On this day: February 20

Events on February 20

• 1521 Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sets out from San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists. Wikipedia
• 1547 Edward VI is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. Wikipedia
• 1685 The French colonization of Texas began with the landing of colonists led by Robert de La Salle near Matagorda Bay. Wikipedia
• 1798 Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power. Wikipedia
• 1816 The Barber of Seville, an opera buffa composed by Gioachino Rossini, premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome to jeers from the audience. Wikipedia
• 1835 An earthquake registering approximately 8.5 Mw devastated Concepción, Chile, and triggered a tsunami that destroyed neighbouring Talcahuano. Wikipedia
• 1846 Polish insurgents in the Free City of Kraków led an uprising attempting to incite a fight for national independence that was put down by the Austrian Empire nine days later. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: The Union Army suffered a one-in-three casualty rate at the Battle of Olustee near Lake City, Florida. Wikipedia
• 1872 The Metropolitan Museum of Art , today the largest art museum in the United States with a collection of more than two million works, opened in New York. Wikipedia
• 1877 Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Wikipedia
• 1909 Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro. Wikipedia
• 1931 Paraguayan anarchists briefly seized the city of Encarnación as part of a larger plan to initiate a social revolution in the country. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1943 A fissure opened in a cornfield in the Mexican state of Michoacán and continued to erupt for nine years, forming the cinder cone Parícutin . Wikipedia
• 1943 The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms, among the most widely distributed paintings ever produced, in support of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms. Wikipedia
• 1959 Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro CF-105 Arrow interceptor-aircraft program amid much political debate. Wikipedia
• 1962 The Project Mercury stamp, designed by Charles R. Chickering, was released to commemorate the successful space flight of Colonel John Glenn. Wikipedia
• 1965 The NASA spacecraft Ranger 8 spacecraft transmitted 7,137 photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing as planned into Mare Tranquillitatis. Wikipedia
• 1970 Wat Phra Dhammakaya, one of the largest Buddhist temples in Thailand, was founded in Pathum Thani. Wikipedia
• 1986 The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years. Wikipedia
• 1988 The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast voted to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1992 Appearing on the talk show Larry King Live, U.S. industrialist Ross Perot announced that he would begin a presidential campaign if "ordinary people" wanted him to run for office. Wikipedia
• 1998 At the age of 15, American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the then-youngest winner of an Olympic gold medal in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. Wikipedia
• 2009 The Tamil Tigers attempted to crash two aircraft laden with C-4 in suicide attacks on Colombo, Sri Lanka, but the planes were shot down before they reached their targets. Wikipedia
• 2010 Severe flooding and mudslides on the island of Madeira, Portugal, killed 51 people. Wikipedia

Born on February 20

• 1753 Louis-Alexandre Berthier, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (died 1815) Wikipedia
• 1844 Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher (died 1906) Wikipedia
• 1888 Georges Bernanos, French soldier and author (died 1948) Wikipedia
• 1901 Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian general and politician, 1st President of Egypt (died 1984) Wikipedia
• 1912 Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1925 Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1926 Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1927 Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, director, and diplomat (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1937 Robert Huber, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1945 George Smoot, American astrophysicist and cosmologist, shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2025) Wikipedia
• 1949 Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1951 Gordon Brown, Scottish politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Wikipedia
• 1967 Kurt Cobain, American musician (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1967 David Herman, American comedian and actor Wikipedia
• 1969 Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian footballer and manager (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1971 Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer Wikipedia
• 1980 Artur Boruc, Polish footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Miles Teller, American actor Wikipedia
• 1988 Rihanna, Barbadian singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and actress Wikipedia
• 1990 Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1991 Sally Rooney, Irish novelist Wikipedia
• 2003 Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer Wikipedia

Died on February 20

• 1054 Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kyiv (born 978) Wikipedia
• 1431 Pope Martin V (born 1368) Wikipedia
• 1778 Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar (born 1711) Wikipedia
• 1790 Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1741) Wikipedia
• 1895 Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (born c. 1818) Wikipedia
• 1907 Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852) Wikipedia
• 1916 Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1920 Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (born 1856) Wikipedia
• 1966 Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (born 1885) Wikipedia
• 1972 Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1976 René Cassin, French lawyer and judge, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1993 Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, founded Lamborghini (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2005 Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (born 1937) Wikipedia
• 2024 Andreas Brehme, German footballer (born 1960) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Eleutherius of Tournai Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eucherius of Orléans Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Julia Rodzińska Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Frederick Douglass (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Wulfric of Haselbury Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: February 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine) Wikipedia
• World Day of Social Justice Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “February 20” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/February 20” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 20” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for February 20 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.