At A Glance

20 February 1980 at a glance

Day of the week
20 February 1980 was a Wednesday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Do That to Me One More Time” by Captain & Tennille.
Top Film of 1980
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1980 was The Empire Strikes Back.
Bestselling Novel of 1980
“The Covenant” by James A. Michener was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1980.
Top-Rated TV Show
“Dallas” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1980–81 season.
Star sign
The star sign for 20 February is Pisces.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 20 February 1980 fell in the Year of the Monkey.
Birthstone
The birthstone for February is Amethyst.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 20 February 1980 was Waxing Crescent.

On this day: 20 February

  • 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.
  • 1991 In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania's long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters.

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 1980 in the United States

A selection from Wikipedia's '1980 in the United States'. Not a complete list.

  • January 27 – Canadian Caper: Six United States diplomats, posing as Canadians, manage to escape from Tehran, Iran as they board a flight to Zurich, Switzerland.
  • March 22 – The Georgia Guidestones are erected in Elbert County, Georgia.
  • April 15 – A mass exodus of Cubans to the United States known as the Mariel boatlift begins. It ends on October 31 by agreement between the two countries.

Life in the US in 1980

President

Jimmy Carter

Gas (per gallon)

$1.19

Loaf of Bread

$0.50

Average House

$64,600

Weekly Wage

$267

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1980s

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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