March 20 Birthday
March 20 is typically the vernal equinox, the moment when day and night are roughly equal length and spring begins in the Northern Hemisphere. On this day in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published. It sold 300,000 copies in its first year and was the second best-selling book of the 19th century after the Bible. Abraham Lincoln, meeting Stowe in 1862, reportedly said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war." Whether he said it is debated, but the book's impact on abolitionist sentiment is not. People born on March 20 fall under the zodiac sign of Pisces. The birthstone is Aquamarine and the birth flower is Daffodil. Historical events on March 20 include 1852: Uncle Tom's Cabin published, 1854: Republican Party founded, 2003: Iraq War begins. Famous people born on March 20 include Henrik Ibsen (1828), Fred Rogers (1928), Spike Lee (1957).