November 20Birthdays & History

On this day: November 20 in history

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

1. 284Diocletian is chosen as Roman emperor.Europe
2. 762During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptures Luoyang from the rebels.Asia
3. 1194Palermo is conquered by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.Europe
4. 1407John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, agree to a truce, but Burgundy would kill Orléans three days later.Europe
5. 1441The Peace of Cremona ends the war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, after the victorious Venetian enterprise of military engineering of the Galeas per montes.Europe
6. 1695Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.Latin AmericaEurope
7. 1739Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.Europe
8. 1776American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey.North AmericaEurope
9. 1789New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.North America
10. 1805Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.Europe
11. 1815The Second Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by troops of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia for several more years.Europe
12. 1820An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this incident.)North AmericaLatin America
13. 1845Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.Europe
14. 1861American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government.North America
15. 1873Garnier Expedition: French forces under Lieutenant Francis Garnier captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese.EuropeAsia
16. 1900The French actress Sarah Bernhardt receives the press at the Savoy Hotel in New York at the outset of her first visit since 1896. She talked about her impending tour with a troupe of more than 50 performers and her plans to play the title role in Hamlet.EuropeNorth America
17. 1910Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution.Latin America
18. 1917World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.Europe
19. 1936José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad.Europe
20. 1940World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.Europe
21. 1943World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins: United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.North AmericaAsia
22. 1945Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.Europe
23. 1946Indonesian National Revolution: 96 Indonesian including I Gusti Ngurah Rai were killed during the Battle of Margarana with Dutch forces.AsiaEurope
24. 1947The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.Europe
25. 1959The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.World
26. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.Latin AmericaEuropeNorth America
27. 1968A total of 78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in the Farmington Mine disaster.North America
28. 1969Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.AsiaNorth America
29. 1969Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.North America
30. 1974The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.North America
31. 1974The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board.Africa
32. 1977Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.Middle East
33. 1979Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.Middle EastEurope
34. 1980Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole.North America
35. 1985Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.North America
36. 1989Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.Europe
37. 1990Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings.Europe
38. 1991An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan.EuropeAsia
39. 1992In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.Europe
40. 1993North Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurs when Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Ohrid Airport, killing all 116 people on board.Europe
41. 1993Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.North America
42. 1994The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.)Africa
43. 1996A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81.Asia
44. 1998A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.AsiaNorth AmericaAfrica
45. 1998The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.Asia
46. 2003After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate.Middle EastEurope
47. 2015Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali.Africa
48. 2016Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time.North America
49. 2022The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.Middle East

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