Just like any other day in history, September 20 has its fair share of events that made it to the books of history. Here, take a look!
- 368 – Emperor Valentinianus visited Nijmegen.
- 451 – Roman General Flavius Aetius defeated Attila the Hun at The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
- 622 – Muhammed/Abu Bakr, an Islamic Prophet, arrived in Jathrib (Medina).
- 1066 – Battle of Fulford, Yorkshire: Harald III Hardrada of Norway defeated Northern Saxon Earls Edwin and Morcar.
- 1258 – The Salisbury Cathedral was inaugurated.
- 1378 – Robert de Geneve, was crowned anti-pope, Clemens VII.
- 1519 – Ferdinand Magellan a Portuguese navigator left Spain to find a route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. He was killed during the trip, but one of his ships eventually made the journey.
- 1530 – Martin Luther advised protestants against the monarch’s compromise.
- 1565 – Spaniards captured Fort Caroline Florida & massacred the French.
- 1596 – The city of Monterrey in New Spain was founded by Diego de Montemayor.
- 1602 – Spanish held the city of Grave and surrendered to Maurice of Orange during the Eighty Years’ War.
- 1604 – Under Spinola, the Spanish army recaptured Oostende.
- 1664 – In order to stop the intermarriage of English women & black men, Maryland passed the 1st anti-amalgamation law.
- 1674 – The 2nd West Indies Company was formed.
- 1688 – French troops occupied the Palts.
- 1697 – The peace of Saki ended a 9-year war.
- 1737 – Runner Edward Marshall completed his race, forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
- 1746 – Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to France from Scotland.
- 1787 – Prince Willem V returned to Hague.
- 1792 – French defeated the Prussians at Valmy.
- 1793 – Under Major-general Williamson the British troops landed in Haiti.
- 1830 – The 1st Negro Convention of Free Men agreed to boycott slave-produced goods.
- 1833 – After traveling through the Argentine interior with guachos, Charles Darwin arrived in Buenos Aires.
- 1835 – Farroupilha’s Revolution began in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
- 1839 – The 1st railroad in Netherlands opened.
- 1848 – The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created.
- 1850 – The slave trade was abolished in DC, but slavery was allowed to continue.
- 1863 – The US Civil War Battle of Chickamauga, ended with a Union withdrawal.
- 1870 – The Italian troops took control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy.
- 1870 – Mayor William Tweed was accused of robbing the NY treasury.
- 1871 – Bishop John Coleridge Patterson was martyred on the island of Nukapu.
- 1873 – Panic swept NY Stock Exchange after NY shut banks for 10 days due to a bank scandal.
- 1876 – Ottawa Football Club was formed.
- 1877 – Chase National Bank opened in NYC.
- 1881 – After President James A. Garfield of the U.S. died, Chester A. Arthur became the 21st president.
- 1884 – The Equal Rights Party was formed in San Francisco, CA, and nominated female candidates for US President and Vice President.
- 1884 – A 6.2 mile Arlberg railroad tunnel was completed in Austria.
- 1893 – The first gasoline-powered car debuted in Springfield, Massachusetts.
- 1899 – German/American philosopher,Leo Strauss was born.
- 1904 – George Ade’s “College Widow,” premiered in NYC.
- 1904 – Wilbur Wright made the first circular airplane.
- 1906 – Cunard Line’s RMS Mauretania was launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard.
- 1909 – The British Parliament passed the South Africa Act, calling for the union of Cape Colony, Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal; and both English and Dutch to be the official languages.
- 1913 – The U.S. Opened Men’s Golf, The Country Club, and 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet won his only Open title in an 18-hole playoff.
- 1914 – John Redmond urged the Irish Volunteers to enlist in the British Army.
- 1917 – Paraguay became a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1918 – Steel factory & the Royal Dutch Blast furnace opened in Hague.
- 1919 – Booth Tarkington’s “Clarence,” premiered in NYC.
- 1920 – The Spanish Legion was founded.
- 1921 – KDKA started its first radio newscast in Pittsburgh, U.S.
- 1922 – “Passing Show,” a musical by Goodman & Atteridge premiered in NYC.
- 1924 – Carl Mays was the 1st pitcher to win 20 games seasons for 3 different teams.
- 1924 – Winning the 300th game, Cub’s Grover Cleveland Alexander beat NY Giants.
- 1926 – There was an attempted assassination on Al Capone by Bugs Moran in a drive-by shooting.
- 1930 – Russian explorer Gombojab Tsybikov died.
- 1930 – Archbishop Mar Ivanios formed the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.
- 1932 – Chicago Cubs clinched the NL pennant.
- 1932 – Mahatma Gandhi began a hunger strike against the way Hindu untouchables were treated.
- 1933 – Annie Besant, English activist and author, died.
- 1933 – Pittsburgh Steelers played their 1st NFL game.
- 1934 – Sophia Loren, an Italian Actress, was born.
- 1935 – Pitts Crawfords beat NY Cubans winning the Negro NL Championship.
- 1938 – Premier of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Suite for jazz orchestra.
- 1938 – Emlyn Williams’ “Corn is Green,” premiered in London.
- 1939 – German U-27 boat was captured by the British navy.
- 1942 – Gunther Hagg, an athlete, became the world champ of all records from 1500m to 5000m.
- 1944 – Nijmegen was liberated from German occupation.
- 1944 – Terneuzen Neth was freed by the Polish forces.
- 1945 – The German rocket engineers began to work in the US.
- 1946 – Churchill argued for a ‘United States of Europe.’
- 1946 – The Cannes Film Festival premiered. Its original was delayed in 1939 due to World War II.
- 1946 – WNBT-TV a station in New York was the first to promote a motion picture showing scenes from “The Jolson Story.”
- 1948 – The Mexican Baseball league was disbanded.
- 1948 – American screenwriter and author, George R. R. Martin was born.
- 1949 – Top American tennis player Pancho Gonzales turned professional.
- 1951 – National League President Ford Frick was elected by MLB owners as the 3rd Baseball Commissioner.
- 1951 – Female suffrage was voted against by Swiss males.
- 1952 – KPTV TV a channel in Portland began broadcasting.
- 1953 – “Letter to Loretta” a TV show premiered. Its name was changed to “The Loretta Young Show” on February 14, 1954.
- 1953 – Jimmy Stewart debuted on “The Six Shooter” on NBC.
- 1954 – The 1st FORTRAN computer program run
- 1955 – “You’ll Never Be Rich” premiered on CBS-TV. Less than two months later, the name was changed to “The Phil Silvers Show.”
- 1962 – James Meredith, a black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Governor Ross R. Barnett, but was later admitted.
- 1963 – American President John F. Kennedy, proposed a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition to the moon in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
- 1967 – The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was launched.
- 1973 – American singer and songwriter Jim Croce passed away.
- 1973 – Billie Jean King won the Battle of the Sexes against Bobby Riggs.
- 1975 – Colombian race car driver, Juan Pablo Montoya was born.
- 1977 – The first “boat people” arrived in San Francisco from Southeast Asia under a new U.S. resettlement program.
- 1982 – Ronald Reagan, U.S. President, announced that the U.S., Italy, and France were going to send peacekeeping troops back to Beirut.
- 1984 – Brian Joubert, a French figure skater, was born.
- 1984 – “The Cosby Show” premiered on NBC-TV.
- 1988 – The United Nations’ 43rd General Assembly was opened.
- 1989 – F.W. de Clerk took office as the president of South Africa.
- 1991 – In a renewed search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, U.N. weapons inspectors left for Iraq.
- 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty was approved by French voters.
- 1995 – AT&T announced plans to split into three companies: AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and NCR Corp.
- 1995 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted to drop the national speed limit. This allowed the states to decide their own speed limits
- 2001 – George W. Bush, American President, declared war on terror after the 9/11 attack.
- 2004 – Brian Clough, English footballer manager, died.
- 2005 – Simon Wiesenthal, an Austrian Holocaust survivor, died.
- 2013 – Apple released the iPhone 5s.