November 20

is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 41 days remaining.

Events

284 - Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor.
1407 - A solemn truce between John, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans is agreed under the auspicies of John, Duke of Berry. Orléans would be assassinated three days later by Burgundy.
1490 - Joanot Martorell's book Tirant lo Blanc is published for the first time.
1695 - Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, was executed.
1700 - Great Northern War: Battle of Narva - King Charles XII of Sweden defeats the army of Tsar Peter the Great at Narva.
1789 - New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1820 - An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).
1902 - Henri Desgrange and fellow journalist Géo Lefèvre dream up the idea of the Tour de France over lunch at the Café de Madrid in Paris.
1910 - Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosi, denouncing President Porfirio Díaz, declaring himself president, and calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution.
1917 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.
1917 - Ukraine is declared a republic.
1940 - World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
1943 - World War II: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on Tarawa atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.
1945 - Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
1947 - The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
1952 - Slánský trials - a series of Stalinist and anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia.
1955 - Bo Diddley becomes the first African American performer to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Apparently Sullivan was infuriated when Diddley sang his self-titled song instead of Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit, "Sixteen Tons".
1955 - RCA offers a $35,000 contract for Elvis Presley.
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union's agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
1966 - Cabaret opens at the Imperial Theatre, New York.
1968 - Vietnam War: Eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit.
1969 - Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
1974 - The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the break up of AT&T and its Bell System.
1979 - About 1,500 Terrorists revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgramage and take about 6000 hostages in the Kaaba. The Saudi government received help from French special forces to put down the uprising.
1982 - Andy Kaufman was forever voted off of Saturday Night Live by a live phone poll.
1983 - In the U.S., an estimated 100 million people watch the controversial made-for-television movie The Day After, depicting a nuclear war and its effects on the United States.
1984 - SETI is founded.
1989 - Velvet Revolution: The number of protestors assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
1992 - In England, a fire breaks out in the Private Chapel room of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period).
1993 - Savings and Loan scandal: 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.
1994 - The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).
1998 - A 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.
1998 - The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.
2001 - In Washington, D.C., U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates the United States Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday.
2003 - After 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.
2003 - Michael Jackson is arrested by police on charges of child molestation.

Births

270 - Maximinus, Roman Emperor (d. 313)
1602 - Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor (d. 1686)
1620 - Peregrine White, first English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1704)
1621 - Avvakum, Russian priest and writer (d. 1682)
1625 - Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (d. 1654)
1660 - Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian (d. 1741)
1761 - Pope Pius VIII (d. 1830)
1762 - Pierre André Latreille, French entomologist (d. 1833)
1765 - Sir Thomas Fremantle, British naval captain and politician (d. 1819)
1839 - Christian Wilberg, German painter (d. 1882)
1841 - Victor D'Hondt, Belgian mathematician (d. 1901)
1841 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1919)
1851 - Queen Margherita of Italy (d. 1926)
1858 - Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
1864 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (d. 1931)
1866 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, American judge and first baseball commissioner, named for Kenesaw Mountain in Georgia (d. 1944)
1884 - Norman Thomas, American social reformer (d. 1968)
1886 - Karl von Frisch, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1982)
1889 - Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (d. 1953)
1896 - Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (d. 1977)
1903 - Alexandra Danilova, Russian ballerina (d. 1997)
1908 - Alistair Cooke, British-born journalist who covered the United States extensively, and who became an American citizen. (d. 2004)
1910 - Willem Jacob van Stockum, Dutch physicist (d. 1944)
1912 - Otto von Habsburg, German head of the Austrian imperial family
1913 - Judy Canova, American actress (d. 1983)
1914 - Emilio Pucci, Italian fashion designer (d. 1992)
1917 - Robert Byrd, U.S. Senator from West Virginia
1917 - Bobby Locke, South African golfer (d. 1987)
1919 - Evelyn Keyes, American actress
1921 - Jim Garrison, American detective, author, and politician (d. 1992)
1923 - Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1924 - Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-born mathematician who made discoveries in fracals
1925 - Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General, Senator from New York State, and brother of President John F. Kennedy (d. 1968)
1925 - Maya Plisetskaya, Russian ballet dancer
1926 - Andrzej W. Schally, Polish-born endocrinologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1926 - Kaye Ballard, American comic actress
1927 - Estelle Parsons, American actress
1928 - Aleksey Batalov, Russian actor
1932 - Richard Dawson, British actor and game show host. Played Corporal Newkirk on "Hogan's Heroes"
1936 - Don DeLillo, American author
1937 - René Kollo, German tenor
1937 - Eero Mäntyranta, Finnish cross-country skier
1939 - Dick Smothers, American comedian - member of the Smothers Brothers duo
1940 - Bob Einstein, American actor better known as Super Dave Osborne
1942 - Joseph Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
1942 - Norman Greenbaum, American singer
1943 - Veronica Hamel, American actress
1946 - Duane Allman, American guitarist. Member of the "Allman Brothers" band (d. 1971)
1946 - Greg Cook, American football player
1947 - Joe Walsh, American musician
1948 - John R. Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the UN
1948 - John Panozzo, Drummer of STYX
1948 - Barbara Hendricks, American-born soprano
1948 - Richard Masur, American actor
1949 - Thelma Drake, U.S. Congresswoman from Virginia
1951 - David Walters, Governor of Oklahoma
1956 - Bo Derek, American actress
1956 - Mark Gastineau, former American football player
1957 - Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education
1959 - James P. McGovern, U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts
1959 - Sean Young, American actor
1961 - Dave Watson, English footballer
1963 - Timothy Gowers, British mathematician
1963 - Ming-Na Wen, Macau-born actress
1965 - Mike D, American musician (Beastie Boys)
1965 - Yoshiki Hayashi, Japanese musician (X Japan)
1966 - Kevin Gilbert, American musician (d. 1996)
1970 - Matt Blunt, Governor of Missouri
1970 - Delia Gonzalez, American boxer
1971 - Joey Galloway, American football wide receiver
1971 - Joel McHale, American actor
1975 - Dierks Bentley, American singer
1975 - Tímea Vágvölgyi, Hungarian model
1975 - Davey Havok, singer (AFI)
1976 - Dominique Dawes, American gymnast
1981 - Kimberley Walsh, English singer (Girls Aloud)

Deaths

870 - King Edmund of East Anglia
1316 - King John I of France (d. 1316)
1518 - Marmaduke Constable, English soldier
1518 - Pierre de La Rue, Flemish composer
1529 - Karl von Miltitz, papal nuncio
1591 - Christopher Hatton, English politician (b. 1540)
1612 - John Harington, English writer (b. 1561)
1651 - Mikołaj Potocki, Polish soldier (b. 1595)
1662 - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (b. 1614)
1695 - Zumbi, Brazilian runaway slave
1737 - Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of George II of Great Britain (b. 1683)
1742 - Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (b. 1661)
1758 - Johan Helmich Roman, Swedish composer (b. 1694)
1764 - Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (b. 1690)
1778 - Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (b. 1726)
1894 - Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1829)
1910 (N.S.) - Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (b. 1828)
1925 - Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (b. 1844)
1936 - Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish anarchist (b. 1896)
1936 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Spanish activist and politician (b. 1903)
1945 - Francis William Aston, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
1950 - Francesco Cilea, Italian composer (b. 1866)
1957 - Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Russian-Lithuanian artist (d. 1875)
1960 - Chris Whitley, American musician (d. 2005)
1973 - Allan Sherman, American comedian (b. 1924)
1975 - Francisco Franco, Head of State of Spain (1936-1975) (b. 1892)
1978 - Vasilisk Gnedov, Russian poet (b. 1890)
1980 - John McEwen, eighteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1900)
1998 - Galina Starovoitova, Russian politician (b. 1946)
2000 - Mike Muuss, American computer programmer (b. 1958)
2000 - Kalle Päätalo, Finnish writer (b. 1919)
2003 - Robert Addie, British actor (cancer) (b. 1960)
2003 - David Dacko, first President of the Central African Republic (b. 1930)
2003 - Eugene Kleiner, American entrepreneur and venture capitalist (b. 1923)
2003 - Roger Short, British Consulate General in Istanbul (truck bomb) (b. 1944)
2003 - Jim Siedow, American actor (b. 1920)
2003 - Kerem Yilmazer, Turkish actor (b. 1945)
2004 - David Grierson, Canadian radio host (b. 1955
2004 - Jenny Ross, English musician, Section 25 (b. 1962)
2005 - Sheldon Gardner, American psychologist (b. 1934)
2005 - James King, American tenor (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

Church of England - Edmund the Martyr
Brazil - Zumbi Day (since 1978)
United Kingdom - wedding day of Queen Elizabeth II (1947), official flag day
Mexico - Anniversary of the Revolution (1910)
UNICEF - Universal Children's Day
Vietnam - Teacher's Day (Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam)
Transgender Day of Remembrance (since 1999) ^*

External links

November 19 - November 21 - October 20 - December 20 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: November 20

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links