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This day in history

This day in history: 20 November

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 day407 · 139

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Key facts

595 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 20 November.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2022: The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.

Holidays and observances

Africa Industrialization Day (international)

Black Awareness Day (Brazil)

Children's Day (World Children's Day)

Christian feast day: Agapius

Christian feast day: Ambrose Traversari

Christian feast day: Ampelus and Caius

Christian feast day: Bernward of Hildesheim

Christian feast day: Blessed Anacleto González Flores, José Sánchez del Río, and companions (Martyrs of Cristero War)

Christian feast day: Blessed Josaphata Hordashevska (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)

Christian feast day: Dasius of Durostorum

Christian feast day: Edmund the Martyr

Events

2022The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.

2016Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time.

2015Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali.

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.

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.

1998The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

1996A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81.

1994The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.)

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.

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.

1992In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.

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.

1990Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings.

1989Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.

1985Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.

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.

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 uprisi

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.

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.

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.

1969Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.

1969Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

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.

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.

1959The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.

1947The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.

1946Indonesian National Revolution: 96 Indonesian including I Gusti Ngurah Rai were killed during the Battle of Margarana with Dutch forces.

1945Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.

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.

1940World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.

1936José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad.

1917World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.

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.

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 r

1873Garnier Expedition: French forces under Lieutenant Francis Garnier captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese.

1861American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government.

1845Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.

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 incid

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.

1805Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.

Born on this day

2002Madisyn Shipman, American actress

2001Adrien Truffert, French footballer

2001Caty McNally, American tennis player

2000Connie Talbot, English singer-songwriter

1997Levi García, Trinidadian footballer

1996Blaž Janc, Slovenian handballer

1996Denis Zakaria, Swiss footballer

1995Kyle Snyder, American wrestler

1995Shaolin Sándor Liu, Hungarian short track speed skater

1995Timothy Cheruiyot, Kenyan athlete

1994Timothy Kitum, Kenyan middle-distance runner

1993Anna Prugova, Russian ice hockey player

1992Amit Guluzade, Azerbaijani footballer

1992Jenna Prandini, American track and field athlete

1992Kristiina Mäkelä, Finnish triple jumper

1992Zoltán Harcsa, Hungarian boxer

1991Grant Hanley, Scottish footballer

1991Irene Esser, Venezuelan actress and model

1990Aleksandra Król, Polish snowboarder

1990Haley Anderson, American swimmer

1990Mark Christian, Manx cyclist

1989Babita Kumari, Indian wrestler

1989Cody Linley, American actor and singer

1989Eduardo Vargas, Chilean footballer

1989Sergei Polunin, Ukrainian ballet dancer

1988Aya Medany, Egyptian modern pentathlete.

1988Dariga Shakimova, Kazakhstani boxer

1988Dušan Tadić, Serbian footballer

1988Marie-Laure Brunet, French biathlete

1988Max Pacioretty, American ice hockey player

1988Rhys Wakefield, Australian actor and director

1987Amelia Rose Blaire, American actress

1987Joëlle Numainville, Canadian cyclist

1987Mylène Lazare, French swimmer

1987Nathan Lyon, Australian cricketer

1986Ashley Fink, American actress and singer

1986Kōhei Horikoshi, Japanese manga artist

1986Oliver Sykes, English singer-songwriter

1985Aaron Yan, Taiwanese actor and singer

1985Greg Holland, American baseball player

Died on this day

2024Andy Paley, American songwriter (born 1952)

2024Jodi Rell, American politician, 87th Governor of Connecticut (born 1946)

2024John Prescott, British sailor and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1938)

2024Ursula Haverbeck, German Holocaust denier (born 1928)

2020Jan Morris, Welsh historian, author and travel writer (born 1926)

2019Wataru Misaka, American basketball player (born 1923)

2018Aaron Klug, Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926)

2018James H. Billington, 13th Librarian of Congress (born 1929)

2017Peter Berling, German actor, film producer and writer (born 1934)

2016Gabriel Badilla, Costa Rican footballer (born 1984)

2016Gene Guarilia, American basketball player (born 1937)

2016Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, Greek statesman (born 1926)

2016William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer (born 1928)

2015Jim Perry, American-Canadian singer and game show host (born 1933)

2015Keith Michell, Australian actor (born 1926)

2015Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (born 1953)

2014Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba (born 1926)

2013Dieter Hildebrandt, Polish-German actor and screenwriter (born 1927)

2013Sylvia Browne, American author (born 1936)

2012Ivan Kušan, Croatian writer (born 1933)

2012Kaspars Astašenko, Latvian ice hockey player (born 1975)

2012Pete La Roca, American jazz drummer (born 1938)

2012William Grut, Swedish pentathlete (born 1914)

2010Chalmers Johnson, American author and scholar (born 1931)

2009Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountaineer (born 1925)

2007Ian Smith, Rhodesian lieutenant and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Rhodesia (born 1919)

2007Kenneth S. Kleinknecht, NASA manager (born 1919)

2006Donald Hamilton, American author (born 1916)

2006Robert Altman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1925)

2006Zoia Ceaușescu, Romanian mathematician and academic (born 1950)

Quote of the day

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

Epictetus

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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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