This Day in History
20 Apr 1139
2nd Lateran Council (10th ecumenical council) opens in Rome
20 Apr 1505
Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg
20 Apr 1650
Dutch East India Company (VOC) management sets new guidelines
20 Apr 1657
Battle in Santa Cruz Bay Tenerife English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet
More History
Mambo King Tito Puente is born
Tito Puente the bandleader and percussionist who helped popularize Latin dance music and jazz in America is born on this day in 1923 in New York City. During ...
Siege of Londonderry begins
James II the former British king begins a siege of Londonderry a Protestant stronghold in Northern Ireland.In 1688 James II a Catholic was deposed by his ...
Ku Klux Act passed by Congress
With passage of the Third Force Act popularly known as the Ku Klux Act Congress authorizes President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law impose heavy pen...
Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radium
On April 20 1902 Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris. In 1898 the ...
Teen gunmen kill 13 at Columbine High School
On this day in 1999 two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado south of Denver. At approximately 11...
Castro announces Mariel Boatlift
On April 20 1980 the Castro regime announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel west of Havana lau...
Operation Corncob is launched while Hitler celebrates his birthday
On this day in 1945 Allied bombers in Italy begin a three-day attack on the bridges over the rivers Adige and Brenta to cut off German lines of retreat on the ...
Allied Nivelle Offensive ends in failure
On this day in 1917 an ambitious Allied offensive against German troops near the Aisne River in central France spearheaded by the French commander in chief R...
President Nixon announces more troops withdrawals from Vietnam
In a televised speech President Nixon pledges to withdraw 150000 more U.S. troops over the next year based entirely on the progress of the Vietn...
Fragging on the rise among U.S. military units
The Pentagon releases figures confirming that fragging incidents are on the rise. In 1970 209 such incidents caused the deaths of 34 men in 1969 96 such inci...
Michael Jordan scores 63 points in playoff game
On April 20 1986 the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan scores 63 points in an NBA playoff game against the Boston Celtics setting a post-season scoring re...
President McKinley asks for declaration of war against Spain
President William McKinley asks Congress to declare war on Spain on this day in 1898. In 1895 Cuba located less than 100 miles south of the United States at...
Militia slaughters strikers at Ludlow, Colorado
Ending a bitter coal-miners strike Colorado militiamen attack a tent colony of strikers killing dozens of men women and children.When the evictions ...
First detective story is published
Edgar Allen Poes story The Murders in the Rue Morgue first appears in Grahams Ladys and Gentlemans Magazine. The tale is gene...
New sound process for films announced
By the mid-1920s several competing systems had been developed to add sound to motion pictures. In 1923 inventor Lee de Forest demonstrated Phonofilm in which...
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