February 20
Today the U.S. celebrates
Presidents' Day.
The entirety of The Northern Hemisphere unites and comes together today as one people to celebrate
Hoodie Hoo Day. So,
hoodie hoo to you!
Today is also marked as a
World Day of Social Justice. Dear Social Justice Warriors, Instead of celebrating this cause, how about you take the day off, and maybe cut the world just a little fucking slack, mmkay?
Events
1472
Orkney and
Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for
Margaret of Denmark.
1547
Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
1685
Renι-Robert Cavelier establishes
Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
1792 The
Postal Service Act, establishing the
United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
1816
Rossini's opera
The Barber of Seville premieres at the
Teatro Argentina in Rome.
1872 The
Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
1877
Tchaikovsky's ballet
Swan Lake receives its premiere at the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
1913
King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of
Canberra, Australia.
1931 The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the
San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
1935
Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot on Antarctica.
1942 Lieutenant
Edward "Butch" O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
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.
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.
1956 The
United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.
1959 - 16 year old Jimi Hendrix made his stage debut when he played a show at the Temple De Hirsch Sinai synagogue in Seattle.
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.
1965
Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program.
1971 The United States
Emergency Broadcast System is
accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
1979 An earthquake cracks
Sinila volcanic crater in
Dieng Plateau, releases poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas and kills 149 villagers in Indonesian province of Central Java.
1986 The Soviet Union launches its
Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
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.
2016 Six people are killed and two injured in
multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
Births
1902 Ansel Adams; 1906 Gale Gordon (Lucy's boss on
The Lucy Show); 1921 Buddy Rogers; 1924 Gloria Vanderbilt; 1925 Robert Altman; 1927 Roy Cohn; 1927 Sidney Poitier; 1929 Amanda Blake (Long Branch Saloon owner 'Kitty Russell' on
Gunsmoke); 1934 Bobby Unser
; 1937 Roger Penske:drivng:; 1937 Nancy Wilson♪ ♫; 1946 J. Geils; 1942 Mitch McConnell; 1946 Sandy Duncan
; 1946 J. Geils♪ ♫(J. Geils Band); 1947 Peter Strauss; 1949 Ivana Trump; 1950 Walter Becker♪ ♫(Steely Dan); 1951 Edward Albert; 1951 Gordon Brown; 1951 Randy California♪ ♫; 1954 Patty Hearst; 1963 Charles Barkley; 1964 French Stewart ('Harry' on 3rd Rock From The Sun); 1966 Cindy Crawford; 1967 Kurt Cobain
; 1967 Lili Taylor; 1984 Trevor Noah; 1987 Miles Teller (Whiplash); 1988 Rihanna♪ ♫
Deaths
1893 P. G. T. Beauregard; 1900 Washakie; 1920 Robert Peary; 1936 Max Schreck (Nosferatu (1922)); 1966 Chester W. Nimitz (America's last Fleet Admiral, namesake of the Nimitz-class of supercarrier); 1972 Walter Winchell; 1992 Dick York (Bewitched); 1993 Ferruccio Lamborghini (yeah,
that Lamborghini); 1999 Gene Siskel
; 2005 Sandra Dee; 2005 John Raitt♪ ♫(father of Bonnie Raitt); 2005 Hunter S. Thompson
; 2006 Curt Gowdy; 2010 Alexander Haig ("I am in control here.")