May 20Birthdays & History

On this day: May 20 in history

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

1. 325The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.Middle EastEurope
2. 491Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery.Europe
3. 685The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.Europe
4. 794While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a view to marrying princess Ælfthryth, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia is taken captive and beheaded.Europe
5. 921Christopher Lekapenos is crowned Byzantine co-emperor by his father, emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, on the feast of Whitsun.Europe
6. 942A Magyar raiding army defeats forces of the Muslim frontier state of Fraxinetum.Europe
7. 1202A major earthquake hits Syria, widely felt between Sicily and Iraq.Middle EastEurope
8. 1217The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.Europe
9. 1293King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de Generales in Alcalá de Henares.Europe
10. 1426King Mohnyin Thado formally ascends to the throne of Ava.Asia
11. 1449The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal.Europe
12. 1497John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).Europe
13. 1498Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.EuropeAsia
14. 1520Hernan Cortés defeats Pánfilo de Narváez, sent by Spain to punish him for insubordination.Europe
15. 1521Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna.Europe
16. 1570Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.Europe
17. 1609Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.Europe
18. 1631The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.Europe
19. 1645Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of the residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.Asia
20. 1714Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.Europe
21. 1741The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory and the British begin withdrawal towards Jamaica with substantial losses.EuropeLatin America
22. 1775The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina.North America
23. 1802By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.Europe
24. 1813Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.Europe
25. 1861American Civil War: The State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.North America
26. 1861American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.North America
27. 1862U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening eighty-four million acres (340,000 km2) of public land to settlers.North America
28. 1864American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.North America
29. 1873Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.North America
30. 1875Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.World
31. 1882The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed.Europe
32. 1883Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.Asia
33. 1891History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.North America
34. 1902Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.Latin AmericaNorth America
35. 1927Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing 33+1⁄2 hours later.Europe
36. 1927Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.EuropeMiddle East
37. 1932Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.North AmericaEurope
38. 1940The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.Europe
39. 1941World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete.Europe
40. 1943The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928–3651 BC), is discovered near Luttra, Sweden.Europe
41. 1948Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing.Asia
42. 1949In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.North America
43. 1956In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.North AmericaOceania
44. 1958Capital Airlines Flight 300 collides in mid-air with a United States Air Force Lockheed T-33 over Brunswick, Maryland, killing 12.North America
45. 1964Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.North America
46. 1965One hundred twenty-one people are killed when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 crashes at Cairo International Airport.AsiaMiddle East
47. 1967The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Africa
48. 1969The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.Asia
49. 1971In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus.Asia
50. 1980In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, with 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada.North America
51. 1983Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by UMkhonto we Sizwe explodes on Church Street in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others.Africa
52. 1983First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier.Europe
53. 1985Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.North AmericaLatin America
54. 1989The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.Asia
55. 1990The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.Europe
56. 1996Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.North America
57. 2002The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).AsiaEurope
58. 2009An Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100 Hercules crashes in Magetan Regency, killing 99.Asia
59. 2011Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post.Asia
60. 2012At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.Europe
61. 2013An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.North America
62. 2016The government of Singapore authorises the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.Asia
63. 2019The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.World
64. 2022Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege.Europe

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