Notable Historical Events on December 20th
December 20th Historical Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
69 |
General Vespasian's troops occupy Rome after defeating the Emperor Vitellius |
1046 |
Synod of Sutri: German King Henry III removes Popes Gregory VI |
1046 |
Benedictus IX & Silvester III & names Bishop Siutger, Pope Clemens II at the Council of Sutri |
1192 |
Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna |
1448 |
Pope Nicholas V appoints Rudolf of Diepholt, Bishop of Utrecht, as cardinal |
1522 |
Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta. |
1585 |
English fleet & Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, reach Vlissingen |
1600 |
Ottario Rinuccini/Giulio Caccini's opera "Euridice" published |
1606 |
Virginia Company settlers leave London to establish Jamestown, Virginia |
1626 |
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Prince of Transylvania Gabor Bethlen sign Peace of Pressburg (Bratislava) |
1661 |
Corporation Act enforced in England |
1669 |
1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery |
1688 |
Prince William of Orange's troops arrive in London |
1694 |
Frederik van Brandenburg flees Schweiben |
1699 |
Russian Tsar Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed from Sept 1 to Jan 1 |
1745 |
Bonnie Prince Charlie's army reaches the river Esk |
1780 |
Britain declares war on Holland |
1790 |
1st successful US cotton mill to spin yarn (Pawtucket, RI) |
1803 |
French flag lowered in New Orleans to mark formal transfer of Louisiana Purchase from France to US for $27M |
1812 |
"Grimm's Fairy Tales" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is published |
1820 |
Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50 |
1823 |
Franz Schubert's "Ballet-Musik aus Rosamunde," premieres in Vienna |
1830 |
Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia recognize Belgium |
1850 |
Hawaiian post office established |
1860 |
South Carolina secedes from the Union (US Civil War) |
1861 |
Battle of Dranesville, VA |
1862 |
-Dec 20th] Battle of Kelly's Ford, VA |
1862 |
-Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign |
1862 |
Battle of Holly Spring, MS |
1862 |
Brig-gen Nathan Bedford Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky |
1864 |
-Dec 27th] Battle of Ft Fisher, NC |
1865 |
De Clear-Alkmaar railway opens |
1879 |
Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park |
1880 |
Battle at Bronker's Spruit, Transvaal: Farmers beat Britten |
1880 |
NY's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way" |
1883 |
Intl cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls |
1891 |
Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses |
1892 |
Phileas Fogg completes around world trip, according to Verne |
1892 |
Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse, NY |
1893 |
1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia |
1894 |
England beat Australia by 10 runs in the 1st six-day Test Cricket, Australia needed 177 to win, all out at 166 on 6th day |
1900 |
Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft) |
1906 |
Venezuela (under vice-pres Gomez) attacks Dutch fleet |
1907 |
Explosion at Yolande Alabama, coal mine kills 91 |
1912 |
J Hartley Manners' "Peg O' My Heart" premieres in NYC |
1912 |
Paul Claudels "L'Annonce Faite à Marie" premieres in Paris |
1915 |
Russian troops overrun Qom, Persia |
1915 |
Final withdraw of all allied troops from Anzac Cove |
1917 |
Cheka formed - Soviet state security force and forerunner to the KGB, under Felix Dzerzhinsky after decree by Lenin |
1918 |
Eugene O'Neill's "Moon of the Caribees" premieres in NYC |
1919 |
Canadian National Railways established (N America's longest, 50,000 KM) |
1919 |
US House of Representatives restricts immigration |
1920 |
Bert Collins scores 104 on Test Cricket debut v England SCG |
1920 |
Bob Hope becomes an American citizen |
1921 |
AL votes to return to best-of-7 World Series, while NL votes best-of-9 Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis casts deciding vote for best-of-7 |
1922 |
14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR) |
1922 |
Polish parliament selects Stanislaw Wojcieckowski as president |
1924 |
Adolf Hitler freed from jail early |
1926 |
Cards trade Rogers Hornsby to Giants for Frankie Frisch & Jimmy Ring |
1926 |
Pope Pius XI convicts fascist pursuit in Italy |
1926 |
Sidney Howard's "Silver Cord" premieres in NYC |
1928 |
1st international dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal, Quebec |
1928 |
Ethel Barrymore Theater opens at 243 W 47th St NYC |
1929 |
Heinie Wagner replaces Bill Carrigan as Red Sox manager |
1929 |
Mount Davidson dedicated as a SF city park |
1930 |
Learie Constantine cricket 100 in 52 mins WI v Tas (10x4, 1x6, 1x5) |
1932 |
Queensland all out 74 v Victoria, Ironmonger (age 50) 7-13 |
1933 |
Bolivia & Paraguay sign cease fire |
1935 |
Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Ad Catholici Sacerdotii |
1937 |
Bill O'Reilly takes 9-41 for NSW against South Australia |
1938 |
Vladimir K Zworykin (Penn) receives patent on Iconoscope TV system |
1939 |
Radio Australia begins overseas shortwave service |
1940 |
Connie Mack acquires controlling interest in the Athletics for $42,000 |
1941 |
Free France under adm Muselier occupies St-Pierre et Miquelon |
1941 |
Japanese troops lands on Mindanao |
1941 |
World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China. |
1942 |
1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta |
1943 |
"Internationale" is no longer USSR National Anthem |
1944 |
Archbishop De Young & bishop Huibers condemn black market |
1944 |
Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!) |
1944 |
Bishop forbids membership of non Catholic unions |
1944 |
Terence Rattigan's "O Mistress Mine" premieres in London |
1945 |
Rationing of auto tires ends in US |
1946 |
Darius Milhaud's 2nd Symphony, premieres |
1948 |
Second Chamber accept 2nd Police Action in Indonesia |
1949 |
Maurice Ravel/John Cranko's ballet "Beauty & the Beast" premieres |
1950 |
"Harvey" starring James Stewart premieres in NY |
1951 |
Walter Zinn's Experimental Breeder Reactor I, the first nuclear reactor to produce electric power, goes live at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA |
1952 |
KHQ TV channel 6 in Spokane, WA (NBC) begins broadcasting |
1953 |
KID (now KIDK) TV channel 3 in Idaho Falls, ID (CBS) 1st broadcasting |
1953 |
KWTV TV channel 9 in Oklahoma City, OK (CBS) begins broadcasting |
1955 |
Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales |
1956 |
Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra |
1956 |
Montgomery, Ala, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses |
1957 |
Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service |
1959 |
Jasu Patel takes 9-69, India v Australia at Kanpur |
1960 |
Auschwitz commandant Richard Bar arrested in German FR |
1960 |
National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed. |
1962 |
Dmitri Shostakovitch's opera "Katerina Ismailova" premieres in Moscow |
1962 |
Osmond brothers debut on Andy Williams Show |
1963 |
Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners |
1963 |
Massemba-Debate elected pres of Congo-Brazzaville |
1963 |
Trial against 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins |
1964 |
Levi Eshkol forms Israeli government |
1966 |
NBA awards Seattle Supersonics a franchise for 1967-68 season |
1966 |
Nuclear Planning Group forms in Brussels |
1966 |
US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site |
1967 |
"The Graduate" starring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft premieres |
1967 |
474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam |
1967 |
Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull |
1968 |
The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California. |
1968 |
The People's Democracy (PD) announce that its members will undertake a protest march from Belfast to Derry beginning 1 January 1969 |
1969 |
Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reaches #1 |
1970 |
Edward Gierek succeeds Wladyslaw Gomulka as Poland's communist party leader |
1971 |
Pakistan president Yahya Khan resigns |
1972 |
Neil Simons "Sunshine Boys" premieres in NYC |
1972 |
Five civilians (four Catholics, one Protestant) killed in gun attack on the Top of the Hill Bar in Derry, North Ireland |
1973 |
AL pres Joe Cronin refuses to allow Dick Williams to manage Yankees |
1973 |
Dutch Antillean government of Evertsz forms |
1973 |
Montreal Canadien Henri Richard scores his 1,000th NHL point |
1974 |
Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state |
1974 |
George Harrison releases his "Dark Horse" album in UK |
1974 |
"The Godfather Part II", starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, is released |
1975 |
Joe Walsh recruited to join Eagles |
1975 |
Pope Paul VI named J Willebrands archbishop of Utrecht |
1976 |
"Music Is" opens at St James Theater NYC for 8 performances |
1976 |
Israel's PM Yitzhak Rabin resigns |
1977 |
1st Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut |
1977 |
RAF -terrorist Knut Folkerts sentenced to 20 years |
1978 |
H R Haldeman, Nixon's White House chief of staff released from jail |
1980 |
NBC broadcasts NY Jets' 24-17 win over Dolphins without audio |
1980 |
USSR formally announces death of Alexei Kosygin |
1981 |
Harry Krieger/Tom Eyen's musical "Dreamgirls" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 1522 performances |
1981 |
Browns set team records for most fumbles (9) & most turnovers (10) |
1981 |
Doug Small (Winnipeg Jets) ties NHL record scoring at 5 second mark |
1983 |
El Salvador adopts constitution |
1983 |
Guy Lafleur, Montreal, became 10th NHLer to score 500 goals |
1983 |
NY Islanders score their most goals (11) vs Pitts Penguins |
1983 |
PLO chairman Yasser Arafat & 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon |
1984 |
33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in Yale library |
1984 |
US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site |
1985 |
Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr as NHL defenseman scorer (916 points) |
1985 |
Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC |
1985 |
Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st) |
1986 |
White teenagers beat blacks in Howard Beach, NY |
1987 |
"Nuts" with Barbra Striesand premieres |
1987 |
76th Davis Cup: Sweden beats India in Gothenburg (5-0) |
1987 |
Dona Paz ferry sinks after crash with oil tanker Vector, 4386 die |
1987 |
Nancy Lopez/Miller Barber wins LPGA Mazda Golf Championship |
1988 |
Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod's dept store, London |
1988 |
NBC signs lease to stay in NYC, 33 more years |
1988 |
Premier Ranasinghe Premadasa elected pres of Sri Lanka |
1989 |
Premier Lubbers sees CDA-party leader Elco Brinkman as successor |
1989 |
US troops invade Panama & oust Manuel Noriega, but don't catch him |
1990 |
Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15 |
1990 |
Robert F X Sillerman purchases WAFL NY-NJ Knights for $11 million |
1990 |
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns |
1991 |
NHL grants permanent membership to Tampa Lightning & Ottawa Senators |
1991 |
Paul Keating installed as premier of Australia |
1991 |
A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina. |
1991 |
"Father of the Bride", starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, and Martin Short, is released |
1992 |
Northwest & KLM introduce a new joint logo "Worldwide Reliability" |
1992 |
Slobodan Milosevic re-elected president of Serbia |
1995 |
"Paul Roebson" opens at Longacre Theater NYC for 14 performances |
1995 |
American Flight 965 crashes in Columbia, 159 die, 5 survive |
1995 |
NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia. |
1996 |
The horror classic "Scream", starring Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, is released |
1998 |
Wendy's Three-Tour Golf Challenge |
1999 |
Portugal returns Macau to China |
2001 |
Argentine economic crisis: President of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa is forced out of office. |
2001 |
90th Davis Cup: France beats Australia in Melbourne (3-2) |
2002 |
US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader. |
2002 |
"Gangs of New York", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz, is released |
2005 |
US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. |
2005 |
The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated. |
2005 |
2005 New York City transit strike: New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services. |
2006 |
A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle. |
2007 |
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days. |
2007 |
The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari. |
2012 |
Apple is denied a patent for mobile pinch-to-zoom gestures by the US patent authorities |
2012 |
Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for $8 billion |
2015 |
Man arrested after jumping fence, entering Treasury Building |
2015 |
Wrong contestant crowned at Miss Universe 2015 |
2015 |
Las Vegas Strip blocked off after car mows down pedestrians |
2015 |
Steve Harvey mistakenly crowns the wrong Miss Universe 2015 |
2015 |
Dozens missing after landslide in south China |
2016 |
Donald Trump wins electoral college vote |
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