February 20
The Hebrew anniversary of a passing drifts against the civil calendar; these fall on February 20 this year.
- R. Mordechai Yoffe (the Levush)d. 1612 CE
Halakhist; authored the Levush Malkhut code; rabbi of Posen
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- 1878 CEChristian
The 1878 conclave elected Cardinal Gioacchino Pecci as Pope Leo XIII, later known for the encyclical Rerum Novarum.
- 1934 CEHindu · died
Swami Shivananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna and second president of the Ramakrishna Order, died a few days after his master's birthday.
- 1960 CEMesopotamian · died
Sir Leonard Woolley, the British archaeologist whose meticulous excavation of Ur revealed its Royal Cemetery, died in London.
- 1992 CEIslamic · died
Muhammad Asad, translator and commentator of 'The Message of the Qur'an,' died in Spain and was buried in Granada.
- 1844 CEScience · born
Ludwig Boltzmann, the Austrian physicist who grounded thermodynamics in the statistical behaviour of atoms and molecules, was born in Vienna.
Trace this life → - 1962 CEScience
Aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the planet three times before splashing down safely in the Atlantic.