Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

February 20

2003
Iraq War: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on how the troops would be greeted by the Iraqi people: "There is no question but that they would be welcomed¼ Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do."

1992
Ross Perot: The Texas billionaire announces on Larry King's talk show that he would run for president if the people put him on the ballot in all 50 states.

1990
Milli Vinilli receives a Grammy for best new artist.

1990
First Grammy Award for rap music: Young MC wins for Bust a Move.

1971
An "emergency nuclear attack warning" is accidently broadcast by the U.S. National Emergency Warning Center.

1962
First American to orbit the Earth: John H. Glenn Jr. in the Friendship 7.

1952
First black umpire in organized baseball: Emmett Littleton Ashford is authorized as a substitute umpire for the Class C Southwestern International League. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1933
Prohibition: The 21st Amendment, repealing prohibition, is passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the states for ratification.

1872
Toothpick: American inventors Silas Noble and James P. Cooley receive a patent for the first toothpick manufacturing machine.

1872
Paper bag: American inventor Luther Childs Crowell receives a patent for the first machine to make square-bottomed paper bags.

1839
Dueling: Congress forbids dueling in Washington D.C.

1967     d. 1994
Kurt Cobain, American singer, songwriter, guitarist, with Nirvana. Music: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991).

1966
Cindy Crawford, American model, actress. She has appeared on more than 300 magazine covers. TV: MTV's House of Style (host).

1954
Patty Hearst (Patricia Campbell Hearst), American newspaper heiress, bank robber. After she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (1974), she joined them in a bank robbery for which she was convicted. She was pardoned by Pres. Carter in 1979.

1952
Catherine (b1952), Carol (b1953), Charles (b1956), Claudia (b1961), Cecilia (b1966) Cummins, American birth oddities. These five siblings are all natural born children of Carolyn and Ralph Cummins and were each born February 20th of different years. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1946
Sandy Duncan, American actress. Film: $1,000,000 Duck (1971) and The Cat From Outer Space (1977).

1946
Jerome Geils, American guitarist, founder of J. Geils Band. Music: Must Have Got Lost (1974), Freeze-Frame (1981), and Centerfold (1981, #1).

1940
Barbara Laine Ellis, American singer, with the high school group The Fleetwoods. Music: Come Softly to Me (1959, #1) and Mr. Blue (1959, #1).

1934
Bobby Unser, American auto racer, three-time Indy 500 winner (1968, 75, 81).

1929     d. 1989
Amanda Blake (Beverly Louise Neill), American actress. TV: Gunsmoke (Miss Kitty Russell).

1927
Sidney Poitier, American Oscar-winning actor. Film: The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and Lilies of the Field (1963, for which he became the first black to win a Best Actor Oscar).

1926
Kenneth Olsen, American businessman. He co-founded the computer giant Digital Equipment Corporation (1957).  In 1977, he declared, "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."

1925
Robert Altman, American film director. Film: M*A*S*H (1970) and Nashville (1975).

1912     d. 1994
Pierre François Boulle, French author. Writings: Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Planet of the Apes (1963).

1902     d. 1984
Ansel Adams, American photographer, famous for his black and white photographs of the California's Yosemite Valley.

1899     d. 1992
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman, co-founder of Pan American Airways (1927) and co-producer of Gone With the Wind (1939).

1898     d. 1988
Enzo Ferrari, Italian sports car maker, racer. His cars established numerous racing records.

1858     d. 1943
Howard Atwood Kelly, American surgeon, gynecologist. He developed the open cystoscope, used to introduce light into the interior of the body, and was a pioneer in use of radium to treat cancer.

1726     d. 1795
William Prescott, American soldier. At the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), he proclaimed, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."

2006     b. 1919
Curt Gowdy, American Hall of Fame sports announcer, "The Voice of the Redsox." TV: The American Sportsman (host).

2005     b. 1939
Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist, creator of Gonzo journalism. Writings: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972).

1993     b. 1916
Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian sports car manufacturer. He opened his factory in 1959, building such models as the Miura SV and Countach.

1992     b. 1928
Dick York, American actor. TV: Bewitched (the first Darrin).

1980     b. 1895
Joseph Banks Rhine, American parapsychologist. He created the familiar "extrasensory perception" (ESP) cards (picturing wavy lines, square, circle, and cross), and co-edited Parapsychology Today.

1972     b. 1897
Walter Winchell, American journalist. He coined the phrase "America, Love it or leave it" (1940), and narrated the TV series The Untouchables.

1920     b. 1856
Robert Edwin Peary, American Arctic explorer. He was the first to reach the North Pole.

1920     b. 1910
Jacinta Marto. She was one of the three children who claim to have seen the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal (1917).

1895     b. 1817
Frederick Douglass, American orator and journalist. Born into slavery, he escaped to Great Britain where he raised the money to buy his freedom.

1893     b. 1818
Pierre T. Beauregard, American Confederate general. He led the attack on Fort Sumter starting the Civil War.

1431     b. 1368
Martin V, Italian religious leader, 206th Pope (1417-31).

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