Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 20

February 20:

• 1472 – James III of Scotland annexed Orkney and Shetland from Denmark–Norway.

• 1816 – Italian composer Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa The Barber of Seville, based on the first Figaro play by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, debuted at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

• 1913 – Australian politician King O'Malley (pictured) drove in the first survey peg to mark the commencement of work on the construction of Canberra, a planned city designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin.

• 1959 – The Canadian government under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro CF-105 Arrow interceptor aircraft programme amid much political debate.

• 2005 – Spanish voters passed a referendum on the ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, despite the lowest turnout in any election since the transition to democracy in the 1970s.

More anniversaries:

• February 19
• February 20
• February 21