On This Day:  February 20

1971 -- Real U.S. Emer­gen­cy Broad­cast Sys­tem alert mes­sage is ac­ci­den­tal­ly sent at the usu­al test time. It is large­ly ig­nored, lead­ing to the pro­pos­al of a new law pro­hibit­ing ac­tu­al emer­gen­cies at that hour of the day.

19 | February | 21