Calendar date · February

What happened on February 20

On February 20, 1339: The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.

Events

54

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Pisces

Featured moment · 1339

The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.

Milan is the regional capital of Lombardy, in northern Italy, and the seat of the Metropolitan City of Milan. It is the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with a population of 1,362,863 in 2026. 55 million.

People

Born on February 20

Jared McCain 2004– American basketball player (born 2004)
Olivia Rodrigo 2003– American singer-songwriter and actress (born 2003)
Gavin Bazunu 2002– Irish footballer (born 2002)
Josh Sargent 2000– American soccer player (born 2000)
Jarrett Culver 1999– American basketball player (born 1999)
Emam Ashour 1998– Egyptian footballer (born 1998)
Clarke Schmidt 1996– American baseball player (born 1996)
Elle Purrier St. Pierre 1995– American runner (born 1995)
Kateryna Baindl 1994– Ukrainian tennis player (born 1994)
Show 9 more — notable births on February 20
Luis Severino 1994– Dominican baseball player (born 1994)
Jurickson Profar 1993– Curaçaoan baseball player (born 1993)
Hidilyn Diaz 1991– Filipino weightlifter (born 1991)
Angelique van der Meet 1991– Dutch tennis player
Sally Rooney 1991– Irish author (born 1991)
Ciro Immobile 1990– Italian footballer (born 1990)
Ki Bo-bae 1988– South Korean archer (born 1988)
Luke Burgess 1987– English rugby league footballer
Martin Hanzal 1987– Czech ice hockey player (born 1987)

People

Died on February 20

David Boren American lawyer and politician (1941–2025)
Jerry Butler American soul singer and songwriter (1939–2025)
Peter Jason American actor (1944–2025)
Andreas Brehme German footballer (1960–2024)
Yoko Yamamoto Japanese actress (1942–2024)
Nurul Haque Miah Professor at Dhaka College (1944–2021)
Mauro Bellugi Italian footballer (1950–2021)
Joaquim Pina Moura Portuguese politician (1952–2020)
Vitaly Churkin Russian diplomat (1952–2017)
Show 9 more — notable deaths on February 20
Mildred Dresselhaus American physicist and nanotechnologist (1930–2017)
Steve Hewlett British journalist (1958-2017)
Fernando Cardenal Nicaraguan Jesuit and theologian (1934–2016)
Govind Pansare Indian political activist and writer (1933–2015)
Henry Segerstrom American entrepreneur and philanthropist (1923–2015)
John C. Willke American anti-abortion activist (1925–2015)
Rafael Addiego Bruno Uruguayan jurist and political figure (1923–2014)
Walter D. Ehlers United States Army soldier
Garrick Utley American television journalist (1939–2014)

Timeline

Every February 20 on record

  1. 1339 The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.

    Second-largest city in Italy

    Milan is the regional capital of Lombardy, in northern Italy, and the seat of the Metropolitan City of Milan. It is the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with a population of 1,362,863 in 2026. 55 million.

  2. 1472 Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.

    Archipelago, county and council area in northern Scotland

    Orkney, also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name The Orkneys is also sometimes used. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north of Caithness and has about 70 islands, of which 20 are inhabited.

  3. 1521 Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sets out from San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists.

    Spanish explorer and conquistador (1474–1521)

    Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first European expeditions to Puerto Rico in 1508 and Florida in 1513. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in 1474. Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age.

  4. 1547 Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

    King of England and Ireland from 1547 to 1553

    Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant.

  5. 1553 Yohannan Sulaqa professes his Catholic belief and is ordained as bishop shortly after; this marks the beginning of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

    Head of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1553 to 1555

    Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa was the first Patriarch of what was to become the Shemʿon line of the Chaldean Catholic Church, from 1553 to 1555, after it absorbed this Church of the East patriarchate into full communion with the Holy See and the Catholic Church.

  6. 1685 René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
  7. 1792 The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
  8. 1798 Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
  9. 1813 Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
  10. 1816 Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
  11. 1824 William Buckland formally announces the name Megalosaurus, the first scientifically validly named non-avian dinosaur species.
  12. 1835 The 1835 Concepción earthquake destroys Concepción, Chile.
  13. 1846 Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
  14. 1864 American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
  15. 1865 End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance.
Show 15 earlier entries from February 20
  1. 1872 The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
  2. 1877 Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
  3. 1894 20 February bombings by Désiré Pauwels during the Ère des attentats (1892-1894).
  4. 1901 The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
  5. 1905 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.
  6. 1909 Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
  7. 1913 King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
  8. 1920 An earthquake kills between 114 and 130 in Georgia and heavily damages the town of Gori.
  9. 1931 The U.S. Congress approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
  10. 1931 An anarchist uprising in Encarnación, Paraguay briefly transforms the city into a revolutionary commune.
  11. 1933 The U.S. Congress approves the Blaine Act to repeal federal Prohibition in the United States, sending the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution to state ratifying conventions for approval.
  12. 1933 Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party's upcoming election campaign.
  13. 1935 Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
  14. 1939 Madison Square Garden Nazi rally: The largest ever pro-Nazi rally in United States history is convened in Madison Square Garden, New York City, with 20,000 members and sympathizers of the German American Bund present.
  15. 1942 World War II: Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

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