Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
| 20 February 1846 | Kraków Uprising 1846. Galician slaughter: Polish nationalists stage an uprising in the Free City of Kraków; it is suppressed by forces of the Austrian Empire, supported by peasants. |
| 20 February 1871 | Paul Kane died, Irish-born painter (b. 1810) |
| Sunday, 20 February 1921 | The Young Communist League of Czechoslovakia is founded. |
| Sunday, 20 February 1921 | “Nature Boy” Rogers born, American professional wrestler (d. 1992) |
| Wednesday, 20 February 1946 | An explosion kills more than 400 coal miners in West Germany. |
| Wednesday, 20 February 1946 | Brenda Blethyn born, British actress |
| Wednesday, 20 February 1946 | J. Geils born, lead guitarist of American rock group born, The J. Geils Band (d. 2017) |
| Monday, 20 February 1961 | Percy Grainger (born 1882) died, pianist and composer |
| Monday, 20 February 1961 | Phil Powers born, American alpinist |
| Monday, 20 February 1961 | Dwayne McDuffie born, American writer of comics and television (d. 2011) |
| Monday, 20 February 1961 | Percy Grainger died, Australian composer (b. 1882) |
| Saturday, 20 February 1971 | Fifty tornadoes rage in Mississippi and Louisiana, killing 74 people. |
| Saturday, 20 February 1971 | The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning, meant to be a standard weekly test conducted by NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado; many radio stations just ignore it. The most notorious warning was of WOWO (AM) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. |
| Saturday, 20 February 1971 | Calpernia Addams born, American actress |
| Saturday, 20 February 1971 | Jari Litmanen born, Finnish footballer |
| Saturday, 20 February 1971 | Joost van der Westhuizen born, South African rugby football player (d. 2017) |
| Friday, 20 February 1981 | Alice Springs coroner Denis Barritt finds that Azaria Chamberlain was killed by a dingo. |
| Friday, 20 February 1981 | Adrian Lamo born, American computer hacker (d. 2018) |
| Friday, 20 February 1981 | Chris Thile born, American mandolinist |
| Friday, 20 February 1981 | Majandra Delfino born, American actress |
| Friday, 20 February 1981 | Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg died, French magazine editor and playboy (b. 1904) |
| Wednesday, 20 February 1991 | Democrat Ian Gilfillan reveals in South Australian Parliament Westpac’s leaked “Swiss Loans” letters on the bank’s controversial foreign currency loans. |
| Wednesday, 20 February 1991 | President of Albania Ramiz Alia dismisses the government headed by Prime Minister of Albania Adil Çarçani in an effort to stem pro-democracy protests. Fatos Nano is sworn in as Prime Minister on February 22. |
| Tuesday, 20 February 1996 | Audrey Munson died, American model and actress (b. 1891) |
| Tuesday, 20 February 1996 | Tōru Takemitsu died, Japanese composer (b. 1930) |
| Tuesday, 20 February 2001 | Rosemary DeCamp died, American actress (b. 1910) |
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Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
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Neville Buch
Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.
Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.
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