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This day in history

This day in history: 20 June

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 day219 · 62

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Key facts

337 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 20 June.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2025: The first EF5 tornado in 12 years occurs in Enderlin, North Dakota.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Adalbert of Magdeburg

Christian feast day: Blessed Dermot O'Hurley

Christian feast day: Blessed Margareta Ebner

Christian feast day: Florentina

Christian feast day: John of Matera

Christian feast day: June 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Methodius of Olympus

Christian feast day: Pope Silverius

Day of the National Flag (Argentina)

Gas Sector Day (Azerbaijan)

Martyrs' Day (Eritrea)

West Virginia Day (West Virginia)

Events

2025The first EF5 tornado in 12 years occurs in Enderlin, North Dakota.

2019Iran's Air Defense Forces shoot down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions between the two countries.

2011RusAir Flight 9605 crashes in Besovets during approach to Petrozavodsk Airport, killing 47.

2008Twelve people are killed, including nine clubgoers and three police officers, during a crowd crush in Mexico City.

2003The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.

1996Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-78 to conduct life science and microgravity research aboard the Spacelab module.

1994The 1994 Imam Reza shrine bomb explosion in Iran leaves at least 25 dead and 70 to 300 injured.

1991The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of Berlin.

1990Asteroid Eureka is discovered.

1990The 7.4 Mw Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.

1988Haitian president Leslie Manigat is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant General Henri Namphy.

1982The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.

1982The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide opens in Tel Aviv, despite attempts by the Turkish government to cancel it, as it included presentations on the Armenian genocide.

1979ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan National Guard soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against t

1975The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as "summer blockbusters".

1973Aeroméxico Flight 229 crashes on approach to Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport, killing all 27 people on board.

1973Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.

1972Watergate scandal: An 18+1⁄2-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.

1964A Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes in the Shengang District of Taiwan, killing 57 people.

1963Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called "red telephone" link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow.

1960The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).

1959A rare June hurricane strikes Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.

1956A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.

1948In Western Allied-occupied Germany, the Currency Reform of 1948 goes into effect, introducing the Deutsche Mark. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.

1945The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.

1944The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.

1944World War II: During the Continuation War, the Soviet Union demands unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.

1944World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

1943The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days.

1943World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Avro Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria.

1942The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1926The 28th International Eucharistic Congress begins in Chicago, with over 250,000 spectators attending the opening procession.

1921Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.

1900Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.

1900Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.

1895The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.

1893Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.

1877Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

1863American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.

1862Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.

Born on this day

2003Hans Niemann, American chess player

2003Marc Pubill, Spanish footballer

2002Giulia Stabile, Spanish-Italian dancer and television presenter

2002Hugo Ekitike, French footballer

2001Gonçalo Ramos, Portuguese footballer

2001Nicolas Jackson, Senegalese footballer

1997Bálint Kopasz, Hungarian sprint canoeist

1996Sam Bennett, Canadian ice hockey player

1995Caroline Weir, Scottish footballer

1995Carol Zhao, Canadian tennis player

1994Leonard Williams, American football player

1993Sead Kolašinac, Bosnian footballer

1991Kalidou Koulibaly, Senegalese footballer

1991Rick ten Voorde, Dutch footballer

1990DeQuan Jones, American basketball player

1990Ding Ning, Chinese table tennis player

1990Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Senegalese writer

1989Christopher Mintz-Plasse, American actor

1989Javier Pastore, Argentinian footballer

1989Terrelle Pryor, American football player

1987A-fu, Taiwanese singer and songwriter

1987Asmir Begović, Bosnian footballer

1987Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player

1987Joseph Ebuya, Kenyan runner

1986Dreama Walker, American actress

1986Jakub Štěpánek, Czech ice hockey player

1985Aurélien Chedjou, Cameroonian footballer

1985Caroline Polachek, American singer and songwriter

1985Matt Flynn, American football player

1984Hassan Adams, American basketball player

1983Darren Sproles, American football player

1983Josh Childress, American basketball player

1982Aleksei Berezutski, Russian footballer

1982Example, English singer/rapper

1982Vasili Berezutski, Russian footballer

1981Brede Hangeland, Norwegian footballer

1980Fabian Wegmann, German cyclist

1980Franco Semioli, Italian footballer

1979Charles Howell III, American golfer

1978Frank Lampard, English footballer

Died on this day

2024Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer (born 1935)

2024Taylor Wily, American actor, sumo wrestler and mixed martial artist (born 1968)

2022Caleb Swanigan, American basketball player (born 1997)

2017Prodigy, American music artist (born 1974)

2015Angelo Niculescu, Romanian footballer and manager (born 1921)

2015Miriam Schapiro, Canadian-American painter and sculptor (born 1923)

2013Ingvar Rydell, Swedish footballer (born 1922)

2012Andrew Sarris, American critic (born 1928)

2012Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz (born 1919)

2012Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States. (born 1921)

2012LeRoy Neiman, American painter (born 1921)

2011Ryan Dunn, American television personality (born 1977)

2010Harry B. Whittington, English palaeontologist and academic (born 1916)

2010Roberto Rosato, Italian footballer (born 1943)

2005Jack Kilby, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923)

2005Larry Collins, American journalist, historian, and author (born 1929)

2004Jim Bacon, Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania (born 1950)

2002Erwin Chargaff, Austrian-American biochemist and academic (born 1905)

2002Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (born 1916)

1999Clifton Fadiman, American game show host, author, and critic (born 1902)

1997Cahit Külebi, Turkish poet and author (born 1917)

1995Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and educator (born 1911)

1984Estelle Winwood, English actress (born 1883)

1978Mark Robson, Canadian-American director and producer (born 1913)

1975Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Haitian anthropologist (born 1898)

1974Horace Lindrum, Australian snooker player (born 1912)

1969Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Indian artist, painter, actor, dancer, writer, music composer and politician (born 1909)

1966Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, physicist, and astronomer (born 1894)

1965Bernard Baruch, American financier and politician (born 1870)

1963Raphaël Salem, Greek-French mathematician and academic (born 1898)

Quote of the day

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Socrates

Questions people ask

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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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