February 20
Today in America's Present Past
1725 | Indian Wars: New Hampshire colonists scalp 10 sleeping Indians. Captain John Lovewell’s company carried out this act near present-day Wakefield, New Hampshire. It was part of “Dummer’s War” and was motivated by a colonial scalp bounty.
1805 | Abolitionist Angelina Grimke was born.
1809 | SCOTUS: The Court ruled in United States v. Peters that a state legislature cannot annul the judgments or determine the jurisdiction of federal courts.
1820 | General Mahlon Dickerson Manson was born.
1827 | General Edward Stuyvesant Bragg was born.
1839 | Congress: Passed the “Anti-Dueling Act” for the District of Columbia following the dueling death of Representative Jonathan Cilley (D-MA3).
1864 | Civil War: The Battle of Olustee, Florida. This was the largest battle fought in Florida.
1865 | Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT) formed the first U.S. Collegiate Architectural School.
1869 | Civil Rights: Martial law was declared in Tennessee in response to a Ku Klux Klan crisis.
1872 | Cyrus Baldwin received a patent for a hydraulic electric elevator.
1872 | Luther Crowell patented a machine to manufacture paper bags.
1872 | New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opened. Its original location was on 681 Fifth Avenue.
1877 | America’s first cantilever bridge opened in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It was designed by Shaler Smith for the Cincinnati Southern Railway.
1895 | Abolitionist Frederick Douglass died.
1897 | Painter Ivan Albright was born.
1899 | Entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was born.
1902 | Photographer Ansel Adams was born.
1909 | The Hudson Motor Car Company was formed in Detroit, Michigan.
1920 | Lexington, Kentucky riots.
1920 | Explorer Robert Peary died.
1927 | Lawyer Roy Cohn was born.
1927 | Actor Sidney Poitier was born.
1929 | Congress: Enacted the Ratification Act of 1929 recognizing American Samoa as a territory. Congress accepted the deed of cession from the chiefs of Tutuila and Aunu’u, which had been signed in 1900.
1931 | Congress: Authorization for California to build the Oakland-Bay Bridge was passed.
1933 | The 21st Amendment was submitted to the states for ratification. This amendment repealed Prohibition. Notably, it was the first and only time an amendment was ratified by state conventions rather than state legislatures.
1937 | Entrepreneur and race car driver Roger Penske was born.
1939 The American pro-Nazi organization German American Bund held a 20,000-person rally at Madison Square Garden.
1942 | Congress: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was born.
1943 | WWII: American movie studios agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films.
1944 | WWII: US forces liberated the Eniwetok Atoll.
1944 | WWII: US forces begin a massive bombing campaign against German manufacturing centers.
1954 | Patty Hearst was born.
1962 | John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, circling the globe three times. This was the moment the U.S. truly caught up to the Soviets in the “Space Race.”
1963 | Basketball pro Charles Barkley was born.
1966 | Actress Cindy Crawford was born.
1966 | Admiral Chester Nimitz died.
1967 | Musician Kurt Cobain was born.
1972 | Journalist Walter Winchell died.
1977 | Tennis pro Arthur Ashe wed Jeanne Moutoussamy.
1974 | Musicians Cher and Sonny Bono divorced.
1987 | A bomb exploded in a Salt Lake City computer store attributed to the Unabomber. A bomb left behind injured store owner Gary Wright. This was a turning point in the investigation with a witness providing the famous “hoodie and aviators” sketch of Ted Kaczynski.
1992 | TV: Texas entrepreneur Ross Perot announced on Larry King Live that he would run for president as an independent if “the people” got him on the ballot in all 50 states.
2005 | Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson died.
2010 | General Alexander Haig died.