2015-02-20

1525  Swiss & German mercenaries desert François I’s army

1547  King Edward VI of England was enthroned following death of Henry VIII

1613  Gerard Reynst appointed Dutch Governor-General of East-Indies

1653  Defeat of Dutch fleet under Admiral Van Tromp by Admiral Blake off Portsmouth

1673  1st recorded wine auction held (London)

1710  Johan Willem Friso becomes viceroy of Groningen Netherlands

1725  10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100/scalp bounty

1732  Estates of Holland ratifies Treaty of Vienna

1737  French minister of Finance, Chauvelin, resigns

1745  Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops occupy Fort August, Scotland

1746  Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Castle of Inverness

1768  1st American chartered fire insurance company receives charter (Pennsylvania)

1792  US postal service created; postage 6¢-12½¢, depending on distance

1809  Supreme Court rules federal government power greater than any state

1811  Austria declares bankruptcy

1816  Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville” premieres in Rome

1823  English Captain James Weddell reaches 74º 15’ S, 1520 km from South Pole

1831  Polish revolutionaries defeat Russians in battle of Growchow

1832  Charles Darwin visits Fernando Noronha in Atlantic Ocean

1835  Concepción, Chile destroyed by earthquake

1839  Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia

1846  British occupy Sikh citadel of Lahore

1856  John Rutledge, Liverpool-New York 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 establishes 1st US collegiate architectural school

1869  Tennessee Governor 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

1872  Metropolitan Museum of Art opens (New York NY)

1872  Silas Noble & JP Cooley patents toothpick manufacturing machine

1873  University of California gets its 1st Medical School (University of California/San Francisco)

1877  1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg KY

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 CO

1899  Illinois 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, San Francisco

1903  Nick Young remains as NL president as AG Spalding ends challenge

1912  Argentina beat the MCC in their inaugural cricket 1st-class fixture

1915  Panamá-Pacific International Exposition opens in San Francisco

1917  Ammunitions ship explodes in Archangelsk harbor, about 1,500 die

1917  Kern, Bolton & Wodehouse’s musical “Oh, Boy!” premieres in New York NY

1919  French premier Clemenceau injured during assassination attempt

1921  Riza Khan Pahlevi seizes control of Iran

1922  WOR-AM in New York City NY begins radio transmissions

1922  Marc Connelly & George Kaufman’s “To the Ladies” premieres in New York NY

1922  Vilnius, Lithuania, agrees to separate from Poland

1923  Christy Mathewson becomes president of Boston Braves

1927  Golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath

1929  American Samoa organized as a 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  House of Representatives completes congressional action to repeal Prohibition

1933  Curom, Curaçaose Broadcast System starts Princess Juliana’s speech

1933  Sidney Howard’s “Alien Corn” premieres in New York NY

1934  Virgil Thomson’s opera “4 Saints in 3 Acts” opens in New York NY

1935  Karoline Mikkelson is 1st woman on Antarctica

1937  1st automobile/airplane combination tested, Santa Monica CA

1938  UK Foreign Secretary Eden resigns, says PM Chamberlain appeased Germany

1940  Larry Clinton & his Orchestra record “Limehouse Blues”

1941  Nazis order Polish Jews barred from using public transportation

1941  1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk Poland

1941  Romania breaks relations with Netherlands

1942  Lieutenant E H O’Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers

1943  New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer’s corn patch (México)

1943  Allied troops occupy Kasserine pass in Tunisia

1943  Phil Wrigley & B Rickey charter All-American Girls Softball League

1944  Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers

1944  US takes Eniwetok Island

1947  Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in Los Angeles CA

1947  Lord Mountbatten appointed as last viceroy of India

1948  Czechoslovakia’s non-communist minister resigns

1949  1st International Pancake Race held (Liberal KS)

1950  Dylan Thomas arrives in New York NY for his 1st US poetry reading tour

1950  WOL-AM in Washington DC swaps calls with WWDC

1952  1st black umpire in organized baseball certified (Emmett Ashford)

1952  “African Queen” opens at Capitol Theater in New York NY

1953  August A Busch buys the Cardinals 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 vs England, 13 wickets for match

1958  Jockey Eddie Arcaro rides his 4,000th winner

1958  Los Angeles Coliseum Committee approves 2-year pact allows Dodgers to use facility

1962  John Glenn is 1st American to orbit Earth (Friendship 7)

1963  Willie Mays (San Francisco Giants) signs a record $100,000 per year contract

1963  End of the Test Cricket careers of Neil Harvey & Alan Davidson

1965  Beatles record “That Means a Lot”

1965  Ranger 8 makes hard landing on the Moon, returns photos, other data

1965  Turkish government of Uergüplü forms

1966  Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR

1968  State troopers used tear gas to stop demonstration at Alcorn A & M

1968  John Cleese (Monty Python) marries Connie Booth

1971  National Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio & TV stations to go off the air; The mistake wasn’t resolved for 30 minutes

1971  Bruin Phil Esposito is NHL’s quickest to score 50 goals in a season

1971  Major General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself President of Uganda

1972  1st time Cleveland Cavaliers beat New York Knicks (111-109)

1972  Ard Schenk becomes world champion skater

1972  Sicco Mansholt becomes chairman of European Committee

1973  10th time Islanders shut-out-4-0 vs Penguins

1974  Gordie Howe comes out of retirement for $1 million from Houston Aeros, WHA

1974  Cher files for separation from husband Sonny Bono

1975  Leonard Baichan scores 105 on Test Cricket debut, vs Pakistan Lahore

1975  Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British Conservative Party

1975  USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

1976  Muhammad Ali KOs Jan Pierre Coopman in 5 for heavyweight boxing title

1977  “My Fair Lady” closes at St James Theater NYC after 384 performances

1977  Judy Rankin wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic

1978  Egypt announces it is pulling its diplomats out of Cyprus

1978  4th People’s Choice Awards Star Wars, Carol Burnett & Bob Hope

1978  Bob Backland beats Billy Graham in New York, to become WWF wrestling champion

1978  Jane Blalock wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic

1979  “Comin’ Uptown” opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 45 performances

1980  Actress Susan Dey of “LA Law” weds producer Bernard Sofronski

1981  Flight readiness firing of Columbia’s main engines; 20 seconds

1981  James Sanford equals 50 meter indoor world record (5.61 seconds)

1982  New York Islanders win record 15th straight NHL game

1983  Japan launches Tenma satellite to study x-rays (450/570 km)

1983  Roland Liboton becomes world champion cross-country cycling

1985  After defending his WBC flyweight championship, Sot Chitalada’s check for $104,000 is stolen by a ringside pickpocket

1986  Mike Tyson sexually harasses a woman in Albany NY

1986  Los Angeles Dodger Orel Hershiser is 1st to win a $1 million salary by arbitration

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  Brian Boitano wins Olympics gold medal in figure skating

1988  Kelly Hrudy’s 5th Islander shut-out win-Hartford 3-0

1988  Peter Kalikow purchases New York Post from Rupert Murdoch for $37.6 million

1988  André Hoffmann skates world record 1500 meter (1:52.06)

1988  Cornelia Oschkenat hurdles indoor world record 50 meter (6.58 seconds)

1988  Rob Druppers runs world record indoor 1000 meter (2:16.2)

1988  Stefka Kostadinova high jumps indoor world record (2.06 meters)

1989  Members of 1949 Oklahoma football team cancelled an April reunion because of the deplorable conduct of Oklahoma players

1989  Total eclipse of the Moon

1991  “Taking Steps” opens at Circle in Square Theater NYC for 78 performances

1991  33rd Grammy Awards Another Day in Paradise, Mariah Carey

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  New York 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 Square Theater NYC

1997  San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds signs record $22.9 million 2 year contract

1998  Tara Lipinski wins Olympics figure skating gold medal

1998  UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lands in Baghdad, for peace negotiations

1998  US movie box office hits quickest $1 billion for year (51 days)

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