February 20th

Fire broke out during a rock concert at a nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., killing 100 people and injuring about 200 others.

American Tara Lipinski became at age 15 the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh War is triggered by der Autonomous Oblast's secession from Azerbaijan. Today, Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto independent state, but the territory is still internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.

The first U.S. citizen to orbit the Earth lands safely in the Atlantic Ocean. John Glenn's 5-hour spaceflight came almost a year after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961.

Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed as last viceroy of India to oversee the move to independence.

During World War II, U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as 'Big Week.'.

British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigned in protest over Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's decision to negotiate with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Works to build Australia's capital city commence. Canberra is an entirely planned city and was chosen as the Australian capital as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne.

Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, author, and orator, died.

Tchaikovsky's ballet “Swan Lake” is premiered. It is one of the world's best-known ballets.

British Naval Officer John Morseby discovers the site of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and claims it for Britain.

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.

William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House, apparently of typhoid fever.

Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

Rossini's opera 'Barber of Seville' premieres in Rome.

The Supreme Court ruled that the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state.

President George Washington signed the Post Office Act, establishing a permanent Post Office Department.