Friday, February 20, 2026 Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Today's Anniversary – Friday, February 20


Click on the name to show author's quotes.

Births

* 1988 Rihanna Young Bajan singer with musical influences from R&B, pop, reggae and dance.
* 1967 Kurt Donald Cobain Lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the American grunge band, Nirvana.
* 1963 Charles Barkley Former American basketball power forward.
* 1963 Ian Brown English musician, best known as the former lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses.
* 1954 Anthony Stewart Head British actor in theatre, television and films but most widely known for his role in the American television drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the role of Frank N Furter in the London revival of The Rocky Horror Show, and a series of coffee commercials in Britain and the US.
* 1951 Gordon Brown British politician who was elected to Parliament in 1983 and who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010.
* 1945 George Smoot American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and $1 million TV quiz show prize winner.
* 1944 James C. Nelson Justice on the Montana Supreme Court.
* 1942 Phil Esposito Retired professional hockey centre who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.
* 1942 Mitch McConnell Republican United States Senator from Kentucky.
* 1927 Sidney Poitier Academy award-winning Bahamian-American actor, director, author and diplomat.
* 1926 Richard Matheson American author and screenwriter, typically of fantasy, horror, or science fiction.
* 1926 Ken Olsen Founder and president of Digital Equipment Corporation.
* 1918 Ben Klassen One-time Florida state legislator and racist polemicist, who published Nature's Eternal Religion in 1973, thus founding the Church of the Creator.
* 1911 Margot Grahame English actress.
* 1902 Ansel Adams American fine art photographer most famous for his wilderness landscapes.
* 1896 Henri de Lubac French Jesuit priest who became a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, and is considered to be one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century.
* 1888 Georges Bernanos French writer.
* 1887 Vincent Massey Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Canadian Confederation.
* 1844 Ludwig Boltzmann Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics.
* 1825 William Allen Butler American lawyer and writer of poetical satires.
* 1820 Gustave Nadaud French songwriter and chansonnier.
* 1726 William Prescott Commander in the American Revolutionary War.

Deaths

† 2010 Alexander Haig General in the United States Army and later the Secretary of State from 1981 to 1982.
† 2005 Hunter S. Thompson American journalist and author famous for his flamboyant writing style, known as Gonzo Journalism, which blurred the distinctions between writer and subject, fiction and non-fiction.
† 2001 Donella Meadows Pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer.
† 1995 Robert Bolt English playwright and screenwriter.
† 1993 Ferruccio Lamborghini Italian industrialist, an important manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the midst of Italy's post-war economic reform, and the founder of Automobili Lamborghini, a maker of high-end sports cars.
† 1982 Derek Jackson Noted spectroscopist.
† 1980 Alice Roosevelt Longworth Only daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee.
† 1972 Walter Winchell American newspaper and radio commentator, invented the gossip column at the New York Evening Graphic.
† 1966 Chester W. Nimitz US Navy officer who was Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces for the United States and Allied forces during World War II.
† 1948 Bertha (a.k.a. Helen Diner) Diener Also known by her American pseudonym Helen Diner, was an Austrian writer, travel journalist, feminist historian, and intellectual.
† 1948 Helen Diner Also known by her American pseudonym Helen Diner, was an Austrian writer, travel journalist, feminist historian, and intellectual.
† 1895 Frederick Douglass African American abolitionist, orator, author, editor, reformer, women's rights advocate, and statesman who was born a slave as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.
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