What happened on February 20 ?

702 - Chan Bahlum II, king of the Maya state of Palenque (b. 635)

1154 - Saint Wulfric of Haselbury Plucknett

1171 - Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (b. 1138)

1194 - King Tancred of Sicily

1258 - Al-Musta'sim, last Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad

1408 - Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English statesman (b. 1342)

1431 - Pope Martin V (b. 1368)

1513 - King Christian II of Denmark (b. 1455)

1524 - Tecún Umán, last leader of the Quiché-Maya in the northern highlands of Guatemala.

1579 - Nicholas Bacon, English politician (b. 1509)

1618 - Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)

1626 - John Dowland, English composer and lutenist (b. 1563)

1762 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (b. 1723)

1771 - Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist (b. 1678)

1773 - King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)

1778 - Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)

1790 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)

1803 - Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)

1806 - Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (b. 1725)

1810 - Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean national hero (executed) (b. 1767)

1871 - Paul Kane, Irish-born painter (b. 1810)

1893 - P.G.T. Beauregard, American Confederate general (b. 1818)

1895 - Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist writer (b. 1818)

1907 - Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)

1916 - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1844)

1920 - Robert Peary, American explorer (b. 1856)

1961 - Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b. 1882)

1966 - Chester Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)

1968 - Anthony Asquith, British film director and writer (b. 1902)

1969 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)

1970 - Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (b. 1885)

1972 - Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)

1972 - Walter Winchell, American journalist (b. 1897)

1975 - Robert Strauss, American politician and diplomat (b. 1918)

1976 - René Cassin, French judge, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1887)

1976 - Kathryn Kuhlman, American evangelist (b. 1907)

1980 - J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (b. 1895)

1981 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (b. 1904)

1983 - Fritz Köberle, Austrian-Brazilian physician (b. 1910)

1985 - Clarence Nash, American voice actor (b. 1904)

1992 - Roberto D'Aubuisson, Salvadoran politician (b. 1944)

1992 - Dick York, American actor (b. 1928)

1993 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)

1996 - Solomon Asch, American psychologist (b. 1907)

1996 - T?ru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (b. 1930)

1999 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)

1999 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (b. 1946)

2000 - Anatoly Sobchak, Russian politician (b. 1937)

2001 - Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (b. 1910)

2003 - Maurice Blanchot, French author (b. 1907)

2003 - Orville Freeman, American politician (b. 1918)

2003 - Harry Jacunski, American football player

2003 - Ty Longley, American guitarist (Great White) (b. 1971)

2005 - Pam Bricker, jazz singer and Thievery Corporation vocalist (b. 1954)

2005 - Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1944)

2005 - John Raitt, American actor (b. 1917)

2005 - Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (b. 1937)

2006 - Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (b. 1919)

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