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20 February| 20 February 1258 | Persia [Mongol conquests (1206–1405)] | The last Abbasid caliph (Islamic ruler of Persia) al-Musta'sim and his family are put to death on the Mongol leader Hulagu's orders. | | 20 February 1790 | Habsburg Monarchy [political events] | Archduke Leopold, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, becomes ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy on the death of his brother, Joseph II; in July he is elected Holy Roman Emperor as Leopold II. | | 20 February 1820 | France [administration] | Elie, duc de Decazes, is dismissed as prime minister of France after the assassination of Charles-Ferdinand d'Artois, duc de Berry, and is succeeded by his predecessor, the more right-wing Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu. | | 20 February–9 March 1905 | China, Japan, Russian Empire [Russo–Japanese War (1904–05)] | The Japanese forces under Field Marshal Iwao Oyama overcome a Russian force under General Alexei Kuropatkin, and capture the city of Mukden (Shenyang), a key point for the control of Manchuria. | | 20 February 1938 | UK [political events] | The British foreign minister Anthony Eden resigns in protest at Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. | | 20 February 1944 | Norway [World War II (1939–45)] | Saboteurs blow up a ferry on Lake Tinnsjo, Norway, destroying Germany's entire supply of ‘heavy water’ (for use in atomic research). | | 20–27 February 1944 | Germany [World War II (1939–45)] | During ‘Big Week’, a combined US–UK air assault on German aircraft-making capability, 18,874 tonnes/20,799 tons of bombs are dropped on selected targets in Germany. | | 20 February 1962 | USA [space exploration] | US astronaut John Glenn, in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7, becomes the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth. He makes three orbits. | | 20 February 1985 | Ireland [family planning] | The sale of contraceptives becomes legal in Eire. |
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