This Day in History for 20th May

◀ Apr May Jun ▶
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31
All Events Birthdays
Weddings Deaths

Historical Events

Events 1 - 100 of 192

325 - 1st Christian ecumenical council opens at Nicaea, Asia Minor
1217 - The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
1293 - Earthquake strikes Kamakura Japan, 30,000 killed
1293 - King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
1303 - Treaty of Paris restores Gascony to British in Hundred Years War
1310 - Shoes were made for both right & left feet
1347 - Rienzo calls Rome for people's tribunal
1495 - French King Charles VIII leaves Naples
1498 - Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calcutta India
1501 - Joao da Nova Castell discovers Ascension Islands
1521 - Ignatius Loyola seriously wounded by a cannon ball
1524 - Duke of Albany leaves Scotland
1570 - Egidius Coppens publishes Abraham Ortelius' "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum"
1571 - Venice, Spain & Pope Pius form anti-Turkish Saint League
1591 - Spanish troops in Zutphen surrenders to Willem Louis/Mauritius
1609 - Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1631 - Magdeburg in Germany seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire under earl Johann Tilly, most inhabitants massacred, one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.
1639 - Dorchester Mass, forms 1st school funded by local taxes
1690 - England passes Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II
Playwright William Shakespeare 1704 - Elias Neau forms school for slaves in NY
1734 - 1st Jockey Club forms in SC
1774 - Britain gives Quebec, Labrador & territory north of Ohio
1775 - Citizens of Mecklenburg County, NC declare independence of Britain
1784 - England & Netherlands signs peace treaty (Peace of Paris)
1825 - Charles X becomes King of France
1830 - 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper (Baltimore American)
1830 - D Hyde patents fountain pen
1835 - Otto is named the first modern king of Greece.
1840 - York Minster was badly damaged by fire
1845 - 1st legislative assembly convenes in Hawaii
1845 - HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
1861 - Cornerstone of University of Washington laid in Seattle
1861 - Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in Civil War
1861 - North Carolina becomes 11th & last state to secede from Union
1861 - US marshals appropriate previous year's telegraph dispatches, to reveal prosecessionist evidence
1862 - Homestead Act provides cheap land for settlement of West
1864 - Battle at Ware Bottom Church, Virginia, 1,400 killed or injured
1864 - Spotsylvania-campaign ends after 10,920 killed/injured
1867 - Brit parliament rejects John Stuart Mills law on women's suffrage
1867 - Royal Albert Hall foundation laid by Queen Victoria
1868 - Republican National Convention, meets in Chicago, nominates Grant
1870 - Second Chamber abolishes capital punishment
Clothing Designer Levi Strauss 1873 - Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent first blue jeans with copper rivets
1875 - Intl Bureau of Weights & Measures forms by treaty
1879 - 5th Kentucky Derby: Charlie Shauer aboard Lord Murphy wins in 2:37
1882 - Germany/Austria-Hungary/France sign Triple Alliance
1882 - Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
1882 - St Gotthard-railroad tunnel between Switzerland & Italy opens
1891 - History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.
1892 - George Sampson patents clothes dryer
1892 - Triple Alliance between Germany, Italy & Austria forms
1895 - 1st commercial movie performance (153 Broadway, NYC)
1896 - The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others.
1900 - 2nd modern Olympic games opens in Paris (lasted 5 months)
1902 - Cuba gains independence from Spain
1902 - US military occupation of Cuba (since Jan 1, 1899) ends
1910 - Funeral for Britain's King Edward VII
Inventor Thomas Edison 1911 - Edwin Boaler Alletson hits 189 in 90 mins Notts v Sussex
1913 - 38th Preakness: James Butwell aboard Buskin wins in 1:53.4
1915 - Bataafsche Petroleum Me begins oil extraction of Maracaibo
1916 - Codell, Kansas hit by tornado (also on same date in 1917 & 1918)
1916 - Saturday Evening Post cover features Norman Rockwell painting
1917 - Turkish government authorizes Jews to return to Tel Aviv & Jaffa
1918 - 1st electrically propelled warship (New Mexico)
1919 - Volcano Keluit on Java, erupts killing 550
1920 - Policemen raid the Cubs' bleachers & arrest 24 fans for gambling
1922 - "Egypt" sinks off Ushant after colliding with "Seine," killing 90
1922 - Babe Ruth & Bob Meusel, suspended on October 16, 1921, by Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, return to the NY lineup & go hitless
1923 - Stanley Baldwin, becomes PM of UK
1926 - Belgian government of Jaspar takes power
1926 - Congress passes Air Commerce Act, licensing of pilots & planes
1926 - Railway Labor Act became law
Baseball Great Babe Ruth 1926 - Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies
1927 - At 7:40 AM, Lindbergh takes off from NY to cross Atlantic for Paris
1927 - Saudi Arabia becomes independent of Great Britain (Treaty of Jedda)
1930 - 1st airplane catapulted from a dirigible, Charles Nicholson, pilot
1930 - University of California dedicates $1,500 to research on prevention & cure of athlete's foot
1932 - Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland 1st woman fly solo across Atlantic
1932 - Engelbert Dollfuss becomes chancellor of Austria
1939 - "3 Little Fishies," by Kay Kyser hits #1
1939 - 1st regular transatlantic airmail (Pan Am: NY to Marsseille France)
1940 - Gen Guderians tanks reach The Channel (British expeditionary army)
1940 - Soccer team HZVV forms in Hoogeveen
1940 - Trailing 7-1 in 9th to Pitts, Phils win 8-7
1941 - Archer's "Christian Calendar & Gregorian Reform" published
1941 - Former Dutch PM Colijn says Neth Indies not ready for independence
1941 - Germany invades Crete
1941 - White Sox Taft Wright sets AL record of RBIs in 13 consecutive games
1942 - US Navy 1st permitted black recruits to serve
1943 - French, British & US victory parade in Tunis Tunisia
1944 - US Communist Party dissolves
1945 - Keith Miller scores 105 in the 1st Victory Test Cricket at Lord's
1946 - Cubs Claude Passeau makes his 1st error since September 21, 1941, ending pitcher's fielding record of 273 consecutive errorless chances
1948 - 1st use of Israeli Air Force & 1st war victory, defeating Syrian army
1948 - Cleve Indians tie AL record of 18 walks (beat Red Sox 13-4)
1950 - 76th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Hill Prince wins in 1:59.2
1954 - Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of Nationalist China
1955 - Argentine parliament accepts separation of church & state
1956 - Atomic fusion (thermonuclear) bomb dropped from plane-Bikini Atoll
1956 - Jordan government of Samir resigns

1 2 ▶

Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 265

1315 - Bonne of Luxembourg, wife of John II of France (d. 1349)
1364 - Henry Percy, [Harry Hotspur], British soldier/politican
1470 - Pietro Bembo, cardinal/theologian
1537 - Hieronymus Fabricius Ab, Aquapend Italy, physician (De Formato Foetu)
1547 - Melchior Bischoff, composer
1554 - Paulo Bellasio, composer
1593 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish barok artist
1593 - Salomo Glassius, German theologian (d. 1656)
1660 - Andreas Schlüter, German sculptor (d. 1714)
1663 - William Bradford, British-born printer (d. 1752)
1706 - Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier (d. 1777)
1726 - Francis Cotes, English painter (d. 1770)
1737 - William Petty Fitzmaurice, British statesman (d. 1805)
1750 - Stephen Girard, bailed out US bonds during War of 1812
1754 - Hans Gram, composer
1759 - William Thornton, architect (Capitol building, Wash DC)
1764 - J Gottfried Schadow, German sculptor/cartoonist/lithographer
1768 - Dolley Dandridge Payne Madison, 1st lady (1809-17)
1769 - Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (d. 1835)
1772 - William Congreve, English officer (design fire rocket)
1799 - Honoré de Balzac, French novelist (d. 1850)
1806 - John Stuart Mill, UK, philosopher/political economist/Utilitarian
1812 - Gustav Adolf Mankell, composer
1818 - William George Fargo, founder (Wells Fargo)
1822 - Emile Erckmann, [E-Chatrian], French writer (Waterloo)
1822 - Frederic Passy, French economist/pacifist (Nobel 1901)
1825 - Antoinette Brown Blackwell, clergy (1st ordained US female minister)
1828 - James William Reilly, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1905
1830 - Amalia MdGA, princess of Saxon-Weimar-Eisenach/wife of prince Henry
1830 - Hector H Malot, French writer (Without Family)
1838 - Jules Méline, French statesman (d. 1925)
1841 - Sara Louisa Oberholtz, social reformer, anti-smoking advocate
1844 - Henri Julien Felix Rousseau, French ambassador/painter (Dream)
1850 - Eaton Faning, composer
1851 - Emile Berliner, Germany, inventor (flat phonograph record)
1851 - Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, US, nun/daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne
1856 - Henri E Cross [Delacroix], French painter
1860 - Eduard Buchner, German chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1917)
1874 - Folkert E Posthuma, Dutch minister of Agriculture/Industry
1876 - John Owen Jones, composer
1881 - Wladyslaw Sikorski, premier Poland (WW II general)
1882 - Sigrid Undset, Norway, novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter, Nobel 1928)
1883 - Paul Arntzenius, painter/graphic artist/etcher
1889 - Felix Arndt, composer
1889 - Margery Allingham, detective story writer
1889 - William Lawther, union leader
1890 - Beniamino Gigli, Italy, tenor (Enzo-La Gioconde)
1894 - Adela Rogers St John, journalist/author (Foreign Correspondent)
1894 - Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian Hindu sage, Jivanmukta (d. 1994)
1895 - Reginald J "R" Mitchell, English aviation manufacturer (Spitfire)
1897 - Diego Abad de Santillán, Spanish anarchist (d. 1983)
1899 - Estelle Taylor, Delaware, actress (8 Commandments)
1899 - John M Harlan, Chicago, 91st Supreme Court justice (1955-71)
1899 - Alexander Deyneka, Ukrainian painter (d. 1969)
1901 - Max Euwe, Netherlands, world chess champion (1935-37)
1901 - Otto Waldis, Austria, actor (Port of Hell, Unknown World)
1902 - Hans Sahl, writer
1903 - Jerzy Fitelberg, composer
1904 - Russell Hardie, Buffalo NY, actor (Sequoia, In Old Kentucky)
1905 - Gerrit Achterberg, Dutch poet (Sailing)
1905 - Harry Campion, statistician/founder (Brit Central Statistical Office)
1906 - Giuseppe Siri, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
1908 - Jimmy Stewart [James], PA, actor (Mr Smith Goes to Wash, Wonderful Life), (d. 1997)
1909 - Edward Moss Hutchinson, educationalist
1909 - John Arkell, director of administration (BBC)
1911 - Annie M G Schmidt, writer (Fam Doorsnee, Jip & Janneke)
1911 - Gardner F[rancis] Fox, US, sci-fi author (Kothar-Barbarian Swordsman)
1911 - Gardner Fox, American writer (d. 1986)
1912 - Joseph Proce, 3rd victim of NYC's Zodiac killer (survives)
1913 - Henry Cadbury Brown, architect
1913 - Ion Dumitrescu, composer
1913 - William Hewlett, cofounder (Hewlett-Packard Co)
1914 - Corneliu Coposu, Romanian politician (d. 1995)
1914 - Hideko Maehata, Japanese swimmer (d. 1995)
1915 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general/minister of Defense
1915 - Peter Copley, actor (Victim, King & Country)
1916 - Cornelie Coposu, politician
1916 - John McIntyre, theologian
1916 - Owen Chadwick, chancellor (U of East Anglia)
1916 - Trebisonda Valla, Italian athlete (d. 2006)
1916 - Alexei Petrovich Maresiev, Russian flying ace (d. 2001)
1917 - Enyss Djemil, composer
1917 - Richard Charles Cobb, historian
1917 - Guy Favreau, French Canadian lawyer (d. 1967)
1917 - Bergur Sigurbjörnsson, Icelandic politician (d. 2005)
1918 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, Nobel laureate (d. 2004)
1919 - George Gobel, Chicago Ill, comedian/TV personality (I Love My Wife)
1920 - Betty Driver, actress (Penny Paradise)
1920 - John Cruickshank, banker
1920 - William Simpson, British trade union leader
1921 - John Harrison, British vice admiral/surgeon
1921 - John Marchi, (Rep-R-NY)
1921 - W Borchert, writer
1921 - Hal Newhouser, American baseball player (d. 1998)
1922 - Clifford Butler, vice chancellor (Loughborough Univ of Technology)
1923 - Edith Fellows, Boston, actress (Pennies From Heaven, City Streets)
1923 - Hugh Beach, British General
1923 - Samuel Selvon, author
1924 - Betty Driver, actress (Coronation St, Pardon the Expression)
1924 - Peter Shore, MP (Labour)

1 2 3 ▶

Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 8 of 8

1995 - "Eagles" singer Don Henley (47) weds model Sharon Summerall (33) in Malibu
1995 - "Broadcast News" actress Holly Hunter (37) weds cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (35)
2000 - "Benny and Joon" actress Mary Stuart Masterson (33) weds film director Damon Santostefano
2000 - "Stone Temple Pilots" front man Scott Weiland (32) weds model Mary Forsberg (25)
2006 - "Dog the Bounty Hunter" TV personality Duane Dog Chapman (53) weds Beth Smith at the Hilton Waikoloa Village in Hawaii
2006 - Comedian-actress Mo'Nique (38) weds actor Sidney Hicks in an idyllic island ceremony
2006 - Race car driver Jacques Villeneuve (35) weds Johanna Martinez at a civil ceremony in Switzerland
2011 - Actor Doug Hutchison (51) weds country singer Courtney Stodden (16) in Las Vegas, Nevada

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 106

685 - King Ecgfrith of Northumbria (b. 645)
1277 - John XXI, [Petrus Juliani/Hispanus], Portuguese Pope (1276-77), dies. (b. 1215)
1285 - John II of Jerusalem, King of Cyprus (b. 1259)
1444 - Bernardinus van Siena, Italian saint, dies at 63
1449 - Peter, Prince/regent of Portugal/writer (Virtuosa Benfeitoria), dies
1471 - Henry VI, king of England (1422-61, 70-71)/France (1431-71), dies
1503 - Lorenzo de Medici, Italian patron (b. 1463)
1506 - Christopher Columbus, explorer, dies in poverty, in Spain at 55
1509 - Catharina Sforza, Italian duchess of Forli, dies at 45
1550 - Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shogun (b. 1510)
1597 - Matthijs Heldt, dies in battle
1622 - Osman II, sultan of Turkey (1618-22), dies
1648 - Wladyslaw IV Wasa, King of Poland, dies
1650 - Francesco Sacrati, composer, dies at 44
1669 - Joris van der Hagen, landscape painter, dies
1677 - George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (b. 1612)
1713 - Thomas Sprat, English writer (b. 1635)
1717 - John Trevor, British statesman (b. 1637)
1722 - Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (b. 1669)
1732 - Thomas Boston, Scottish church leader (b. 1676)
1751 - Domingo Miguel Bernaube Terradellas, composer, dies at 38
1782 - Carlo Giovanni Testori, composer, dies at 68
1782 - Christoph Gottlieb Schroter, composer, dies at 82
1782 - William Emerson, British mathematician (b. 1701)
1793 - Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist (b. 1720)
1795 - Ignác Martinovics, Hungarian physicist/revolutionary, beheaded
1825 - Papaflessas, Greek priest and government official (b. 1788)
1834 - Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert de Motier, nobleman, dies
1834 - Marquis de Lafayette, French general, dies
1841 - Joseph Blanco White, theological writert, dies
1847 - Mary Lamb, writer, dies
1864 - John Clare, English poet (Little Trotty Wagtail), dies at 70
1873 - Sir George-Étienne Cartier, French-Canadian statesman (b. 1814)
1875 - Amalia, wife of King Otto of Greece, dies at 58
1876 - Harold, grandson of English queen Victoria, dies at 8 days old
1876 - Khristo Botev, Bulgarian poet, dies
1880 - Eugene LFC prince the Ligne, Belgian prince of Ambise, dies at 76
1883 - William Chambers, author/publisher, dies
1896 - Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann, composer/pianist, dies at 76
1900 - Gustav Heinrich Graben-Hoffman, composer, dies at 80
1909 - Ernest Hogan, blackface comedian and musician (b. 1859)
1910 - Jean-Baptiste Theodore Weckerlin, composer, dies at 88
1911 - E M Grace, cricketer (one Test v Australia 1880, 36 & 0), dies
1917 - Philipp von Ferrary, Italian philatelist (b. 1850)
1917 - Valentine Fleming, Scottish politician (b. 1887)
1919 - Jacob Verdam, philosopher, dies
1923 - Hans Goldschmidt, German chemist, dies
1926 - Dick Pougher, cricketer (17 & 3-26 in only Test for Engld 1892), dies
1935 - Ivans, [Jacob van Schevichaven], lawyer/detective writer, dies at 68
1939 - Joe Carr, NFL hall of famer/NFL president (1921-39), dies at 59
1940 - Amar Singh, cricketer (of pneumonia Indian pace bowler 1932-36), dies
1940 - Joris [Georges] van Severen, Flem fascist/Member of parliament, dies
1946 - Jacob Ellehammer, Danish inventor (b. 1871)
1947 - Philipp Lenard, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1862)
1949 - Randolph West, American biochemist, known for the Dakin-West reaction (b. 1890)
1956 - Andre Eugene Maurice Charlot, actor (Summer Storm), dies
1956 - Max Beerbohm, caricturist/writer (Yet Again), dies
1959 - Alfred Schutz, Austrian/US architect/philosopher, dies at 60
1961 - Josef "Pips" Priller, German fighter ace (b. 1915)
1968 - Albert Hartkopf, cricketer (one Test for Australia), dies
1968 - Kees van Dongen, Dutch/French painter, dies at 91
1969 - Fred Sherman, actor (Chain Lightning), dies after a stroke at 64
1969 - Royal Beal, actor (Death of a Salesman), dies of cancer, at 69
1971 - Waldo Williams, Welsh poet (b. 1904)
1972 - Cornelis J van der Klauw, Dutch biologist/zoologist, dies at 78
1972 - Walter Winchell, columnist/narrator (Untouchables), dies at 75
1973 - Jarno Saarinen, Finnish motorcycle racer (b. 1945)
1975 - Dame Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor, dies in fire at 72
1975 - Jacques Stehman, composer, dies at 62
1976 - Syd Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1911)
1976 - Zelmar Michelini, Uruguayan politician, member of the Christian-Democrat party, and Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz "disappeared"
1980 - Jack Walsh, cricketer (at Wallsend)/commentator (NBN), dies
1984 - Peter Bull, British actor (Dr Doolittle), dies of a heart attack at 72
1985 - George Memmoli, actor (Earl-Hello Larry), dies at 46
1986 - Bernard Naylor, composer, dies at 78
1986 - Willem Pee, Belgian linguistic, dies at 83
1989 - Anton Diffring, actor (Zeppelin, Fahrenheit 451), dies at 70
1989 - Gilda Radner, comedienne (SNL, Haunted Honeymoon), dies at 42
1989 - John R Hicks, English economist (Nobel 1972), dies
1991 - Julian Orbon De Soto, composer, dies at 65
1992 - Roger Keith Coleman, American convict
1993 - Max Klein, inventor (paint by numbers), dies at 77
1994 - Dallas Pratt, collector, dies at 79
1994 - Ronald Russell, actor/manager (We Are Angels), dies at 83
1994 - Vivien John, artist, dies at 79
1996 - Eric Davidson, comedy scriptwriter, dies at 65
1996 - George Malcolm Thomson, journalist, dies at 96
1996 - Jack Wyngaard, dancer, dies at 37
1996 - Janaki Ramachandran, PM of Indian state of Tamil Nadu (1988), dies
1996 - John Pertwee, actor (Dr Who), dies at 76
1996 - Julius Marmur, biochemist/geneticist, dies at 70
1996 - Lewis B Combs, naval commander/civil engineer, dies at 101
1997 - Virgilio Boat, president of Colombia (1986-90), dies
2000 - Jean Pierre Rampal, French flutist (b. 1922)
2000 - Malik Sealy, American basketball player (b. 1970)
2001 - Renato Carosone, Italian musician (b. 1920)
2002 - Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist (b. 1941)
2005 - Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher (b. 1913)
2005 - William Seawell, United States Army Brigadier General (b. 1918)
2007 - Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer (b. 1914)