Today in History
On This Day In History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
Apr 20, 295 |
8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet |
Apr 20, 850 |
Guntherus becomes bishop of Cologne |
Apr 20, 1139 |
2nd Lateran Council (10th ecumenical council) opens in Rome |
Apr 20, 1505 |
Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg |
Apr 20, 1551 |
John Dudley becomes Earl Marshal of England |
Apr 20, 1611 |
First known performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth at the Globe Theatre, London recorded by Simon Forman |
Apr 20, 1650 |
Dutch East India Company (VOC) management sets new guidelines |
Apr 20, 1653 |
Cromwell routes English parliament to house |
Apr 20, 1657 |
Battle in Santa Cruz Bay, Tenerife: English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet |
Apr 20, 1689 |
The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry. |
Apr 20, 1702 |
Comet C/1702 H1 approaches within 0.0437 AUs of Earth |
Apr 20, 1715 |
Nicholas Rowe's "Tragedy of Lady Jane Grey" premieres in London |
Apr 20, 1736 |
French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis begins his expedition to Lapland to measure a degree of latitude and prove the shape of the earth, he is joined by fellow scientists Anders Celsius, Charles Etienne Louis Camus, Alexis Claude Clairaut, and Pierre-Charles Le Monnier |
Apr 20, 1759 |
George Frederic Handel is buried in Westminster Abbey, London |
Apr 20, 1770 |
Captain Cook arrives in New South Wales |
Apr 20, 1775 |
British begin siege of Boston |
Apr 20, 1777 |
New York adopts new constitution as an independent state |
Apr 20, 1792 |
France declares war on Austria, Prussia & Sardinia |
Apr 20, 1799 |
Friedrich von Schiller's "Wallensteins Tod" premieres in Weimar |
Apr 20, 1809 |
Napoleon I and French forces defeat Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria |
Apr 20, 1810 |
The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain. |
Apr 20, 1828 |
René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou. |
Apr 20, 1836 |
Territory of Wisconsin created |
Apr 20, 1841 |
1st detective story (Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in Rue Morgue") published |
Apr 20, 1861 |
Battle of Norfolk, VA |
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