On this day in History - Apr. 20

• 0121 - Marcus Aurelius was born (d. 180). 16th Roman emperor, philosopher. He authored the “Meditations.”
• 0571 - Muhammad was born (d. 634). Data em que algumas tradições islâmicas fixam o nascimento do profeta Maomé
• 0702 - Jafar Sadiq, was born Muslim scholar (d. 765) .
• 1314 - Pope Clement V [Bertrand Got] dies (b. 1264). Pope (1305- 1314) who moved papacy to Avignon.
• 1317 - Agnes van Montepulciano, Italian mystic, saint, died.
• 1442 - Edward IV, King of England (1461-83), was born.
• 1494 - John Agricola, [Schneider], was born . German theologist /prime minister
• 1534 - Elizabeth Barton, the mystical "Nun of Kent" is executed at Tyburn. Christian prophet, visionary (b. ~ 1506) .
• 1592 - John Eliot, St Germans Cornwall, was born . English MP/author.
• 1594 - Matthaus Apelles von Lowenstern, was born. Composer .
• 1632 - Nicolas Antione, converted to Judaism, was burned at the stake .
• 1633 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan was born (d. 1654) .
• 1643 - Christoph Demantius dies at age 75. Composer .
• 1653 - Oliver Cromwell disbands Parliament.
• 1657 - Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City) granted freedom of religion .
• 1657 - Battle in Santa Cruz Bay, Tenerife: English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet .
• 1677 - Mathieu Le Nain “le Chevalier”, dies (b. 1607). French Baroque painter, younger brother of Antoine Le Nain [1588 – 25 May 1648] and Louis Le Nain [1593 – 23 May 1648]. All three worked together and their individual works cannot be distinguished.
• 1689 - The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry .
• 1693 - Claudio Coello dies (b. 1642). Spanish Baroque painter and draftsman.
• 1705 - Balthasar Schmid was born. Composer .
• 1709 - Bartolomeu de Gusmão ensaia, no Terreiro do Paço em Lisboa, o seu aeróstato.
• 1725 - Johann Friedrich Kloffler was born. Composer.
• 1726 - Jozef de Ferraris was born (d. 1814). French/Austrian earl, general, cartographer .
• 1743 - Alexandre-François Desportes, dies (b. 24 Feb 1661). He was the most eminent painter of dogs, game, emblems of the hunt, and still-lifes in late 17th- and early 18th-century France.
• 1745 - Philippe Pinel was born (d. 1826). Physician, founder of psychiatry .
• 1748 - Georg Michael Telemann was born. Composer .
• 1748 - Guillaume Albert Teniers was born. Composer .
• 1761 - Johann Gottlieb Karl Spazier was born. Composer .
• 1762 - Philippe-Auguste Hennequin was born (d. 12 May 1833). French painter.
• 1768 - Giovanni Antonio Canal, called "Canaletto" dies (b. 18 Oct 1697). Italian artist. ( The Doge Visiting the Church and Scuola di San Rocco; The Doge Visiting the Church and Scuola di San Rocco). Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Piazzetta.
• 1769 - Pontiac dies (murdered by an Indian in Cahokia) .Chief of the Ottawa tribe (b. ~ 1720) .
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: British troops begin siege of Boston, Massachusetts .
• 1777 - New York adopted a new constitution as an independent state .
• 1792 - France declares war on Austria, Prussia and Sardinia, marking the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
• 1806 - Franz Xavier Winterhalter was born (d. 09 Jul 1873). German academic painter.
• 1807 - Aloysius Bertrand ("Gaspard de la Nuit"), French poet, was born.
• 1808 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) was born (d. 1873) .
• 1811 - El gobierno de Buenos Aires dicta el primer reglamento sobre libertad de imprenta.
• 1812 - George Clinton (73), the 4th vice president of the United States, died in Washington, becoming the first vice president to die while in office .
• 1818 - Heinrich Göbel was born inventor (d. 1893) .
• 1821 - Franz K. Achard (67), German physicist, chemist, died.
• 1829 - Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje, was born (d. 06 Feb 1908). Dutch artist. ( A Moment by the Fire; The Butterfly; The Jewel Case )
• 1831 - Filippo Giuntotardi dies (b. 1768). Italian artist.
• 1832 - Ernst von Leyden, was born physician (d. 1910) .
• 1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory .
• 1836 - Johan I Jozef (75), monarch of Liechtenstein, field marshal, died.
• 1841 - The first detective story, Edgar Allen Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue was published.
• 1845 - Thomas Phillips, dies (b. 18 Oct 1770). British artist. Byron in Arnaout Dress
• 1846 - Nascimento de Alexandre Alberto da Rocha Serpa Pinto- Visconde de Serpa Pinto.
• 1850 - Daniel Chester French was born at Exeter. New Hampshire (d.1931), American sculptor of the Concord Minuteman. His work also included the Lincoln Memorial.
• 1853 - Antonio López de Santa Ana assume (pela 11º vez) a presidência do México .
• 1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia
• 1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
• 1868 - Nasce Charles Maurras, poeta e jornalista francês (m. 1952) .
• 1871 - Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, was born Croat inventor, (d. 1922) .
• 1879 - Paul Poiret, was born French couturier (d. 1944) .
• 1884 - Nasce Augusto dos Anjos, poeta brasileiro (m. 1914) .
• 1885 - Richard Ansdell, dies (b. 11 May 1815). British painter. ( A Ewe with Lambs and a Heron Beside a Loch).
• 1888 - 246 people were reported killed by hail in Moradabad, India.
• 1889 - Albert Jean Amateau, businessman and social activist (d. 1996) .
• 1889 - Adolf Hitler, was born in Braunau in Upper Austria. Founder and leader of National Socialism (Nazis), and German dictator, "Führer" and Reichskanzler He was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933-1945 and started World War II by invading Poland.
• 1889 - Otto Heinrich Frank, was born Father of Anne Frank (d. 1980) .
• 1893 - Joan Miró, was born (d. 25 Dec 1983). Joàn Mirò Ferra, was a Catalan Surrealist painter and sculptor. One of the foremost exponents of abstract art and Surrealist fantasy.
• 1893 - Harold Lloyd, was born (d. 1971). Actor, comedian. He is best remembered for his film "Safety Last."
• 1895 - Emile Christian, was born jazz musician (d. 1973) .
• 1896 - Wop May, was born Canadian aviator (d. 1952) .
• 1900 - Fred Raymond, was born composer (d. 1954) .
• 1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie isolated the radioactive element radium .
• 1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League .
• 1908 - Lionel Hampton, was born was born musician (d. 2002) .
• 1912 - Bram Stoker, dies (b. 1847). Author of Dracula .
• 1914 - Ludlow Massacre of striking Colorado coal miners.
• 1915 - Joseph Wolpe, was born psychotherapist (d. 1997)
• 1915 - Nasce Aurora Miranda, atriz brasileira, irmã de Carmen Miranda .
• 1915 - Nace en Buenos Aires el pintor y escultor Santiago Cogorno .
• 1918 - Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
• 1918 - Morre Carl Ferdinand Braun, físico alemão Prémio Nobel da Física 1909.
• 1920 - John Paul Stevens, was born associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• 1920 - Início das Olimpíadas de Antuérpia (Bélgica) .
• 1920 - Briton Rivière, dies (b. 14 Aug 1840). British painter, etcher, and sculptor, specialized in animal paintings. ( The Long Sleep)
• 1923 - Rita Frances Rizzo, was born in Canton, Ohio. She became Mother Angelica, Foundress of Eternal Word Television Network .
• 1923 - Suprimida na Itália a festa do 1º de Maio .
• 1923 - Tito Puente, was born (d. 2000). Bandleader, musician .
• 1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film
• 1927 - Alex Muller, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was born.
• 1928 - Gerald S. Hawkins, was born (d. 2003). Astronomer .
• 1932 - Giuseppe Peano, dies (b. 1858). Mathematician.
• 1939 - Gro Harlem Brundtland,was born former Prime Minister of Norway .
• 1939 - Peter S. Beagle, was born author .
• 1940 - George Takei,was born actor, Star Trek
• 1941 - Ryan O'Neal, was born in Los Angeles , California. Actor .
• 1943 - John Eliot Gardiner, was born. English conductor .
• 1943 - Edie Sedgwick, was born actress (d. 1971) .
• 1945 - US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union
• 1947 - King Christian X of Denmark dies (b. 1870) .
• 1949 - Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced they'd succeeded in synthesizing a hormone found to be useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis; the substance was named "cortisone."
• 1949 - Jessica Lange, was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, USA. Actress (King Kong -1976; The Postman Always Rings Twice -1981; Tootsie -1982; Cape Fear -1991, etc ).
• 1951 - Luther Vandross, was born New York, New York, US. Singer .
• 1951 - Ivanoe Bonomi, dies (b. 1873).. Former Prime Minister of Italy.
• 1953 - The Boston marathon was won by Keizo Yamada with a record time of 2:18:51.
• 1956 - Foi proclamada a Independência da Tunísia .
• 1961 - Don Mattingly, was born baseball player .
• 1962 - Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf, was born radio and television personality (d. 2001)
• 1962 - The Secret Army Organization (OAS) leader and ex-general Salan was arrested in Algiers
• 1964 - Crispin Glover, was born actor .
• 1964 - Rosalynn Sumners, was born Figure skater .
• 1964 - Andy Serkis, was born. Actor.
• 1967 - Mike Portnoy, was born. Musician .
• 1967 - A Swiss Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus killing 126
• 1967 - U.S. planes bombed Haiphong for first time during the Vietnam War.
• 1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa killing 122
• 1968 - Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada.
• 1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes controversial Rivers of Blood Speech
• 1970 - Bruno Kreisky became the 1st socialist chancellor of Austria.
• 1970 - Paul Celan (49), Romania born poet, drowned himself in the Seine. English translations of his poems were published in 2001.
• 1971 - Fallece en Buenos Aires el pintor Mario Darío Grandi (n. 28 Oct 1918). Lo más característico de su obra son sus figuras al pastel, alargadas y espiritualizadas, de gran fineza lírica y notable sutileza de color.
• 1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon .
• 1972 - Carmen Electra, was born. Actress.
• 1972 - Fundación del Portuguesa Fútbol Club, de Acarigua, Venezuela
• 1975 - Brillante celebración de su aniversario número 50 tuvo Colo Colo, al ganar por 1-0 a Aviación e inaugurar su estadio que recibió a más de 40.000 espectadores
• 1976 - Joey Lawrence, was born. Actor.
• 1979 - President of the United States Of America, Jimmy Carter, is 'attacked' by a fluffy Rabbit
• 1982 - Archibald MacLeish, dies (b. 1892). Poet and writer.
• 1984 - Hristo Prodanov, dies. Bulgarian mountaineer
• 1985 - Morre Charles Francis Richter, sismólogo estado-unidense (n. 1900)
• 1987 - Sri Lanka: Tamils shot 122 Singhalese dead.
• 1988 - Gunmen who had hijacked a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet were allowed safe passage out of Algeria. An agreement also freed the remaining 31 hostages and ended a 15-day siege in which two passengers were slain
• 1992 - An all-star concert in memory of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is held at Wembley Stadium in London .
• 1992 - Inauguración de la Expo de Sevilla.
• 1993 - Mario Moreno, the Mexican comedian known as (Cantinflas), dies in Mexico City.
• 1994 - Serbian army bombed a hospital in Gorazde, Bosnia, and 47 were killed.
• 1996 - Christopher Robin Milne, dies son of A.A. Milne, basis for the Winnie the Pooh character Christopher Robin .
• 1997 - The San Diego Padres face the St. Louis Cardinals in the first Major League Baseball game ever played in Hawaii
• 1997 - Lameck Aguta of Kenya won the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:10:34. Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba won the women’s best time at 2:26:24.
• 1998 - An Air France Boeing 727-200 crashes into mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53
• 1998 - Moses Tanui of Kenya won of Kenya won the 102nd Boston Marathon in 2 hrs, 7 min . and 43 sec. Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia won among the women in 2:23:21.
• 1999 - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the Columbine High School massacre
• 1999 - Madejczyk Massacre Averted, Bridgman, Michigan school shooting plot .
• 1999 - Morre Señor Wences (Wenceslao Moreno), ventrílocuo .
• 2000 - Funny Cide, was born winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes
• 2001 - In Peru an air force jet shot down a Cessna 185 carrying US missionaries. Veronica Bowers (35) and her infant daughter, Charity, were killed when the plane crash landed in the Amazon River. The plane was identified by a US surveillance plane and was believed to be trafficking in narcotics.
• 2001 - Giuseppe Sinopoli, diwes Italian conductor, composer (b. 1946) .
• 2001 - The anti-globalization movement holds a People's Summit and large protest marches, some of which are forcibly put down by police, against the FTAA summit in Quebec City, Quebec .
• 2002 - Alan Dale, dies (b. 1925). Singer.
• 2004 - Severe thunderstorms strike Chicagoland, USA. An F3 tornado touches down in Utica, Illinois, claiming 8 lives.
• 2004 - WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy renamed as MCI.
• 2004 -In Argentina a federal judge issued an international arrest warrant for former President Carlos Menem who has refused to appear for questioning in a corruption probe.
• 2005 - Depois do triunfo do Vitória de Setúbal sobre o Boavista ontem por 2-1, qualificando-se 38 anos depois para uma final da Taça de Portugal, disputa-se hoje a outra meia-final entre E. Amadora e Benfica.