary School, the largest High School in Oslo.

Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian footballer and manager (died 2022)

Siniša Mihajlović was a Serbian football manager and player. Though starting out as a defensive midfielder, he spent the majority of his illustrious playing career in defence.

Danis Tanović, Bosnian director and screenwriter

Danis Tanović is a Bosnian film director and screenwriter. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for the Golden Bear and the Palme d'Or.

20/02/1967

Paul Accola, Swiss alpine skier

Paul Accola is a Swiss former Alpine skier. He came in first in the overall World Cup in 1992, and won a total of four medals at the Winter Olympics and World Championships in the combined event.

Kurt Cobain, American musician (died 1994)

Kurt Donald Cobain was an American musician and songwriter. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establishment persona, he widened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music. He was heralded as a spokesman of Generation X, and is widely recognized as one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock music.

David Herman, American comedian and actor

David Herman is an American actor and comedian. He was an original cast member on MADtv from 1995 to 1997 and played Michael Bolton in Office Space.

20/02/1964

Willie Garson, American actor and director (died 2021)

William Garson Paszamant was an American actor. He appeared in over 75 films and more than 300 TV episodes. He was known for playing Stanford Blatch on the series Sex and the City, in the related films Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2 and in the spin-off And Just Like That..., Mozzie in the series White Collar from 2009 to 2014, Ralph in the 2005 romantic comedy Little Manhattan, Gerard Hirsch in the reboot of Hawaii Five-0, and Martin Lloyd in the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1.

Tom Harris, Scottish journalist and politician

Thomas Harris is a Scottish journalist and former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow South, formerly Glasgow Cathcart, from 2001 to 2015. A former member of Scottish Labour, he left the party in August 2018.

Jeff Maggert, American golfer

Jeffrey Allan Maggert is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions.

20/02/1963

Joakim Nystrom, Swedish tennis player

Joakim "Jocke" Nyström is a tennis coach and a former top ten ranked professional player from Sweden who won 13 singles titles during his career. The right-hander reached his highest singles ranking on the ATP Tour on 31 March 1986, when he was ranked world No. 7. He was also ranked world No. 4 in doubles that same year.

Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Health

Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou is a Greek politician and lawyer. She was Minister for Health and Social Solidarity (2009–2010), Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs, responsible for European Affairs (2010–2012), Member of the Greek Parliament (2007–2012) and again from July 2019 for Syriza, and of the European Parliament (2004–2007). She served as secretary of the National Committee of PASOK -Panhellenic Socialist Movement, member of the Party of European Socialists (2005–2006).

Cui Yongyuan, Chinese former anchor

Cui Yongyuan is a former Chinese TV host and professor at Communication University of China.

20/02/1962

Dwayne McDuffie, American author, screenwriter, and producer, co-founded Milestone Media (died 2011)

Dwayne Glenn McDuffie was an American writer of comic books and television. He co-founded the pioneering minority-owned-and-operated comic book company Milestone Media, which focused on underrepresented minorities in American comics, creating and co-creating characters such as Icon, Rocket, Static, and Hardware. McDuffie was also a writer and producer for animated series such as Static Shock, Justice League Unlimited and the Ben 10 sequels, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien.

20/02/1961

Steve Lundquist, American swimmer

Stephen K. Lundquist is an American former competition swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and former world record-holder. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he won gold medals in the 100-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter medley relay.

20/02/1960

Cándido Muatetema Rivas, Equatoguinean politician and diplomat, Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea (died 2014)

Cándido Muatetema Rivas was a political figure in Equatorial Guinea who was Prime Minister from 2001 to 2004.

20/02/1959

Scott Brayton, American race car driver (died 1996)

Scott Everts Brayton was an American race car driver on the American open-wheel circuit. He competed in 14 Indianapolis 500s, beginning with the 1981 event. Brayton was killed in practice after qualifying in pole position for the 1996 race.

David Corn, American journalist and author

David Corn is an American political journalist and author. He is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Mother Jones and is best known as a cable television commentator. Corn worked at The Nation from 1987 to 2007, where he served as Washington editor.

Bill Gullickson, American baseball player

William Lee Gullickson is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played professionally in Canada, the U.S. and Japan, during an 18-year professional career, of which 14 seasons were spent in MLB.

20/02/1957

Glen Hanlon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Glen A. Hanlon is a Canadian ice hockey coach, executive and former goaltender.

20/02/1954

Jon Brant, American bass player

Jonathan Edward "Jon" Brant is an American musician and business owner, best known as the bass player for the band Cheap Trick from 1982 to 1987. Brant was a founding member of the Chicago band D'Thumbs with Tommy Aldridge and Pete Comita and has also played with Chris Spedding, Robert Gordon, Lou Reed, Diana Ross, Lesley Gore, Jason & the Scorchers, Micki Free, and others. Brant has appeared on over 30 albums as composer and bassist.

20/02/1953

Poison Ivy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Kristy Marlana Wallace, known as Poison Ivy or Poison Ivy Rorschach, is an American guitarist, songwriter, arranger, producer, and occasional vocalist who co-founded the rock band The Cramps.

20/02/1951

Edward Albert, American actor (died 2006)

Edward Laurence Albert was an American actor. The son of actor Eddie Albert and Mexican actress Margo, he starred opposite Goldie Hawn in Butterflies Are Free (1972), a role for which he won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. He was nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Albert starred in more than 130 films and television series, including Midway, The Greek Tycoon, Galaxy of Terror, The House Where Evil Dwells, The Yellow Rose, Falcon Crest and Power Rangers Time Force.

Gordon Brown, Scottish politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

James Gordon Brown is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair. Brown was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2005 and for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005 to 2015. He has served as United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education since 2012, and he was appointed as World Health Organization Ambassador for Global Health Financing in 2021. In 2026, Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed Brown as a Special Envoy on Global Finance and Cooperation.

Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1997)

Randy Craig Wolfe, known as Randy California, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the original members of the rock group Spirit, formed in 1967.

Phil Neal, English footballer and manager

Philip George Neal is an English retired footballer who played for Northampton Town, Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers as a full-back. He is regarded as one of the most successful English players of all time, having won eight First Division titles, four League Cups, five FA Charity Shields, four European Cups, one UEFA Cup and one UEFA Super Cup during his eleven years at Liverpool. He later returned to Bolton Wanderers as manager, leading them to victory in the Football League Trophy before spells managing Coventry City, Cardiff City and Manchester City.

20/02/1950

Walter Becker, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2017)

Walter Carl Becker was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.

Peter Marinello, Scottish footballer

Peter Marinello is a Scottish former footballer.

Tony Wilson, English journalist and businessman (died 2007)

Anthony Howard Wilson was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager and impresario, and a journalist for Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4.

20/02/1949

Eddie Hemmings, English cricketer

Edward Ernest Hemmings is a former English cricketer, who played in 16 Test matches and 33 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team between 1982 and 1991. He made his England debut relatively late in his career, at the age of 33, having predominantly represented Nottinghamshire in the County Championship. His chance came when several England players announced their intention to go on a rebel cricket tour to South Africa. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model (died 2022)

Ivana Marie Trump was a Czech and American businesswoman, socialite, and model. She lived in Canada in the 1970s, before relocating to the United States and marrying Donald Trump in 1977. She held key managerial positions in the Trump Organization, as vice president of interior design, CEO and president of Trump's Castle casino resort, and manager of the Plaza Hotel.

20/02/1948

Pierre Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster

Pierre Émile Bouchard is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. He was selected by the Canadiens in the first round of the 1965 NHL Amateur Draft.

20/02/1947

Peter Osgood, English footballer (died 2006)

Peter Leslie Osgood was an English footballer who was active during the 1960s and 1970s. He is best remembered for representing Chelsea and Southampton as a forward at club level, winning the FA Cup with each, and was also capped four times by England in the early 1970s.

20/02/1946

J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2017)

John Warren Geils Jr., was an American guitarist. He was known as the leader of the J. Geils Band.

20/02/1945

Alan Hull, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1995)

James Alan Hull was an English singer-songwriter and founding member of the Tyneside folk rock band Lindisfarne.

George Smoot, American astrophysicist and cosmologist, shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2025)

George Fitzgerald Smoot III was an American astrophysicist and cosmologist. He shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics with John C. Mather "for their discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation".

20/02/1944

Robert de Cotret, Canadian economist and politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (died 1999)

Jean Robert René de Cotret was a Canadian economist and politician.

Lew Soloff, American trumpet player, composer, and actor (died 2015)

Lewis Michael Soloff was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. He was a founding member of the band Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer and coach

Willem "Wim" van Hanegem is a Dutch former football player and coach who played as a midfielder. In a playing career spanning over 20 years, he won several domestic honours in the Netherlands, as well as both the European Cup and UEFA Cup with Feyenoord. He was also part of the Dutch national team that were runners-up in the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

20/02/1943

Antonio Inoki, Japanese wrestler, mixed martial artist, and politician (died 2022)

Antonio Inoki was a Japanese professional wrestler, professional wrestling trainer, martial artist, politician, and promoter of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA). He is best known as the founder and 33-year owner of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He is considered to be one of the most influential professional wrestlers of all time, and one of the biggest key influences on MMA in Japan and internationally.

20/02/1941

Lim Kit Siang, Malaysian lawyer and politician

Lim Kit Siang is a retired Malaysian politician. Having held the position for a total of 29 years on three occasions, he is the longest-serving leader of the opposition, as well the second longest-serving member of parliament in Malaysia. He was also the former secretary-general and national chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan coalition, leading it through eight general elections.

Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer

Buffy Sainte-Marie is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.

20/02/1940

Jimmy Greaves, English footballer and TV pundit (died 2021)

James Peter Greaves was an English professional footballer who played as a forward and is regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and one of England's best ever players. He is England's fifth-highest international goalscorer with 44 goals, which includes an English record of six hat-tricks, and is Tottenham Hotspur's second-highest all-time top goalscorer. Greaves is the highest goalscorer in the history of English top-flight football with 357 goals. He finished as the First Division's top scorer in six seasons, more times than any other player and came third in the 1963 Ballon d'Or rankings. He is also a member of the English Football Hall of Fame.

20/02/1939

Herbert Kohler Jr., American businessman (died 2022)

Herbert Vollrath Kohler Jr. was an American billionaire businessman, a member of the Kohler family of Wisconsin, and the executive chairman of the Kohler Company, a manufacturing and hospitality company in Kohler, Wisconsin, best known for its plumbing products, golf courses, and resorts, with the latter two fields of business directly entered into under his chairmanship. Before his death, Forbes estimated the net worth of him and his family at US$8.8 billion.

20/02/1937

Robert Huber, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Robert Huber is a German biochemist and Nobel laureate. known for his work crystallizing an intramembrane protein important in photosynthesis and subsequently applying X-ray crystallography to elucidate the protein's structure.

20/02/1936

Marj Dusay, American actress (died 2020)

Marjorie Ellen Mahoney Dusay was an American actress known for her roles on American soap operas. She was especially known for her role as Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light, a role she played on and off from 1993 through the show's 2009 cancellation, as well as Jean Faircloth, the wife of Douglas MacArthur, in the 1977 movie MacArthur.

Larry Hovis, American actor and singer (died 2003)

Larry Hovis was an American singer and actor best known for the 1960s television sitcom Hogan's Heroes.

Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and manager (died 2025)

Shigeo Nagashima was a Japanese professional baseball player and manager. Nagashima first began playing baseball in elementary school, before playing at his high school in Chiba Prefecture, part of Kanto Region, just before he played as a third baseman for Rikkyo University. After winning the batting title for two straight years in Tokyo Big6 Baseball League, Nagashima made his professional debut in 1958 with the Yomiuri Giants. In his rookie season, he led the Central League in home runs and runs batted in, with 29 and 92 respectively and ultimately received Rookie of the Year honors. With the arrival of Sadaharu Oh in 1959, the two would both become a dual force in being the best hitters in the game that earned the nickname "O-N Cannon" for one of the most dominant dynasties in NPB history, and Nagashima won league MVP five times while being named to the Best Nine Award in every season he played; his four Japan Series MVP award wins is still the most in NPB history. After retiring in 1974, he became as a manager of the Giants from 1975 to 1980, and again from 1993 to 2001; during this time, he won the Japan Series twice.

20/02/1935

Ellen Gilchrist, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 2024)

Ellen Louise Gilchrist was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She won a National Book Award for her 1984 collection of short stories, Victory Over Japan.

20/02/1932

Adrian Cristobal, Filipino journalist and author (died 2007)

Adrian Empremiado Cristobal Sr. was a Filipino writer who frequently touched on political and historical themes. Perhaps best known to the public for his "Breakfast Table" newspaper column, he was also a Palanca Award–winning playwright, fictionist and essayist. He likewise held several positions in government during the administration of President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

20/02/1931

John Milnor, American mathematician and academic

John Willard Milnor is an American mathematician known for his work in differential topology, algebraic K-theory and low-dimensional holomorphic dynamical systems. Milnor is a distinguished professor at Stony Brook University and the only mathematician to have won the Fields Medal, the Wolf Prize, the Abel Prize and all three Steele prizes.

20/02/1929

Amanda Blake, American actress (died 1989)

Amanda Blake was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the Western television series Gunsmoke. Along with her fourth husband, Frank Gilbert, she ran one of the first successful programs for breeding cheetahs in captivity.

20/02/1928

Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat, 25th United States Ambassador to Ireland (died 2020)

Jean Ann Kennedy Smith was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy was the eighth of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. Her siblings included President of the United States John F. Kennedy, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, United States Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Rosemary Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

20/02/1927

Roy Cohn, American lawyer and political activist (died 1986)

Roy Marcus Cohn was an American lawyer and prosecutor. He first gained fame as a prosecutor of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in their trials (1952–1953) and as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954. Cohn had been assisting McCarthy's investigations of suspected communists. In the 1970s and during the 1980s, he became a prominent legal and political fixer in New York City. He represented and mentored Donald Trump during Trump's early business career.

Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer and musician (died 2005)

Ibrahim Ferrer was a Cuban singer who played with the group Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental, and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in 1991, he was brought back in the studio to record with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club, in March 1996. He then toured internationally with these revival groups and recorded several solo albums for World Circuit, before his death in 2005.

Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, director, and diplomat (died 2022)

Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his other accolades are two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. In 1999, he was ranked number 22 among the "American Film Institute's 100 Stars". Poitier was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

20/02/1926

Matthew Bucksbaum, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded General Growth Properties (died 2013)

Matthew Bucksbaum was an American businessman and philanthropist. Matthew and his brothers Martin and Maurice co-founded General Growth Properties.

Gillian Lynne, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (died 2018)

Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne was an English ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. At age 87, she was made a DBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List.

Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (died 2013)

Richard Burton Matheson was an American author and screenwriter, who worked primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.

Bob Richards, American Olympic track and field athlete (died 2023)

Robert Eugene Richards was an American athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the first male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history.

María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, Spanish Roman Catholic nun; later canonized (died 1998)

María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, born María Isabel Salvat Romero, was a Spanish religious sister of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross. She assumed the religious name María de la Purísima of the Cross.

20/02/1925

Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (died 2006)

Robert Bernard Altman was an American filmmaker. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts. Over his career he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, two BAFTAs, three Independent Spirit Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, a David di Donatello Award, and a Golden Globe, as well as nominations for seven competitive Academy Awards.

Tochinishiki Kiyotaka, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 44th Yokozuna (died 1990)

Tochinishiki Kiyotaka was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tokyo. He was the sport's 44th yokozuna. He won ten top division yūshō or tournament championships and was a rival of fellow yokozuna Wakanohana I. He became the head coach of Kasugano stable in 1959 and was head of the Japan Sumo Association from 1974 until 1988.

20/02/1923

Victor G. Atiyeh, American businessman and politician, 32nd Governor of Oregon (died 2014)

Victor George Atiyeh was an American politician who served as the 32nd governor of Oregon from 1979 to 1987. He was also the first elected governor of Middle Eastern descent and of Syrian and Lebanese descent in the United States.

Forbes Burnham, Guyanese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Guyana (died 1985)

Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Premier of British Guiana from 1964 to 1966, Prime Minister of Guyana from 1964 to 1980 and then as the first executive president of Guyana from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of socialism.

Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek actress (died 2004)

Irene "Rena" Vlahopoulou was a Greek Actor and singer. She starred in theatre, musical and Greek cinema productions, including The Gambler and The Countess of Corfu.

20/02/1921

Buddy Rogers, American wrestler (died 1992)

Buddy Rogers, better known by the ring name "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, was an American professional wrestler who was one of the biggest professional wrestling stars in the beginning of the television era. His performances influenced future professional wrestlers, including "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, who used Rogers's nickname, as well as his look, attitude and finishing hold, the figure-four leglock. He was also known for his rivalry with Lou Thesz, both in and out of the ring.

20/02/1920

Karl Albrecht, German businessman, co-founded Aldi (died 2014)

Karl Hans Albrecht was a German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. He was the richest person in Germany for many years. In February 2014, he was ranked the 21st-richest person in the world by Hurun Report.

20/02/1919

James O'Meara, English soldier and pilot (died 1974)

James Joseph "Orange" O'Meara, was a Royal Air Force officer and fighter pilot of the Second World War. He became a flying ace during the Battle of Britain while flying the Supermarine Spitfire, and by war's end was credited with 11 kills, two shared victories, one unconfirmed destroyed, four probables, 11 damaged and one shared damaged.

20/02/1918

Leonore Annenberg, American businesswoman and diplomat (died 2009)

Leonore Cohn Annenberg, also known as Lee Annenberg, was an American businesswoman, diplomat, and philanthropist. She was Chief of Protocol of the United States from 1981 to 1982. Annenberg was married to Walter Annenberg, who was an Ambassador to the United Kingdom and newspaper publisher. She was the chairman and president of the Annenberg Foundation from 2002 to 2009.

20/02/1916

Jean Erdman, American dancer and choreographer (died 2020)

Jean Erdman was an American dancer and choreographer of modern dance as well as an avant-garde theater director, and the wife of Joseph Campbell.

20/02/1914

John Charles Daly, South African–American journalist and game show host (died 1991)

John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly was an American journalist, host, CBS radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host, best known for his work on the CBS panel game show What's My Line?

20/02/1913

Tommy Henrich, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2009)

Thomas David Henrich, nicknamed "the Clutch" and "Old Reliable", was an American professional baseball player of German descent. He played his entire Major League Baseball career as a right fielder and first baseman for the New York Yankees. Henrich led the American League in triples twice and in runs scored once, also hitting 20 or more home runs four times. He is best remembered for his numerous exploits in the World Series; he was involved in one of the most memorable plays in Series history in 1941, was the hitting star of the 1947 Series with a .323 batting average, and hit the first walk-off home run in Series history in the first game of the 1949 World Series.

20/02/1912

Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (died 1994)

Pierre François Marie Louis Boulle was a French author. He is best known for two works, The Bridge over the River Kwai (1952) and Planet of the Apes (1963), that were both made into award-winning films.

Johnny Checketts, New Zealand flying ace of the Second World War (died 2006)

John Milne Checketts, was a New Zealand flying ace of the Second World War, who was credited with the destruction of 14+1⁄2 enemy aircraft, three probably destroyed and 11 damaged.

20/02/1906

Gale Gordon, American actor (died 1995)

Gale Gordon was an American character actor who was Lucille Ball's longtime television foil, particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J. Mooney, on Ball's second television sitcom The Lucy Show. Gordon also appeared in I Love Lucy and had starring roles in Ball's successful third series Here's Lucy and her short-lived fourth and final series Life with Lucy.

20/02/1901

René Dubos, French-American biologist and author (died 1982)

René Jules Dubos was a French-American microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist, humanist, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his book So Human An Animal. He is credited for having made famous the environmental maxim: "Think globally, act locally." Aside from a period from 1942 to 1944 when he was George Fabyan Professor of Comparative Pathology and professor of tropical medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, his scientific career was spent entirely at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, later renamed The Rockefeller University.

Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian general and politician, 1st President of Egypt (died 1984)

Major General Mohamed Bey Naguib Youssef Qutb El-Qashlan, known simply as Mohamed Naguib, was a Sudanese-born Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who, along with Gamal Abdel Nasser, was one of the two principal leaders of the Free Officers movement of 1952 that toppled the monarchy of Egypt and the Sudan, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Egypt.

Ramakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (died 1978)

Raja Sri Ravu Svetachalapati Sir Ramakrishna Ranga Rao KCIE was an Indian politician and zamindar who served as the First Minister of Madras Presidency from 5 November 1932 to 4 April 1936 and 24 August 1936 to 1 April 1937.

20/02/1899

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1992)

Cornelius "Sonny" Vanderbilt Whitney was an American businessman, film producer, government official, writer and philanthropist. He was also a polo player who owned a stable of Thoroughbred racehorses.

20/02/1898

Ante Ciliga, Croatian politician, writer and publisher (died 1992)

Ante Ciliga was a Croatian politician, writer and publisher. Ciliga was one of the earliest leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). Imprisoned in Stalin's Gulags in the 1930s as part of the Great Purge, he later became an ardent Croatian nationalist, anti-communist and ideologue of the fascist Ustaše movement.

20/02/1897

Ivan Albright, American painter (died 1983)

Ivan Le Lorraine Albright was an American painter, sculptor and print-maker most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies, and still lifes. Due to his technique and dark subject matter, he is often categorized among the Magic Realists and is sometimes referred to as the "master of the macabre".

20/02/1895

Louis Zborowski, English race car driver and engineer (died 1924)

Louis Vorow Zborowski was a British racing driver and automobile engineer, best known for creating a series of aero-engined racing cars known as the "Chitty-Bang-Bangs", which provided the inspiration for Ian Fleming's children's story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and culminated in the "Higham Special" which, much modified in the hands of John Godfrey Parry Thomas, broke the World Land Speed Record 18 months after the death of its creator.

20/02/1893

Elizabeth Holloway Marston, American psychologist and author (died 1993)

Sarah Elizabeth Marston was an American attorney and psychologist. She is credited, with her husband William Moulton Marston, with the development of the systolic blood pressure measurement used to detect deception, the predecessor to the polygraph.

20/02/1889

Hulusi Behçet, Turkish dermatologist and physician (died 1948)

Hulusi Behçet was a Turkish dermatologist and scientist. He described a disease of inflamed blood vessels in 1937, which is named after him as Behçet's disease. His portrait was depicted on a former Turkish postcard stamp.

20/02/1888

Georges Bernanos, French soldier and author (died 1948)

Louis Émile Clément Georges Bernanos was a French author, and a soldier in World War I. A Catholic with monarchist leanings, he was critical of elitist thought and was opposed to what he identified as defeatism. He believed this had led to France's defeat and eventual occupation by Germany in 1940 during World War II. His two best-known novels Sous le soleil de Satan (1926) and the Journal d'un curé de campagne (1936) both revolve around a parish priest who combats evil and despair in the world. Most of his novels have been translated into English and frequently published in both Great Britain and the United States.

20/02/1887

Vincent Massey, Canadian lawyer and politician, 18th Governor General of Canada (died 1967)

Charles Vincent Massey was a Canadian diplomat and statesman who served as the 18th governor general of Canada from 1952 to 1959. Massey was the first governor general of Canada to be born in Canada.

20/02/1882

Elie Nadelman, Polish-American sculptor (died 1946)

Elie Nadelman was a Polish-American sculptor, draughtsman of the School of Paris and a collector of folk art.

20/02/1880

Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, French author and poet (died 1923)

Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen was a French novelist and poet. His life forms the basis of a fictionalised 1959 novel by Roger Peyrefitte entitled The Exile of Capri.

20/02/1879

Hod Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1907)

William Hodgson "Hod" Stuart was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. A cover-point, he played nine seasons for several teams in different leagues from 1899 to 1907. He also played briefly for the Ottawa Rough Riders team in Canadian football. With his brother Bruce, Stuart played in the first professional ice hockey league, the American-based International Professional Hockey League (IPHL), where he was regarded as one of the best players in the league.

20/02/1874

Mary Garden, Scottish-American soprano and actress (died 1967)

Mary Garden was a Scottish-American operatic lyric soprano, then mezzo-soprano, with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century. She spent the latter part of her childhood and youth in the United States and eventually became an American citizen, although she lived in France for many years and eventually retired to Scotland, where she spent the last 30 years of her life and died.

20/02/1870

Jay Johnson Morrow, American engineer and politician, 3rd Governor of the Panama Canal Zone (died 1937)

Jay Johnson Morrow was an American military engineer who was Chief Engineer of the United States First Army and Deputy Chief Engineer of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I and Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1921 to 1924.

20/02/1867

Louise, Princess Royal of England (died 1931)

Louise, Princess Royal was the third child and eldest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. She was a younger sister of King George V. Louise was granted the title of Princess Royal in 1905. Known for her reserved and quiet nature, she remained a low-profile member of the royal family throughout her life.

20/02/1866

Carl Westman, Swedish architect, designed the Stockholm Court House and Röhsska Museum (died 1936)

Ernst Carl Westman was a Swedish architect and interior designer. He was an early adopter of the National Romantic Style, but turned later to the neo-classical style of the 1920s.

20/02/1857

A. P. Lucas, English cricketer (died 1923)

Alfred Perry "Bunny" Lucas was an English first-class cricketer from 1874 to 1907, playing for Cambridge University, Surrey, Middlesex and Essex. He also played five Test matches for the England cricket team.

20/02/1848

E. H. Harriman, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1909)

Edward Henry Harriman was an American financier and railroad executive.

20/02/1844

Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher (died 1906)

Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian mathematician and theoretical physicist. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics and the statistical explanation of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1877, he provided the current definition of entropy, , where Ω is the number of microstates whose energy equals the system's energy, interpreted as a measure of the statistical disorder of a system. Max Planck named the constant kB the Boltzmann constant.

Joshua Slocum, Canadian sailor and adventurer (died 1909)

Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his journey, Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.

20/02/1839

Benjamin Waugh, English activist, founded the NSPCC (died 1908)

Benjamin Waugh was a Victorian era social reformer and campaigner who founded and directed the UK charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the late 19th century. He was also a journalist, public speaker and organiser who helped secure Britain’s first legislation on children’s rights.

20/02/1819

Alfred Escher, Swiss businessman and politician (died 1882)

Johann Heinrich Alfred Escher vom Glas, colloquially Alfred Escher, was a Swiss business magnate, banker, railway pioneer and politician who most notably served on the National Council from 1848 to 1882 for the Liberal Party.

20/02/1802

Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (died 1870)

Charles Auguste de Bériot was a Belgian violinist, artist and composer.

20/02/1794

William Carleton, Irish author (died 1869)

William Carleton was an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, a collection of ethnic sketches of the stereotypical Irishman.

20/02/1792

Eliza Courtney, French daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (died 1859)

Elizabeth Courtney was the illegitimate daughter of the Whig politician and future Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, and socialite Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, while Georgiana was married to William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire.

20/02/1784

Judith Montefiore, British linguist, travel writer, philanthropist (died 1862)

Judith, Lady Montefiore was a British linguist, musician, travel writer, and philanthropist. She was the wife of Sir Moses Montefiore. She wrote the first Jewish cook book written in English.

20/02/1774

Vicente Sebastián Pintado, Spanish cartographer, engineer, military officer and land surveyor of Spanish Louisiana and Spanish West Florida (died 1829)

Vicente Sebastian Pintado y Brito was a Spanish cartographer, engineer, military officer and land surveyor of Spanish Louisiana and Spanish West Florida. He is known for conducting surveys of lands for settlers who had requested grants in Louisiana and Florida, as well as the so-called "Pintado plan", a street map of Pensacola drawn in 1812 which included the position and size of the solares designated for construction of the city's church and other public buildings.

20/02/1759

Johann Christian Reil, German physician, physiologist, and anatomist (died 1813)

Johann Christian Reil was a German physician, physiologist, anatomist, and psychiatrist. He coined the term psychiatry – Psychiatrie in German – in 1808.

20/02/1756

Angelica Schuyler Church, American socialite, sister-in-law to Alexander Hamilton (died 1814)

Angelica Church was an American socialite. She was the eldest daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler, and a sister of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton and sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton.

20/02/1753

Louis-Alexandre Berthier, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (died 1815)

Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Neuchâtel et Valangin, prince de Wagram was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was twice Minister of War of France and was made a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Berthier served as chief of staff to Napoleon Bonaparte from his first Italian campaign in 1796 until his first abdication in 1814. The operational efficiency of the Grande Armée owed much to his considerable administrative and organizational skills.

20/02/1751

Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet, translator, and academic (died 1826)

Johann Heinrich Voss was a German classicist and poet, known mostly for his translation of Homer's Odyssey (1781) and Iliad (1793) into German.

20/02/1748

Luther Martin, American politician (died 1826)

Luther Martin was a Founding Father of the United States, framer of the U.S. Constitution, politician, lawyer, and slave owner. Martin was a delegate from Maryland to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but did not sign the Constitution, having left the convention early because he felt the document as proposed violated states' rights. In the months following the convention, he was a leading Anti-Federalist, along with Patrick Henry and George Mason, whose collective efforts led to the passage of the Bill of Rights.

20/02/1745

Henry James Pye, English poet and politician (died 1813)

Henry James Pye was an English poet, and Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death. His appointment as laureate owed nothing to poetic achievement and may have been awarded to him as compensation for the loss of his seat in Parliament. Pye was a competent prose writer who fancied himself as a poet, earning the derisive label of poetaster.

20/02/1744

William Cornwallis, English admiral and politician (died 1819)

Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, was a Royal Navy officer and politician. Cornwallis took part in a number of decisive battles including the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, when he was 14, and the Battle of the Saintes but is best known as a friend of Lord Nelson and as the commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. He is depicted in the Horatio Hornblower novel, Hornblower and the Hotspur. His affectionate contemporary nickname from "the ranks" was Billy Blue, and a sea shanty was written during his period of service, reflecting the admiration his men had for him.

20/02/1726

William Prescott, American colonel (died 1795)

William Prescott was an American officer in the Revolutionary War best known for his service at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

20/02/1705

Nicolas Chédeville, French musette player and composer (died 1782)

Nicolas Chédeville was a French composer, musette player and musette maker.

20/02/1633

Jan de Baen, Dutch painter (died 1702)

Jan de Baen was a Dutch portrait painter who lived during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a pupil of the painter Jacob Adriaensz Backer in Amsterdam from 1645 to 1648. He worked for Charles II of England in his Dutch exile, and from 1660 until his death he lived and worked in The Hague. His portraits were popular in his day, and he painted the most distinguished people of his time.

20/02/1631

Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English politician, Treasurer of the Navy (died 1712)

Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, was an English Tory statesman. During the reign of Charles II of England, he was the leading figure in the English government for roughly five years in the mid-1670s. Osborne fell out of favour due to corruption and other scandals. He was impeached and eventually imprisoned in the Tower of London for five years until James II of England acceded in 1685. In 1688, he was one of the Immortal Seven who invited William of Orange to depose James II during the Glorious Revolution. Osborne was again the leading figure in England's government for a few years in the early 1690s before dying in 1712.

20/02/1608

Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (died 1649)

Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham, of Hadham Hall and Cassiobury House, Watford, both in Hertfordshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Capell. He supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War and was executed on the orders of parliament in 1649.

20/02/1552

Sengoku Hidehisa, Daimyō (died 1614)

Sengoku Hidehisa , childhood name Gonbei (権兵衛) was a samurai warrior of the Sengoku period and the Edo period. He was the head of the Komoro Domain in Shinano Province. Hidehisa is also credited with being the man who captured the legendary outlaw hero "Ishikawa Goemon".

20/02/1549

Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, last Duke of Urbino (died 1631)

Francesco Maria II della Rovere was the last Duke of Urbino.

20/02/1523

Jan Blahoslav, Czech writer (died 1571)

Jan Blahoslav was a Czech humanistic writer, poet, translator, etymologist, hymnographer, grammarian, music theorist and composer. He was a Unity of the Brethren bishop, and translated the New Testament into Czech in 1564. This was incorporated into the Bible of Kralice.

20/02/1469

Thomas Cajetan, Italian philosopher (died 1534)

Thomas Cajetan, also known as Gaetanus or Cajetanus, commonly Tommaso de Vio or Thomas de Vio, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, the Master of the Order of Preachers 1508 to 1518, and cardinal from 1517 until his death. He was a leading theologian of his day who is now best known as the spokesman for Catholic opposition to the teachings of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation while he was the Pope's legate in Augsburg, and among Catholics for his extensive commentary on the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas.

20/02/1358

Eleanor of Aragon, queen of John I of Castile (died 1382)

Eleanor of Aragon was the daughter of King Peter IV of Aragon and Eleanor of Sicily. She was a member of the House of Barcelona and Queen of Castile by her marriage.

Lives Remembered on 19th February

On 19th February, 95 remarkable people passed away — from 789 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

20/02/2025

David Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma (born 1941)

David Lyle Boren was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and three terms in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1994. A conservative Democrat, to date, he is the last in his party to have served as U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. He was the 13th and second-longest serving president of the University of Oklahoma from 1994 to 2018. He was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. On September 20, 2017, Boren officially announced his retirement as president of the University of Oklahoma, effective June 30, 2018.

Jerry Butler, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1939)

Jerry Butler Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. After leaving the group in 1960, Butler achieved over 55 Billboard Pop and R&B Chart hits as a solo artist including "He Will Break Your Heart," "Let It Be Me," and "Only the Strong Survive." He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.

Peter Jason, American actor (born 1944)

Peter Edward Ostling, known professionally as Peter Jason, was an American character actor. He appeared in over 250 film and television roles from his debut in 1967 through the mid-2020's, and was notably a regular in the films of directors Walter Hill and John Carpenter. He often played military personnel, law enforcement agents, and authority figures, as well as his portrayal as Con Stapleton on the television series Deadwood.

20/02/2024

Andreas Brehme, German footballer (born 1960)

Andreas "Andi" Brehme was a German professional football player and coach. At international level, he is best known for scoring the winning goal for Germany in the 1990 FIFA World Cup final against Argentina from an 85th-minute penalty kick. At club level, Brehme played for several teams in Germany and also had spells in Italy and Spain.

Yoko Yamamoto, Japanese actress (born 1942)

Yoko Yamamoto was a Japanese actress represented by Kabushikigaisha Sanyō Kikaku. Yamamoto was born on March 17, 1942, and died on February 20, 2024, at the age of 81.

20/02/2021

Nurul Haque Miah, Bangladeshi professor and writer (born 1944)

Muhammad Nurul Haque Miah was a professor at Dhaka College and the head of its Department of Chemistry. He is renowned for writing high school and degree textbooks.

Mauro Bellugi, Italian footballer (born 1950)

Mauro Bellugi was an Italian footballer who played as a defender.

20/02/2020

Joaquim Pina Moura, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP (born 1952)

Joaquim Pina Moura was a Portuguese politician and economist. He was a member of the Socialist Party.

20/02/2017

Vitaly Churkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (born 1952)

Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was a Russian diplomat. He served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 until his death in 2017. Previously he was Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (2003–2006), Ambassador to Canada (1998–2003), Ambassador to Belgium and Liaison Ambassador to NATO and WEU (1994–1998), Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the talks on Former Yugoslavia (1992–1994), Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR/Russian Federation (1990–1992).

Mildred Dresselhaus, American physicist (born 1930)

Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus, known as the "Queen of Carbon Science", was an American physicist, materials scientist, and nanotechnologist. She was an Institute Professor and professor of both physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also served as the president of the American Physical Society, the chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as the director of science in the US Department of Energy under the Bill Clinton Government. Dresselhaus won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the Enrico Fermi Award, the Kavli Prize and the Vannevar Bush Award.

Steve Hewlett, British journalist (born 1958)

Stephen Edward Hewlett was a British print, radio and TV journalist, and visiting professor of Journalism and Broadcast Policy at the University of Salford.

20/02/2016

Fernando Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest and politician (born 1934)

Fernando Cardenal Martínez was a Nicaraguan Jesuit and liberation theologian.

20/02/2015

Govind Pansare, Indian author and activist (born 1933)

Govind Pansare was a left-wing Indian politician of the Communist Party Of India (CPI). He authored the Marathi language biography of 17th century ruler Shivaji, Shivaji Kon Hota. He and his wife were attacked on 16 February 2015 by gun-wielding assailants in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. He died from his wounds on 20 February 2015.

Henry Segerstrom, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1923)

Henry Thomas Segerstrom was an American philanthropist, entrepreneur, cultural leader, and patron of the arts. Managing Partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, he was the founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, now known as the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

John C. Willke, American physician, author, and activist (born 1925)

John Charles Willke was an American author, physician, and anti-abortion activist. He served as president of National Right to Life and, along with his wife Barbara, authored a number of books on abortion and human sexuality. Willke was a leading promoter of the false claim that women's bodies resist pregnancy from forcible rape, an idea which continues to be promoted by some anti-abortion politicians.

20/02/2014

Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (born 1923)

Rafael Addiego Bruno was a Uruguayan jurist and political figure.

Walter D. Ehlers, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1921)

Walter David Ehlers was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the US armed forces' highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.

Garrick Utley, American journalist (born 1939)

Clifton Garrick Utley was an American television journalist. He established his career reporting about the Vietnam War and has the distinction of being the first full-time television correspondent covering the war on-site.

20/02/2013

Kenji Eno, Japanese game designer and composer (born 1970)

Kenji Eno was a Japanese musician and video game designer. He gained a reputation as a maverick during the mid-1990s for creating unorthodox games like Real Sound and is perhaps best remembered today for his rebellious marketing techniques. Outside of his homeland he was best known for his survival horror video games, D and Enemy Zero. Apart from creating video games, Eno was also a well-regarded electronic musician and he created the scores for several of his games. Eno founded the video game development companies EIM, Warp, and From Yellow to Orange. He also worked in a variety of fields apart from video games and music including the automotive, cellphone, tobacco, and hotel industries.

David S. McKay, American biochemist and geologist (born 1936)

David Stewart McKay was the chief scientist for Astrobiology at the Johnson Space Center. During the Apollo program, McKay provided geology training to the first men to walk on the Moon in the late 1960s. McKay was the first author of a scientific paper postulating past life on Mars based on evidence in Martian meteorite ALH 84001, which had been found in Antarctica. Despite there being no convincing evidence of Martian life, the initial paper caused enormous scientific and public attention. The NASA Astrobiology Institute was founded partially due to community interest in this paper and related topics. He was a native of Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Antonio Roma, Argentinian footballer (born 1932)

Antonio Roma was an Argentine footballer who played as a goalkeeper, notably for Boca Juniors.

20/02/2012

Knut Torbjørn Eggen, Norwegian footballer and manager (born 1960)

Knut Torbjørn Eggen was a Norwegian football coach and player, famous for his time in Rosenborg as a player, and Moss and Fredrikstad as a coach. He was the son of Norway's most successful football coach, Nils Arne Eggen.

Katie Hall, American educator and politician (born 1938)

Katie Beatrice Hall was an American educator in Gary, Indiana, and a politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1982 to 1985. When Hall was sworn into federal office on November 2, 1982, she became the first black woman from Indiana to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hall represented Indiana's 1st Congressional District in the final months of the 97th Congress and an entire two-year term in the 98th Congress from 1983 to 1985. She is best known for sponsoring legislation and leading efforts on the floor of the U.S. House in 1983 to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday after previous efforts had failed. H.R. 3706 to establish the third Monday in January as a federal holiday in King's honor was introduced in July 1983 and passed in the House on August 2, 1983. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983.

20/02/2010

Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (born 1924)

Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was an American politician who served as the 59th United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and previously as White House chief of staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, as well as United States Deputy National Security Advisor under President Nixon. A member of the Republican Party, he was a general in the U.S. Army prior to and in between these cabinet-level positions, serving first as the vice chief of staff of the Army and then as Supreme Allied Commander Europe. In 1973, Haig became the youngest four-star general in the U.S. Army's history.

20/02/2009

Larry H. Miller, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1944)

Larry H. Miller was an American businessman. He owned the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team. Miller and his companies, now known as the Larry H. Miller Company, also owned more than 60 automotive dealerships throughout the western United States, and a variety of other ventures, including Prestige Financial Services, Jordan Commons, Megaplex Theatres, KJZZ-TV, Miller Motorsports Park, the advertising agency Saxton Horne, and the Delta Center. The Fanzz chain of sports apparel stores was also owned by LHM Group until its sale to Ames Watson Capital in 2018.

20/02/2008

Emily Perry, English actress and dancer (born 1907)

Patricia Emily Perry was an English actress and dancer. Born in Torquay, Devon, she was best known for her recurring role as Madge Allsop, Dame Edna Everage's long-suffering, silent "bridesmaid" from Palmerston North, New Zealand.

20/02/2006

Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (born 1919)

Curtis Edward Gowdy was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s. He coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for the Rose Bowl Game, taking the moniker from Cheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.

Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist and author (born 1920)

Lucjan Wilhelm Wolanowski, pseudonyms: Wilk; Waldemar Mruczkowski; W. Lucjański; (L.W.); lu; Lu; (lw); WOL., was a Polish journalist, writer and traveller.

20/02/2005

Sandra Dee, American actress (born 1942)

Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise's Until They Sail (1957). She became a teenage star for her performances in Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place, which made her a household name.

Josef Holeček, Czech canoeist (born 1921)

Josef Holeček was a Czech sprint canoeist who competed for Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won gold medals in the C-1 1000 m event in both 1948 and 1952.

John Raitt, American actor and singer (born 1917)

John Emmet Raitt was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theatre. His most notable role was Billy Bigelow in the original Broadway cast of Carousel.

Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (born 1937)

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prominence with the book Hell's Angels (1967), for which he lived a year among the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences. In 1970, he wrote an unconventional article titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which further raised his profile as a countercultural figure. It also set him on the path to establish the subgenre of New Journalism that he called "Gonzo", a style in which the writer becomes central to, and participant in the narrative.

20/02/2003

Mushaf Ali Mir, Pakistani air marshal (born 1947)

Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir was an influential statesman and a four-star rank air officer who served as the ninth Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), appointed on 20 November 2000 until his accidental death in a plane crash on 20 February 2003.

Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and author (born 1907)

Maurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy.

Orville Freeman, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 29th Governor of Minnesota (born 1918)

Orville Lothrop Freeman was an American politician who served as the 29th governor of Minnesota from 1955 to 1961, and as the U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was one of the founding members of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and influential in the merger of the Minnesota Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties. Freeman nominated Kennedy for president at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

20/02/2001

Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (born 1910)

Rosemary Shirley DeCamp was an American radio, film, and television actress.

Donella Meadows, American environmentalist, author, and academic (born 1941)

Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows was an American environmental scientist, educator, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the books The Limits to Growth and Thinking In Systems: A Primer.

20/02/1999

Sarah Kane, English playwright (born 1971)

Sarah Kane was an English playwright. She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological—and death. They are characterised by a poetic intensity, pared-down language, exploration of theatrical form and, in her earlier work, the use of extreme and violent stage action.

Gene Siskel, American journalist and critic (born 1946)

Eugene Kal Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert.

20/02/1996

Solomon Asch, American psychologist and academic (born 1907)

Solomon Eliot Asch (September 14, 1907 – February 20, 1996) was a Polish-American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology. He conducted seminal research on impression formation, prestige suggestion, conformity, and many other topics. His work reflects a common theme of Gestalt psychology that the whole is not only different from the sum of its parts, but the nature of the whole fundamentally alters the understanding of the parts. Asch stated: "Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function". Asch is most well known for his conformity experiments, in which he demonstrated the influence of group pressure on opinions. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Asch as the 41st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Audrey Munson, American model (born 1891)

Audrey Marie Munson was an American artist's model and film actress, considered to be "America's first supermodel." In her time, she was variously known as "Miss Manhattan", the "Panama–Pacific Girl", the "Exposition Girl" and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than twelve statues in New York City, and many others elsewhere. Munson appeared in four silent films, including unclothed in Inspiration (1915). She was one of the first American actresses to appear nude in a non-pornographic film.

Toru Takemitsu, Japanese pianist, guitarist, and composer (born 1930)

Tōru Takemitsu was a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music and writer on music. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu was admired for his subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He is known for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy and for fusing sound with silence and tradition with innovation.

20/02/1993

Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, founded Lamborghini (born 1916)

Ferruccio Lamborghini was an Italian automobile designer and industrialist who created Lamborghini Trattori in 1948 and Automobili Lamborghini in 1963, a maker of high-end sports cars in Sant'Agata Bolognese.

Ernest L. Massad, American general (born 1908)

Ernest Louis "Iron Mike" Massad was a college football star, major general of the U.S. Army, and successful oilman.

20/02/1992

A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (born 1898)

Alfred Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.

Barbara Lüdemann, German politician (born 1922)

Barbara Lüdemann was a German teacher and politician who served in the Bundestag from 1973 until 1976. A member of the Free Democratic Party from Hesse, she became a prominent figure in German family policy, especially with regards to foster care.

Dick York, American actor (born 1928)

Richard Allen York was an American actor. He was the first actor to play Darrin Stephens on the ABC fantasy sitcom Bewitched. He played teacher Bertram Cates in the film Inherit the Wind (1960).

20/02/1987

Wayne Boring, American illustrator (born 1905)

Wayne Boring was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonym Jack Harmon.

20/02/1981

Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-American banker and publisher (born 1904)

Nicolas Louis Alexandre de Gunzburg, also known as Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, was a French-born magazine editor and socialite. He became an editor at several American publications, including Town & Country, Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1971.

20/02/1976

René Cassin, French lawyer and judge, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887)

René Samuel Cassin was a French jurist known for co-authoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Kathryn Kuhlman, healing evangelist, known for belief in Holy Spirit (born 1907)

Kathryn Kuhlman was an American Christian evangelist, preacher and minister who was referred to by the press as a faith healer.

20/02/1972

Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)

Maria Goeppert Mayer was a German–American theoretical physicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner. One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Goeppert Mayer and Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure." She was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, the first being Marie Curie in 1903. In 1986, the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award for early-career women physicists was established in her honor.

Walter Winchell, American journalist and actor (born 1897)

Walter Winchell was an American syndicated newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler said that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment".

20/02/1969

Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (born 1883)

Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.

20/02/1968

Anthony Asquith, English director and screenwriter (born 1902)

Anthony Asquith was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Browning Version (1951), among other adaptations. His other notable films include Pygmalion (1938), French Without Tears (1940), The Way to the Stars (1945) and a 1952 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

20/02/1966

Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (born 1885)

Chester William Nimitz was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.

20/02/1965

Michał Waszyński, Polish film director and producer (born 1904)

Michał Waszyński was a Polish-born film director and film producer who worked in Poland, Italy, and later on major American film productions based primarily in Spain under the name Michael Waszynski. Renowned for his elegance and refined manners, he was nicknamed “the prince” by acquaintances.

20/02/1963

Jacob Gade, Danish violinist and composer (born 1879)

Jacob Thune Hansen Gade was a Danish violinist and composer, mostly of orchestral popular music. He is remembered today for a single tune, Jalousie.

20/02/1961

Percy Grainger, Australian-American pianist and composer (born 1882)

Percy Aldridge Grainger was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens".

20/02/1957

Sadri Maksudi Arsal, Turkish scholar and politician (born 1878)

Sadri Maksudi Arsal was one of the leading figures in the national awakening of Tatars in Russia during the early 1900s. He worked as a writer, lawyer, politician, professor, lecturer, researcher of Turkic languages and a delegate of the League of Nations. He was the president of the short-lived Idel-Ural State.

20/02/1947

Viktor Gutić, Croatian fascist official (born 1901)

Viktor Gutić was the Ustaše commissioner for Banja Luka and the Grand Prefect of Pokuplje in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state during World War II. He was responsible for the persecution of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Bosanska Krajina region between 1941 and 1942.

20/02/1936

Max Schreck, German actor (born 1879)

Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film Nosferatu (1922).

20/02/1933

Takiji Kobayashi, Japanese writer (born 1903)

Takiji Kobayashi was a Japanese writer of proletarian literature. He is best known for his short novel Kani Kōsen, or Crab Cannery Ship, published in 1929. It tells the story of the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen and seamen on board a cannery ship and the beginning of their revolt against the company and its managers. Kobayashi died due to violent torture after being arrested by the Special Higher Police two years later, at the age of 29.

20/02/1920

Jacinta Marto, Portuguese saint (born 1910)

Francisco de Jesus Marto and Jacinta de Jesus Marto were siblings from Aljustrel, a small hamlet near Fátima, Portugal, who, with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos (1907–2005), reportedly witnessed three apparitions of the Angel of Peace in 1916, and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Cova da Iria in 1917. The title Our Lady of Fátima was given to the Virgin Mary as a result, and the Sanctuary of Fátima became a major centre of global Catholic pilgrimage.

Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (born 1856)

Robert Edwin Peary was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being the discoverer of the geographic North Pole in April 1909, having led the first expedition to have claimed this achievement, although it is now considered unlikely that he actually reached the Pole.

20/02/1916

Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1844)

Klas Pontus Arnoldson was a Swedish author, journalist, politician, and committed pacifist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 with Fredrik Bajer. He was a founding member of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society and a Member of Parliament in the second Chamber of 1882–1887.

20/02/1907

Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)

Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan was a French chemist and pharmacist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds. Among his other contributions, Moissan discovered moissanite and contributed to the development of the electric arc furnace. Moissan was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee.

20/02/1900

Washakie, American tribal leader (born 1798)

Washakie was a prominent leader of the Shoshone people during the mid-19th century. He was first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging of trapper Jim Bridger, Washakie led a band of Shoshones to the council meetings of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Essentially from that time until his death, he was considered the head of the Eastern Shoshones by the representatives of the United States government. In 1979, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

20/02/1895

Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (born c. 1818)

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.

20/02/1893

P. G. T. Beauregard, American general (born 1818)

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard was an American military officer known for being the Confederate general who started the American Civil War at the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used his first name as an adult. He signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.

20/02/1871

Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter (born 1810)

Paul Kane was an Irish-born Canadian painter whose paintings and especially field sketches were known as one of the first visual documents of Western indigenous life. Paul Kane grew up in York, Upper Canada, and trained himself by copying European masters on a "Grand Tour" study trip through Europe. He undertook two voyages through the Canadian northwest in 1845, and from 1846 to 1848. The first trip took him from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie and back. Having secured the support of the Hudson's Bay Company, he set out on a second, much longer voyage from Toronto across the Rocky Mountains to Fort Vancouver and Fort Victoria.

20/02/1862

William Wallace Lincoln, American son of Abraham Lincoln (born 1850)

William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln was the third son of U.S. President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Willie was named after Mary's brother-in-law, Dr. William Smith Wallace. He died of typhoid fever at the White House, during his father's presidency, aged 11.

20/02/1850

Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician. 14th President (1843–1844) (born 1794)

José Valentín Raimundo Canalizo Bocadillo, was a Mexican general and statesman who served twice as interim president during the Centralist Republic of Mexico and was later made Minister of War during the Mexican American War.

20/02/1810

Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean rebel leader (born 1767)

Andreas Hofer was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover who became the leader of the 1809 Tyrolean Rebellion during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Hofer, besides that, led troops in the battles of Bergisel during the rebellion. He was subsequently captured and executed.

20/02/1806

Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American general and politician (born 1725)

Lachlan McIntosh was a Scottish American military and political leader during the American Revolution and the early United States. In a 1777 duel, he fatally shot Button Gwinnett, who had signed the Declaration of Independence ten months earlier.

20/02/1790

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1741)

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Leopold II, Maria Carolina of Austria, and Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.

20/02/1778

Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar (born 1711)

Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti was an Italian physicist and academic. Recognized and depicted as "Minerva", she was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university, by the end of her life Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21.

20/02/1773

Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (born 1701)

Charles Emmanuel III was Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from his father's abdication on 3 September 1730 until his death in 1773. He was the paternal grandfather of the last three mainline kings of Sardinia. In the War of the Polish Succession, he initially gained Lombardy but later ceded it for smaller territorial gains. During the War of the Austrian Succession, he defended Piedmont against a Franco-Spanish army, winning the Battle of Assietta. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored lost lands and expanded his territory. He strengthened ties with Spain through marriage alliances. He chose not to get involved in the Seven Years War and instead focused on administrative reforms and maintaining a well-disciplined army.

20/02/1771

Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist and astronomer (born 1678)

Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan was a French natural philosopher (physicist), born in the town of Béziers on 26 November 1678. De Mairan lost his father, François d'Ortous, at age four and his mother twelve years later at age sixteen. Over the course of his life, de Mairan was elected into numerous scientific societies and made key discoveries in a variety of fields, including ancient texts and astronomy. His observations and experiments also inspired the beginning of what is now known as the study of biological circadian rhythms. At the age of 92, de Mairan died of pneumonia in Paris on 20 February 1771.

20/02/1762

Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (born 1723)

Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.

20/02/1626

John Dowland, English lute player and composer (born 1563)

John Dowland was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe", "Now o now I needs must part", and "In darkness let me dwell". His instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century's early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists.

20/02/1618

Philip William, Prince of Orange (born 1554)

Philip William, Prince of Orange was the eldest son of William the Silent by his first wife Anna van Egmont. He became Prince of Orange in 1584 and Knight of the Golden Fleece in 1599.

20/02/1579

Nicholas Bacon, English politician (born 1509)

Sir Nicholas Bacon was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the first half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon.

20/02/1524

Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler (born 1500)

Tecun Uman was one of the last rulers of the K'iche' Maya people, in the Highlands of what is now Guatemala. According to the Kaqchikel annals, he was slain by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado while waging battle against the Spanish and their allies on the approach to Quetzaltenango on 12 February 1524.

20/02/1513

King John of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (born 1455)

Hans, or sometimes called John was a Scandinavian monarch who ruled under the Kalmar Union. He was King of Denmark from 1482 to 1513, King of Norway from 1483 to 1513, and King of Sweden from 1497 to 1501. Additionally, from 1482 to 1513, he held the titles of Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, which he governed jointly with his brother, Frederick.

20/02/1458

Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia

Lazar Branković was Despot of Serbia from 1456 to 1458. He was the third son of Despot Đurađ Branković and his wife, Eirene Kantakouzene. He died without sons, and was succeeded by his elder brother, Despot Stefan Branković.

20/02/1431

Pope Martin V (born 1368)

Pope Martin V, born Oddone Colonna, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 November 1417 to his death in February 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism of 1378–1417. As of 2026, he remains the last pope to have taken the pontifical name "Martin".

20/02/1408

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English politician, Earl Marshal of England (born 1341)

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, titular King of Mann, KG, Lord Marshal, was an English statesman and a leading political figure during the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. One of the most powerful noblemen in northern England, he played a decisive role in the deposition of Richard II and the accession of Henry IV.

20/02/1258

Al-Musta'sim, Iraqi caliph (born 1213)

Abu Ahmad Abdallah ibn al-Mustansir bi'llah, better known by his regnal title Al-Mustaʿṣim bi-llāh, was the 37th and last caliph from the Abbasid dynasty ruling from Baghdad. He held the title from 1242 until his death in 1258.

20/02/1194

Tancred, King of Sicily (born 1138)

Tancred was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce, an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce. He is often referred to as Tancred of Lecce because by the reign of William II he had become count of Lecce and lord of a wide cluster of dominions in southern Apulia, sometimes also described in the sources as the "principality of Taranto". Recent scholarship has stressed that, long before he seized the throne, Tancred was already one of the most prominent nobles in southern Apulia, closely tied to the royal court and active in the government of the mainland provinces. Due to his short stature and unhandsome visage, he was mocked by his critics as "The Monkey King".

20/02/1171

Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (born 1138)

Conan IV, called the Young, was the Duke of Brittany from 1156 to 1166. He was the son of Bertha, Duchess of Brittany, and her first husband, Alan, Earl of Richmond. Conan IV was his father's heir as Earl of Richmond and his mother's heir as Duke of Brittany. Conan and his daughter Constance would be the only representatives of the House of Penthièvre to rule Brittany.

20/02/1154

Saint Wulfric of Haselbury (born c. 1080)

Wulfric of Haselbury was an anchorite and miracle worker in Wiltshire and Somerset, England, frequently visited by King Stephen. His feast day is 20 February.

20/02/1054

Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kyiv (born 978)

Yaroslav I Vladimirovich, better known as Yaroslav the Wise, was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 until his death in 1054. He was also earlier Prince of Novgorod from 1010 to 1034 and Prince of Rostov from 987 to 1010, uniting the principalities for a time. Yaroslav's baptismal name was George after Saint George.

20/02/0922

Theodora, Byzantine empress

Theodora was a humble Greek woman who became Byzantine empress consort by marriage to Romanos I Lekapenos.

20/02/0789

Leo of Catania, saint and bishop of Catania (born 709)

Saint Leo of Catania, also known as the Thaumaturgus, or St Leo the Wonderworker in Sicily, was the fifteenth bishop of Catania, famed also for his love and care toward the poor. His feast day occurs on 20 February, the day of his death, when he is venerated as a saint by both Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Church. He lived in the hiatus between the reigns of the Emperors Justinian II and Constantine VI.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 19th February

Christian feast day: Eleutherius of Tournai

Saint Eleutherius of Tournai is venerated as a saint and considered the first bishop of Tournai. The Catholic Encyclopedia writes that "historically there is very little known about St. Eleutherius, but he was without doubt the first Bishop of Tournai."

Christian feast day: Eucherius of Orléans

Saint Eucherius of Orléans, nephew of Suavaric, bishop of Auxerre, was Bishop of Orléans.

Christian feast day: Julia Rodzińska

Maria Julia Rodzińska, OP was a Polish Dominican Sister and is venerated as a Blessed in the Roman Catholic Church.

Christian feast day: Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto

Francisco de Jesus Marto and Jacinta de Jesus Marto were siblings from Aljustrel, a small hamlet near Fátima, Portugal, who, with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos (1907–2005), reportedly witnessed three apparitions of the Angel of Peace in 1916, and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Cova da Iria in 1917. The title Our Lady of Fátima was given to the Virgin Mary as a result, and the Sanctuary of Fátima became a major centre of global Catholic pilgrimage.

Christian feast day: Frederick Douglass (Episcopal Church (USA))

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.

Christian feast day: Wulfric of Haselbury

Wulfric of Haselbury was an anchorite and miracle worker in Wiltshire and Somerset, England, frequently visited by King Stephen. His feast day is 20 February.

Christian feast day: February 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

February 19 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - February 21

Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine)

In Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, which was the culmination of the Euromaidan protest movement, 108 civilian protesters and 13 police officers were killed. The deaths occurred in January and February 2014; most of them on 20 February, when police snipers fired on anti-government activists in Kyiv. The slain activists are known in Ukraine as the Heavenly Hundred or Heavenly Company. By June 2016, 55 people had been charged in relation to the deaths of protesters, including 29 former members of the Berkut special police force, ten titushky or loyalists of the former government, and ten former government officials.

World Day of Social Justice

World Day of Social Justice is an international day recognizing the need to promote social justice, which includes efforts to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion, gender inequality, unemployment, human rights, and social protections.

What Happened on 19th February?

54 significant events took place on Saturday, 19th February — stretching from 1339 to 2016. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

20/02/2016

Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

On the night of February 20, 2016, a spree shooting took place at an apartment complex, a Kia car dealership, and outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Six people were killed, and two others were injured.

20/02/2015

Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services.

The Rafz train crash occurred at approximately 6.43 am on 20 February 2015. An S-Bahn and an Interregio express train collided at Rafz railway station in Rafz, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland.

20/02/2014

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

Euromaidan, or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved of finalising the Agreement with the EU, but Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov government. Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations, and the influence of oligarchs. Transparency International named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger. Euromaidan was the largest democratic mass movement in Europe since 1989 and led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

20/02/2010

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.

Madeira, officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira, is an autonomous region of Portugal, in the Atlantic Ocean about 805 km southwest of mainland Portugal. Together with the Azores, it is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal and a special territory of the European Union. It is the southernmost point and region of Portugal.

20/02/2009

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.

On February 20, 2009, the air wing of the Tamil Tigers separatist militia launched a suicide attack against military locations in and around Colombo, Sri Lanka, using two weaponized light aircraft. It is speculated that the raids were intended to mimic the September 11 attacks, where aircraft were used as flying bombs and crashed directly into their targets. The attackers failed to reach their presumed targets and crashed to the ground after being shot down by the Sri Lanka Air Force, although one of the aircraft struck a government building in Colombo, killing two people, and over 50 people in total were injured in both crashes.

20/02/2005

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.

A referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was held in Spain on Sunday, 20 February 2005. The question asked was "Do you approve of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?". The consultative referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution for the European Union was approved by 81.8% of valid votes, although turnout was just 41.8%, the lowest since the end of the Franco era.

20/02/2003

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.

Great White is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The band is named after both the shark with the same name, and guitarist Mark Kendall's former stage nickname. In August 2008, the band estimated they had sold around eight million records worldwide.

20/02/2002

A cooking gas cylinder explodes on board an Egyptian National Railways train in El Ayyat, causing a fire and killing over 370 people.

The El Ayyat train disaster occurred at 2 a.m. on 20 February 2002 in an eleven-carriage passenger train traveling from Cairo to Luxor. A cooking gas cylinder exploded in the fifth carriage, causing a fire which destroyed seven third-class carriages.

20/02/1998

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.

Tara Kristen Lipinski is an American sports commentator and former competitive figure skater. A former competitor in women's singles, she was the 1997 U.S. national champion and world champion, a two-time Champions Series Final champion (1997–1998), and the 1998 Olympic champion. She is the youngest single skater Olympic champion and World champion ever, and until 2019 was the youngest to win the U.S. Nationals. She was the first woman to complete a triple loop–triple loop combination, which became her signature jump element, in competition.

20/02/1991

In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania's long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters.

Tirana is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea in the distance. It is among the wettest and sunniest cities in Europe, with 2,544 hours of sun per year.

20/02/1988

The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its capital was the city of Stepanakert. The majority of the population were ethnic Armenians.

20/02/1986

The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian SFSR. In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.

20/02/1979

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.

An earthquake, also called a quake, tremor, or temblor, is the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they cannot be felt, to those violent enough to propel objects and people into the air, damage critical infrastructure, and wreak destruction across entire cities. The seismic activity of an area is the frequency, type, and size of earthquakes experienced over a particular time. The seismicity at a particular location in the Earth is the average rate of seismic energy released per unit volume.

20/02/1971

The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.

The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It was the most commonly used, along with the Emergency Override system. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system and was used from 1963 to 1997, at which point it was replaced by the Emergency Alert System.

20/02/1968

The China Academy of Space Technology, China's main arm for the research, development, and creation of space satellites, is established in Beijing.

The China Academy of Space Technology is a research institute affiliated with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), located in Haidian, Beijing, China. The institute was founded on 20 February 1968, and is a major spacecraft development and production facility in China. On 24 April 1970, CAST successfully launched China's first artificial satellite Dong Fang Hong I.

20/02/1965

Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.

Ranger 8 was a lunar probe in the Ranger program, a robotic spacecraft series launched by NASA in the early-to-mid-1960s to obtain the first close-up images of the Moon's surface. These pictures helped select landing sites for Apollo missions and were used for scientific study. During its 1965 mission, Ranger 8 transmitted 7,137 lunar surface photographs before it crashed into the Moon as planned. This was the second successful mission in the Ranger series, following Ranger 7. Ranger 8's design and purpose were very similar to those of Ranger 7. It had six television vidicon cameras: two full-scan and four partial-scan. Its sole purpose was to document the Moon's surface.

20/02/1962

Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.83 billion. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.

20/02/1959

The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was an interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada. The CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 feet (15,000 m) and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) primary interceptor into the 1960s and beyond.

20/02/1956

The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.

The United States Merchant Marine Academy is a United States service academy in Kings Point, New York. It trains its midshipmen to serve as officers in the United States Merchant Marine, branches of the United States Armed Forces, and the transportation industry. Midshipmen are trained in marine engineering, navigation, ship's administration, maritime law, personnel management, international law, customs, and other subjects important to the task of running a large ship.

20/02/1952

Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.

Emmett Littleton Ashford, nicknamed Ash, was an umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB), working in the American League from 1966 to 1970. He was MLB's first African American umpire.

20/02/1944

World War II: The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.

Operation Argument, after the war dubbed Big Week, was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive against Nazi Germany. The objective of Operation Argument was to destroy aircraft factories in central and southern Germany in order to defeat the Luftwaffe before the Normandy landings during Operation Overlord were to take place later in 1944.

World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Atoll.

Enewetak Atoll is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with its 296 people forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. With a land area total less than 5.85 square kilometers (2.26 sq mi), it is no higher than 5 meters (16.4 ft) and surrounds a deep central lagoon, 80 kilometers (50 mi) in circumference. It is the second-westernmost atoll of the Ralik Chain and is 305 kilometers (190 mi) west from Bikini Atoll.

20/02/1943

World War II: American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.

A film studio is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; however, most firms in the entertainment industry have never had their own studios, but have rented space from other companies instead. Day-to-day filming operations are generally handled by a production company subsidiary.

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.

The Saturday Evening Post is an American magazine published six times a year. It was first published in 1821, and published weekly from 1897 until 1963. It was published every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines among the American middle class, with fiction, nonfiction, cartoons, and features that reached two million homes every week.

20/02/1942

World War II: Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

20/02/1939

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.

On February 20, 1939, a Nazi rally took place at Madison Square Garden, organized by the German American Bund. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker. The Bund billed the event, which took place two days before George Washington's Birthday, as a pro-"Americanism" rally; the stage at the event featured a huge portrait of George Washington with swastikas on each side. Anti-Nazi counter-protesters gathered outside and on three occasions attempted to break through lines of police officers guarding the rally.

20/02/1935

Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.

Caroline Mikkelsen was a Danish-Norwegian explorer who on 20 February 1935 was the first woman to set foot on Antarctica, although whether this was on the mainland or an island is a matter of dispute.

20/02/1933

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.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign.

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations and was central to the perpetration of the genocide of about six million Jews in the Holocaust as well as the murders of millions of other victims.

20/02/1931

The U.S. Congress approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

An anarchist uprising in Encarnación, Paraguay briefly transforms the city into a revolutionary commune.

Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. Anarchism is described as being part of the libertarian wing of the socialist movement.

20/02/1920

An earthquake kills between 114 and 130 in Georgia and heavily damages the town of Gori.

The 1920 Gori earthquake hit the Democratic Republic of Georgia on 20 February at 15:44 local time. The shock had a surface-wave magnitude of 6.2 and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of IX (Violent). Heavy damage affected the town of Gori and its medieval fortress.

20/02/1913

King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.

King O'Malley was an American-born Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917, and served two terms as Minister for Home Affairs. He is remembered for his role in the development of the national capital Canberra as well as his advocacy for the creation of a national bank.

20/02/1909

Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.

The Manifesto of Futurism is a manifesto written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, published in 1909. In it, Marinetti expresses an artistic philosophy called Futurism, which rejected the past and celebrated speed, machinery, violence, youth, and industry. The manifesto also advocated for the modernization and cultural rejuvenation of Italy.

20/02/1905

The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". In 1803, the court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.

20/02/1901

The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.

The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory was admitted to the United States as the 50th US state, the State of Hawaii. The Hawaii Admission Act specified that the State of Hawaii would not include Palmyra Island, the Midway Islands, Kingman Reef, Johnston Atoll and Sand Island.

20/02/1894

20 February bombings by Désiré Pauwels during the Ère des attentats (1892-1894).

The 20 February bombings, also known as the Rue Saint-Jacques and Faubourg Saint-Martin bombings were two bomb attacks carried out in Paris on 20 February 1894 by the anarchist militant Désiré Pauwels against the French police and state. Organized six days after the Café Terminus bombing, these attacks occurred during the latter phase of the Ère des attentats (1892–1894).

20/02/1877

Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, the opera Eugene Onegin, and the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

20/02/1872

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the fourth-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5,727,258 visitors in fiscal year 2025, it was the most-visited museum in the United States and the fifth-most visited art museum in the world.

20/02/1865

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.

The Uruguayan War was fought between Uruguay's governing Blanco Party and an alliance consisting of the Empire of Brazil and the Uruguayan Colorado Party, covertly supported by Argentina. Since its independence, Uruguay had been ravaged by intermittent struggles between the Colorado and Blanco factions, each attempting to seize and maintain power in turn. The Colorado leader Venancio Flores launched the Liberating Crusade in 1863, an insurrection aimed at toppling Bernardo Berro, who presided over a Colorado–Blanco coalition (fusionist) government. Flores was aided by Argentina, whose president Bartolomé Mitre provided him with supplies, Argentine volunteers and river transport for troops.

20/02/1864

American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

20/02/1846

Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.

The Kraków Uprising of 1846 was an attempt, led by Polish insurgents such as Jan Tyssowski and Edward Dembowski, to incite a fight for national independence. The uprising was centered on the city of Kraków, the capital of the small Free City of Cracow. It was directed at the powers that partitioned Poland, especially the nearby Austrian Empire. The uprising lasted about nine days and ended with an Austrian victory.

20/02/1835

The 1835 Concepción earthquake destroys Concepción, Chile.

The 1835 Concepción earthquake was an earthquake that occurred near the neighboring cities of Concepción and Talcahuano in Chile on 20 February at 11:30 local time, and had an estimated magnitude of about 8.5 Mw. The earthquake triggered a tsunami which caused the destruction of Talcahuano. A total of at least 50 people died from the effects of the earthquake and the tsunami. The earthquake caused damage from San Fernando in the north to Osorno in the south. It was felt over a still wider area from Copiapó in the north to the island of Chiloe in the south and as far west as the Juan Fernández Islands.

20/02/1824

William Buckland formally announces the name Megalosaurus, the first scientifically validly named non-avian dinosaur species.

William Buckland DD, FRS was an English theologian, geologist and palaeontologist.

20/02/1816

Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer and conductor of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. While he gained most of his fame for his 39 operas, he also wrote many pieces of chamber music, piano, and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity.

20/02/1813

Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.

Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano, usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and designed what became the flag of Argentina. Argentines regard him as one of the main Founding Fathers of the country. He was also a supporter of free trade.

20/02/1798

Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.

Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Neuchâtel et Valangin, prince de Wagram was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was twice Minister of War of France and was made a Marshal of the Empire in 1804. Berthier served as chief of staff to Napoleon Bonaparte from his first Italian campaign in 1796 until his first abdication in 1814. The operational efficiency of the Grande Armée owed much to his considerable administrative and organizational skills.

20/02/1792

The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.

The Postal Service Act was a piece of United States federal legislation that established the United States Post Office Department. It was signed into law by President George Washington on February 20, 1792.

20/02/1685

René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was a French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane, in honor of Saint Louis and Louis XIV. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent". A later, ill-fated expedition in 1684 to the Gulf coast of Mexico gave the United States a putative claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; La Salle was assassinated during that expedition.

20/02/1553

Yohannan Sulaqa professes his Catholic belief and is ordained as bishop shortly after; this marks the beginning of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa was the first Patriarch of what was to become the Shemʿon line of the Chaldean Catholic Church, from 1553 to 1555, after it absorbed this Church of the East patriarchate into full communion with the Holy See and the Catholic Church.

20/02/1547

Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a regency council because Edward never reached maturity. The council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (1550–1553).

20/02/1521

Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sets out from San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists.

Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first European expeditions to Puerto Rico in 1508 and Florida in 1513. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in 1474. Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age. He first came to the Americas as a "gentleman volunteer" with Christopher Columbus's second expedition in 1493.

20/02/1472

Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.

Orkney, also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name The Orkneys is also sometimes used. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited. The largest island, the Mainland, has an area of 523 square kilometres (202 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest Scottish island and the tenth-largest island in the British Isles. Orkney's largest settlement, and also its administrative centre, is Kirkwall.

20/02/1339

The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.

Milan is the regional capital of Lombardy, in northern Italy, and the seat of the Metropolitan City of Milan. It is the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with a population of 1,362,863 in 2026. The city's wider metropolitan area is the largest in Italy, and the fourth-largest in the European Union, with an estimated population of 6.55 million. Milan is considered Italy's economic capital, and its metropolitan area accounts for about 20% of the country's GDP.

On this day

World Day of Social Justice

World Pangolin Day

20th February in the Stars – Star Sign Pisces

Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 20th February

Famous Birthdays on 19th February

Jared McCain, American basketball player

Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer

Gavin Bazunu, Irish footballer

Josh Sargent, American soccer player

Jarrett Culver, American basketball player

Emam Ashour, Egyptian footballer

Clarke Schmidt, American baseball player

Elle Purrier St. Pierre, American track and field athlete

Kateryna Baindl, Ukrainian tennis player

Luis Severino, Dominican baseball player

Jurickson Profar, Curaçaoan baseball player

Hidilyn Diaz, Filipino weightlifter

Angelique van der Meet, Dutch tennis player

Sally Rooney, Irish novelist

Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer

Ki Bo-bae, South Korean archer

Luke Burgess, English rugby league player

Martin Hanzal, Czech ice hockey player

James Johnson, American basketball player

Julio Borbón, American baseball player

Killian Dain, Northern Irish wrestler

Ryan Sweeney, American baseball player

Julia Volkova, Russian singer and actress

Brian McCann, American baseball player

Jose Morales, Puerto Rican baseball player

Justin Verlander, American baseball player

Tony Hibbert, English footballer

Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player

Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer

Artur Boruc, Polish footballer

Gail Kim, Canadian wrestler

Stephon Marbury, American basketball player

Liván Hernández, Cuban-American baseball player

Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor

Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer and manager

Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer

Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (died 2017)

Kjell Ove Hauge, Norwegian school principal and track and field athlete

Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian footballer and manager (died 2022)

Danis Tanović, Bosnian director and screenwriter

Paul Accola, Swiss alpine skier

Kurt Cobain, American musician (died 1994)

David Herman, American comedian and actor

Willie Garson, American actor and director (died 2021)

Tom Harris, Scottish journalist and politician

Jeff Maggert, American golfer

Joakim Nystrom, Swedish tennis player

Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Health

Cui Yongyuan, Chinese former anchor

Dwayne McDuffie, American author, screenwriter, and producer, co-founded Milestone Media (died 2011)

Steve Lundquist, American swimmer

Cándido Muatetema Rivas, Equatoguinean politician and diplomat, Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea (died 2014)

Scott Brayton, American race car driver (died 1996)

David Corn, American journalist and author

Bill Gullickson, American baseball player

Glen Hanlon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Jon Brant, American bass player

Poison Ivy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Edward Albert, American actor (died 2006)

Gordon Brown, Scottish politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1997)

Phil Neal, English footballer and manager

Walter Becker, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2017)

Peter Marinello, Scottish footballer

Tony Wilson, English journalist and businessman (died 2007)

Eddie Hemmings, English cricketer

Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model (died 2022)

Pierre Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster

Peter Osgood, English footballer (died 2006)

J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2017)

Alan Hull, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1995)

George Smoot, American astrophysicist and cosmologist, shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2025)

Robert de Cotret, Canadian economist and politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (died 1999)