This Day in History for 20th October

Historical Events

Results 1 - 100 of 203

1097 - 1st Crusaders arrive in Antioch
1528 - Treaty of Gorinchem (Emperor & church)
1536 - Danish/Norw king Christian III leads reform in Catholic possessions
1576 - Spanish troops occupies & plunder Maastricht
1587 - Battle at Coultras: Henri van Navarra beats Catholic League
1600 - Battle of Sekigahara sets Tokugawa clan as Japan's rulers (shoguns)
1603 - Chinese uprising in Philippines fails after 23,000 killed
1634 - English King Charles I disbands new "Ship Money" tax
1714 - Georg Ludwig of Hannover crowned as King George I
1740 - Maria Theresa became ruler of Austria, Hungary & Bohemia
1751 - Royal ship Duc de Bourgogne launched at Rochefort
1774 - Continental Congress orders discouragment of entertainment
1781 - Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, was approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
1786 - Harvard University organizes 1st astronomical expedition in US
1803 - US Senate ratifies Louisiana Purchase
1813 - German Kingdom of Westphalia abolished
1817 - 1st Mississippi "Showboat," leaves Nashville on maiden voyage
1818 - 49th parallel forms as border between US & Canada
1818 - US & Britain agree to joint control of Oregon country
1820 - Spain sells part of Florida to US for $5 million
1822 - 1st edition of London Sunday Times
1827 - Battle at Navarino: Engl/Russ/French fleet beat Turk/Egyptian fleet
1833 - Charles Darwin reaches river mouth of Parana
1835 - HMS Beagle leaves Galapagos Archipelago/sails to Tahiti
1843 - 1st Chinese immigrant arrives in Suriname
1847 - Little William Nelman poisons his grandpa
1856 - Arnhem-Oberhausen railway in Netherlands opens
1862 - Amnesty proclaimed for escaped slaves of Suriname
1864 - Lincoln formaly establishes Thanksgiving as a natl holiday
1873 - P T Barnum Hippodrome featuring "Greatest Show on Earth," opens (NYC)
1877 - Franz Schubert's 2nd Symphony in B, premieres
1880 - Amsterdam Free University opens
1883 - Max Bruch's "Kol Nidre," 1st performed
1883 - Treaty of Ancon, Peru cedes Tarapaca to Chile
1888 - Chicago & All America baseball teams play exhibition in Auckland, NZ
1889 - Gerhart Hauptmann's "Vor Sonnenaufgang," premieres in Berlin
1891 - 1st International 6 day bike race (NY MSG) begins
1898 - NC Mutual & Provident Insurance Company forms
1899 - Battle at Talana Hill Natal: British army vs Boers
1899 - Columbia (US) beats Shamrock (England) in 11th America's Cup
1903 - US wins disputed boundary between District of Alaska & Canada
1905 - Great General Strike in Russia begins; lasts 11 days
1905 - Russian tsar allows Polish people to speak Polish
1906 - Dr Lee DeForest demonstrated his electrical vacuum tube (radio tube)
1908 - King Leopold II sells Congo to Belgium
1910 - 1st appearance of cork centered baseball in World Series
1910 - Soccer team KFC forms in Alkmaar
1910 - The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.
1911 - Helen Hayes Theater (Folies Bergere) opens at 210 W 46th St NYC
1911 - Roald Amundsen sets out on race to South Pole
1912 - Cort Theater opens at 148 W 48th St NYC
1912 - Hannes Kolehmainen runs world record marathon (2:29:39.2)
1918 - Germans, aimed at an armistice, Germans agree to further concessions
1920 - "1st Year" with Frank Craven premieres in NYC
1922 - Kennelworth in Bronx renamed Dwight Place
1924 - 1st Negro League World Series: KC Monarchs shuts out Hilldales, 5-0
1926 - Hurricane in Cuba, kills 600
1929 - Bayshore Highway opens (SF)
1930 - Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, premiers on NBC radio
1930 - British White Paper restricts Jews from buying Arab land
1931 - Frankie Frisch of the Cards named MVP
1932 - Journalist, Robert Trout, joins CBS
1934 - All-Star team led by Babe Ruth & Connie Mack sails to Hawaii & Japan
1934 - Richard Strauss completes his opera "Die Schweigsame Frau"
1935 - 400,000 demonstrators against fascism in Madrid
1935 - Anti-fascist People front forms in Brussels
1935 - Hank Greenberg is named AL MVP by the BBWAA, Wes Ferrell is runner-up
1935 - Mao Tse Tung & his Communist forces ended their "Long March" at Yan'an, in Shaanxi China
1936 - Carl Hubbell, 26-6, edges out Dizzy Dean, 24-13, for MVP honors in NL
1936 - Spanish govt moves to Barcelona
1939 - "All the Things You Are" recorded by Tommy Dorsey Orch
1939 - Pope Pius XII publishes his 1st encyclical Summi pontificatus
1940 - Cheese rationed in Netherlands
1940 - Greenhouse rationing begins in Netherlands
1941 - Nazi occupiers murder 500 inhabitants of Kragujevac Serbia
1942 - "Durham Manifesto" calls for fundamental changes in race relations
1944 - Liquid-gas tanks in Cleveland, Ohio explode, 135 die, 3,600 homeless
1944 - Revolution by workers & students in Guatemala
1944 - Russian/Yugoslavian troops free Belgrade
1944 - US 1st army wins battle of Aachen
1944 - US 6th army lands on Leyte, Philippines
1944 - US forces under Gen Douglas MacArthur return to Philippines
1945 - Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Lawrence opens trial of Neurenberg
1946 - Frank Seno returns kickoff 105 yd, Chicago Cards vs NY Giants
1947 - HUAC opens hearings into alleged Communist influence in Hollywood
1947 - Radio rights for the World Series sell for $475,000 for 3 years
1947 - Robinson Jeffer's "Medea," premieres in NYC
1951 - The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurred in Stillwater, Oklahoma
1952 - Emergency crisis proclaimed in Kenya
1953 - WRAU (now WHOI) TV channel 19 in Peoria, IL (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 - "Peter Pan" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 149 performances
1955 - "No Time for Sergeants" opens on Broadway, starring Andy Griffith
1955 - Harry Belafonte records "Day-O" (Banana Boat Song)
1955 - Ira Levin's "No Time for Sergeants," premieres in NYC
1955 - Yanks begin 16-game exhibition in Japan
1955 - Publication of The Return of the King, being the last part of The Lord of the Rings.
1956 - 58°F (15°C), Esperanza Station, Antarctica (Antarctic record high)
1956 - Hannes Lindemann begins journey across Atlantic in a 17' craft
1957 - Karachi A (277-0d) beat Sind A by an innings w/o losing a wkt
1957 - Walter Cronkite begins hosting weekly documentary

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 100 of 237

1435 - Andrea Della Robbia, Florence, sculptor, nephew of Luca
1475 - Giovanni Rucellai, Italian poet (Le Api)
1496 - Claude de Lutherans, duke of Guise
1616 - Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian (d. 1680)
1620 - Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (d. 1691)
1632 - Christopher Wren, England, astronomer/great architect
1637 - Nicolaas van der Veken, Flemish sculptor (confessional chairs)
1656 - Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
1660 - Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (d. 1723)
1677 - Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland (d. 1766)
1679 - Samuel von Cocceji, German lawyer
1700 - Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans, Duchess of Modena (d. 1761)
1711 - Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (d. 1795)
1719 - Gottfried Achenwall, German lawyer/statistician/economist
1740 - Belle van Zuylen, Neth/Swiss writer (Three Women)
1751 - Hendrik van Stralen, Dutch MP/secretary of Interior
1759 - Chauncey Goodrich, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (d. 1815)
1780 - M Pauline Bonaparte, Corsican duchess of Parma/Guastalla
1784 - Lord Henry JT Palmerston, English minister of Foreign affairs
1785 - George Ormerod, English historian and antiquarian (d. 1873)
1788 - Philip Knapton, composer
1792 - Anton Bernhard Furstenau, composer
1792 - Colin Campbell/Lord Clyde, British officer (Sepoy-uprising)
1808 - Karl [Theodor] Andree, German geographer/journalist (Globus)
1812 - Austin Flint, 19th century heart research pioneer
1819 - Daniel Edgar Sickles, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1914
1819 - Karol Mikuli, composer
1819 - The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábí Faith (d. 1850)
1820 - Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, Major General (Confederate Army)
1820 - George Jerrison Stannard, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1822 - Mansfield Lovell, Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1884
1823 - Thomas Hughes, England, author (Tom Brown's School Days)
1832 - Constantin Lipsius, German architect (d. 1894)
1843 - Victor de Stuers, Dutch art connoisseur
1854 - Alphonse Allais, French author/humorist (Pass the Bile)
1854 - Arthur Rimbaud, France, poet/adventurer (Illuminations)
1858 - John Burns, English politician (d. 1943)
1859 - G B Studd, cricketer (brother of C T, 4 Tests for England)
1859 - John Dewey, philosopher, educational theorist/writer (Learn by doing)
1864 - James F. Hinkle, American politician, sixth Governor of New Mexico (d. 1951)
1871 - Frederick Burton, IN, actor (One Way Passage)
1874 - Charles Edward Ives, Danbury Ct, composer (Holiday Quick Step)
1874 - Viscount Palmerston, (Whig) British PM (1855-65)
1877 - Josephine McGill, composer
1882 - Bela Lugosi, Hungary, actor (Dracula, Plan 9 From Outer Space)
1884 - Thomas Chalmers, NYC, actor (Blind Alleys, Outrage)
1887 - Addison Richards, Zanesville OH, actor (Pentagon, Fighting Seabees)
1887 - John Warburton, Huddersfield England, actor (Saratoga Trunk)
1889 - Margaret Dumont, actress-Marx Brothers' foil (Day at the Races)
1890 - Jelly Roll Morton, American composer (d. 1941)
1891 - James Chadwick, English physicist (discovered neutron)
1891 - Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya opposition leader/1st premier (1963-78)
1893 - Charlie Chase, US actor/director (Sons of Desert)
1893 - Charley Chase, American comedian (d. 1940)
1894 - Olive Thomas, American actress (d. 1920)
1895 - Rex Ingram, US actor (Tarzan of the Apes, 10 Commandments)
1896 - Nat Holman, basketball coach (CCNY)
1897 - Jevsei G Liberman, Ukrainian economist (Plan, profit, bonuses)
1897 - Crown Prince Eun of Korea (d. 1970)
1899 - Evelyn Brent, Tampa FL, actress (Panama Lady, Last Coomand)
1899 - Marnix Gijsen, [baron Jan-Albert Goris], Flemish writer (Grote God Pan)
1900 - Heinrich Himmler, head of Gestapo [see oct 7]
1900 - Rodolfo Halffter, composer
1900 - Wayne Morse, (Sen-R/D-Ore)
1901 - Hans-Otto Borgmann, composer
1903 - John Lodge, Washington DC, actor (Witchmaker)
1904 - Anna Neagle, London Engld, actress (London Melody, Nurse Edith Cavell)
1904 - Tommy Clement Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
1907 - Arlene Francis, American television personality (d. 2001)
1909 - Monique Hare, French pianist
1909 - Sugiyama Yasushi, Japanese painter (d. 1993)
1911 - Will Rogers Jr, NY, actor (Down to Earth)
1913 - Angelo Ephrikian, composer
1913 - Bao Dai, emperor of Annam/Indochina/head of South Vietnam (1949-55)
1913 - Barney Phillips, St Louis Mo, actor (Dragnet, Felony Squad)
1913 - Grandpa [Louis M] Jones, Niagra KY, country musician (Hee-Haw)
1914 - Fayard Nicholas, US, actor (Big Broadcast of 1936)
1915 - Giora Schuster, composer
1917 - Efrain Jonckheer, premier Dutch Antilles
1917 - Jean-Pierre Melville, Paris France, director (A Cop)
1917 - Ken Cranston, cricketer (England all-rounder captained once in 1948)
1918 - Anton Diffring, Koblenz Germany, actor (Assignment Vienna)
1918 - Robert Lochner, German journalist (d. 2003)
1919 - Tracy Hall, American inventor (d. 2008)
1921 - Hans Warren, Dutch writer/poet/critic (Secret Diary)
1921 - Pierre Laporte, Canada, journalist/statesman (Revolution Script)
1922 - John Anderson, Clayton Ill, actor (Virgil-Legend of Wyatt Earp)
1923 - Herschel Bernardi, actor (Arnie, Voice of Charlie the Tuna, Front)
1923 - Joe Minogue, journalist
1923 - Robert Craft, Kingston, NY, conductor, Stravinsky-follower
1924 - Kenneth WIlliam Gatland, aerospace scientist
1924 - Stanley Eric Francis Booth-Clibborn, bishop (Manchester)
1925 - Art Buchwald, Mt Vernon NY, columnist/author (Have I Ever Lied to You)
1925 - Herman Roelstraete, composer
1925 - Tom Dowd, American recording engineer (d. 2002)
1925 - Roger Hanin, French actor
1926 - Ursula Happe, Germany, 200m backstroke swimmer (Olympic-gold-1956)
1927 - Oskar Pastior, writer
1928 - Joyce Brothers, NYC, pop psychologist ($64,000 Question, Naked Gun)
1931 - Ken Morrison, English supermarket maginate/multi-millionaire

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 97 of 97

460 - Eudocia Aelia Athenais, empress Oostromeinse Rich/poetess, dies
1139 - Henry X the Trotse, duke of Bayern (1126-38), dies
1187 - Urbanus III, [Umberto Crivelli], Italian Pope (1185-87), dies
1268 - Conrad Hohenstaufen, [Conrad van Zwaben], son of Conrad IV, dies
1268 - Konradijn Hohenstaufen, son of Koenraad IV, beheaded in Naples
1274 - Engelbert II of Falkenburg, archbishop of Cologne, dies
1438 - Jacopo di Piero della Quercia, Italian sculptor, dies at about 64
1525 - Joannes Custos, S Neth humanist, dies at about 50
1570 - João de Barros, Portuguese historian (b. 1496)
1631 - Michael Maestlin, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1550)
1640 - John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
1652 - Antonio Coello, Spanish writer (b. 1611)
1676 - Christopher Gibbons, composer, dies at 61
1713 - Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (b. 1652)
1740 - Karl VI, German emperor (1711-40), dies
1740 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1685)
1765 - William August duke of Cumberland, Engl supreme commander, dies at 44
1794 - James Adam, System architect (essays on agriculture), dies at about 64
1819 - Lambert-Francois Godecharle, composer, dies at 66
1842 - Grace Darling, English heroine (b. 1815)
1864 - Stephen Dodson Ramseur, Confederate gen-major, dies at 27
1865 - Champ Ferguson, Confederate guerrilla (b. 1821)
1870 - Michael William Balfe, composer (Bohemian Girl), dies at 62
1871 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician (calculator), dies at 78
1876 - Jeronimo de Bosch Kemper, Dutch sociologist/historian, dies at 68
1882 - Olegario Victor Andrade, Argentina poet (El arpa perdida), dies at 41
1890 - Sir Richard Burton, British explorer and writer (b. 1821)
1899 - Robert H "Bobby" Gunning, Brit colonel (60th Rifles), dies in battle
1900 - Charles Dudley Warner, US writer (As We Go), dies at 70
1900 - Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet (b. 1846)
1904 - Henry Hiles, composer, dies at 77
1906 - William "Buck" Ewing, hall of fame catcher (NY Giants), dies at 67
1907 - Said Pasha Kurd, Kurdish statesman (b.1834)
1910 - David B. Hill, Governor of New York (b. 1843)
1913 - Leander Schlegel, composer, dies at 69
1920 - Max Bruch, German composer (Kol Nidre), dies at 82
1926 - Eugene Debs, American labor leader and Socialist presidential candidate (b. 1855)
1927 - Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ivanov, composer, dies at 78
1929 - Rudolf Kittel, German theologist, dies at 76
1931 - Emanuel Moor, composer, dies at 68
1936 - Anne Sullivan, American teacher (b. 1866)
1940 - Gunnar Asplund, Swedish architect (b. 1885)
1941 - Ken Farnes (WWII) 15 Tests for England, cricketer (60 wickets), dies
1942 - May Robson, actress (Star is Born, Reckless), dies at 84
1944 - Gabriel Groulez, composer, dies at 65
1950 - Henry Lewsis Stimson, US minister of War/gov-gen, dies
1952 - Basil Radford, actor (Whisky Galore, Dead of Night), dies at 55
1953 - Werner Baumbach, German bomber pilot (b. 1916)
1954 - Willie Shaw, race car driver (Indy 500-1937, 39, 40), dies at 51
1955 - Eino Roiha, composer, dies at 51
1959 - Werner Krauss, actor (Joyless Street), dies at 75
1964 - Herbert Hoover, 31st president of US (1929-33), dies in NY at 90
1964 - Miles WL Killearn of Killearn, baron/diplomat (Egypt), dies at 84
1967 - Yoshida Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1878)
1968 - Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, TV preacher, dies at 84
1970 - Patrick Wymark, actor (Skull, Tomb of Ligeia), dies at 44
1972 - Harlow Shapley, astronomer (Sun's position in galaxy), dies at 86
1977 - Cassie Gaines, rocker (Lynyrd Skynyrd), dies in a plane crash at 28
1983 - Merle Travis, country singer, dies at 75
1983 - Yves Thériault, French Canadian author (b. 1915)
1984 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
1984 - Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
1986 - Samora Machel, president of Mozambique, dies in air crash at 53
1987 - Andrey Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1903)
1988 - Sheila Scott, English aviatrix (b. 1922)
1989 - Anthony Quayle, actor (Moses, Operation Crossbow), dies at 76
1990 - Joel McCrea, actor (Ramrod), dies of pulmonary complications at 84
1992 - Orton Chirwa, Malawi's lawyer/Justice minister, dies in captivity
1993 - James Leo Herlihy, novelist (Midnight Cowboy), dies at 66
1993 - Maurice Dolbier, US actor/writer (Nowhere near Everest), dies at 81
1993 - Sugiyama Yasushi, Japanese painter (b. 1909)
1994 - Burt Lancaster, actor (Elmer Gantry), dies of heart attack at 80
1994 - Charles Robert Owen Medley, dancer/Choreographer, dies at 88
1994 - Eberhard Feik, German actor (Tatort), dies at 50
1994 - Ivan Svitak, philosopher, dies at 69
1994 - Sergei F Bondartsjoek, actor/director (Waterloo), dies at 74
1995 - Bernadette Hingley, priest, dies at 47
1995 - Christopher Stone, actor (Dave-Dallas, Interns), dies at 53
1995 - Jack Rose, screenwriter, dies at 83
1995 - Raymond Rasberry, pianist/singer, dies at 65
1996 - Alfred William Bill Bedford, test Pilot, dies at 75
1996 - Mary Tuck, social researcher/civil servant, dies at 68
1999 - Calvin Griffith, Former owner of Washington Senators (b. 1911)
2001 - Ted Ammon, American financier (b. 1949)
2002 - Barbara Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
2002 - Bernard Fresson, French actor (b. 1931)
2003 - Jack Elam, American actor (b. 1918)
2003 - Miodrag Petrović, Serbian actor (b. 1924)
2004 - Anthony Hecht, American poet (b. 1923)
2004 - Chuck Hiller, American baseball player (b. 1934)
2005 - Shirley Horn, American singer (b. 1934)
2005 - Endon Mahmood, First Lady of Malaysia (breast cancer) (b. 1941)
2005 - Eva Svankmajerova, Czech artist (b. 1940)
2006 - Jane Wyatt, American actress (b. 1910)
2007 - Max McGee, American football player (b. 1932)
2007 - Paul Raven, British bass-player (Killing Joke, Ministry) (b. 1961)
2008 - Gene Hickerson, American football Hall of Famer (b. 1935)

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