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Today in History, February 20th

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. Plus Frederick Douglass's death, Mir's launch and Ansel Adams's birth.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published February 20, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

February 20 is best known for 1962, when John Glenn circled Earth three times in Friendship 7 and became the first American to orbit the planet. The date also marks the death of Frederick Douglass in 1895 and the birth of photographer Ansel Adams in 1902.

The big story: John Glenn Orbits Earth (1962)

In early 1962 the U.S. was still trying to catch the Soviet Union in the space race. Two Americans had flown in Project Mercury, but neither had gone into orbit. On February 20, John Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 9:47 a.m. in a capsule named Friendship 7, on the third crewed Mercury flight. He went around the world three times. The tense moment came near the end, when a signal suggested his heat shield might be loose. Mission Control told him to keep the spent retrorocket pack strapped on to help hold the shield in place, and he came home through the fiery reentry with no way to know for sure. He splashed down in the Atlantic 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds after launch and was picked up by the destroyer Noa. Glenn later served Ohio in the U.S. Senate and, at 77, flew on the space shuttle Discovery.

More events on February 20

Year	What happened
1792	President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act, which promised cheap delivery of newspapers and protected the privacy of the mail.
1864	Confederate troops beat a Union army at the Battle of Olustee, the largest Civil War battle fought in Florida.
1895	Frederick Douglass, the formerly enslaved abolitionist, writer and orator, died of a heart attack at his home in Washington, D.C.
1909	The Paris newspaper Le Figaro published Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto, launching an art movement that worshipped speed and machines.
1939	More than 20,000 people filled Madison Square Garden for a rally of the pro-Nazi German American Bund, while police held back a far larger crowd of protesters outside.
1943	A volcano began erupting in a farm field in Michoacán, Mexico. Parícutin kept erupting for nine years.
1986	The Soviet Union launched the core module of the Mir space station, which stayed in orbit until 2001.
1998	At 15, Tara Lipinski won the women’s figure skating gold medal in Nagano, Japan, the youngest Olympic champion in the event.
2003	Pyrotechnics at a rock concert set fire to the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The fire killed 100 people.

Born on February 20

1902: Ansel Adams, photographer famous for black-and-white images of Yosemite and the American West.
1967: Kurt Cobain, singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana.
1988: Rihanna, Barbadian singer and founder of Fenty Beauty.