About the day » Tuesday February 20, 1979Calender converter

• Bas Verkleij († 1979)
• Herman Wayne Todd Jr, Memphis, Shelby, Tennessee, Verenigde Staten († 2009)
• Eddie Tol († 1992)
• Rianne Wimdr Keizer, Hilversum († 1983)
• Chris Langedijk († 1993)
• Jessica Rison, Enschede († 2015)
• Ingeborg de Boer

• Baukje Wybes Canrinus (82), Heeg, Wymbritseradeel, Friesland, Nederland
• CAROLUS LUDOVICUS DE MEULENAER (82), SINT-NIKLAAS,OOST-VLAANDEREN,BELGIE
• Doeke Douwes Buursma (91)
• Anna K Ganseveld (72), North Iowa Medical Center, Mason City, Cerro Gordo, Iowa
• David Kersell Laidlaw (76), East Rosanna, Victoria, Australia
• Doeke Douwes Buursma (91)
• * Florus (Floor) Stoop (67), Werkendam
• Agatha Wilhelmina Margaretha Bodewes (74), Zuidlaren
• Alfons De Meyst (88), Asse
• Catharina van der Male (79), Oud-Vossemeer

• 1975 » Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor
• 1975 » Liván Hernández, Cuban baseball player
• 1977 » Gail Kim, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1977 » Stephon Marbury, American basketball player
• 1978 » Lauren Ambrose, American actress and producer
• 1980 » Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
• 1980 » Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer
• 1981 » Fred Jackson, American football player
• 1981 » Tony Hibbert, English footballer
• 1982 » Jason Hirsh, American baseball player

• 1966 » Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
• 1968 » Anthony Asquith, English director and screenwriter (b. 1902)
• 1969 » Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
• 1972 » Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
• 1972 » Walter Winchell, American journalist and actor (b. 1897)
• 1976 » Kathryn Kuhlman, healing evangelist, known for belief in Holy Spirit (b. 1907)
• 1976 » René Cassin, French lawyer and judge, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
• 1981 » Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-American banker and publisher (b. 1904)
• 1987 » Wayne Boring, American illustrator (b. 1905)
• 1992 » A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (b. 1898)

• Koningin Juliana (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from September 4, 1948 till April 30, 1980 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from Monday, December 19, 1977 to Friday, September 11, 1981 the cabinet Van Agt I, with Mr. A.A.M. van Agt (CDA/KVP) as prime minister.
• The Netherlands had about 14.0 million citizens.
• March 5 » Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by "off the scale" gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
• April 2 » A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
• June 3 » A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000m) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.
• June 20 » ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
• September 22 » A bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.
• October 18 » The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license.

The temperature on February 20, 1979 was between -2.4 °C and -0.6 °C and averaged -1.5 °C. The almost completely overcast was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the east.