The 51st day of the year
Born on 20 February
Every 20 February birthday from 1920 to 2026 was Pisces in UTC, and in most of the world. In 26 of those years the sun changed sign within hours of the date, and by the clocks somewhere far enough east or west of Greenwich it was 20 February when it happened; see below.
- Star sign
- PiscesWater, mutable, ruled by Jupiter.
- Birthstone
- AmethystThe same as on the 1912 list.
- Birth flower
- Violet, PrimroseUsually taken today to mean faithfulness and young love.
- Most common weekdays
- Friday and Monday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.
The latest the new year comes
20 February is the latest the lunar new year has fallen: in 1920, when it began the year of the Metal Monkey, and in 1985, the Wood Ox. It is the end of the window. Every 20 February birthday from 1920 to 2026 came on or after the new year and takes the animal of its own year, and the engine finds no new year on 20 February again before 2100.
The sign is almost as settled. In UTC every 20 February from 1920 to 2026 was Pisces, the sun having entered it on the 18th or 19th. In 26 of those years, though, the crossing came late on 19 February, and where clocks were far enough ahead of Greenwich it was already 20 February: in 1920 the sun entered Pisces at 22:29 UTC, which was 07:29 on 20 February in Tokyo. A Tokyo birth on 20 February 1920 before that moment was Aquarius. The sun has not entered Pisces on 20 February itself in UTC in any of those years.
Your year
Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 20 February in any year.
Crossings within hours of 20 February
A date begins earlier east of Greenwich and later to the west, so in these years the sun changed sign on the day before or after in UTC, at a moment when clocks somewhere on earth already, or still, showed 20 February — worked out from the time zones in use at that moment, as the IANA time zone database records them. A birth there on 20 February that year could be either sign, and the calculator above works it out for your own time zone.
- 1920: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 22:29 UTC
- 1923: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 16:00 UTC
- 1924: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 21:52 UTC
- 1927: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 15:34 UTC
- 1928: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 21:19 UTC
- 1931: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 14:40 UTC
- 1932: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 20:29 UTC
- 1935: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 13:52 UTC
- 1936: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 19:33 UTC
- 1939: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 13:09 UTC
- 1940: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 19:03 UTC
- 1943: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 12:40 UTC
- 1944: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 18:27 UTC
- 1947: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 11:52 UTC
- 1948: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 17:37 UTC
- 1951: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 11:10 UTC
- 1952: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 16:56 UTC
- 1956: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 16:05 UTC
- 1960: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 15:26 UTC
- 1964: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 14:57 UTC
- 1968: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 14:09 UTC
- 1972: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 13:11 UTC
- 1976: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 12:40 UTC
- 1980: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 12:02 UTC
- 1984: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 11:16 UTC
- 1988: the sun entered Pisces on 19 February, 10:36 UTC
Which Chinese animal, by year
From 1920 to 2026 the lunar new year, reckoned in Beijing, never came later than 20 February, so a birthday on it always belonged to the animal of its own year. It was the first day of the new year itself in 1920 and 1985.
Shaded: 20 February came before that year's new year. Hatched: the new year began on 20 February. How the new year is found →
Which weekday 20 February falls on
Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 20 February falls on every day of the week: Friday 16, Monday 16, Sunday 15, Tuesday 15, Wednesday 15, Saturday 15, Thursday 15.
Showing 20 February in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →
How common a birthday 20 February is
In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,790 babies were born on 20 February in each year of the twenty, making it the 238th most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.
Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →
Born on 20 February
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Rihanna | 1988– | Barbadian singer |
| Gordon Brown | 1951– | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010 |
| Kurt Cobain | 1967–1994 | American rock musician, singer and songwriter |
| Sidney Poitier | 1927–2022 | Bahamian and American actor and diplomat |
| Ludwig Boltzmann | 1844–1906 | Austrian physicist and philosopher |
| Olivia Rodrigo | 2003– | American singer-songwriter and actress |
| George Smoot | 1945–2025 | American astrophysicist and cosmologist |
| Robert Altman | 1925–2006 | American filmmaker |
| Ivana Trump | 1949–2022 | Czech-American businesswoman |
| Georges Bernanos | 1888–1948 | French writer |
| Ciro Immobile | 1990– | Italian association football player |
| Mohamed Naguib | 1901–1984 | 1st President of the Republic of Egypt |
| Richard Matheson | 1926–2013 | American fiction writer |
| Jari Litmanen | 1971– | Finnish footballer |
| Pierre Boulle | 1912–1994 | French novelist |
| Robert Huber | 1937– | German chemist |
| David Herman | 1967– | American actor |
| Miles Teller | 1987– | American actor |
Died on 20 February
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Maria Goeppert Mayer | 1906–1972 | German-born American theoretical physicist |
| Frederick Douglass | 1818–1895 | African-American social reformer, writer, and abolitionist |
| Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor | 1741–1790 | Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 |
| Pope Martin V | 1369–1431 | pope of the Catholic Church from 1417 to 1431 |
| Henri Moissan | 1852–1907 | French chemist |
| Hunter S. Thompson | 1937–2005 | American journalist and author |
| Yaroslav the Wise | 978–1054 | Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 to 1054 |
| Chester W. Nimitz | 1885–1966 | United States Navy fleet admiral |
| Robert Peary | 1856–1920 | explorer from the United States |
| Klas Pontus Arnoldson | 1844–1916 | Swedish politician |
| Andreas Brehme | 1960–2024 | German association football player |
| Laura Bassi | 1711–1778 | Italian physicist |
Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.