December 20Birthdays & History

On this day: December 20 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 69Antonius Primus enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor for Nero's former general Vespasian.Europe
2. 944Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos is arrested by two of his sons, forced to abdicate and to live as a monk for the rest of his life.Europe
3. 1046Emperor Henry III convenes the synod of Sutri to mediate between different claimants to the papacy.Europe
4. 1192Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.Europe
5. 1334Cardinal Jacques Fournier, a Cistercian monk, is elected Pope Benedict XII.Europe
6. 1803The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.North America
7. 1808Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.Europe
8. 1832HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands.Latin America
9. 1848French presidential election: Having won the popular vote in a landslide, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is inaugurated in the chamber of the National Assembly as the first (and only) president of the French Second Republic.Europe
10. 1860South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States with the South Carolina Declaration of Secession.North America
11. 1915World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.Oceania
12. 1917Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.Europe
13. 1924Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.Europe
14. 1940Captain America Comics #1, containing the first appearance of the superhero Captain America, is published.North America
15. 1941World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers", in Kunming, China.North AmericaAsia
16. 1942World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.AsiaAsia
17. 1946An earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan causes a tsunami which kills at least one thousand people and destroys 36,000 homes.Asia
18. 1946It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews.North America
19. 1948Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia.AsiaEurope
20. 1951The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.North America
21. 1952A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington, killing 87 of the 115 people on board.North America
22. 1955Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.Europe
23. 1957The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.North America
24. 1960Vietnam War: The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, popularly known as the Viet Cong, is formally established in Tân Lập village, present day Tây Ninh province.Asia
25. 1968The Zodiac Killer murders his first two officially confirmed victims, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, on Lake Herman Road in Benicia, California, United States.North America
26. 1970Koza riot: After a series of hit-and-runs and other vehicular incidents involving American service personnel, roughly 5,000 Okinawans take to the streets, clashing with American law enforcement in protest against the U.S. occupation of Okinawa.North AmericaAsia
27. 1973Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ETA in Madrid kills three people, including the Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco.Europe
28. 1977With the approval of the State Council, China's two largest newspapers, the People's Daily and the Guangming Daily, publish in full for the first time the Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme.Asia
29. 1984The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.Europe
30. 1984Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."North America
31. 1985Pope John Paul II announces the creation of World Youth Day.Europe
32. 1987In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait of the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).Asia
33. 1988War on drugs: The United Nations agrees upon and promulgates the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, one of three major drug control treaties currently in force.World
34. 1989The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.North AmericaLatin America
35. 1991A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.North AmericaMiddle East
36. 1995American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia, killing 159 of the 163 people on board.North AmericaLatin America
37. 1999Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.AsiaEurope
38. 2004A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.Europe
39. 2007Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days.Europe
40. 2007The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil. Both will be recovered a few weeks later.EuropeLatin America
41. 2016Aerosucre Flight 157 crashes during takeoff from Germán Olano Airport in Puerto Carreño, Colombia, killing five people.Latin America
42. 2019The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.North America
43. 2024Six people are killed and over 200 are injured when an anti-Islam activist drives a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.Europe
44. 2024A mass stabbing occurs in a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia, in which a 7-year-old pupil is killed and six more are injured by a knife-wielding 19-year-old male.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "December 20" / CC BY-SA 4.0