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This day in history

This day in history: 20 April

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day162 · 82

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Key facts

293 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 20 April.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2023: SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight.

Holidays and observances

420 (cannabis culture)

Christian feast day: Agnes of Montepulciano

Christian feast day: April 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Beuno

Christian feast day: Blessed Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz

Christian feast day: Blessed James Bell and John Finch

Christian feast day: Blessed Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh

Christian feast day: Johannes Bugenhagen (Lutheran)

Christian feast day: Marcellinus of Gaul

Christian feast day: Pope Anicetus

Christian feast day: Theotimos

Evacuee Flag Day (Finland)

Events

2023SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight.

2021State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota.

2020For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war.

2015Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland.

2013A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands.

2012One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan.

2010The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that lasted six months.

2008Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

2007Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself.

2004The Nicoll Highway in Singapore collapses, killing four workers.

1999Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

1998Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board.

1985University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in a

1972Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon.

1968English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech.

1968South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near J.G. Strijdom Airport in South West Africa (now Hosea Kutako International Airport in Namibia), killing 123 people.

1961Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

1949Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War.

1946The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

1945Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

1945World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

1945World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

1922The Soviet government creates the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR.

1918World War I: Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

1914Nineteen men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War.

1908Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.

1902Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

1898U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War.

1884Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry.

1876The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

1865Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.

1862Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.

1861American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

1861Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, attempting to display the value of balloons, makes record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina.

1836U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

1828René Caillié becomes the second non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, following Major Gordon Laing. He would also be the first to return alive.

1809Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

1800The Septinsular Republic is established.

1792France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars.

1789George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration.

Born on this day

2005Tallyn Da Silva, Australian rugby league player

1997Alexander Zverev, German tennis player

1991Luke Kuechly, American football player

1990Jason Behrendorff, Australian cricketer

1990Kyle Higashioka, American baseball player

1989Vannesa Rosales, Venezuelan activist and teacher

1988Brandon Belt, American baseball player

1987Jorge Pinto, Portuguese politician

1984Harris Wittels, American comedian (died 2015)

1983Miranda Kerr, Australian model

1980Emma Husar, Australian politician

1978Carl Greenidge, English cricketer

1975Killer Mike, American rapper

1974Randy Fine, American politician and former gambling industry executive

1973Julie Powell, American food writer and memoirist (died 2022)

1972Carmen Electra, American model and actress

1972Stephen Marley, Jamaican-American musician

1971Allan Houston, American basketball player

1971Mikey Welsh, American bassist and painter (died 2011)

1970Shemar Moore, American actor

1969Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (died 2025)

1969Will Hodgman, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Tasmania

1968Julia Morris, Australian entertainer

1967Lara Jill Miller, American actress

1967Mike Portnoy, American drummer and songwriter

1966David Chalmers, Australian philosopher and academic

1966David Filo, American businessman, co-founded Yahoo!

1965Kostis Chatzidakis, Greek politician, Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism

1965Léa Fazer, Swiss film director, screenwriter and actress

1965Mark Mallia, Maltese painter and sculptor (died 2024)

1964Andy Serkis, English actor and director

1964Crispin Glover, American actor and filmmaker

1964John Carney, American football player

1964Rosalynn Sumners, American figure skater

1963Rachel Whiteread, English sculptor

1962Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, Mongolian Politician, (died 1998)

1961Don Mattingly, American baseball player, coach, and manager

1961Konstantin Lavronenko, Russian actor

1960Debbie Flintoff-King, Australian hurdler and coach

1959Perry Haddock, Australian rugby league player

Died on this day

2026Luis Brandoni, Argentine actor and politician (born 1940)

2025Hugo Gatti, Argentine footballer (born 1944)

2024Andrew Davis, English conductor (born 1944)

2024Antonio Cantafora, Italian film and television actor (born 1944)

2024Lourdes Portillo, Mexican film director, producer, and writer (born 1943)

2024Roman Gabriel, Filipino-American NFL American footballer

2022Gavin Millar, Scottish film director (born 1938)

2021Idriss Déby, Chadian politician and military officer (born 1952)

2021Les McKeown, Scottish pop singer (born 1955)

2021Monte Hellman, American film director (born 1929)

2018Avicii, Swedish DJ and musician (born 1989)

2016Victoria Wood, British comedian, actress and writer (born 1953)

2014Neville Wran, Australian politician, 35th Premier of New South Wales (born 1926)

2012Bert Weedon, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1920)

2011Tim Hetherington, English photographer and journalist (born 1970)

2010Dorothy Height, American educator and activist (born 1912)

2008Monica Lovinescu, Romanian journalist and author (born 1923)

2007Andrew Hill, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1931)

2007Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese bishop (born 1931)

2007Robert Rosenthal World War II B 17 Commander Pilot who also served on the Nuremburg Trials (born 1917)

2005Fumio Niwa, Japanese journalist and author (born 1904)

2004Lizzy Mercier Descloux, French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter (born 1956)

2003Bernard Katz, German-English biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)

2002Alan Dale, American singer (born 1925)

2001Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer (born 1946)

1999Cassie Bernall, American victim of Columbine High School massacre (born 1981)

1999Rachel Scott, American victim of Columbine High School massacre (born 1981)

1999Rick Rude, American professional wrestler (born 1958)

1996Trần Văn Trà, Vietnamese general and politician (born 1918)

1995Milovan Đilas, Yugoslav communist, politician, theorist and author (born 1911)

Quote of the day

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

Marcus Aurelius

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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