June 20

is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining.

Events

451 - According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
1214 - University of Oxford receives its charter.
1631 - The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
1685 - Monmouth Rebellion: The Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
1756 - British garrison imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
1782 - The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
1789 - Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath.
1791 - The Flight to Varennes began.
1819 - The US vessel Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, most of the journey was made under sail.
1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
1862 - Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
1863 - West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
1877 - Alexander Graham Bell installs world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
1893 - Lizzie Borden is acquitted of murdering her stepmother and father.
1919 - 150 die at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
1939 - Benny Goodman's Song School ends its radio series.
1948 - Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, debuts.
1956 - A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey killing 74 people.
1960 - Independence of Mali and Senegal.
1963 - The so-called "red telephone" is established between Soviet Union and United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963 - Leave it to Beaver ends.
1966 - Canada sells 336 million bushels (9.14 teragrams) of wheat to Soviet Union.
1969 - Jacques Chaban-Delmas becomes Prime Minister of France.
1973 - Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fired upon left-wing peronists. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 injured.
1977 - Oil begins to flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).
1980 - Roberto Duran starts his classic boxing trilogy with Sugar Ray Leonard by defeating him in Canada by a decision in 15 rounds, to gain the WBC world Welterweight championship.
1983 - LZW patent filed in USA.
1990 - Asteroid Eureka discovered.
1991 - German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
2000 - Andrea Yates drowns her five children in a bathtub in their Houston, Texas home.
2001 - Pervez Musharraf becomes president of Pakistan.
2003 - LZW patent expires in USA.
2003 - Formation of Wikimedia Foundation announced.

Births

1005 - Ali az-Zahir, caliph (d. 1036)
1389 - John, Duke of Bedford, regent of England (d. 1435)
1566 (O.S.) - King Sigismund III Vasa (d. 1632)
1583 - Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1652)
1634 - Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy (d. 1675)
1642 (O.S.) - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
1647 - John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
1717 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor (d. 1776)
1723 (O.S.) - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
1723 (O.S.) - Theophilus Lindsey, English theologian (d. 1808)
1756 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (d. 1792)
1763 - Wolfe Tone, Irish patriot (d. 1798)
1771 - Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist and entrepreneur (d. 1820)
1786 - Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet (d. 1859)
1808 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (d. 1888)
1819 - Jacques Offenbach, German composer (d. 1880)
1858 - Charles W. Chesnutt, American writer (d. 1932)
1860 - Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
1861 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (d. 1947)
1872 - George Carpenter, the 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
1887 - Kurt Schwitters, German painter and writer (d. 1948)
1891 - John A. Costello, second Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1976)
1896 - Wilfrid Pelletier, French Canadian conductor (d. 1982)
1899 - Jean Moulin, French Resistance leader (d. 1943)
1905 - Lillian Hellman, American playwright (d. 1984)
1907 - Jimmy Driftwood, American songwriter and musician (d. 1998)
1909 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959)
1912 - Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
1915 - Terence Young, British film director (d. 1994)
1916 - Jean-Jacques Bertrand, premier of Quebec (d. 1973)
1924 - Chet Atkins, American guitar player (d. 2001)
1924 - Audie Murphy, American actor (d. 1971)
1928 - Jean-Marie Le Pen, French politician
1930 - Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish artist
1931 - Olympia Dukakis, American actress
1931 - Martin Landau, American actor
1933 - Danny Aiello, American actor
1934 - Rossana Podestà, Italian actress
1935 - Len Dawson, Former football player
1937 - Jerry Keller, pop singer and songwriter
1940 - Eugen Drewermann, German theologian
1940 - John Mahoney, English actor
1941 - Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
1942 - Brian Wilson, American popular music composer and singer; founder of The Beach Boys
1944 - Cheryl Holdridge, American actress
1945 - Anne Murray, Canadian singer
1946 - Bob Vila, television presenter
1946 - Xanana Gusmão, President of East Timor
1946 - Andre Watts, American pianist
1947 - Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, American singer (the Crystals)
1947 - Candy Clark, American actress
1948 - Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru
1949 - Lionel Richie, American musician and singer (The Commodores)
1951 - Tress MacNeille, American voice actress
1951 - Paul Muldoon, Northern Irish poet
1952 - John Goodman, American actor
1952 - Larry Riley, American actor (d. 1992)
1954 - Michael Anthony, American musician
1956 - Ace Andres, American musician
1958 - Chuck Wagner, American actor
1960 - John Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran)
1960 - Jeremy Monteiro, Singaporean pianist
1963 - Viktor Kožený, Czech businessman
1967 - Nicole Kidman, Australian actress
1968 - Robert Rodríguez, American filmmaker
1970 - Russell Garcia, British field hockey player
1970 - Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco
1971 - Josh Lucas, American actor
1971 - Jeordie White, American bassist
1973 - Chino Moreno, American musician (Deftones)
1977 - Stefán H. Ófeigsson, Icelandic space engineer
1978 - Frank Lampard, English footballer
1981 - Ardian Gashi, Norwegian footballer
1981 - Alisan Porter, American actress and singer
1988 - Shefali Chowdhury, Welsh actress

Deaths

451 - Theodorid, King of the Visigoths
840 - Louis the Pious, King of the Franks, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 778)
1597 - Willem Barentsz, Dutch navigator
1668 - Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (b. 1620)
1776 - Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer (b. 1704)
1787 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (b. 1723)
1800 - Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (b. 1719)
1820 - Manuel Belgrano, Argentine lawyer and politician (b. 1770)
1837 - William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
1866 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (b. 1826)
1869 - Toshizou Hijikata, Shinsengumi vice-commander (b. 1835)
1870 - Jules de Goncourt, French writer (b. 1830)
1906 - John Clayton Adams, British Landscape Artist (b. 1840)
1925 - Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist (b. 1842)
1945 - Bruno Frank, German author (b. 1878)
1947 - Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (whacked) (b. 1906)
1952 - Luigi Fagioli, Italian race car driver (b. 1898)
1958 - Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
1972 - Howard Deering Johnson, founder of Howard Johnson's (b. 1897)
1978 - Mark Robson, Canadian film director and producer (b. 1913)
1993 - Vince Foster, Deputy White House Counsel (suicide) (b. 1945)
1995 - Emil Cioran, Romanian-born French philosopher and essayist (b. 1911)
1997 - Lawrence Payton, American singer (The Four Tops) (b. 1938)
1998 - Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (b. 1942)
1999 - Clifton Fadiman, American author (b. 1902)
2002 - Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist (b. 1905)
2002 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (b. 1916)
2003 - Bob Stump, U.S. Congressman from Arizona (b. 1927)
2005 - Jack Kilby, American electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1923)
2005 - Larry Collins, American writer (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

Day of The Royal Victorian Order.
Roman Empire – Festival in honor of Summanus.
Ancient Latvia – Zalu Diena.
UNHCR - World Refugee Day.
Flag Day in Argentina (1938).
West Virginia – West Virginia Day.
American Radio Relay League – Bring your Handy-Talky to Work Day

Liturgical feasts

External links

BBC: On This Day

June 19 - June 21 - May 20 - July 20 – listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: June 20

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links