February 20

What happened that day?

• 2016: Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
• 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.
• 2014: Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters died in Ukraine's capital Kiev, many reportedly killed by snipers.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1998: American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
• 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.
• 1988: The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
• 1986: The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
• 1979: Earthquake cracks Sinila volcanic crater in Dieng Plateau, releases poisonous H2S gas and kills 149 villagers in Indonesian province of Central Java.
• 1971: The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
• 1965: Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
• 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.
• 1959: The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
• 1956: The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.
• 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.
• 1944: World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
• 1944: World War II: The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
• 1943: 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.
• 1943: American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
• 1942: Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
• 1935: Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
• 1933: Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign.
• 1933: The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.
• 1931: The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
• 1913: King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
• 1909: Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
• 1901: The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
• 1877: Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
• 1872: The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
• 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.
• 1864: American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
• 1846: Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
• 1835: The 1835 Concepción earthquake destroys Concepción, Chile.
• 1816: Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
• 1813: Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
• 1810: Andreas Hofer, Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, is executed.
• 1798: Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
• 1792: The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
• 1685: René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
• 1547: Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
• 1472: Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
• 1339: The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clashed in the Battle of Parabiago.