Holidays Calendar for February 5, 2020
Kashmir Solidarity Day, also referred to as Kashmir Day, is a public holiday in Pakistan celebrated on February 5. It has been observed since 1990.
On February 5, the Republic of Burundi celebrates Unity Day. This public holiday was introduced by President Pierre Buyoya in an attempt to reconcile the warring ethnic groups of the Tutsi and the Hutu.
February 5 is a public holiday in San Marino known as Liberation Day. It commemorates the anniversary of the liberation from the Alberoni occupation. It is also the feast day of Saint Agatha of Sicily, the patron saint of San Marino.
On February 5, sweet tooths around the world celebrate World Nutella Day. This gastronomic holiday is dedicated to a brand of hazelnut cocoa spread manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero.
World Read Aloud Day is observed on the first Wednesday of February every year. It is a global literacy campaign that was launched to bring the tradition of oral storytelling back and strengthen communities through the power of stories.
Global School Play Day is an annual campaign that aims to highlight the importance of unstructured play for children of all ages. It is observed on the first Wednesday in February.
February 5 is National Weatherperson's Day (or National Weatherman's Day) in the USA.
On February 5, the Finns celebrate the birthday of Johan Ludvig Runeberg, their national poet. It is not an official flag day in Finland, but the state flag is still traditionally flown on this occasion.
The birthdays of the members of the Royal Family are not public holidays in Denmark, but on these days the state flag is traditionally flown. For instance, February 5 is the birthday of Queen Mary of Denmark.
Chocolate fondue is one of the best desserts for a party because it is a delicious and engaging experience. Celebrate National Chocolate Fondue Day on February 5 by inviting your friends over to dip fruit, cookies and marshmallows into melted chocolate.
Some people think that rosés are underappreciated wines that deserve more attention and recognition than they get. If you’re one of them, you should celebrate New Zealand Rosé Day on February 5 and let others know about this amazing holiday.
National Girls and Women in Sports Day is observed in the United States during the first week of February, typically falling on the first Wednesday of the month. It was created to celebrate female athletes and to emphasize the importance of gender equality in sports.
Festivals on February 5, 2020
- Minsk International Book Fair in Minsk, Belarus
- Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, UAE
- Sanremo Music Festival in Sanremo, Italy
- Great British Beer Festival Winter (ex. National Winter Ales Festival) in Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Carnival of Foiano della Chiana in Foiano della Chiana, Italy
- Carnival in the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Carnival of Viareggio in Viareggio, Italy
- Panagbenga Festival in Baguio, Philippines
- Sapporo Snow Festival in Sapporo, Japan
- St. Moritz Gourmet Festival in St. Moritz, Switzerland
- International Kolkata Book Fair in Kolkata, India
- Montevideo Carnival in Montevideo, Uruguay
- Carnival of Limoux in Limoux, France
- Patras Carnival in Patras, Greece
- Rijeka Carnival in Rijeka, Croatia
This Day in History
- 2021 Died: Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor whose career spanned seven decades, gaining recognition for his performances in film, television, and theatre.
- 2020 Died: Kirk Douglas, American actor, producer, director, philanthropist and author. He is No. 17 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema.
- 2013 Died: Stuart Freeborn, English make up artist, often referred to as the "grandfather of modern make-up design". Among his best known works is the design and fabrication of Yoda in the original Star Wars trilogy.
- 2008 Died: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, the developer of the Transcendental Meditation technique and the leader and guru of a worldwide organization that had been characterized both as a new religious movement and as non-religious.
- 1999 Died: Wassily Leontief, Russian-American economist, Nobel Prize laureate in Economic Sciences. He is known for his research of how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on others.
- 1997 Switzerland banks announced the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
- 1995 Died: Doug McClure, American actor, whose career extended from the 1950s to the 1990s. Best known for his role as the cowboy Trampas during the run of the NBC western television series The Virginian.
- 1994 More than 60 people were killed and around 200 wounded as a mortar shell exploded in the downtown marketplace of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 1991 Died: Dean Jagger, American film, stage and television actor, best known for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High, which won an Academy Award.
- 1987 Born: Henry Golding, Malaysian-born English actor and TV presenter known for his roles in the films Crazy Rich Asians, Snake Eyes, A Simple Favor, and Last Christmas.
- 1987 Born: Alex Brightman, American actor of stage and screen, best known for his work in musical theatre, specifically in the Broadway musicals School of Rock and Beetlejuice the Musical.
- 1987 Born: Darren Criss, American actor, singer, and songwriter, best known for his portrayal of Blaine Anderson on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee.
- 1985 Born: Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer, sometimes regarded as the best player in the world and as one of the greatest of all time. Ronaldo is also known to be the world's most expensive player.
- 1980 Born: Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer, the creator of LiveJournal and the author of a variety of free software projects.
- 1971 Astronauts in the Apollo 14 mission landed on the Moon. This mission was the last of "H missions" targeting landings with 2-day stays on the Moon.
- 1969 Born: Michael Sheen, Welsh actor with an extensive list of stage and screen credits and a number of accolades to his name. He is also known for his political and social activism.
- 1964 Born: Laura Linney, American actress whose accolades include two Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards, and nominations for three Academy Awards and five Tony Awards.
- 1962 Died: Jacques Ibert, French composer, author of operas, ballets, music for films and plays, choral works and chamber music, best remembered for his orchestral works "Escales" and "Divertissement".
- 1958 US Air Force lost a hydrogen bomb off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. The bomb has never been recovered.
- 1952 Died: Adela Verne, English pianist and composer, considered one of the greatest woman pianists of her era, ranked alongside the male pianists giants of the time.
- 1948 Born: Tom Wilkinson, English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
- 1927 Born: Ruth Fertel, American businesswoman, the founder of Ruth's Chris Steak House, a chain of 136 steakhouses across the U.S. Ruth's Chris Steak House is currently the largest luxury steak company in a number of locations.
- 1920 Born: Frank Muir, English comedian and actor, known for his writings together with Denis Norden for BBC radio (Take It From Here, My Word!, My Music).
- 1919 United Artist, an American film and television entertainment company, was launched by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.
- 1918 SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German U-boat UB-77 and sunk. 210 American soldiers of 2,000 aboard died.
- 1915 Born: Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate for his studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for discoveries concerning the structure of nucleons.
- 1914 Born: William S. Burroughs, American author, known as a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author.
- 1909 Leo Baekeland, Belgian chemist, who announced the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
- 1906 Born: John Carradine, American actor, best known for his roles in Westerns and horror films. Carradine is regarded as one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history.
- 1885 The treaty for the Panama Canal was signed by the United States and the United Kingdom.
- 1881 Died: Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and author, considered one of the most important social commentators of his time.
- 1878 Born: André Citroën, French engineer and businessman, the founder of Citroën, a major French automobile manufacturer, today a part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.
- 1869 "Welcome Stranger", the largest alluvial gold nugget in the history, was found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia. Its refined weight was 3,123 oz 6 dwts 9 gr (71.018 kg), and it's measured 24 by 12 in (61 by 31 cm).
- 1840 Born: Hiram Maxim, American-English inventor; he is best known as the inventor of the Maxim Gun, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun.
- 1754 Died: Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch astronomer and cartographer, whose historical calculations are still used today by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
- 1579 Died: Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian painter, best known for his realistic portraits of the local clergy and nobility, considered one of the greatest portrait painters of the 16th century Italy.
- 62 An earthquake severely damaged Pompei and Herculaneum, Italy. This earthquake may have been a precursor to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, which totally destroyed the same two towns.