Today In History [20th February, 2016]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

February 20

1513		Pope Julius II dies. He will lay in rest in a huge tomb sculptured by Michelangelo.
1725		New Hampshire militiamen partake in the first recorded scalping of Indians by whites in North America.
1792		The U.S. Postal Service is created.
1809		The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the power of the federal government is greater than any individual state in the Union.
1831		Polish revolutionaries defeat the Russians in the Battle of Growchow.
1864		Confederate troops defeat a Union army sent to bring Florida into the union at the Battle of Olustee, Fla.
1900		J.F. Pickering patents his airship.
1906		Russian troops seize large portions of Mongolia.
1915		President Woodrow Wilson opens the Panama-Pacific Expo in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal.
1918		The Soviet Red Army seizes Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine.
1938		Hitler demands self-determination for Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia.
1941		The United States sends war planes to the Pacific.
1942		Lt. Edward O’Hare downs five out of nine Japanese bombers that are attacking the carrier Lexington.
1943		German troops of the Afrika Korps break through the Kasserine Pass, defeating U.S. forces.
1954		The Ford Foundation gives a $25 million grant to the Fund for Advancement of Education.
1959		The FCC applies the equal time rule to TV newscasts of political candidates.
1962		Mercury astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.
1963		Moscow offers to allow on-site inspection of nuclear testing.
1965		Ranger 8 hits the moon and sends back 7,000 photos to the United States.
1968		North Vietnamese army chief in Hue orders all looters to be shot on sight.
1971		Young people protest having to cut their long hair in Athens, Greece.
1982		Carnegie Hall in New York begins $20 million in renovations.
Born on February 20
1726		William Prescott, U.S. Revolutionary War hero at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
1808		Honore Daumier, French caricaturist.
1838		Ludwig Boltzmann, atomic physics engineer
1888		Marie Rambert, ballet dancer and director.
1894		Curt Richter, biologist.
1898		Jimmy Yancey, American blues pianist.
1901		Rene Dubos, microbiologist, developed the first commercial antibiotic.
1901		Louis I. Kahn, architect.
1902		Ansel Adams, American landscape photographer, especially of western wilderness and mountain panoramas.
1904		Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (1964-1980).
1924		Gloria Vanderbilt, fashion designer
1925		Robert Altman, film director (Nashville, The Player).
1927		Sidney Poitier, American actor, first African American male to win an Oscar (Lillies of the Field).