September 20

is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). There are 102 days remaining.

Events

451- According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
1187 - Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.
1377 - Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the Butcher of Cesena, is elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.
1519 - Ferdinand Magellan - set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
1596 - Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Monterrey in New Spain.
1737 - Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
1854 - Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea.
1860 - The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) visits the United States.
1863 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga ends.
1870 - Bersaglieri corps enters Rome through Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy
1881 - Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States.
1891 - The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
1906 - Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania is launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle, England.
1917 - Paraguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1920 - Foundation of the Spanish Legion
1939 - A German Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down by Fairey Battle gunner Sgt. F. Letchard during a patrol near Aachen. This was the RAF's first aerial victory of the Second World War.
1940 - Genevieve Grotjan completed the decryption of the Japanese Purple code
1946 - The first Cannes Film Festival is held.
1954 - The first program compiled from FORTRAN runs.
1954 - New Zealand's Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents reports just ten days after concluding hearings.
1962 - James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
1967 - The Queen Elizabeth 2 sets sail. It it is operated by the Cunard Cruise Line
1973 - Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match. On this same day, singer Jim Croce is killed in a plane crash.
1979 - Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.
1979 - A coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokasa I
1979 - The Punjab wing of the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) formally splits and constitutes a parallel UCCRI(ML).
1979 - Assassination of French left-wing militant Pierre Goldman.
1981 - A coup d'état in the Central African Republic overthrows President David Dacko.
1984 - A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twelve people
1989 - Miss Saigon makes its world premeire in London
1998 - Baseball: After playing 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Jr takes a day off.
2000 - Last performance of the musical Cats (musical) on Broadway.
2001 - George W. Bush delivers his "Freedom at War with Fear" speech to a joint session of Congress.
2002 - Kolka-Karmadon rock/ice slide started.
2003 - A referendum is held in Latvia to decide the country's accession to the European Union
2003 - 2003 Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.

Births

1599 - Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German protestant military leader (d. 1623)
1778 - Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian naval officer and explorer (d. 1852)
1833 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1918)
1842 - Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist (d. 1923)
1853 - Chulalongkorn, Rama V, King of Thailand (d. 1910)
1861 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress (d. 1955)
1873 - Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (d. 1949)
1873 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (d. 1944)
1878 - Upton Sinclair, American writer and politician (d. 1968)
1889 - Charles Reidpath, American athlete (d. 1975)
1899 - Leo Strauss, Jewish-American Philosopher (d. 1973)
1917 - Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and executive
1917 - Fernando Rey, Spanish-born actor (d. 1992)
1922 - William Kapell, American pianist (d. 1953)
1923 - Geraldine Clinton Little, Irish-born poet (d. 1997)
1924 - Gogi Grant, American singer
1925 - Ananda Mahidol, Rama VIII, King of Thailand (d. 1946)
1927 - Johnny Dankworth, English musician and composer
1927 - Rachel Roberts, English actress (d. 1980)
1928 - Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and advice columnist
1929 - Anne Meara, American comic and actress
1934 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
1937 - Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (d. 2005)
1941 - Dale Chihuly, American glass artist
1947 - Chuck Panozzo, American musician (Styx)
1947 - Mia Martini, Italian singer (d. 1995)
1948 - George R. R. Martin, American writer
1951 - Guy Lafleur, Canadian hockey player
1954 - Henry Samueli, American NHL team owner
1956 - Gary Cole, American actor
1965 - Robert Rusler, American actor
1966 - Nuno Bettencourt, Portuguese-born rock musician
1967 - Kristen Johnston, American actress
1968 - Leah Pinsent, Canadian actress
1968 - Darrell Russell, American race car driver (d. 2004)
1971 - Henrik Larsson, Swedish footballer
1975 - Asia Argento, Italian actress
1975 - Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian race car driver
1976 - Yui Horie, Japanese voice actress and singer
1976 - Reuben Singh, British entrepreneur
1977 - Namie Amuro, Japanese singer
1978 - Jason Bay, Canadian Major League Baseball player
1978 - Sarit Hadad, Israeli singer
1978 - T.J. Tucker, Professional baseball player
1979 - Phil Waugh, Australian Rugby Union player
1980 - Mariacarla Boscono, Italian fashion model
1981 - Joanie Dodds, ANTM contestant
1981 - Feliciano López, Spanish tennis player
1981 - Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
1991 - Spencer Locke, American actress

Deaths

1246 - Mikhail of Chernigov, ruler of Kiev
1384 - King Louis I of Naples (b. 1339)
1460 - Gilles Binchois, Flemish composer
1586 - Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (executed) (b. 1558)
1590 - Lodovico Agostini, Italian composer (b. 1534)
1625 - Heinrich Meibom, German historian and critic (b. 1555)
1627 - Jan Gruter, Dutch critic (b. 1560)
1630 - Claudio Saracini, Italian composer (b. 1586)
1639 - Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1579)
1643 - Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, English politician and writer
1721 - Thomas Doggett, Irish actor
1803 - Robert Emmet, Irish patriot (b. 1780)
1815 - Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist (b. 1725)
1852 - Philander Chase, American university founder (b. 1775)
1863 - Jacob Grimm, German folklorist (b. 1785)
1884 - Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist (b.1802)
1898 - Theodor Fontane, German writer (b. 1819)
1908 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
1932 - Wovoka, Paiute visionary
1947 - Fiorello LaGuardia, Mayor of New York City (b. 1882)
1957 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (b. 1865)
1971 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
1973 - Jim Croce, American singer and songwriter (b. 1943)
1975 - Saint-John Perse, French diplomat and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
1979 - Ludvík Svoboda, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1895)
1993 - Erich Hartmann, German pilot (b. 1922)
1995 - Orville Redenbacher, Popcorn company founder (b. 1907)
1996 - Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1913)
2000 - Gherman Titov, cosmonaut (b. 1935)
2003 - Lord Williams of Mostyn, British politician (b. 1941)
2003 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwe politician (b. 1922)
2004 - Brian Clough, English footballer and football manager (b. 1935)
2004 - Townsend Hoopes, American politician (b. 1922)
2005 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian-Polish Nazi hunter (b. 1908)

Holidays

In ancient Greece, the seventh day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion began.
Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- The Korean Martyrs
- Eustace
- Vincent Madelgaire
- Yves Mayeuc
- Francis de Posadas
- Thomas Johnson, John Davy, and companions (martyrs).
Feast day of the following saint(s) in the Anglican Church:
- John Coleridge Patteson
Also see September 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

External links

BBC: On This Day

September 19 · September 21 · August 20 · October 20 · more historical anniversaries

Gourt Home::Gourt :: September 20

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays

External links