What are the important events that happened on February 20? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
February 20: Facts & Myths About This Day
February 20 is the 51st day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 314 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is February 7, 2025 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 483,336 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘pentacontahenagon’ day.
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Pisces is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Amethyst is the modern birthstone for this month. Bloodstone is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 362 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,444 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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February 20 Historical Events
- 1472 –Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
- 1798 –Louis Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
- 1813 –Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
- 1877 –Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake receives its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
- 1931 –The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
- 1935 –Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
- 1962 –Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
- 1985 –New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Wood Ox in Chinese astrology.
- 1988 –The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
- 2003 –During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
Who were born on February 20?
- 1633 –Jan de Baen, Dutch portrait painter (d. 1702)
- 1888 –Georges Bernanos, French writer (d. 1948)
- 1901 –Muhammad Naguib, President of Egypt (d. 1984)
- 1907 –Malcolm Atterbury, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1943 –Mike Leigh, British film director
- 1950 –Walter Becker, American guitarist (Steely Dan)
- 1951 –Randy California, American guitarist (Spirit) (d. 1997)
- 1975 –Liván Hernández, Cuban baseball player
- 1982 –Jason Hirsh, American baseball player
- 1983 –Justin Verlander, American baseball player
Who died on February 20?
- 1408 –Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English statesman (b. 1342)
- 1579 –Nicholas Bacon, English politician (b. 1509)
- 1790 –Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
- 1803 –Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
- 1895 –Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist writer (b. 1818)
- 1941 –Madame Bolduc, Canadian singer and songwriter (b. 1894)
- 1996 –Tōru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (b. 1930)
- 1999 –Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
- 2003 –Harry Jacunski, American football player (b. 1915)
- 2005 –Tom Willmore, English geometer (b. 1919)
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