June 20: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – June 20 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 20th June 1212: Spanish Crusaders and British Crusaders united today against the Almohaden at Toledo.
2. 20th June 1214: the University of Oxford received its charter today.
3. 20th June 1547: Count Philip van Hessen was captured today.
4. 20th June 1567: Jews were today expelled from Brazil by order of Regent Don Henrique.
5. 20th June 1632: Rights to the Chesapeake Bay area were today granted to 2nd Lord Baltimore by Britain.
6. 20th June 1633: Lord Cecil Baltimore was given the Charter for Maryland today.
7. 20th June 1656: Warsaw was today recaptured by Polish King Jan II Casimir.
18th Century – What Happened on June 20 – The 1700s
8. 20th June 1756: 146 British soldiers, Anglo-Indian soldiers, and Indian civilians were imprisoned in a small dungeon in Calcutta where most died of suffocation and heat exhaustion. It came to be known as the Black Hole of Calcutta.
9. 20th June 1756: The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah took Calcutta from the British today.
10. 20th June 1783: The Congress today approved the Great Seal of the United States of America and the bald eagle as its symbol.
11. 20th June 1791: During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI and the French royal family were caught trying to flee Paris, which severely undermined their credibility.
19th Century – June 20 This Day That Year – The 1800s
12. 20th June 1819: The 320-ton steamship Savannah became the first steamship to cross any ocean after it crossed the Atlantic today.
13. 20th June 1825: Charles X, the last Bourbon king of France was coroneted today.
14. 20th June 1828: A trade/peace treaty was signed by Siam and Britain today.
15. 20th June 1837: Following the death of King William IV, his niece Queen Victoria ascended the British throne at the age of 18. She ruled for 63 years, till 1901.
16. 20th June 1840: The telegraph was today patented by its inventor Samuel Morse.
17. 20th June 1863: The National Bank of Davenport Iowa was the 1st bank to be chartered in the US.
18. 20th June 1863: West Virginia was today admitted as the 35th US state of the Union.
19. 20th June 1866: Italy declared war on Austria, the third Italian War of Independence.
20. 20th June 1867: The Alaska purchase was today announced by President Andrew Johnson of the US.
21. 20th June 1871: The federal court in Oxford, Mississippi began the trial of the Ku Klux Klan today.
22. 20th June 1888: Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Libertas.
23. 20th June 1895: Caroline Willard Baldwin earned a Ph.D. in science from Cornell University. She became the first female to earn a Ph.D. in America.
24. 20th June 1895: Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador formed a confederation today, which was short-lived.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day June 20th – The 1900s
25. 20th June 1901: Charlotte Maxeke, who graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio, was the first native African to graduate from a US college.
26. 20th June 1909: Roger Burham and Eleanor Waring were the first honeymooners in a balloon.
27. 20th June 1911: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was incorporated today in New York.
28. 20th June 1915: Germans today launched an offensive was launched today in Argonne.
29. 20th June 1919: Philipp Scheidemann, the chancellor of the new German Republic, which he helped to establish resigned today, refusing to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
30. 20th June 1921: V. S. Srinivasa Sastri put forward a case for granting full citizenship to all Indians in South Africa and other British colonies at the Imperial Conference in London today.
31. 20th June 1926: Mordecai W Jonson today became the President of Howard University. He was the first black to become the president of Howard University.
32. 20th June 1929: Federal agents and Rum Runners exchanged gunfire on the Detroit River. Federal agents resorted to machine gun fire to sink the smuggler’s vessel.
33. 20th June 1936: Jesse Owens, the US athlete, today established a sprint record, running 100 meters in 10.2 secs.
34. 20th June 1939: The first test flight of a rocket plane using liquid propellants was conducted today.
35. 20th June 1941: The German U-203, failed in its torpedo attack on the US battleship Texas today.
36. 20th June 1942: In North Africa, German troops today conquered Tobruk.
37. 20th June 1943: Congress of Racial Equality (CRE) was founded today in Chicago.
38. 20th June 1943: 35 people lost their lives in a race riot in Detroit today.
39. 20th June 1943: Germans today rounded up Jews in Amsterdam today.
40. 20th June 1944: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was chartered today by the Congress.
41. 20th June 1944: Nazis started mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz today.
42. 20th June 1944: The US today attacked the Japanese fleet in the Philippines Sea.
43. 20th June 1947: US President Harry Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act today.
44. 20th June 1948: A bomb was hurled into the Jewish quarter in Cairo which killed 20 Jews.
45. 20th June 1948: West Germany introduces the Deutsche Mark today.
46. 20th June 1949: The Central Intelligence Act was passed today.
47. 20th June 1956: Venezuela’s Super Constellation aircraft crashed in New Jersey killing 74 people today.
48. 20th June 1958: In a test match against England, New Zealand were today all out for 47 runs at Lords. For England, Laker took 4 wickets for 13 runs and Lock took 5 wickets for 17 runs.
49. 20th June 1960: The Federation of Mali and Senegal became independent of France today.
50. 20th June 1963: the US and the USSR today agreed to establish a “Hot Line”.
51. 20th June 1966: Aviator Sheila Scott today completed her round-the-world solo flight. This was the first by a woman.
52. 20th June 1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston for violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. Later the Supreme Court overturned this decision.
53. 20th June 1968: Jim Hines became the first person to run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds today.
54. 20th June 1969: George Pompidou was sworn in today as the President of France.
55. 20th June 1977: In Israel, Menachem Begin formed a government today.
56. 20th June 1977: Oil today entered the Trans-Alaska pipeline. It exited the pipeline 38 days later at Valdez.
57. 20th June 1982: Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel arrived in Washington today.
58. 20th June 1983: Iran moved into Northern Iraq and the total casualty was over 13,000 in ten days.
59. 20th June 1986: US President Ronald Regan underwent surgery at Bethesda Naval. Doctors removed two small benign polyps from his colon.
60. 20th June 1988: The Supreme Court today upheld the law that made discrimination against women and minorities by private clubs illegal.
61. 20th June 1994: A former gunman killed 5 and injured 22 in the US Fairchild Hospital Air Force base massacre today.
62. 20th June 1994: There was a bomb attack in an Islamic place of worship in Mashhad Iran. 70 people were killed in the attack.
63. 20th June 1995: Space probe Ulysses began its 2nd passage behind the Sun.
64. 20th June 1996: In Venezuela, Congress approved a deal to allow foreign oil companies to explore oil in Venezuela since the country had nationalized its oil industry in 1975.
21st Century – June 20 This Day In History – The 2000s
65. 20th June 2002: In a mining disaster caused by the explosion of gas buildup in a coal mine in China 111 workers were killed.
66. 20th June 2007: A mob in Texas beat up a man to death when he was trying to check on a young girl, hit by the car in which he was a passenger. The driver of the car escaped unhurt.
67. 20th June 2008: In Thailand, thousands of protesters gathered in its capital city of Bangkok, demanding that the present government step down, which they claimed was a proxy government for a former leader ousted by the military in 2006.
68. 20th June 2008: 100 Israeli fighter jets were today engaged in a maneuver to simulate an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, which increased concern in the region and kept oil prices high. Israel however denied that the exercise was for Iranian targets but was part of regular training to confront the threats posed by Israel.
69. 20th June 2009: Work on the construction of the first commercial spaceport began in New Mexico today, intending to promote the space tourism business.
70. 20th June 2011: In one of the largest class-action lawsuits in history women employees of Wal-Mart sued its employer for discrimination against women employees by paying them less than their male counterparts etc. Wal-Mart had countered that women were employed for different types of jobs which was not in common with the call-action lawsuit. The United States Supreme Court ruled against the women.
71. 20th June 2012: At the London auction today, the 1927 painting Peinture (Etoile Bleue) by painter Joan Miro, sold at £23.5 million today.
72. 20th June 2012: A Syrian fighter pilot landed in Jordan today and defected from the Syrian Uprising.
73. 20th June 2013: China’s first-ever video lecture from space was delivered today by the country’s second female astronaut Wang Yaping, who was part of the Shenzhou-10 space mission.
74. 20th June 2015: Heatwave conditions peaked in Sothern Pakistan killing about 2000 people from heat stroke and dehydration.
75. 20th June 2016: Rome today elected its first female mayor. 37 years old Virginia Raggi also became the youngest mayor of Rome.
76. 20th June 2017: After a revolt by the shareholder founder of Uber Travis Kalanick today resigned as its CEO.
77. 20th June 2017: Golfer Tiger Woods, following his arrest for driving under the influence, checked into a clinic today for pain management medication and sleep disorder.
78. 20th June 2018: The government in Hungary today passed legislation by which aiding undocumented migrants would become a crime.
79. 20th June 2018: It was today announced by US Ambassador Nikki Haley that the US is leaving the UN Human Rights Council.
80. 20th June 2018: To prevent students from cheating during examinations. Algeria today turned off its internet.
81. 20th June 2018: US President Donald Trump today signed an Executive Order that ended the family separation at the border for illegal immigrants.
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