At A Glance
20 February 1974 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 20 February 1974 was a Wednesday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “The Way We Were” by Barbra Streisand.
- Top Film of 1974
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1974 was The Towering Inferno.
- Bestselling Novel of 1974
- “Centennial” by James A. Michener was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1974.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “All in the Family” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1974–75 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 20 February is Pisces.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 20 February 1974 fell in the Year of the Tiger.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for February is Amethyst.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 20 February 1974 was Waning Crescent.
On this day: 20 February
- 1962 Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
- 1968 The China Academy of Space Technology, China's main arm for the research, development, and creation of space satellites, is established in Beijing.
- 1971 The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
- 1986 The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
- 1988 The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Famous people born on February 20
- Justin Verlander, American baseball player (born 1983)
- Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer (born 2003)
- Kurt Cobain, American musician (1967–1994)
- Rihanna, Barbadian singer, songwriter, businesswoman, and actress (born 1988)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Events of 1974 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '1974 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- January 15 – Happy Days, a sitcom about life in the 1950s, debuts on ABC.
- March 4 – People magazine's first issue is published in the U.S., with Mia Farrow on the cover.
- April 2 – The 46th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Burt Reynolds, Diana Ross, John Huston and David Niven, is held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. George Roy Hill's The Sting wins seven awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Hill.
Life in the US in 1974
President
Richard Nixon
Gas (per gallon)
$0.53
Loaf of Bread
$0.34
Average House
$25,900
Weekly Wage
$176
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Famous Faces Born in the 1970s
Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.
Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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