1472 – Orkney and Shetland were pawned by Norway to Scotland on the 20th February 1472, in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
1547 – Edward VI of England was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on the 20th February 1547.
1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by President George Washington on the 20th February 1792.
1810 – Andreas Hofer, the Tirolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon‘s forces, was executed on the 20th February 1810.
1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on the 20th February 1816.
1835 – Concepción, Chile was destroyed by an earthquake on the 20th February 1835.
1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened on the 20th February 1872.
1877 – Tchaikovsky‘s ballet Swan Lake received its première performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on the 20th February 1877.
1902 – Ansel Adams the American photographer was born on the 20th February 1902 (died 1984).
1913 – King O’Malley drove in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra on the 20th February 1913.
1927 – Sidney Poitier the American actor and director was born on the 20th February 1927.
1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly met with German industrialists on the 20th February 1933, to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party‘s upcoming election campaign.
1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot in Antarctica on the 20th February 1935.
1939 ~ Abraham Quintanilla, Jr. the American singer-songwriter, record producer, and father of singer Selena, was born on the 20th February 1939. Official website: www.Q-Productions.com
1943 – American movie studio executives agreed to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies on the 20th February 1943.
1943 – The Parícutin volcano began to form in Parícutin, Mexico on the 20th February 1943.
1946 – J. Geils the American singer-songwriter and guitarist from The J. Geils Band was born on the 20th February 1946.
1947 – Peter Strauss the American actor and producer was born on the 20th February 1947.
1949 – Ivana Trump the Czech-American skier and model was born on the 20th February 1949.
1950 – Walter Becker the American singer-songwriter an guitarist from Steely Dan was born on the 20th February 1950.
1953 ~ Justine Saunders the Australian actress was born on the 20th February 1953 (died 2007).
1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth on the 20th February 1962, making 3 orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
1965 – Ranger 8 crashed into the moon on the 20th February 1965, after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
1966 – Cindy Crawford the American model and actress was born on the 20th February 1966.
1967 – Kurt Cobain the American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Nirvana was born on the 20th February 1967 (died 1994).
1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System was accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert on the 20th February 1971.
1973 – Kimberley Davies the Australian actress was born on the 20th February 1973.
1988 – Rihanna the Barbadian-American singer-songwriter and actress was born on the 20th February 1988.
1998 – American figure skater Tara Lipinski became the youngest gold-medalist on the 20th February 1998, at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
2013 – The smallest Extrasolar planet, Kepler-37b was discovered on the 20th February 2013.