Daily Calendar for Friday, February 20, 2026

Ember Days happen four times a year at the start of each season. Traditionally observed by some Christian denominations, each set of Ember Days is three days, kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. 

These three days are set apart for fasting, abstinence, and prayer. The first of these four times comes in winter, after the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13; the second set comes with the First Sunday in Lent; the third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday; the four and last set comes after the Feast of the Holy Cross. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:

“Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.”

Which means:

“Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, are when the quarter holidays follow.”

In Latin, Ember Days are known as the quattuor anni tempora (the “four seasons of the year”). Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for three successive months. 

As with much folklore, this is grounded in some common sense since the beginning of the four seasons cue the changes in weather as well as a shift in how we keep harmony with the Earth and respect our stewardship of the Earth, our “garden of Eden.”“

Died

  • Frederick Douglass (abolitionist)
  • Walter Winchell (journalist)
  • Alice Roosevelt Longworth (last surviving child of Teddy Roosevelt)
  • Rene Dubos (environmentalist, microbiologist)
  • Dick York (actor)
  • Gene Siskel (film critic)
  • Sandra Dee (actress)
  • John Raitt (actor)
  • Hunter S. Thompson (journalist and author who unleashed the concept of gonzo journalism” in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”)

Born

  • Ansel Adams (photographer)
  • Sidney Poitier (actor)
  • Phil Esposito (hockey player)
  • Charles Barkley (basketball player)
  • Cindy Crawford (model)
  • Lili Taylor (actress)
  • Trevor Noah (television host, comedian)
  • Rihanna (singer)
  • Olivia Rodrigo (singer)

Events

  • George Washington signed the Postal Act, creating the Federal Postal System with a per-mile rate structure
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City
  • Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premiered
  • An auto-airplane combination, Arrowbile, completed for testing
  • V-2 rocket launched fruit flies to 68-mile altitude
  • Carolyn Cummins gave birth to the first of her five children. The second was born in 1953, 3rd in 1956, 4th in 1961 and the 5th in 1966. All five children have the same birthday.
  • Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. He made 3 trips around the earth in his Mercury-Atlas spacecraft, Friendship 7, in just under 5 hours
  • U.S.S.R.’s Mir space station launched
  • The Station nightclub experienced the fourth deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killing 100 people and injuring more than 200. The fire started when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, the rock band playing that night, lit flammable soundproofing foam behind the stage
  • Regeneration of Silene stenophylla from 30,000-year-old fruit tissue announced

Weather

  • A tornado tracked 15 miles from Shreveport to Abner, Louisiana, killed 8 people, and injured 50
  • The temperature in Los Angeles, California, hit 95 degrees F, a record high for the month of February

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