http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Feb 20, 1986: Chunnel plans announced
Attempts to dig a channel tunnel between Britain and France date back to 1883, and Napoleon drew blueprints for a tunnel in 1802. Yet not until February 20, 1986, were France and Britain able to announce that a tunnel would soon become a reality. Trains, cars and buses would be able to speed through the tunnel in less than half an hour. Construction began in December 1987 and the "chunnel" was finally completed in 1994.
Feb 20, 1985: Ireland allows sale of contraceptives
In a highly controversial vote on February 20, 1985, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives.
Up until 1979, Irish law prohibited the importation and sale of contraceptives. In a 1973 case, McGee v. The Attorney General, the Irish Supreme Court found that a constitutional right to marital privacy covered the use of contraceptives. Pressured by strong conservative forces in Irish society, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, the government was slow to change the law to reflect the court's decision, and a number of proposed bills failed before reaching the books.
In 1979, the Irish health minister, Charles Haughey, introduced a bill limiting the legal provision of contraceptives to "bona fide family planning purposes." Signed into law in November 1980, the Health (Family Planning) Act ensured that contraceptives could be sold by a registered pharmacist to customers with a valid medical prescription. Still, many people saw the law as too strict. Over the next several years, a movement began to make contraceptives more easily available, causing bitter divisions inside and outside of the Dail, Ireland's main house of Parliament.
As the government debated the changes, Catholic Church leaders railed against them, warning that increased access to contraceptives would encourage the moral decay of Ireland, leading to more illegitimate children and increased rates of abortion and venereal disease. On the eve of the vote in early 1985, the Dublin archbishop claimed the legislation would send Ireland down a "slippery slope of moral degradation." Some politicians were even threatened with violence if they voted for the legislation.
On February 20, 1985, a coalition of the Fine Gael and Labour parties led by Dr. Garret FitzGerald defeated the opposition of the conservative Fianna Fail party by an 83-80 vote. The new legislation made non-medical contraceptives (condoms and spermicides) available without prescriptions to people over 18 at pharmacies; it also allowed for the distribution of these contraceptives at doctors' offices, hospitals and family planning clinics. Though it was still illegal to advertise contraceptives and use of the birth control pill remained restricted, the vote marked a major turning point in Irish history--the first-ever defeat of the Catholic Church in a head-to-head battle with the government on social legislation.
Feb 20, 1792: Postal Service Act regulates United States Post Office Department
On this day in 1792, President George Washington signs legislation renewing the United States Post Office as a cabinet department led by the postmaster general, guaranteeing inexpensive delivery of all newspapers, stipulating the right to privacy and granting Congress the ability to expand postal service to new areas of the nation.
William Goddard, a Patriot printer frustrated that the royal postal service was unable to reliably deliver his Pennsylvania Chronicle to its readers or deliver critical news for the paper to Goddard, laid out a plan for the Constitutional Post before the Continental Congress on October 5, 1774. Congress waited to act on the plan until after the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Benjamin Franklin promoted Goddard's plan and served as the first postmaster general under the Continental Congress beginning on July 26, 1775, nearly one year before the Congress declared independence from the British Crown. Franklin's son-in-law, Richard Bache, took over the position on November 7, 1776, when Franklin became an American emissary to France.
Franklin had already made a significant contribution to the postal service in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia from 1737 and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774, when he was fired for opening and publishing Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson's correspondence. While postmaster, Franklin streamlined postal delivery with properly surveyed and marked routes from Maine to Florida (the origins of Route 1), instituted overnight postal travel between the critical cities of New York and Philadelphia and created a standardized rate chart based upon weight and distance.
Samuel Osgood held the postmaster general's position in New York City from 1789, when the U.S. Constitution came into effect, until the government moved to Philadelphia in 1791. Timothy Pickering took over and, about a year later, the Postal Service Act gave his post greater legislative legitimacy and more effective organization. Pickering continued in the position until 1795, when he briefly served as secretary of war, before becoming the third U.S. secretary of state. The postmaster general's position was considered a plum patronage post for political allies of the president until the Postal Service was transformed into a corporation run by a board of governors in 1971.
Feb 20, 2003: Fire engulfs nightclub during Great White show
The most famous contract rider in rock-and-roll history may be the one Van Halen used that stipulated that "There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation." The most tragic contract rider in history, on the other hand, was the one sent ahead to the small bars and nightclubs on the 2003 tour of "Jack Russell's Great White," the touring remnant of the group behind late-80s hits like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy." That rider led, in a very direct way, to the deaths of 100 concert-goers in The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, on this day in 2003.
Even in its heyday, Great White was no Van Halen. Yet one can be sure that the contract rider enumerating their onstage and backstage needs circa 1988 must have looked rather different from the one they were using 15 years later. The latter document was a model of restraint. Beverages? Bottled water, orange juice, coffee, tea and a few Red Bulls. Lunch? Something from the venue kitchen, or sandwiches from Subway. The rider specified gel colors for the lights and dimensions for the merchandise table, but in the detailed stage diagram it made no mention of three pyrotechnic devices—spark fountains called "gerbs"—that the band's tour manager liked to set off just as Jack Russell's Great White tore into their opening number. Those devices would start the fourth deadliest fire in American history, killing 100 patrons of The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, on the night of February 20, 2003.
It was an awful combination of bad decisions by multiple parties that led to the disastrous loss of life at The Station, from the local fire authorities' decision not to require sprinklers at the club, to the club owners' dangerous and illegal decision to use cheap, flammable packing foam around the stage area rather than fire-retardant soundproofing. Nevertheless, if there had been no sparks from the unplanned-for pyrotechnic devices, there would have been no fire in the first place. This highlights the importance of strict adherence to contract riders by performers and concert venues—the very point Van Halen was making with their famous M&M provision. As David Lee Roth explained in his autobiography, "When I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl...we'd line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you're going to arrive at a technical error. They didn't read the contract. Guaranteed you'd run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening."
Feb 20, 1962: An American orbits earth
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Hershel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.
Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America's first astronauts. A decorated pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.
Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov. In April 1961, Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft Vostok 1 made a full orbit before returning to Earth. Less than one month later, Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight. In July, Grissom made another brief suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7. In August, with the Americans still having failed to make an orbital flight, the Russians sprinted further ahead in the space race when Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits. As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.
It was with this responsibility in mind that John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television. After separating from its launching rocket, the bell-shaped Friendship 7 capsule entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Smoothing into orbit, Glenn radioed back, "Capsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous."
During Friendship 7's first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule's tiny window. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by the capsule's air-conditioning system. Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7's automatic control system began to malfunction, sending the capsule into erratic movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control and regained command of the craft. Toward the end of Glenn's third and last orbit, mission control received a mechanical signal from the spacecraft indicating that the heat shield on the base of the capsule was possibly loose. Traveling at its immense speed, the capsule would be incinerated if the shield failed to absorb and dissipate the extremely high reentry temperatures. It was decided that the craft's retrorockets, usually jettisoned before reentry, would be left on in order to better secure the heat shield. Less than a minute later, Friendship 7 slammed into Earth's atmosphere.
During Glenn's fiery descent back to Earth, the straps holding the retrorockets gave way and flapped violently by his window as a shroud of ions caused by excessive friction enveloped the spacecraft, causing Glenn to lose radio contact with mission control. As mission control anxiously waited for the resumption of radio transmissions that would indicate Glenn's survival, he watched flaming chunks of retrorocket fly by his window. After four minutes of radio silence, Glenn's voice crackled through loudspeakers at mission control, and Friendship 7 splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. He was picked up by the USS destroyer Noa, and his first words upon stepping out of the capsule and onto the deck of the Noa were, "It was hot in there." He had spent nearly five hours in space. Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. He later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the "Clean Marine" in the years after his historic flight. Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall. In 1970, following a stint as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again but lost the Democratic nomination to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.
In early 1998, NASA announced it had approved Glenn to serve as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Discovery. On October 29, 1998, nearly four decades after his famous orbital flight, the 77-year-old Glenn became the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging. In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1472 - Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland,
due to a dowry payment.
1525 - Swiss & German mercenaries desert Francois I's
army
1547 - King Edward VI of England was enthroned following
death of Henry VIII
1613 - Gerard Reynst appointed Dutch gov-gen of East-Indies
1653 - Defeat of Dutch fleet under Adm Van Tromp by Adm
Blake off Portsmouth
1673 - 1st recorded wine auction held (London)
1710 - Johan Willem Friso becomes viceroy of Groningen Neth
1724 - George F Handel's opera "Giulio
Cesare in Egitto," premieres in London
1725 - 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in NH for £100
a scalp bounty
1732 - Estates of Holland ratifies Treaty of Vienna
1737 - French minister of Finance, Chauvelin, resigns
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies troops occupy Fort Augustus,
Scotland
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Castle of Inverness
1768 - 1st American chartered fire insurance company opens
(Penn)
1792 - US postal service created, postage 6 cents - 12 cents
depending on distance
1798 - Louis Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from
power.
1809 - Supreme Court rules federal government power greater
than any state
1810 - Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean patriot and leader of
rebellion against Napoleon's forces, executed.
1811 - Austria declares bankruptcy
Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich
Handel 1816 - Rossini's opera "Barber of Seville" premieres in Rome
1823 - English Capt James Weddell reaches 74°15' S, 1520 km
from S pole
1831 - Polish revolutionaries defeat Russians in battle of
Growchow
1832 - Charles Darwin visits Fernando Noronha in Atlantic
Ocean
1835 - Concepcion, Chile destroyed by earthquake; 5,000 die
1839 - Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia
1846 - British occupy Sikh citadel of Lahore
1856 - John Rutledge, Liverpool-NY steamer, hits iceberg;
many die
1861 - Dept of Navy of Confederacy forms
1861 - Steeple of Chichester Cathedral blown down during a
storm
1864 - Civil War battle of Olustee, Florida
1865 - M I T forms 1st US collegiate architectural school
1869 - Tenn Gov W C Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux
Klan crisis
1872 - Hydraulic electric elevator patented by Cyrus Baldwin
1872 - Luther Crowell patents a machine that manufactures
paper bags
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1872 -
Metropolitan Museum of Art opens (NYC)
1872 - Silas Noble & JP Cooley patents toothpick
manufacturing machine
1873 - University of California gets its 1st Med School
(UC/SF)
1877 - 1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg,
Kentucky
1877 - International Association (minor baseball league)
organizes
1887 - 1st minor league baseball association organizes
(Pittsburgh)
1887 - Germany, Austria-Hungary & France end Triple
Alliance
1890 - Amsterdam Theater destroyed by fire
1895 - Congress authorizes a US mint at Denver, Colorodo
1899 - Ill Tel & Tel granted franchise for Chicago
freight tunnel system
1901 - 1st territorial legislature of Hawaii convenes
1902 - Heavy surf breaks over Seal Rocks & damages Sutro
Baths, SF
1903 - Nick Young remains as NL president as AG Spalding
ends challenge
1909 - Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French
journal Le Figaro.
1912 - Argentina beat the MCC in their inaugural cricket
1st-class fixture
1913 - King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark
commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
1915 - Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens in SF
1917 - Ammunitions ship explodes in Archangelsk harbor,
about 1,500 die
1917 - Kern, Bolton & Wodehouse's musical "Oh, Boy!,"
premieres in NYC
1919 - French premier Clemenceau injured during
assassination attempt
1921 - Riza Khan Pahlevi seizes control of Iran
1922 - Marc Connelly & George Kaufman's "To the
Ladies," premieres in NYC
1922 - Vilinus, Lithuania, agrees to separate from Poland
1922 - WOR-AM in New York City begins radio transmissions
1923 - Christy Mathewson becomes pres of Boston Braves
1927 - Golfers in SC arrested for violating Sabbath
1929 - American Samoa organizes as territory of US
1929 - Red Sox announce they will play Sunday games at
Braves Field
1930 - Capelle soccer team forms
1931 - Congress allows California to build Oakland-Bay
Bridge
1932 - Japanese troops occupy Tunhua China
1933 - Curom, Curacaose Broadcast System starts: Princess
Juliana's speech
1933 - House of Reps completes congressional action to
repeal Prohibition
1933 - Sidney Howard's "Alien Corn," premieres in
NYC
1934 - Virgil Thomson's opera "4 Saints in 3 Acts"
opens in NYC
1935 - Karoline Mikkelson is 1st woman on Antarctica
1937 - 1st automobile/airplane combination tested, Santa
Monica, Ca
British Prime Minister Neville ChamberlainBritish Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain 1938 - UK Foreign Sec Eden resigns, says PM
Chamberlain appeased Germany
1940 - Larry Clinton & his Orchestra record
"Limehouse Blues"
1941 - 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave
Plotsk Poland
1941 - Nazis order Polish Jews barred from using public
transportation
1941 - Romania breaks relations with Netherlands
1942 - Lt E H O'Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese
heavy bombers
1942 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first
World War II flying ace.
1943 - Allied troops occupy Kasserine pass in Tunisia
1943 - New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer's corn patch
(Mexico)
1943 - Phil Wrigley & B Rickey charter All-American
Girls Softball League
1943 - American movie studio executives agree to allow the
Office of War Information to censor movies.
1944 - Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in
newspapers
1944 - US takes Eniwetok Island
1944 - World War II: The "Big Week" began with
American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
1947 - Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys
42 blocks in LA
1947 - Lord Mountbatten appointed as last viceroy of India
1947 - State of Prussia ceases to exist.
1948 - Czechoslovakia's non-communist minister resigns
1949 - 1st International Pancake Race held (Liberal Ks)
1950 - Dylan Thomas arrives in NYC for his 1st US poetry
reading tour
1950 - WOL-AM in Washington DC swaps calls with WWDC
1952 - "African Queen" opens at Capitol Theater in
NYC
1952 - 1st black umpire in organized baseball certified
(Emmett Ashford)
1953 - August A Busch buys the Cards for $3.75 million
1953 - US Court of Appeals rules that Organized Baseball is
a sport & not a business, affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling
1954 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Serbin Golf Open
1954 - General Zahedi wins election in Persia
1955 - Fay Crocker wins LPGA Serbin Golf Open
1956 - WOSU TV channel 34 in Columbus, OH (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1957 - Hughie Tayfield takes 9-113 v England, 13 wkts for
match
1958 - Jockey Eddie Arcaro rides his 4,000th winner
1958 - LA Coliseum Comm approves 2-yr pact allows Dodgers to
use facility
1959 - The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture
supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government
amid much political debate.
Rock Guitarist Jimi HendrixRock Guitarist Jimi Hendrix 1960
- Jimi Hendrix, rock and roll guitarist, plays his first gig.
1962 - John Glenn is 1st American to orbit Earth (Friendship
7)
1963 - End of the Test Cricket careers of Neil Harvey &
Alan Davidson
1963 - Willie Mays (SF Giants) signs a record $100,000 per
year contract
1965 - Beatles record "That Means a Lot"
1965 - Ranger 8 makes hard landing on the Moon, returns
photos, other data
1965 - Turkish government of Uerguplu forms
1966 - Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR
1968 - State troopers used tear gas to stop demonstration at
Alcorn A & M
1971 - Bruin Phil Esposito is NHL's quickest to score 50
goals in a season
1971 - General Idi Amin Dada appointed president of Uganda
1971 - Maj General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself president
of Uganda
1971 - Natl Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio
& TV stations to go off the air. Mistake wasn't resolved for 30 minutes
1972 - 1st time Cleveland Cavaliers beat NY Knicks (111-109)
1972 - Ard Schenk becomes world champ skater
1972 - Sicco Mansholt becomes chairman of European Committee
1973 - 10th time Islanders shut-out-4-0 vs Penguins
1974 - Cher files for separation from husband Sonny Bono
1974 - Gordie Howe comes out of retirement for $1M from
Houston Aeros, WHA
1975 - Leonard Baichan scores 105* on Test Cricket debut, v
Pakistan Lahore
British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherBritish Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher 1975 - Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British
Conservative Party
1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1976 - Muhammad Ali KOs Jan Pierre Coopman in 5 for
heavyweight boxing title
1976 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
1977 - "My Fair Lady" closes at St James Theater
NYC after 384 performances
1977 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic
1978 - 4th People's Choice Awards: Star Wars, Carol Burnett
& Bob Hope win the major awards
1978 - Bob Backland beats Billy Graham in NY, to become WWF
wrestling champ
1978 - Egypt announces it is pulling its diplomats out of
Cyprus
1978 - Jane Blalock wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic
1979 - "Comin' Uptown" opens at Winter Garden
Theater NYC for 45 performances
1981 - Flight readiness firing of Columbia's main engines;
20 seconds
1981 - James Sanford equals 50m indoor world record (5.61
sec)
1982 - NY Islanders wins then NHL record 15th straight game
1983 - Japan launches Tenma satellite to study x-rays
(450/570 km)
Entertainer Bob HopeEntertainer Bob Hope 1983 - Roland
Liboton becomes world champ cross-country cycling
1985 - After defending his WBC flyweight championship, Sot
Chitalada's check for $104,000 is stolen by a ringside pickpocket
1986 - LA Dodger Orel Hershiser is 1st to win a $1M salary
by arbitration
1986 - Mike Tyson sexually harasses a woman in Albany NY
1987 - Bomb blamed on Unabomber explodes by computer store
in Salt Lake City
1987 - David Hartman quits ABC's "Good Morning
America," after 11 years
1988 - 500 die in heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro Brazil
1988 - Andre Hoffmann skates world record 1500m (1:52.06)
1988 - Brian Boitano wins Olympic gold medal in figure
skating
1988 - Cornelia Oschkenat hurdles indoor world record 50m
(6.58 sec)
1988 - Kelly Hrudy's 5th Islander shut-out win-Hartford 3-0
1988 - Peter Kalikow purchases NY Post from Rupert Murdoch
for $37.6 million
1988 - Rob Druppers runs world record indoor 1000m (2:16.2)
1988 - Stefka Kostadinova high jumps indoor world record
(2.06 m)
1989 - Members of 1949 Oklahoma football team cancelled an
April reunion because of deplorable conduct of Oklahoma players
Media Mogul Rupert MurdochMedia Mogul Rupert Murdoch 1989 -
An IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England
1991 - "Taking Steps" opens at Circle in Sq
Theater NYC for 78 performances
1991 - 33rd Grammy Awards: Another Day in Paradise, Mariah
Carey
1991 - A gigantic statue of Albania's long-time dictator,
Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital, Tirana, by mobs of angry
protesters.
1992 - "Private Lives" opens at Broadhurst Theater
NYC for 37 performances
1992 - Orthodox patriarch Shenouda III visits Netherlands
1992 - Ross Perot says he'll run for President on Larry King
Show
1993 - Florida Marlins open their 1st spring training camp
1993 - Lisa Walters wins LPGA Itoki Hawaiian Ladies Golf
Open
1993 - NY Islanders retire Billy Smith's number 31
1994 - 3 Afghans take 70 Pakistani children hostage
1994 - Johann Olav Koss skates world record 10 km (13:30.55)
1994 - Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of
homosexuals
1997 - "Stanley" opens at Circle in Sq Theater NYC
1997 - SF Giants Barry Bonds signs record $22.9M 2 year
contract
264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 1998 - Tara
Lipinski wins Olympic figure skating gold medal
1998 - UN Sec-Gen Kofi Annan lands in Baghdad, for peace
negotiations
1998 - US movie box office hits quickest $1 billion for year
(51 days)
2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures
over 65 and kills at least 370.
2003 - During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode
Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring
over 300 others.
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.
2010 - In Madeira Island, Portugal, heavy rain causes floods
and mudslides, leaving at least 32 deaths in the worst disaster on the history
of the archipelago.
2012 - Scientists successfully regenerate Silene stenophylla
from a 31,800 year old piece of fruit, greatly surpassing the previous record
of 2,000 years
2012 - South Korea angers North Korea as it proceeds with
live fire drills in disputed Korean sea borders
2013 - Estonia becomes the first country to establish a national
system of fast chargers for electric cars
2013 - Kepler-37b, the smallest known exoplanet, is
discovered
1673 - The first recorded wine auction took place in London. 1792 - U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act thereby creating the U.S. Post Office. 1809 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state. 1815 - The USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely on May 15, 1815. The Cyane was purchased and became the USS Cyane. 1839 - The U.S. Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia. 1872 - Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured paper bags. 1872 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City. 1872 - Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing machine. 1873 - The University of California got its first Medical School. 1880 - The American Bell Company was incorporated. 1901 - The first territorial legislature of Hawaii convened. 1921 - The motion picture "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" was released starring Rudolph Valentino. 1931 - The U.S. Congress allowed California to build the Oakland Bay Bridge. 1933 - The U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on the amendment to repeal Prohibition. 1944 - "Big Week" began as U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers during World War II. 1952 - Emmett L. Ashford became the first black umpire in organized baseball. He was authorized to be a substitute in the Southwestern International League. 1952 - "The African Queen" opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City. 1958 - Racing jockey Eddie Arcaro got win number 4,000, as he rode the winner at Santa Anita race track in Southern California. 1962 - John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. 1965 - Ranger 8 crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of its surface. 1987 - After 11 years, David Hartman left ABC’s "Good Morning America." 1987 - A bomb exploded in a computer store in Salt Lake City, UT. The blast was blamed on the Unabomber. 1993 - Two ten-year-old boys were charged by police in Liverpool, England, in the abduction and death of a toddler. The two boys were later convicted. 1998 - American Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan. 2001 - FBI Agent Robert Phillip Hanssen was arrested and charged with spying for the Russians for 15 years. 2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire raced through a train killing at least 370 people and injuring at least 65. 2003 - In West Warwick, RI, 99 people were killed when fire destroyed the nightclub The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, was one of the victims in the fire.
1792 President George Washington signed the Post Office Act, establishing a permanent Post Office Department. 1809 The Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state. 1895 Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, author, and orator, died. 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. 1998 Tara Lipinski won the Olympic figure skating gold medal. 2003 A fire in a nightclub in Warwick, R.I., killed 100 and injured over 150.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/feb20.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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