Notable Historical Events on March 20th
March 20th Historical Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
141 |
6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet |
1345 |
Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction: thought "cause of plague epidemic" |
1525 |
Paris' parliament begins pursuit of Protestants |
1569 |
Duke van Alva leads "tenth penning" in Ponts the Cé |
1598 |
French King Henri IV & duke van Mercour sign treaty |
1600 |
The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden. |
1602 |
United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms |
1616 |
Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana |
1627 |
France & Spain sign accord for fighting protestantism |
1697 |
Willem de Vlamingh returns to Batavia after exploring "South Land" |
1739 |
Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne. |
1760 |
Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings |
1800 |
French army defeats Turks at Helipolis & advance to Cairo |
1800 |
Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London |
1814 |
Prince Willem Frederik becomes monarch of Netherlands |
1815 |
Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule |
1816 |
US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions |
1833 |
US & Siam sign commercial treaty |
1852 |
Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published (Boston) |
1861 |
An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina. |
1863 |
Battle of Pensacola FL -evacuated by Federals |
1865 |
2nd day of Battle of Bentonville NC |
1865 |
Michigan authorizes workers' cooperatives |
1868 |
Jesse James Gang robs bank in Russelville, Kentucky, of $14,000 |
1883 |
Unity treaty of Paris signed: protects industrial property |
1885 |
John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine |
1885 |
Yiddish theater opens in NY with Golldfaden operetta |
1886 |
1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation, Mass |
1888 |
Start of the Sherlock Holmes Adventure "A Scandal in Bohemia" |
1888 |
The premiere of the very first Romani language operetta staged in Moscow, Russia. |
1890 |
General Federation of Womans' Clubs founded |
1890 |
German emperor Wilhelm II fires republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck |
1896 |
Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens |
1896 |
Uprising in Matabeleland |
1897 |
1st US orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary (RIETS) incorporates in NY |
1897 |
1st known intercollegiate basketball game, Yale beats Penn 32-10 |
1897 |
France signs treaty with emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia |
1900 |
US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an 'open door' policy in China have essentially accepted his stand. |
1902 |
France and Russia issue a joint declaration that approves the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, but stipulates that they have the right to protect interests in China and Korea |
1906 |
George Bernard Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion" premieres in London |
1911 |
National Squash Tennis Association forms (NYC) |
1911 |
Winter Garden Theater opens at 1634 Broadway NYC |
1914 |
1st international figure-skating tournament held in US, New Haven |
1916 |
Allies attack Zeebrugge Belgium |
1920 |
1st flight from London to South Africa lands (took 1½ months) |
1920 |
US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld |
1920 |
US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Sherwin Badger |
1922 |
USS Langley is commissioned, US Navy's 1st aircraft carrier |
1922 |
WIP-AM in Philadelphia PA begins radio transmissions |
1923 |
Bavarian minister of interior refuses to forbid Nazi Sturm Abteilung |
1923 |
Belgian Senate rejects Dutch University in Ghent |
1924 |
Finnair begins scheduled flight of Helsinki-Tallinn |
1924 |
Stanley Cup: Mont Canadiens (NHL) sweep Vanc Millionaires (PCHA) in 2 |
1930 |
Clessie Cummins sets diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph |
1931 |
Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin |
1932 |
Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kara-Kalpak ASSR |
1933 |
Dachau, 1st Nazi concentration camp, completed |
1934 |
Rudolf Kuhnold demonstrates radar in Kiel Germany |
1934 |
Female Babe Didrickson pitches hitless inning for Phila A's in exhibition game against Brooklyn Dodgers |
1937 |
Franco offensive at Guadalajara, Spain |
1939 |
7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania |
1940 |
Paul Reynoud becomes French premier |
1941 |
Nazi-German/Yugoslav pact drawn |
1942 |
Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia |
1942 |
Gen MacArthur vows, "I shall return" |
1942 |
Major German assault on Malta |
1943 |
German U-384 bombed & sinks |
1944 |
Bus falls off bridge into Passaic River NJ, killing 16 |
1944 |
Mount Vesuvius, Italy, explodes |
1945 |
US 70th Infantry division/7th Armour division attack Saar |
1946 |
Belgian government of Spaak resigns |
1947 |
180 tonne blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic |
1948 |
1st live televised musical Eugene Ormandy on CBS followed in 90 |
1948 |
20th Academy Awards - "Gentleman's Agreement", L Young, R Colman win minutes by 2nd live televised musical Arturo Toscvanni on NBC |
1951 |
Indonesian army offensive against Darul Islam on Java |
1951 |
Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded. |
1952 |
24th Academy Awards - "American in Paris", Humphrey Bogart & Vivian Leigh win |
1952 |
Final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan by US Senate |
1953 |
Senator Edwin C Johnson offers a bill to give clubs the sole |
1954 |
"King & I" closes at St James Theater NYC after 1246 performances |
1954 |
16th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: La Salle beats Bradley 92-76 |
1954 |
1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania) |
1955 |
KXTV TV channel 10 in Sacramento, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting |
1956 |
156-day strike against Westinghouse ends |
1956 |
E Ochab succeeds Beirut as 1st secretary of Polish CP |
1956 |
Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) explodes |
1956 |
Tunisia gains independence from France |
1956 |
USSR performs nuclear test |
1956 |
Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp |
1957 |
Britain accepts NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejects it |
1958 |
50" snow across the Mason-Dixon line |
1958 |
Clandestine Burasi Bizim Radio (communist) begins transmitting |
1958 |
Greek Clandestine Radio (communist), Voice of Truth 1st transmission |
1962 |
Sjoukje Dijkstra becomes world champion figure skater |
1963 |
1st "Pop Art" exhibition (NYC) |
1964 |
ESRO established, European Space Research Organization |
1965 |
27th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Michigan 91-80 |
1965 |
Venkataraghavan takes 8-72 v NZ at Delhi |
1965 |
Civil and Women's Rights Activist Dorothy Height has her first column published in the weekly African-American newspaper called the "New York Amsterdam News" |
1966 |
Marilynn Smith wins LPGA St Petersburg Women's Golf Open |
1967 |
The Supremes release "The Happening" |
1967 |
WOET (now WPTD) TV channel 16 in Dayton, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting |
1968 |
LBJ signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money |
1968 |
Military intervene in South-Yemen (leftist ministers resign) |
1969 |
Abebe Bikila's auto-accident, near Addis Ababa |
1969 |
US president Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970 |
1971 |
Boston Bruins win 13th straight NHL game |
1971 |
Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark resigns in protest at what he views as a limited security response by the British government |
1972 |
19 mountain climbers killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche |
1972 |
S Mansholt succeeds Malfatti as chairman of European Committee |
1972 |
Donegall Street bombing: the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonate its first car bomb on Donegall Street in Belfast; four civilians, two RUC officers and a UDR soldier killed while 148 people were wounded |
1973 |
Roberto Clemente elected to Hall of Fame, 11 weeks after his death |
1976 |
Jevgeni Kulikov skates world record 1000m (1:15.70) |
1976 |
Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery |
1977 |
Communists/socialists win French municipal elections |
1977 |
Parisians elect former PM Jacques Chirac as 1st mayor in a century |
1977 |
Premier Indira Gandhi loses election in India |
1978 |
Flyers' Rick MacLeash scores on 6th penalty shot against Islanders |
1979 |
Columbia flies on Shuttle carrier aircraft to Kennedy Space Center |
1980 |
The Mi Amigo ship containing England's pirate Radio Caroline sinks |
1980 |
US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran |
1981 |
Argentine ex-president Isabel Peron sentenced to 8 years |
1981 |
Jean Harris sentenced 15-to-life for slaying of Scarsdale Diet Dr |
1982 |
1st-class debut of Richie Richardson, Leeward Is v Barbados |
1982 |
France performs nuclear test |
1982 |
Joan Jett & Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" goes #1 for 7 wks |
1982 |
Rev A Treurnicht forms Conservative Party of South Africa |
1983 |
Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Women's Kemper Golf Open |
1984 |
Andy Kaufman & Fred Blassie's "My Breakfast With Blassie" premieres |
1984 |
Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools |
1985 |
Libby Riddles is 1st woman to win Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race |
1986 |
228 KPH gust of wind strikes Cairngorm (UK record) |
1986 |
Jacques Chirac forms French government |
1987 |
FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment) |
1987 |
NASA launches Palapa B2P |
1987 |
Soap opera "Capitol" final episode |
1987 |
Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit |
1987 |
Yvonne van Gennip skates ladies' world record 5 km (7:20.36) |
1988 |
David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," premieres in NYC |
1988 |
Laura Davies wins Circle K LPGA Tucson Golf Open |
1988 |
Mike Tyson KOs Tony Tubbs in 2 for heavyweight boxing title |
1988 |
Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet. |
1989 |
Baseball announces Reds manager Pete Rose is under investigation |
1989 |
Richard J Kerr replaces Robert M Gates as deputy director of CIA |
1990 |
LA Lakers retires Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33 |
1990 |
Singer Gloria Estefan breaks her collarbone in a bus accident |
1991 |
Court awards Peggy Lee $3 million in suit against Disney |
1991 |
Michael Jackson signs $65M 6 album deal with Sony records |
1991 |
Supreme Court rules unanimously employers can't exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage fetus |
1991 |
US forgives $2 billion in loans to Poland |
1992 |
Janice Pennington is awarded $1.3M for accident on Price is Right set |
1992 |
Noriega's wife Felicidad arrested for stealing buttons from dresses |
1993 |
Dan Jansen skates world record 500m (36.02 sec) |
1993 |
IRA-bomb kills 3 year old in Warrington England |
1994 |
"Cyrano - The Musical" closes at Neil Simon NYC after 137 perfs |
1994 |
"Flowering Peach" opens at Lyceum Theater NYC for 41 performances |
1994 |
"No Man's Land" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 61 performances |
1994 |
14th Golden Raspberry Awards: Indecent Proposal wins |
1994 |
Brett Hart wins WWF championship at Wrestlemania X |
1994 |
El Salvador's 1st pres election following 12-year-old civil war |
1994 |
Laura Davies wins LPGA Standard Register Ping Golf Tournament |
1994 |
Mashonaland U-24 beat Matabeleland on 1st inn to win Logan Cup |
1994 |
Wrestlemania X at Madison Square Garden NY, Bret Hart pins Yokozuna |
1994 |
Zulu-king Goodwill Zwelithini founds realm in South Africa |
1995 |
Dow-Jones hits 4083.68 (record) |
1995 |
Poison Gas released in Tokyo subway 12 killed, 4,700 injured |
1995 |
Beatles song, "Baby It's You", with late John Lennon as lead singer, is released, 1st Fab Four single in more than 30 years |
1996 |
"Love Thy Neighbor" opens at Booth Theater NYC |
1996 |
Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents |
1996 |
UK admits humans can catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease) |
1997 |
"Play On!" opens at Brooks Atkinson Theater NYC for 61 performances |
1997 |
Liggett admits cigarettes are addictive |
1997 |
Mens Figure Skating Championship in Lausanne won by Elvis Stojko (CAN) |
1999 |
Legoland California, the first and only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California. |
1999 |
19th Golden Raspberry Awards: An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn wins |
2000 |
Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff's deputy dead. |
2001 |
Petrobras 36 Oil Platform, the world's largest oil rig, sinks with 400,000 US gallons of fuel and crude oil aboard, after suffering three explosions on March 15 |
2002 |
16th Soul Train Music Awards: The O'Jays, Dr. Dre & Alicia Keys wins |
2004 |
Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, becoming the party's first leader. |
2004 |
18th Soul Train Music Awards: R. Kelly, Janet Jackson, Outkast & Beyoncé win |
2005 |
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Fukuoka, Japan, its first major quake in over 100 years. One person is killed, hundreds are injured and evacuated. |
2006 |
Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop. |
2006 |
Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby. |
2012 |
50 people are killed and 240 injured in a wave of terror attacks across 10 cities in Iraq |
2012 |
Disney movie John Carter records one of the largest losses in cinema history with a $200 million dollar write down |
2013 |
Pierre Deligne wins the 2013 Abel Prize in mathematics |
2016 |
American Firm, Starwood, Signs Deal to Manage Hotels in Cuba |
2016 |
Anti-Trump Protesters Block Road in Arizona and Clash With Police in New York |
2016 |
Two American citizens killed in Istanbul blast: White House |
2016 |
US marine dies in Iraq Mosul rocket attack |
2016 |
Pope Francis gets an Instagram account |
2017 |
SpaceX Dragon capsule returns to Earth |
2018 |
US, South Korea announce annual military exercises to begin on April 1 |
2018 |
'Sex and the City' star Cynthia Nixon running for governor |
Keep in touch with us:
beta testing:
nothing here now
