February 20 - Tuesday
1986 The research station Mir was put into space orbit.
In the Soviet Union, the Mir space station was launched, which replaced the Salyut orbital stations and became the world's only manned space laboratory for long-term scientific and technical experiments and research of the human organism in space for a decade and a half. The station was a base unit for constructing a multipurpose permanently operating manned complex with specialized orbital modules of scientific and national economic significance. Subsequently, the modules "Kvant", "Quantum-2", "Crystal", "Spectrum" were docked and started working. The construction of the orbital complex was completely completed on April 26, 1996, when the fifth, the last retrofitting module - "Nature" with the most sophisticated scientific equipment, was docked to Mir. With the completion of the construction of the complex, its weight (base unit and five modules) amounted to almost 129 tons.
The Mir orbital complex was in operation until June 2000 - almost three times longer than planned at the station launch. During this time 28 space expeditions were conducted on it, in total 139 Soviet and foreign space explorers visited the complex, 11.5 tons of scientific equipment were placed 240 items from 27 countries of the world. During the existence of this space laboratory on its board, 24 international programs of experimental research were carried out, more than 16.5 thousand experiments were carried out. In the process of creating the complex, more than 600 new technologies have been developed. Also, on the Russian space complex Mir, world records were set for the duration of the orbital flight, the duration of stay in space, and outlets to outer space. In January 2001, the Russian government signed a decree on the termination of the complex's operation due to its extreme deterioration. On March 23, 2001, the orbital complex completed its triumphal flight.
World Day of Social Justice.
1872 The Metropolitan Museum was opened in New York.
1909 "The First Manifesto of Futurism" is published.
1940 For the first time, the animated couple Tom and Jerry appeared on the screens.
1975 The Day of Troops of Air Defense was established.