Historical Events on November 20

Events 1 - 200 of 211

• 762 Bögü, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire
• 1168 Giovanni di Struma elected anti-Pope
• 1194 Palermo, Sicily, is conquered by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI

• 1342 Pope Clemens VI names John IV of Arkel as bishop of Utrecht
• 1347 Cola di Rienzo, later Roman Tribunal, addresses a meeting of on the Capitol during people's revolt in Rome

• 1461 Astronomer Regiomontanus returns with Cardinal Basilios Bessarion's to his house in Rome, home to one of largest libraries in Europe
• 1520 Friesland hit by heavy hail storm
• 1521 Arabs attribute shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine
• 1583 Duke of Parma conquers Aalst
• 1616 Bishop Richelieu becomes French minister of Foreign affairs and War
• 1637 Peter Minuit & 1st Swedish immigrants to Delaware sail from Sweden
• 1695 Zumbi, the last King of the Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil and ex-slave, is executed and decapitated, his head displayed on a pike to dispel any legends of his immortality
• 1719 Sweden & Hannover sign for peace Treaty of Stockholm

• 1759 Battle of Quiberon Bay begins: British win crucial naval victory over the French, thwarting a planned French invasion of Britain

• 1795 Curacao government forbids slave work on Sunday

• 1815 Russia, Prussia, Austria and England sign an Alliance "for the maintenance of peace in Europe" on the same day as the Treaty of Paris

• 1820 Whaling ship Essex attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific, only eight of the 20 crew men eventually survive (through cannibalism). Inspiration for the novel "Moby-Dick"
• 1829 Jews expelled from Nikolayev & Sevastopol, Russia
• 1852 Charles Reade and Tom Taylor's historical comedy play "Masks & Faces" premieres in London
• 1861 Secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government
• 1862 Confederate armies of Mississippi and Kentucky merge as Army of Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg
• 1866 First national convention of Grand Army of Republic (veterans' org)
• 1866 French inventor Pierre Lallement patents rotary crank bicycle
• 1866 Howard University founded in Washington, D.C.
• 1886 Sherlock Holmes's first story "A Study in Scarlet" is accepted by publisher Ward and Lock with payment of £25
• 1888 Willard Bundy patents timecard clock

• 1894 US intervenes in Bluefields, Nicaragua

• 1909 Jack Williams of Canadian football team Ottawa Rough Riders kicks 9 singles in a game
• 1910 Revolution breaks out in Mexico, led by Francisco I. Madero
• 1911 Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" (Song of the Earth) premieres in Munich, conducted by Bruno Walter

• 1914 US State Department starts requiring photographs for passports
• 1917 1st successful tank use in battle, at the Battle of Cambrai in World War I as Britain uses the new technology to break through German lines
• 1917 Ukrainian Republic declared
• 1919 1st municipally owned airport in US opens in Tucson, Arizona
• 1922 Zoe Akins' play "Texas Nightingale" premieres in NYC
• 1923 American inventor Garrett Morgan patents his traffic signal design, adding a caution between 'stop and 'go', an important development in automobile safety [1]
• 1923 Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency of Germany at the exchange rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion (One Billion on the long scale) Papiermark

• 1928 WGH-AM in Newport News VA begins radio transmissions
• 1929 First broadcast of "Goldbergs" on US radio

• 1931 Commercial teletype service begins (AT&T)

• 1932 Earthquake at Uden, Netherlands

• 1934 New Belgian government of Theunis, Francqui & Gutt (3 bankers)
• 1934 Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Busher Jackson becomes first NHL player to score 4 goals in a period in 5-2 win over St. Louis Eagles at St. Louis Arena

• 1938 1st documented anti-semitic remarks over US radio (by Father Coughlin)
• 1940 World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers
• 1941 Adm Nomura & Kurusu hands over Japanese last diplomatic note
• 1941 German "auxiliary cruiser" (armed merchant raider) Kormoran sinks near Australia
• 1942 26th Soviet Armoured Corps recaptures Perelazovski
• 1942 British 8th Army recaptures Benghazi, Libya
• 1942 NHL abolishes regular season OT until WW II is over
• 1942 The Alaska Highway 2,451km long from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, first opens to military traffic [1]
• 1943 WWII: German submarine U-536 sunk northeast of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean by British and Canadian warships
• 1943 WWII: US forces land on Tarawa & Makin Atoll in Gilbert Island
• 1944 1st Japanese suicide submarine attack (Ulithi Atol, Carolines)
• 1944 Amsterdam: Vondelpark closed because of kappen of trees
• 1944 Dutch Prince Bernhard establishes staff in Breda, Netherlands

• 1946 Lillian Hellman's play "Another Part of the Forest" premieres in NYC
• 1947 1st permanent TV installed on seagoing vessel (New Jersey)

• 1947 UN General assembly begins debate on printing their own stamps
• 1948 US balloon reaches height of 42.7 km (record)
• 1949 Jewish population of Israel reaches 1,000,000
• 1951 Snowdonia becomes a British National Park
• 1952 Chicago Cubs slugging left fielder Hank Sauer wins NL MVP
• 1952 George Axelrod's play "Seven Year Itch" premieres in NYC

• 1953 Scott Crossfield in Douglas Skyrocket, 1st to break Mach 2 (1,300 MPH)
• 1954 KTRK TV channel 13 in Houston, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1955 Kripal Singh scores 100 on Test Cricket debut, India v NZ
• 1955 Polly Umrigar scores India's 1st Test Cricket double century, 223 v NZ

• 1959 UN adopts Universal Declaration of Children's Rights
• 1959 WABC fires Alan Freed over his refusal to swear innocence in payola scandal (accepting bribes from record companies)
• 1960 Australian driver Jack Brabham finishes 4th in season-ending US Grand Prix at Riverside Raceway to retain his F1 World Drivers Championship by 9 points from Bruce McLaren of New Zealand
• 1961 WPLG TV channel 10 in Miami, FL (ABC) begins broadcasting

• 1962 USSR agrees to remove remaining Ilyushin Il-28 bomber jets from Cuba, US lifts blockade

• 1965 UN Security council calls for boycott of Rhodesia
• 1965 WCNY TV channel 24 in Syracuse, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1966 Dallas sacks Pittsburgh QBs an NFL record 12 times
• 1966 Men in Zurich vote against female suffrage
• 1967 At 11 AM, Census Clock at Department of Commerce ticks past 200 million

• 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1969 Gundappa Viswanath scores 137 on Test Cricket debut v Australia Kanpur

• 1970 UN General Assembly accepts membership of People's Republic of China
• 1971 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1972 2 British soldiers are killed in a booby trap bomb in Cullyhanna, County Armagh
• 1974 Rangers' Jeff Burroughs wins AL MVP
• 1974 The US files antitrust suit to break-up AT&T

• 1977 Steve Largent begins NFL streak of 177 consecutive game receptions

• 1979 Islamic extremists led by Juhayman al-Otaybi occupy the Grand Mosque of Mecca, declare the arrival of the Mahdi (the "redeemer of Islam") in the form of Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani and call for the overthrow of the House of Saud. Siege lasts two weeks with 100s killed and sets Saudi Arabia on an ultra-conservative path. [1]
• 1979 US's 1st artificial blood transfusion occurs at University of Minnesota Hospital
• 1980 Steve Ptacek in Solar Challenger makes 1st solar-powered flight
• 1980 United Artists withdraws $44 million movie "Heaven's Gate" for re-editing

• 1981 Burundi adopts its constitution
• 1981 El Salvador guerrilla group FMLN opens "limited offensive"

• 1983 100 million watch ABC TV movie "The Day After" about nuclear war
• 1983 Cleveland Browns shutout Patriots 30-0
• 1983 NY Giants Butch Woolfolk ties NFL record of 43 attempts rushing
• 1984 McDonald's makes its 50 billionth hamburger

• 1984 SETI Institute (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) is founded.
• 1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released

• 1986 Afghanistan President Babrak Karmal flees
• 1986 World Health Organization announces first global effort to combat AIDS

• 1988 Boston College beats Army 38-24 in the 'Emerald isle Classic' at Dublin's Lansdowne Road Stadium, the first NCAA American Football game to be played in Europe
• 1989 Milwaukee Brewers center fielder Robin Yount wins AL MVP

• 1990 Sacramento Kings last NBA win on the road for over a year

• 1990 Soviet Union shows reluctance to endorse the use of force against Iraq
• 1990 US 68th manned space mission STS 38 (Atlantis 7) returns from space
• 1991 Atlanta Braves Terry Pendleton wins NL MVP

• 1992 Queen Elizabeth's home Windsor Castle catches fire
• 1993 Jakovlev-42 crashes into mountain at Ohrid Macedonia, 116 killed
• 1993 Savings and Loan scandal: 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.

• 1994 Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war
• 1994 Russian Kosmos satellites 2294, 2295 and 2296 launch

• 1995 FDA approves new therapy for use as an initial AIDS treatment, 3TC
• 1995 NASA Space Shuttle STS 74 (Atlantis 15), lands back at Kennedy Space Center
• 1997 Iraq's Revolution Command Council formally endorses an agreement, arranged by Russia, that enables UN weapons inspection teams to resume operations in Iraq
• 1997 Last original Florida Marlin, Jeff Conine, traded to KC Royals
• 1997 Mavericks' A C Green sets NBA record of 907 consecutive games played
• 1997 NY Islanders lose, beginning a 10 game losing streak

• 1997 Yohannes Haile-Selassie discovers the partial skull of a 2.5 million year old human ancestor, confirming and establishing the new species Australopithecus garhi, in Bouri, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

• 1998 First module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched

• 2003 After 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.

• 2008 After critical failures in the US financial system began to build up after mid-September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level since 1997.
• 2009 The Mexican government declares its economy technically out of recession after 2.93% GDP growth in the third quarter of 2009; Mexico had been in a severe economic crisis for over a year prior to its economic rebound
• 2012 Toshiba unveils a robot designed to help in nuclear disasters

• 2015 More than half of all trees in Amazon forest at risk of extinction according to data published in journal "Sciences Advances"

• 2017 Atlanta's Georgia Dome, once the world's largest covered stadium, is destroyed in a controlled implosion

• 2017 Investment corporation Tencent's market value hits $511 billion, - first Asian company to join the $500 billion club
• 2018 Airbnb bans listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank

• 2018 Mississippi 15 week abortion ban overturned by US judge saying it violated women's constitutional rights
• 2018 More than 40 religious scholars killed, at event to mark birth of prophet Mohammed, by a suicide bomber near the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan
• 2018 Sell-off in technology stocks leads stock market losses wiping out all 2018 market gains

• 2019 Britain's Prince Andrew announces he is stepping back from public duties after outcry from disastrous interview on his friendship with Jeffry Epstein
• 2019 Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is "climate emergency"
• 2019 Snakes lived with hind legs for 70 million years (Najash rionegrina), according to research from La Buitrera Palaeontological Area, Argentina, published in "Science Advances"

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