Tidbits of History, February 20

February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

Presidents’ Day Originally Washington’s birthday (Feb 22, 1732) was a federal holiday. About half of the states officially renamed their Washington’s Birthday observances as “Presidents’ Day” to include Lincoln’s birthday (Feb 12, 1809). The holiday was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. It is now celebrated on the third Monday of February. Federal and state government services are closed.
There were four presidents born during February; besides Washington and Lincoln, William Henry Harrison was born February 9, 1773 and Ronald Reagan was born February 6th, 1911.

National Muffin Day

Publication of Federalist Paper #58: Objection That The Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the Progress of Population Demands Considered. written by James Madison in 1788. Madison argues that the initial number would be temporary and would be adjusted according to the Census conducted every 10 years. The House of Representatives was designed to represent the people whereas the Senate was designed to represent the States.

The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by President George Washington in 1792.

1809 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state.

1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. Also called The Useless Precaution. Written by Gioachino Rossini, it is based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s French comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775). Rossini’s opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. (Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy.)

Familiar to Bugs Bunny fans, the music is from the Overture of the Barber of Seville:

1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened.

1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premièred at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

February 20, 1927 Golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath.

1933 – The Congress of the United States proposed the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.

1943 – The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.

Mercury program: In 1962, while aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.

In a highly controversial vote on February 20, 1985, the Irish government defied the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives.

1998-Tara Lipinski, 15, became the youngest Olympic figure skating gold medalist.