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April 20: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – April 20 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 20th April 1130: The Second Lateran Council opened in Rome today.
2. 20th April 1534: French explorer, Jacques Cartier set sail from St. Malo to explore the North American coastline.
3. 20th April 1653: In England, Oliver Cromwell expelled the Long Parliament for trying to pass the perpetuation bill which would have kept parliament in the hands of only a few members.
4. 20th April 1657: Admiral Robert Blake of England fought his last battle when he destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Santa Cruze Bay.
5. 20th April 1689: The siege of Londonderry began with the supporters of James II attacking the city.
18th Century – What Happened on April 20 – The 1700s
6. 20th April 1769: Ottawa Chief Pontiac was today murdered by an Illinois Indian in Cahokia.
7. 20th April 1775: American troops today began the siege of British-held Boston.
8. 20th April 1792: France today declared war on Austria, Prussia and Sardinia. This war was the beginning of the French Revolutionary War.
19th Century – April 20 This Day That Year – The 1800s
9. 20th April 1809: At the Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria, Napoleon defeated Austria.
10. 20th April 1836: The U.S. Congress today created the territory of Wisconsin.
11. 20th April 1837: Patent for power loom was granted to Erastus B. Bigelow.
12. 20th April 1841: Edgar Allan Poe’s first detective story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was today published in Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia.
13. 20th April 1961: Robert Lee, today resigned from the U.S. Army.
14. 20th April 1865: Safety matches were advertised for the first time today.
15. 20th April 1879: The first mobile home, drawn by horse, was used on a journey from London to Cyprus.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day April 20th – The 1900s
16. 20th April 1902: The radioactive element radium was isolated by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie.
17. 20th April 1904: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis.
18. 20th April 1904: “Candida” by George Bernard Shaw, premieres in London.
19. 20th April 1910: Halley’s Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km.
20. 20th April 1912: Fenway Park opened as the home of the Boston Red Sox.
21. 20th April 1914: US President W Wilson after dispatching more naval ships to Mexico asks a joint session of Congress to approve armed force if necessary. Congress approves.
22. 20th April 1914: During a mine strike in Ludlow in Colo, soldiers killed 33 people.
23. 20th April 1915: The Armenians rise and seize the Turkish town of Van. They held the town until the Russians relieved them on 19th May. Thousands of Armenians were killed.
24. 20th April 1916: Sir Roger Casement, a British diplomat, landed in Ireland to incite rebellion against the British. He was captured within hours and hanged for high treason on Aug 3rd.
25. 20th April 1916: Sea battle between Germany and Britain off the coast of Belgium.
26. 20th April 1918: World War I fighter Ace The Red Baron shoots down his 79th and 80th victims before his death the following day.
27. 20th April 1919: King Nicholas of Montenegro abdicates under duress.
28. 20th April 1919: The Polish Army today captured Vilno in Lithuania from the Soviets.
29. 20th April 1920: The 7th modern Olympic Games open in Antwerp Belgium.
30. 20th April 1920: The Balfour Declaration was recognized making Palestine a British Mandate.
31. 20th April 1920: Tornadoes that struck Alabama and Mississippi killed 219 people.
32. 20th April 1926: The 1st check sent by radio facsimile transmission across the Atlantic.
33. 20th April 1931: The British House of Commons agrees to sports play on Sunday.
34. 20th April 1934: Heinrich Himmler became inspector Prussian secret State police.
35. 20th April 1935: “Your Hit Parade” begins broadcasting.
36. 20th April 1936: Jews today repelled an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine.
37. 20th April 1940: R.C.A. today demonstrated the first electron microscope.
38. 20th April 1941: Athens was today attacked by 100 German bombers.
39. 20th April 1942: The policy of “true reconciliation with Germany” was today established by Pierre Laval, the Premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast.
40. 20th April 1942: German occupiers forbid Dutch access to their beach.
41. 20th April 1945: Soviet troops began attacking Berlin.
42. 20th April 1945: The Allied forces today took control of the German Cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart during World War II.
43. 20th April 1945: U.S. forces conquer the Motobu peninsula on Okinawa.
44. 20th April 1947: Fredrik IX becomes king of Denmark.
45. 20th April 1948: Walter P Reuther UAW president shot and wounded at his home in Detroit.
46. 20th April 1949: Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 1st race in Albany, California.
47. 20th April 1950: Balt’s Memorial Stadium open-Orioles of International League.
48. 20th April 1951: Velsen city council demands investigation of police collaborators.
49. 20th April 1951: The U.S. today performed an atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak.
50. 20th April 1951: In the 4th Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film was awarded jointly to “Miss Julie” by Alf Sjoberg, and “Miracle in Milan” by Vittorio De Sica.
51. 20th April 1953: An exchange program for the exchange of the sick and wounded prisoners of war called “Operation Little Switch” began in Korea today. Thirty Americans were freed.
52. 20th April 1953: The Boston Marathon was won by Keizo Yamada with a record time of 2:18:51.
53. 20th April 1958: Buses replace Key System trains at 3 AM.
54. 20th April 1958: Morocco demands the departure of Spanish troops.
55. 20th April 1959: “Desilu Playhouse” on CBS-TV presented a two-part show titled “The Untouchables”.
56. 20th April 1961: American Harold Graham takes 1st rocket belt flight.
57. 20th April 1961: The FCC approved FM stereo broadcasting.
58. 20th April 1962: The New Orleans Citizen’s Council today offered a free on-way ride for blacks to move to northern states.
59. 20th April 1962: NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 63,250 m.
60. 20th April 1962: OAS-leader ex-general Salan was arrested in Algiers.
61. 20th April 1963: -30] All Africa Conferences of churches open in Kampala in Uganda.
62. 20th April 1964: 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools.
63. 20th April 1965: People’s Republic of China offers military aid to North Vietnam.
64. 20th April 1967: Haiphong was bombed by the U.S. planes for the first time during the Vietnam War.
65. 20th April 1967: A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashed at Nicosia in Cyprus killing 126 people.
66. 20th April 1967: US Surveyor 3 lands on the moon.
67. 20th April 1967: USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
68. 20th April 1967: French author Régis Debray was caught in Bolivia.
69. 20th April 1968: Enoch Powell the British politician made his first controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech.
70. 20th April 1968: Boeing 707 of the South African Airways crashed at Windhoek killing 122 people.
71. 20th April 1968: Pierre Trudeau was today sworn in as Canada’s 15th Prime Minister.
72. 20th April 1971: The use of Bushing to achieve racial desegregation in schools was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
73. 20th April 1972: The manned lunar module from spacecraft Apollo 16 landed on the moon.
74. 20th April 1973: “ANIK A2” of Canada becomes the first commercial satellite in orbit.
75. 20th April 1974: The Northern Ireland conflict between republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British security forces, and civil rights groups, claims its 1000th victim.
76. 20th April 1977: Supreme Court today ruled that “Live Free or Die” may be covered on NH licenses.
77. 20th April 1980: Cubans start arriving in the US from Mariel boatlift.
78. 20th April 1980: Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria sees hundreds of Berber political activists arrested.
79. 20th April 1981: A spokesman for the U.S. Navy today announced that the U.S. was accepting full responsibility for the sinking of the Nissho Maru on April 9th.
80. 20th April 1981: Rocker Papa John Phillips was arrested today for possession of drugs.
81. 20th April 1984: Britain today announced that its administration of Hong Kong would cease in 1997.
82. 20th April 1985: In Madrid, Santiago Carrillo, a founder of Euro communism, was purged from the Communist Party.
83. 20th April 1987: President Raul Alfonsin of Argentina today quelled a military revolt.
84. 20th April 1988: The Stealth (B-2 bomber) of the U.S. Air Force was officially unveiled today.
85. 20th April 1989: Scientists today unveiled the successful testing of high-definition T.V.
86. 20th April 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet head of state to visit South Korea.
87. 20th April 1992: The world’s largest fair, Expo ’92, was opened in Seville Spain.
88. 20th April 1998: The Boston Marathon was today won by Moses Tanui a 32-year-old Kenyan runner for the second time. He clocked the third fastest time of 2:07:34.
89. 20th April 1999: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado.
21st Century – April 20 This Day In History – The 2000s
90. 20th April 2004: In Iraq, 12 mortar are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
91. 20th April 2007: A man with a handgun barricaded himself in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
92. 20th April 2008: Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.
93. 20th April 2010: The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes killing 11 people and causing the rig to sink and causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico, which was an environmental disaster.
94. 20th April 2012: A tractor-trailer collided with a bus in the Alamo in Mexico, killing 40 people and injuring 27.
95. 20th April 2012: There was a plane crash near Islamabad in Pakistan. 127 people were killed in the crash.
96. 20th April 2013: An avalanche in Loveland Pass in Colorado kills 5 snowboarders.
97. 20th April 2013: A massive earthquake of magnitude 7.0 struck Lushan County in China. 193 people were killed and 11,826 people were injured.
98. 20th April 2013: Giorgio Napolitano was re-elected President of Italy.
99. 20th April 2015: Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Anthony Doerr for his novel “All the Light We Cannot See” and Elizabeth Kolbert for “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History”.
100. 20th April 2017: In Paris, Terrorists attack on police van on Champs Elysees killing one police officer and injuring 2 others.
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