Birthday Paper › What happened on …? › February 20

Events on February 20

• 1810 The Tyrolean innkeeper Andreas Hofer, a freedom fighter against Napoleonic France and its ally Bavaria, is shot dead in Mantua following a court-martial sentence. The event is later reflected in the Tyrolean state anthem.
• 1857 The businessmen Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann establish the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd in Bremen.
• 1926 In Berlin, the first Green Week is opened as a link between the traditional winter meeting of the German Agricultural Society in Berlin and an agricultural exhibition. The fair lasts until February 28.
• 1933 The U.S. Senate passes the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It repeals the 18th Amendment, which introduced alcohol prohibition in the USA in 1920. With its entry into force on December 5, the Prohibition era in the United States ends.
• 1938 The Swiss vote in a referendum to recognize Romansh as the fourth national language.
• 1946 At the Monopol mine's Grimberg 3/4 shaft in Bergkamen in the Ruhr area, Germany's worst mining disaster occurs. During a firedamp or coal dust explosion at a depth of 930 m, 405 people die.
• 1962 John Glenn launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission to become the first American to orbit the Earth in space.
• 1963 At the Freie Volksbühne in Berlin, the world premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's play The Deputy takes place under the direction of Erwin Piscator.
• 1979 The European Court of Justice pronounces the Cassis de Dijon judgment on the free movement of goods. The quantitative import restriction on liqueurs imposed by the Federal Monopoly Administration for Spirits is thereafter incompatible with EU law.
• 1994 In Switzerland, the Federal Popular Initiative «For the Protection of the Alpine Region from Transit Traffic» is approved. Since then, the policy of shifting freight from heavy road traffic to rail has been part of the Swiss Federal Constitution.
• 1999 In the team ski jumping event at the Nordic Ski World Championships in Ramsau, Austria, the German team wins the gold medal in ski jumping with a 1.9-point lead over Japan. Austria finishes third.
• 2006 The British Holocaust denier David Irving is sentenced by the Vienna Regional Criminal Court to three years' imprisonment without parole for renewed National Socialist activity punishable under the 1947 Prohibition Act.

Born on February 20

• 1902 Ansel Adams, American photographer
• 1912 Pierre Boulle, French writer
• 1920 Karl Albrecht, German entrepreneur, co-founder of the Aldi Group, Germany's richest man
• 1920 Jewgeni Fjodorowitsch Dragunow, Soviet weapons designer
• 1940 Christoph Eschenbach, German pianist and conductor
• 1941 Alexander Gauland, German jurist, publicist and politician
• 1970 Julia Franck, German writer
• 1971 Theresa Hübchen, German actress
• 1971 Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
• 1980 Arthur Abraham, German boxer

Is your birthday on February 20?

Then there is a newspaper that tells only the story of your day: what was going on in the world on February 20 of your birth year, which song was at the top, what the weather was like at your birthplace, plus birthday twins and a personal greeting.

• For every birth year from 1946
• 4 to 10 pages, always €14.90, as a PDF to print
• With a greeting page for voice and video messages

Create the paper for February 20 · €14.90

Day and month are already filled in, you only choose the birth year.

Source of events and birthdays: German Wikipedia article „20. Februar“, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, selected, shortened and translated by Birthday Paper.

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