Here are 29 newsworthy and notable anniversaries coming up in February 2020.
We list the anniversaries 6 months in advance so you have time to research and write about them. This list is a short extract from The Date-A-Base Book 2020, which lists hundreds of newsworthy and notable anniversaries for each month. It’s just the thing you need for writing anniversary tie-ins and “on this day in history” features.
1 Feb 1920 – 100 years ago
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established.
2 Feb 1970 – 50 years ago
Death of Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, logician, mathematician and social reformer. Winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature.
3 Feb 1870 – 150 years ago
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It prohibited the federal and state governments from denying voting rights to citizens because of their race, color or previous servitude.
4 – 11 Feb 1945 – 75 years ago
World War II – The Yalta Conference, Crimea. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany. Stalin also agreed to enter the war in the Pacific within 3 months of the war in Europe ending.
5 Feb 1920 – 100 years ago
Birth of Frank Muir, British comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. Presenter of the radio shows My Word! and My Music and the TV quiz show Call My Bluff. (Died 1998.)
6 Feb 1895 – 125 years ago
Birth of Babe Ruth, American professional baseball player. Regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in U.S. history.
7 Feb 1940 – 80 years ago
The U.S. première of the Walt Disney film Pinocchio. (Released: 23rd February, UK: 13th May.)
8 Feb 1820 – 200 years ago
Birth of William Tecumseh Sherman, American Civil War general. A major architect of modern warfare. Noted for the success of his campaigns against the Confederates, but criticized for the harshness of his “scorched earth” policies.
9 Feb 1895 – 125 years ago
The sport of volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA.
10 Feb 1940 – 80 years ago
The cartoon characters Tom and Jerry made their first appearance in the Hanna and Barbera cartoon Puss Gets the Boot. (Tom the cat was named Jasper and Jerry the mouse was named Jinx.)
11 Feb 1990 – 30 years ago
Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. (He became President of South Africa in 1994.)
12 Feb 1940 – 80 years ago
The first episode of the radio serial The Adventures of Superman was broadcast on WOR in New York City, USA. It ran until 1951 (on Mutual and ABC).
13 Feb 1920 – 100 years ago
The League of Nations recognized Switzerland’s perpetual neutrality.
14 Feb 1920 – 100 years ago
The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
15 Feb 1820 – 200 years ago
Birth of Susan B. Anthony, American social reformer and women’s rights activist. President of the National Woman Suffrage Association (1892–1900).
16 – 26 Feb 1945 – 75 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Corregidor, Philippines. U.S. victory. The island was recaptured from the Japanese who had held it since May 1942.
17 Feb 1870 – 150 years ago
The Elementary Education Act (commonly known as Forster’s Education Act) was introduced in England and Wales. It provided a framework for the education of all children aged between 5 and 12. Many people objected to it, including the upper classes who wanted to keep educational privileges for themselves, and employers who feared losing cheap labor.
18 Feb 1930 – 90 years ago
The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.
19 Feb – 23 Mar 1945 – 75 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Islands. U.S. victory.
(The iconic photo of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on top of Mount Surabachi was taken on 23rd February.)
20 Feb 1920 – 100 years ago
Death of Robert Peary, American naval officer and explorer. His claim to have reached the geographic North Pole in April 1909 is the subject of much debate and controversy.
21 Feb 1945 – 75 years ago
Death of Eric Liddell, Scottish athlete. Olympic gold medalist in 1924 (400m). Because of his religious convictions, he withdrew from the 100m heats because they were held on a Sunday, and entered (and won) the 400m instead as the heats and final were held on weekdays. He was portrayed by the actor Ian Charleson in the film Chariots of Fire. (Died in a WWII internment camp in China, aged 43.)
22 Feb 1940 – 80 years ago
Tenzin Gyatso, aged 5, was installed as the 14th Dalai Lama in Lhasa, Tibet
23 Feb 1820 – 200 years ago
Cato Street Conspiracy, London, UK. Thirteen conspirators known as the Spencean Philanthropists were arrested after an informer revealed they were plotting to kill the Prime Minister and all of his cabinet ministers. Five of the conspirators were later executed, and five others transported to Australia.
24 Feb (or 1 Apr) 1920 – 100 years ago
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) was established, changing its name from the German Worker’s Party and holding its first mass rally in Munich.
25 Feb 1870 – 150 years ago
Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi was elected to the U.S. Senate and became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress.
26 Feb 1995 – 25 years ago
Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, collapsed after its chief trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost approximately £625 million on unauthorized transactions.
27 Feb 1940 – 80 years ago
Carbon-14 was discovered by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley. (Its presence in organic materials forms the basis of radiocarbon dating.)
28 Feb 1820 – 200 years ago
Birth of Sir John Tenniel, British illustrator and cartoonist. Known for his political cartoons for Punch magazine and his illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland series of books.
29 Feb 1960 – 60 years ago
The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
More anniversaries:
The above list is a short extract from The Date-A-Base Book 2020. You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for each month in the book. The 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions are currently available, as PDF ebooks and in print. Find out more at ideas4writers.com