On this day — November 20
What happened on this day in history
Events
An Lushan rebellion
Event 762During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptures Luoyang from the rebels.
Source: Wikipedia — An Lushan rebellion
John the Fearless
Event 1407John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, agree to a truce, but Burgundy would kill Orléans three days later.
Source: Wikipedia — John the FearlessPeace of Cremona (1441)
Event 1441The Peace of Cremona ends the war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, after the victorious Venetian enterprise of military engineering of the Galeas per montes.
Source: Wikipedia — Peace of Cremona (1441)
Zumbi
Event 1695Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.
Source: Wikipedia — Zumbi
Battle of Porto Bello (1739)
Event 1739Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
Source: Wikipedia — Battle of Porto Bello (1739)
American Revolutionary War
Event 1776American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey.
Source: Wikipedia — American Revolutionary War
New Jersey
Event 1789New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
Source: Wikipedia — New Jersey
Ludwig van Beethoven
Event 1805Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.
Source: Wikipedia — Ludwig van Beethoven
Treaty of Paris (1815)
Event 1815The Second Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by troops of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia for several more years.
Source: Wikipedia — Treaty of Paris (1815)
Sperm whale
Event 1820An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this incident.)
Source: Wikipedia — Sperm whale
Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata
Event 1845Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.
Source: Wikipedia — Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata
American Civil War
Event 1861American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government.
Source: Wikipedia — American Civil War
Garnier Expedition
Event 1873Garnier Expedition: French forces under Lieutenant Francis Garnier captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese.
Source: Wikipedia — Garnier Expedition
Sarah Bernhardt
Event 1900The French actress Sarah Bernhardt receives the press at the Savoy Hotel in New York at the outset of her first visit since 1896. She talked about her impending tour with a troupe of more than 50 performers and her plans to play the title role in Hamlet.
Source: Wikipedia — Sarah Bernhardt
Mexican Revolution
Event 1910Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution.
Source: Wikipedia — Mexican Revolution
World War I
Event 1917World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.
Source: Wikipedia — World War I
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
Event 1936José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad.
Source: Wikipedia — José Antonio Primo de Rivera
World War II
Event 1940World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.
Source: Wikipedia — World War II
Battle of Tarawa
Event 1943World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins: United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.
Source: Wikipedia — Battle of Tarawa
Nuremberg trials
Event 1945Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.
Source: Wikipedia — Nuremberg trials
Indonesian National Revolution
Event 1946Indonesian National Revolution: 96 Indonesian including I Gusti Ngurah Rai were killed during the Battle of Margarana with Dutch forces.
Source: Wikipedia — Indonesian National Revolution
Elizabeth II
Event 1947The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.
Source: Wikipedia — Elizabeth II
Declaration of the Rights of the Child
Event 1959The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.
Source: Wikipedia — Declaration of the Rights of the Child
Cuban Missile Crisis
Event 1962Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
Source: Wikipedia — Cuban Missile Crisis
Farmington Mine disaster
Event 1968A total of 78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in the Farmington Mine disaster.
Source: Wikipedia — Farmington Mine disaster
Vietnam War
Event 1969Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.
Source: Wikipedia — Vietnam War
Occupation of Alcatraz
Event 1969Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.
Source: Wikipedia — Occupation of Alcatraz
United States Department of Justice
Event 1974The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.
Source: Wikipedia — United States Department of Justice
Boeing 747
Event 1974The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board.
Source: Wikipedia — Boeing 747
Egypt
Event 1977Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.
Source: Wikipedia — Egypt
Grand Mosque seizure
Event 1979Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.
Source: Wikipedia — Grand Mosque seizureLake Peigneur
Event 1980Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole.
Source: Wikipedia — Lake Peigneur
Microsoft
Event 1985Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.
Source: Wikipedia — Microsoft
Velvet Revolution
Event 1989Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
Source: Wikipedia — Velvet Revolution
Andrei Chikatilo
Event 1990Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings.
Source: Wikipedia — Andrei Chikatilo
Azerbaijan
Event 1991An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan.
Source: Wikipedia — Azerbaijan1992 Windsor Castle fire
Event 1992In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.
Source: Wikipedia — 1992 Windsor Castle fire
Savings and loan crisis
Event 1993Savings and loan crisis: 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.
Source: Wikipedia — Savings and loan crisis
North Macedonia
Event 1993North Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurs when Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Ohrid Airport, killing all 116 people on board.
Source: Wikipedia — North Macedonia
Angola
Event 1994The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.)
Source: Wikipedia — Angola
Garley Building fire
Event 1996A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81.
Source: Wikipedia — Garley Building fire
Taliban
Event 1998A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Source: Wikipedia — Taliban
Zarya (ISS module)
Event 1998The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Source: Wikipedia — Zarya (ISS module)November 15
Event 2003After 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.
Source: Wikipedia — November 15
Radisson Blu Bamako attack
Event 2015Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali.
Source: Wikipedia — Radisson Blu Bamako attack
Jimmie Johnson
Event 2016Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time.
Source: Wikipedia — Jimmie Johnson
2022 FIFA World Cup
Event 2022The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.
Source: Wikipedia — 2022 FIFA World CupBirths
Emperor Taizong of Song
Born 939Emperor Taizong of Song (died 997)
Source: Wikipedia — Emperor Taizong of Song
Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Pomerania
Born 1545Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Pomerania (died 1592)
Source: Wikipedia — Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Pomerania
