HISTORY TODAY

1962 Space Friendship 7 20th February, 1962 : The Friendship 7 piloted by Marine Lieutenant John Glenn, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the first complete orbit around the earth made by an American astronaut.

1965 Space Ranger 8 Feb. 20th, 1965 : The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface

1931 U.S.A. San Francisco Bay Bridge Feb. 20th, 1931 : President Hoover signed a bill that authorizes the state of California to build the San Francisco Bay bridge across San Francisco Bay.

1933 U.S.A. Repeal of the 18th Amendment Feb. 20th, 1933: A majority of the house had voted for the repeal of the 18th Amendment, which had prohibited the sale and distribution of all alcohol. This occurred after the entire U.S. nation had been dry since the beginning of the 1920s.
The next step after this was to send this 18th Amendment repeal to each of the states of the U.S. for ratification or rejection of the plan to reverse the original decision made as of the passing of this Amendment.

1937 U.S.A. Feb. 20th, 1937 : As of this day, it was announced that a 14-year-old Farm Boy (Eugene Simpson) was convicted of slaying a motorcycle cop. This incident took place in October of 1935, and the final verdict of this case was reached the evening before this incident was printed in a local newspaper.
This murder had taken place at Northport in Alabama, and was carried out with a single .22 rifle. This boy would have been sentenced to a Boys’ Industrial school (school for juvenile delinquents).
However, the school was very crowded. Therefore, Simpson had stayed living with his dad. He could have been called to the school and be committed there at any time, however.

1938 Great Britain Anthony Eden Resigns Feb. 20th, 1938 : Anthony Eden resigns as British foreign secretary because he did not believe Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain should open negotiations with Italy and he also opposed the Munich Agreement and abstained in the vote on it in the House of Commons.

1942 U.S.A. Lieutenant Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare 20th February, 1942 : Lt. Edward O’Hare downed five Japanese bombers that were attacking the carrier Lexington, in April he was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt. He was shot down and killed on November 26th 1943 while leading the a night time fighter attack on a Japanese aircraft carrier. In 1949 the Chicago, Illinois Orchard Depot Airport was renamed O’Hare International Airport in his honor.

1947 India Lord Louis Mountbatten Feb. 20th, 1947 : Lord Louis Mountbatten is appointed viceroy of India to oversee the granting of independence to the Partitioned India and Pakistan following the Partition and Independence. He then served for 12 months as the first Governor General.

1949 U.S.A. Ricky Nelson Feb. 20th, 1949 : Ricky Nelson joins his parents’ radio show. The show continued to be a success and Ricky Nelson went on to achieve solo success as a teen heartthrob in the 1950s.

1950 U.S.A. Dairy Exhibit Feb. 20th, 1950 : An announcement from a local newspaper on the day before indicated that a dairy exhibit would be displayed today in Ada, Oklahoma. This particular exhibit was sponsored by the Extension Division of the Oklahoma A. and M. College.
The plan was to show phases of dairy production using miniature equipment diagrams and pictures. Charts would also used in this educational exhibit as well.
All of the above-mentioned tools would be used to inform people about profitable dairy methods. Furthermore, each individual watching would learn in detail about each specific phase of dairy production-selection, feeding, breeding, management, housing, health of heard, product testing, and diary marketing.

1951 U.S.A. Mentally Incompetent Feb. 20th, 1951 : Two defense attorneys filed a motion with the U.S. District Court, pleading on behalf of their client William E. Cook, who had slain six people. These attorneys petitioned for his innocence on the account that he was mentally incompetent.
The motion was granted, and Cook was scheduled to be examined by a psychiatrist. The attorneys had adequate proof that Cook was incompetent on the basis that he did not understand the charges against him, even if he had admitted to the action (knew he did it but didn’t understand what he did, was the ruling).

1965 Great Britain Oil and Gas in North Sea 20th February, 1965 : With the ever increasing need for oil and gas around the world and the jump in crude oil prices Britain is prospecting for Oil and Gas in the icy waters of the North Sea off Britain East Coast. The economy unlike any other is beset with problems including the falling value of the pound, the strangle hold Trade Unions have over both business and Government with shorter working weeks combined with higher wages companies in Britain are no longer competitive with the rest of the world . The country still has great engineers as can be seen by the joint British / French project of building the worlds first supersonic passenger plane ( The Concord ), so maybe all that is needed is the boost finding large deposits of oil and natural gas in the north sea to make Britain Great again.

1968 U.S.A. US Policy In Vietnam Feb. 20th, 1968 : Following the Tet Offensive, in which Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops, The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins hearings to investigate American policy in Vietnam.

1985 Ireland Contraception Feb. 20th, 1985 : Ireland a predominantly Catholic country after much debate allows contraceptives to be sold.

1986 Soviet Union Mir Feb. 20th, 1986 : The Soviet Union launches the world’s biggest space station, Mir. It is intended to provide a base for a permanently manned space complex orbiting the Earth.

1986 Britain and France Channel Tunnel Feb. 20th, 1986 : On this day, it was announced that a tunnel channel would be built by France and Britain. This underground travel path was commonly referred to as the “Chunnel” which combines the words tunnel and channel.
This was a project that had originally been planned back in the early 1800s. Napoleon was the ones who had drawn up the original blueprints for this project. Finally, in 1994 this project was complete.
Since 1994, the Channel Tunnel has been used for the passing of trains, cars, and buses, which cross under the English Channel in less than a half hour.

1993 Great Britain James Bulger 20th February, 1993 : Two 10 year old boys have been charged with the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool. The toddler went missing from the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle last Friday and his body was found on a railway embankment on 14 February.

1998 Japan Tara Lipinski Feb. 20th, 1998 : American Tara Lipinski 15 becomes the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history when she won the ladies’ figure skating title at Nagano, Japan

2003 U.S.A. Fire At Nightclub Kills 100 Feb. 20th, 2003 : A fire at a rock concert in a Rhode Island, nightclub kills 100 people and seriously injures almost 200 more . The cause was traced to a pyrotechnics display which which set fire to the soundproofing foam on the ceiling