February 20

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ~ FEBRUARY 20

 

 

 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

 

Convair

 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

 

An early Batman strip

 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 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 Thatcher 1975 - Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British Conserv 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
 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)
 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
 Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson 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