On This Day - What Happened On February 20 | Britannica

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1839 Congress bans dueling in Washington, D.C. On this day in 1839, U.S. Congress made dueling in Washington, D.C., a felony punishable by up to 10 years of hard labor. The tipping point for the bill had come in 1838: Kentucky Rep. William Graves and Maine Rep. Jonathan Cilley had dueled, which had led to Cilley's death by Grave's hand. Read today's edition of Today in History > > © North Wind Picture Archives

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Rihanna Barbadian singer bornFebruary 20, 1988 (age 38)St. Michael, BarbadosDimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images 1988 Rihanna Barbadian singer 1984 Trevor Noah South African comedian 1967 Kurt Cobain American musician 1966 Cindy Crawford American fashion model 1963 Charles Barkley American basketball player See All Biographies On This Day

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2016 Cyclone Winston made a second landfall on Fiji's principal island of Viti Levu, causing widespread damage. The storm, which killed 44 people, is the most powerful tropical cyclone on record in the Southern Hemisphere and the most costly natural disaster to have ever affected the country.© Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response (NASA),Visible Earth 2005 Hunter S. Thompson—who created the genre known as gonzo journalism, a highly personal style of reporting that made him a counterculture icon—died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Read about Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and eight other countercultural booksFrank Martin/AP Images 1986 The Soviet Union launched the core module of the space station Mir, which remained active as a space laboratory for more than 14 years. Take our astronomy and space quiz© Sovfoto/Eastfoto 1976 The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization held its final exercise in Manila. Primarily designed by the U.S. in the name of halting communist expansion, the organization also helped the U.S. justify its operations in Vietnam. (The organization formally ended on June 30, 1977). Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Southeast AsiaFrank Wolfe/Lyndon B. Johnson Library Photo 1962 John H. Glenn, Jr. became the first American to orbit Earth, doing so three times. He was the oldest of seven astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury spaceflight training and later served as a U.S. senator.NASA 1943 After several weeks of earthquakes, the volcano Paricutín in Michoacán state, Mexico, began erupting. It would continue erupting for nine years, burying villages and destroying farmland. No deaths, however, were recorded as a direct result of the eruption. Watch footage of Paricutín's volcanic eruptionW.F. Foshag/U.S. Geological Survey ( Foshag, W.F. 5 fwf00005) 1929 U.S. Congress formally accepted the deeds of cession of eastern Samoa, forming American Samoa. Sort fact from fiction in our islands of the world quizKip Evans/Alamy 1909 Italian author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti coined the term Futurism in the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro. The term captured the vitality and restlessness of modern life. Test your knowledge of FuturismHulton Archive/Getty Images 1902 Ansel Adams, one of the foremost landscape photographers of the 20th century, was born in San Francisco. Read Ansel Adams's Britannica essay on “Photographic Art”Ansel Adams 1872 The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City opened to the public.Physicistjedi SIGN UP FOR History's Biggest Headlines Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors. SIGN UP Thanks for signing up for Today in History. Your first newsletter will arrive soon! SIGN UP By clicking "Sign Up" you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.