From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 194 days remaining. It is the last day of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the last day of the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere.
[edit] Events
- 451 - According to some sources, [attribution needed] this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
- 1214 - University of Oxford receives its charter.
- 1631 - The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
- 1685 - Monmouth Rebellion: The Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
- 1756 - British garrison imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
- 1782 - The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
- 1789 - Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath.
- 1791 - The Flight to Varennes began.
- 1819 - The U.S. vessel Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, but most of the journey was made under sail.
- 1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
- 1862 - Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
- 1863 - West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
- 1877 - Alexander Graham Bell installs world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
- 1893 - Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murdering her stepmother and father.
- 1919 - 150 die at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
- 1939 - Benny Goodman's Song School ends its radio series.
- 1948 - Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, debuts.
- 1956 - A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey killing 74 people.
- 1959 - A train-bus collision near Lauffen, Germany kills 43 people
- 1960 - Independence of Mali and Senegal.
- 1963 - The so-called "red telephone" is established between Soviet Union and United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 1963 - Leave it to Beaver ends.
- 1966 - Canada sells 336 million bushels (9.14 teragrams) of wheat to Soviet Union.
- 1969 - Jacques Chaban-Delmas becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1973 - Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fired upon left-wing peronists. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 injured.
- 1977 - Oil begins to flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).
- 1978 - An earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale hits Thessaloniki, Greece.
- 1980 - Roberto Duran starts his classic boxing trilogy with Sugar Ray Leonard by defeating him in Canada by a decision in 15 rounds, to gain the WBC world Welterweight championship.
- 1983 - LZW patent filed in USA.
- 1990 - Asteroid Eureka discovered.
- 1991 - German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
- 2001 - Andrea Yates drowns her five children in a bathtub in their Houston, Texas home.
- 2001 - Pervez Musharraf becomes president of Pakistan.
- 2003 - LZW patent expires in USA.
- 2003 - Formation of Wikimedia Foundation announced.
- 2006 - Hastings, Nebraska experiences a rare heat burst, raising temperatures from the mid-seventies to 94° F (34.4° C) in the middle of the night.
[edit] Births
- 1005 - Ali az-Zahir, caliph (d. 1036)
- 1389 - John, Duke of Bedford, regent of England (d. 1435)
- 1566 (O.S.) - King Sigismund III Vasa (d. 1632)
- 1583 - Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1652)
- 1634 - Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy (d. 1675)
- 1642 (O.S.) - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
- 1647 - John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
- 1717 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor (d. 1776)
- 1723 (O.S.) - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
- 1723 (O.S.) - Theophilus Lindsey, English theologian (d. 1808)
- 1756 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (d. 1792)
- 1763 - Wolfe Tone, Irish patriot (d. 1798)
- 1770 - Moses Waddel, American educator/minister and bestselling author (d. 1840)
- 1771 - Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist (d. 1820)
- 1786 - Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet (d. 1859)
- 1808 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (d. 1888)
- 1819 - Jacques Offenbach, German composer (d. 1880)
- 1858 - Charles W. Chesnutt, American writer (d. 1932)
- 1860 - Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
- 1861 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947)
- 1872 - George Carpenter, the 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
- 1887 - Kurt Schwitters, German painter and writer (d. 1948)
- 1889 - John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer (d. 1951)
- 1891 - John A. Costello, second Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1976)
- 1894 - Lloyd Hall, American chemist
- 1896 - Wilfrid Pelletier, French Canadian conductor (d. 1982)
- 1899 - Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader (d. 1943)
- 1905 - Lillian Hellman, American playwright (d. 1984)
- 1907 - Jimmy Driftwood, American songwriter and musician (d. 1998)
- 1909 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959)
- 1912 - Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
- 1915 - Terence Young, British film director (d. 1994)
- 1916 - Jean-Jacques Bertrand, premier of Quebec (d. 1973)
- 1917 - Igor Śmiałowski, Polish actor (d. 2006)
- 1920 - Hans Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skater
- 1924 - Chet Atkins, American guitar player (d. 2001)
- 1924 - Audie Murphy, American actor (d. 1971)
- 1928 - Eric Dolphy, American jazz musician (d. 1964)
- 1928 - Jean-Marie Le Pen, French politician
- 1930 - Paul Pender, American boxer
- 1930 - Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish artist
- 1931 - Olympia Dukakis, Greek-American actress
- 1931 - Martin Landau, American actor
- 1933 - Danny Aiello, American actor
- 1934 - Rossana Podestà, Italian actress
- 1935 - Len Dawson, former football player
- 1935 - Neal Knox, gun rights activist
- 1937 - Jerry Keller, pop singer and songwriter
- 1938 - Mickie Most, British record producer
- 1940 - Eugen Drewermann, German theologian
- 1940 - John Mahoney, English actor
- 1941 - Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
- 1941 - Stephen Frears, English film director
- 1942 - Brian Wilson, American musician; founder of The Beach Boys
- 1944 - Cheryl Holdridge, American actress
- 1945 - Anne Murray, Canadian singer
- 1946 - Bob Vila, television presenter
- 1946 - Xanana Gusmão, President of East Timor
- 1946 - Andre Watts, American pianist
- 1947 - Dolores Brooks, American singer (the Crystals)
- 1947 - Candy Clark, American actress
- 1948 - Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru
- 1949 - Lionel Richie, American musician (The Commodores)
- 1951 - Tress MacNeille, American voice actress
- 1951 - Paul Muldoon, Northern Irish poet
- 1952 - John Goodman, American actor
- 1952 - Larry Riley, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1954 - Michael Anthony, American musician (Van Halen)
- 1956 - Ace Andres, American musician
- 1958 - Chuck Wagner, American actor
- 1960 - John Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran)
- 1960 - Jeremy Monteiro, Singaporean pianist
- 1963 - Viktor Kožený, Czech businessman
- 1963 - Don West, American professional wrestling announcer
- 1967 - Nicole Kidman, American-born Australian actress
- 1968 - Robert Rodríguez, American filmmaker
- 1970 - Russell Garcia, British field hockey player
- 1970 - Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco
- 1970 - Michelle Reis, Hong Kong actress
- 1971 - Josh Lucas, American actor
- 1971 - Jeordie White, American bassist
- 1973 - Chino Moreno, American musician (Deftones)
- 1977 - Stefán H. Ófeigsson, Icelandic space engineer
- 1977 - Tika Sumpter, American actress
- 1978 - Frank Lampard, English footballer
- 1981 - Ardian Gashi, Norwegian footballer
- 1981 - Alisan Porter, American actress and singer
- 1982 - Andy Baddeley, English middle distance runner
- 1983 - Darren Sproles, NFL player
- 1984 - Jarrod Smith, New Zealander footballer
- 1995 - Brianna Rieffel, American singer-songwriter
- 1987 - Samir Nasri, French Footballer for Olympique de Marseille
[edit] Deaths
- 451 - Theodorid, King of the Visigoths
- 840 - Louis the Pious, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 778)
- 1597 - Willem Barentsz, Dutch navigator
- 1668 - Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (b. 1620)
- 1776 - Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer (b. 1704)
- 1787 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (b. 1723)
- 1800 - Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (b. 1719)
- 1820 - Manuel Belgrano, Argentine lawyer and politician (b. 1770)
- 1837 - William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
- 1866 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (b. 1826)
- 1869 - Toshizou Hijikata, Shinsengumi vice-commander (b. 1835)
- 1870 - Jules de Goncourt, French writer (b. 1830)
- 1906 - John Clayton Adams, British landscape artist (b. 1840)
- 1925 - Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist (b. 1842)
- 1945 - Bruno Frank, German author (b. 1878)
- 1947 - Bugsy Siegel, American crime figure (b. 1906)
- 1952 - Luigi Fagioli, Italian race car driver (b. 1898)
- 1958 - Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1902)
- 1963 - Raphaël Salem, Greek mathematician (b. 1898)
- 1972 - Howard Deering Johnson, American entrepreneur (b. 1897)
- 1976 - Lou Klein, American baseball player (b. 1918)
- 1978 - Mark Robson, Canadian film director and producer (b. 1913)
- 1992 - Sir Charles Groves, English conductor (b. 1915)
- 1993 - Vince Foster, Clinton Administration member (b. 1945)
- 1995 - Emil Cioran, Romanian-born French philosopher (b. 1911)
- 1997 - Lawrence Payton, American singer (The Four Tops) (b. 1938)
- 1998 - Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (b. 1942)
- 1999 - Clifton Fadiman, American author (b. 1902)
- 2002 - Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist (b. 1905)
- 2002 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (b. 1916)
- 2003 - Bob Stump, American politician (b. 1927)
- 2005 - Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer, Nobel laureate (b. 1923)
- 2005 - Larry Collins, American writer (b. 1929)
- 2006 - Billy Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1918)
- 2006 - E. Pierce Marshall, American businessman; son of J. Howard Marshall II (b. 1939)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] Liturgical feasts
[edit] External links
