Today in History - History - February 20th

19784th People's Choice Awards: John Wayne & Barbra Streisand win (Motion Picture) and James Garner & Mary Tyler Moore win (TV)

1963Willie Mays (SF Giants) signs a record $100,000 per year contract

1975Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British Conservative Party

1994Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of homosexuals

1938UK Foreign Sec Eden resigns, says PM Chamberlain appeased Germany

1971Bruin Phil Esposito is NHL's quickest to score 50 goals in a season

1832Charles Darwin visits Fernando Noronha in Atlantic Ocean

1724George F Handel's opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto," premieres in London

1997SF Giants Barry Bonds signs record $22.9M 2 year contract

1988Peter Kalikow purchases NY Post from Rupert Murdoch for $37.6 million

1967Kurt Cobain, Aberdeen Washington, rock vocalist (Nirvana)

1887Vincent Massey, Toronto Ontario, Governor General of Canada

1942Phil Esposito, Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, NHL center/GM (Bruins, Rangers)

1988Rihanna, Barbadian singer

1963Charles Barkley, Leads Alabama, NBA forward (Phoenix, Rockets, Oly-gold-96)

1951Gordon Brown, Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, British Labour Prime Minister (2007—10)

1989Police violence victim Rodney King (23) weds Crystal Lynnette Waters

1977World No. 1 tennis player Arthur Ashe (33) weds photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy in New York City

1966Chester W Nimitz, US admiral (WW II), dies at 80

1895Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, anti-slavery leader, dies at 77