TODAY IN HISTORY: JUNE 20

 

June 20

 

June 20th is the 171th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 194 days remaining (195 in leap years). It is also the first day of the fourth quarter of the fiscal year in many countries.

Historical events on June 20th

• 1453: The Battle of the Hundred Years' War ends with the English victory at the Battle of Castillon.
• 1628: The Thirty Years' War begins between the Holy Roman Empire and its allies, and Denmark-Norway and its allies.
• 1789: The Tennis Court Oath is taken by the French Third Estate, marking the beginning of the French Revolution.
• 1815: The Battle of Waterloo is fought, resulting in a French defeat and the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
• 1863: West Virginia is admitted to the Union as the 35th state.
• 1898: The Spanish-American War begins.
• 1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I.
• 1940: France surrenders to Germany during World War II.
• 1945: The Battle of Okinawa ends, resulting in a decisive American victory.
• 1963: The Equal Pay Act is signed into law in the United States.
• 1967: The Six-Day War begins between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
• 1973: The Watergate scandal is exposed, leading to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon.
• 1992: Czechoslovakia dissolves, creating the two new independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
• 1999: Kosovo War: NATO bombing of Yugoslavia begins.

People born on June 20th

• 1820: Jacques Offenbach, German-born French composer (d. 1880)
• 1837: Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
• 1878: John Bauer, Swedish painter and illustrator (d. 1918)
• 1887: Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist and writer (d. 1935)
• 1935: Scott Carpenter, American astronaut (d. 2013)
• 1942: Bryan Adams, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
• 1949: Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
• 1952: Cyndi Lauper, American singer-songwriter, actress, and activist
• 1956: Boris Johnson, British politician and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1962: Johnny Depp, American actor and producer
• 1967: Nicole Kidman, Australian actress and producer

Holidays and observances on June 20th

• World Refugee Day
• Juneteenth (United States)
• Father's Day (United States, United Kingdom, and Canada)
• Midsummer Day (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania)
• World Day for Sickle Cell Anaemia

Fun facts about June 20th

• June 20th is the day on which the first successful flight of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet took place in 1969.
• June 20th is the day on which the first episode of "Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back" was released in 1980.
• June 20th is the day on which the first successful launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery took place in 1984.
• June 20th is the day on which the first commercial flight of the Airbus A320 took place in 1988.
• June 20th is the day on which the first successful landing on Mars by a rover took place in 1997.

Conclusion

June 20th is a day with a rich history, culture, and natural significance. It is a day to remember the important events that have taken place on this date, to celebrate the diverse cultures of the world, and to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Here are some additional thoughts on June 20th:

• June 20th is a day to be grateful for all the good things in our lives.
• It is a day to celebrate the fathers in our lives.
• It is a day to raise awareness about the plight of refugees and to work towards creating a more just and equitable world.
• It is a day to enjoy

Here are more events from this day:

451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.

1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.

1622 – The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years' War.

1631 – The Sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.

1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.

1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.

1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.

1787 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the 'United States'.

1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.

1791 – King Louis XVI, disguised as a valet, and the French royal family attempt to flee Paris during the French Revolution.

1819 – The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.

1837 – Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.

1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.

1862 – Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.

1863 – American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.

1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.

1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.

1900 – Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.

1900 – Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.

1921 – Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.

1926 – The 28th International Eucharistic Congress begins in Chicago, with over 250,000 spectators attending the opening procession.

1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1943 – The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days.

1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Avro Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

1944 – Continuation War: The Soviet Union demands an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.

1944 – The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.

1945 – The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.

1948 – The Deutsche Mark is introduced in Western Allied-occupied Germany. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.

1956 – A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.

1959 – A rare June hurricane strikes Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.

1960 – The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).

1963 – Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called "red telephone" link between Washington, D.C. and Moscow.

1964 – A Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes in the Shengang District of Taiwan, killing 57 people.

1972 – Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.

1973 – Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.

1973 – Aeroméxico Flight 229 crashes on approach to Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport, killing all 27 people on board.

1975 – The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as "summer blockbusters".

1979 – ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan National Guard soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.

1982 – The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide opens in Tel Aviv, despite attempts by the Turkish government to cancel it, as it included presentations on the Armenian genocide.

1982 – The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.

1988 – Haitian President Leslie Manigat is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant general Henri Namphy.

1990 – Asteroid Eureka is discovered.

1990 – The 7.4 M_w  Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.

1991 – The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of Berlin.

1994 – The 1994 Imam Reza shrine bomb explosion in Iran leaves at least 25 dead and 70 to 300 injured.

2003 – The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.

2019 – Iran's Air Defense Forces shoot down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions between the two countries.