On this day in History - Nov. 20

• 0270 - Maximinus was born (d. 0313). Roman Emperor.
• 0284 - Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor.
• 0870 - King Edmund of East Anglia dies.
• 1194 - Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry VI.
• 1316 - King John I of France dies (born five days before)
• 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.
• 1437 - Thomas Langley dies (b. 1363). Bishop of Durham, cardinal and lord chancellor.
• 1490 - Joanot Martorell's book Tirant lo Blanc is published for the first time.
• 1518 - Marmaduke Constable dies. English soldier
• 1518 - Pierre de La Rue dies. Flemish composer
• 1529 - Karl von Miltitz dies. Papal nuncio
• 1591 - Christopher Hatton dies (b. 1540). English politician
• 1602 - Otto von Guericke was born (d. 1686). German physicist and inventor.
• 1612 - John Harington dies (b. 1561). English writer
• 1620 - Peregrine White was born (d. 1704). First English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1621 - Avvakum was born (d. 1682). Russian priest and writer.
• 1625 - Paulus Potter was born (d. 1654). Dutch painter.
• 1651 - Mikolaj Potocki dies (b. 1595). Polish soldier
• 1660 - Daniel Ernst Jablonski was born (d. 1741). German theologian.
• 1662 - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria dies (b. 1614). Governor of the Spanish Netherlands
• 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.
• 1737 - Caroline of Ansbach dies (b. 1683). Queen of George II of Great Britain
• 1742 - Melchior de Polignac dies (b. 1661). French diplomat.
• 1750 - Tipu Sultan was born (d. 1799). Indian ruler.
• 1758 - Johan Helmich Roman dies (b. 1694). Swedish composer
• 1761 - Pope Pius VIII was born (d. 1830)
• 1762 - Pierre André Latreille was born (d. 1833). French entomologist.
• 1764 - Christian Goldbach dies (b. 1690). Prussian mathematician.
• 1765 - Sir Thomas Fremantle was born (d.1819). British naval captain and politician.
• 1778 - Francesco Cetti dies (b. 1726). Italian Jesuit scientist.
• 1786 - Francisco García was born (d. 1841). Mexican politician
• 1789 - New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
• 1815 - In the final phases of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia renewed the Quadruple Alliance to prevent further French aggression.
• 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).
• 1825 - António de Serpa Pimentel was born in Coimbra (d. 1900). Portuguese politician.
• 1839 - Christian Wilberg was born (d. 1882). German painter.
• 1841 - Victor D'Hondt was born (d. 1901). Belgian mathematician.
• 1841 - Wilfrid Laurier was born (d. 1919). Seventh Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1851 - Queen Margherita of Italy was born (d. 1926)
• 1856 - Farkas Bolyai dies (b. 1775). Hungarian mathematician.
• 1858 - Selma Lagerlöf was born (d. 1940). Swedish author, Nobel Prize laureate in 1909.
• 1864 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt was born (d. 1931). Swedish writer.
• 1866 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis was born (d. 1944). American judge and first baseball commissioner.
• 1869 - Clark Griffith was born. Baseball manager
• 1880 - George McBride was born (d. 1973). Baseball player.
• 1884 - Norman Thomas was born (d. 1968). American social reformer.
• 1886 - Karl von Frisch was born. Austrian zoologist/bee expert who was laureate with the Nobel Prize in 1973
• 1888 - Nathaniel Currier dies. Lithographer Currier and his partner James Merritt Ives published more than 7,000 prints between 1840 and 1890, which were among the most popular wall hangings in 19th-century America.
• 1889 - Edwin Hubble was born (d. 1953). American astronomer.
• 1894 - Anton Rubinstein dies (b. 1829). Russian pianist and composer.
• 1900 - Chester Gould was born (d. 1985). Creator of comic strips (Dick Tracy).
• 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.
• 1903 - Alexandra Danilova was born (d. 1997). Russian ballerina
• 1903 - Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi was born (d. 1981). Pakistani historian and educationist
• 1904 - Yevgenia Ginzburg was born (d. 1977). Russian writer
• 1906 - Portugal: O deputado republicano Afonso Costa, discursando durante o debate sobre o problema dos adiantamentos feitos pelo ministério da Fazenda a membros da família real, afirma que: «Por menos do que fez o Sr. D. Carlos, rolou no cadafalso a cabeça de Luís XVI». Os deputados republicanos foram expulsos da Câmara e suspensos por um mês. D. Carlos seria assassinado por republicanos em 1 de Fevereiro de 1908.
• 1907 - Henri-Georges Clouzot was born (d. 1977). French film director.
• 1908 - Alistair Cooke was born (d. 2004). British-born journalist.
• 1908 - Georgy Voronoy dies (b. 1868). Russian mathematician.
• 1910 - Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero denounces President Porfirio Díaz, declares himself president, and calls for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico / Francisco Madero launched a failed revolt that nonetheless sparked the Mexican Revolution by inspiring hope in such leaders as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who then mobilized their ragged armies.
• 1910 - Vitória Futebol Clube (Setúbal, Portugal) is founded.
• 1910 - Leo Tolstoy dies (b. 1828). Russian novelist.
• 1911 - Armando Tavares Belo was born. Portuguese composer and conductor.
• 1912 - Otto von Habsburg was born. German head of the Austrian imperial family
• 1913 - Judy Canova was born (d. 1983). American actress.
• 1914 - Emilio Pucci was born (d. 1992). Italian fashion designer.
• 1914 - José Revueltas was born. Mexican novelist and writer
• 1917 - Robert Byrd was born. U.S. Senator from West Virginia.
• 1917 - Bobby Locke was born (d. 1987). South African golfer.
• 1917 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back. For the first time, tanks were used effectively in warfare, by the British at the Battle of Cambrai.
• 1917 - Ukraine is declared a republic.
• 1919 - Evelyn Keyes was born. American actress
• 1920 - Portugal: Álvaro de Castro assumes the place of prime-minister.
• 1921 - Jim Garrison was born (d. 1992). American detective, author, and politician.
• 1922 - Ricardo Flores Magón dies into an american prison. Mexican revolucionary
• 1923 - Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency of Germany at the exchange rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion Papiermark
• 1923 - Nadine Gordimer was born. South African writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1924 - Benoît Mandelbrot was born. Polish-born mathematician
• 1925 - Robert F. Kennedy was born (d. 1968). U.S. Attorney General
• 1925 - Maya Plisetskaya was born. Russian ballet dancer.
• 1925 - Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom dies (b. 1844)
• 1926 - Andrzej W. Schally, Polish-born endocrinologist, Nobel laureate
• 1926 - Artur Ramos was born. Portuguese film director.
• 1926 - Kaye Ballard was born. American comic actress
• 1927 - Estelle Parsons was born. American actress
• 1928 - Aleksey Batalov was born. Russian actor
• 1932 - Richard Dawson was born. British actor and game show host
• 1934 - José Cutileiro was born. Portuguese politician and diplomat
• 1934 - Willem de Sitter dies (b. 1872). Dutch scientist.
• 1936 - Don DeLillo was born. American author
• 1936 - Buenaventura Durruti dies (b. 1896). Spanish anarchist.
• 1936 - José Antonio Primo de Rivera dies (b. 1903). Spanish activist and politician.
• 1937 - René Kollo was born. German tenor
• 1937 - Eero Mäntyranta was born. Finnish cross-country skier
• 1939 - Dick Smothers was born. American comedian
• 1939 - João Medina was born. Portuguese writer and teacher.
• 1942 - Joseph Biden was born. U.S. Senator from Delaware
• 1940 - World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
• 1940 - Bob Einstein was born. American actor
• 1941 - Haseena Moin was born. Pakistani television drama writer and Urdu playwright
• 1942 - Super Dave Osborne was born. American actor
• 1942 - Joseph Biden was born. American politician
• 1942 - Norman Greenbaum was born. American singer
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns.
• 1943 - Veronica Hamel was born. American actress.
• 1944 - Louie Dampier was born. American basketball player
• 1945 - Nuremberg Trials begin: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
• 1945 - Nanette Workman was born. American-born Canadian singer and actress
• 1945 - Rick Monday was born. Major League Baseball player
• 1945 - Francis William Aston dies (b. 1877). British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1946 - Duane Allman was born (d. 1971). American guitarist.
• 1946 - Greg Cook was born. American football player
• 1947 - Joe Walsh was born. American musician
• 1947 - Gutemberg Nery Guarabyra Filho was born. Brazilian singer (Sá e Guarabyra)
• 1947 - The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
• 1948 - Barbara Hendricks was born. American-born soprano
• 1948 - John R. Bolton was born. American ambassador
• 1948 - Richard Masur was born. American actor
• 1949 - Thelma Drake was born. U.S. Congresswoman from Virginia
• 1950 - Francesco Cilea dies (b. 1866). Italian composer.
• 1951 - David Walters was born. American politician
• 1952 - Slánský trials - a series of Stalinist and anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia.
• 1952 - John Van Boxmeer was born. National Hockey League player
• 1952 - Benedetto Croce dies (b. 1866). Italian philosopher
• 1954 - Clyde Vernon Cessna dies (b. 1879). Aviation pioneer (Cessna)
• 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.
• 1956 - Bo Derek was born. American actress
• 1956 - Mark Gastineau was born. American football player
• 1957 - Margaret Spellings was born. U.S. Secretary of Education
• 1957 - Mstislav Dobuzhinsky was born (d. 1875). Russian-Lithuanian artist.
• 1959 - Sean Young was born. American actor.
• 1959 - James P. McGovern was born. U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts
• 1959 - EFTA (European Free Trade Area) is created : Great-Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Switerzaln and Portugal.
• 1960 - Cathy Moriarty was born. American actress
• 1960 - Chris Whitley dies (b. 2005). American musician.
• 1961 - Dave Watson was born. English footballer
• 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, US President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
• 1963 - Timothy Gowers was born. British mathematician
• 1963 - Ming-Na Wen was born. Macau-born actress
• 1965 - Mike D was born. American musician (Beastie Boys)
• 1965 - Yoshiki Hayashi was born. Japanese musician (X Japan)
• 1966 - Kevin Gilbert was born (d. 1966). American musician
• 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 Matt Blunt was born. Governor of Missouri
• 1970 - Delia Gonzalez was born. American boxer.
• 1970 - Matt Blunt was born. American politician
• 1971 - Joey Galloway was born. American football wide receiver
• 1971 - Joel McHale was born. American actor
• 1973 - Allan Sherman dies (b. 1924). American comedian.
• 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.
• 1975 - Dierks Bentley wass born. American singer
• 1975 - Timea Vagvoelgyi was born. Hungarian model
• 1975 - Davey Havok was born. Singer (AFI)
• 1975 - J.D. Drew was born. Baseball player
• 1975 - Francisco Franco dies (b. 1892). Dictator of Spain.
• 1976 - Dominique Dawes was born. American gymnast
• 1976 - Trofim Lysenko dies (b. 1898). Stalinist biologist.
• 1977 - Josh Turner was born. American singer
• 1977 - Rudy Charles was born. American professional wrestling referee
• 1977 - Konstantinos Karamanlis wins the legislative elections in Greece.
• 1978 - Vasilisk Gnedov dies (b. 1890). Russian poet.
• 1978 - Giorgio de Chirico dies (b. 1888). Italian painter.
• 1979 - About 200 Sunni Muslims 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.
• 1980 - John McEwen dies (b. 1900). Eighteenth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1981 - Kimberley Walsh was born. English singer (Girls Aloud)
• 1981 - Carlos Boozer was born. American Basketball player
• 1982 - Andy Kaufman was forever voted off of Saturday Night Live by a live phone poll.
• 1982 - Cal executes The Play in a college football game against Stanford.
• 1983 - In the US, an estimated 100 million people watch the controversial made-for-television movie The Day After, depicting the start of a nuclear war.
• 1983 - Marcel Dalio dies (b. 1900). French actor.
• 1984 - SETI is founded.
• 1984 - Justin Hoyte was born. English footballer (Arsenal)
• 1984 - Ferdinando Monfardini was born. Italian racing driver
• 1985 - Juan Cruz Álvarez was born. Argentine racing driver
• 1985 - Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
• 1987 - Ivone Silva dies (b. 24 Apr 1935). Portuguese actress.
• 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).
• 1992 - Xanana Gusmão, comandante das Falintil, forças que lutavam pela independência de Timor-Leste, foi preso por forças militares indonésias.
• 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).
• 1994 - John Lucarotti dies (b. 1926). TV writer.
• 1995 - Sergei Grinkov dies (b. 1967). Russian Olympic and World Figure Skating Champion.
• 1997 - Dick Littlefield dies (b. 1926). Baseball player.
• 1998 - The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.
• 1998 - A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
• 1998 - American tobacco companies signed an agreement with the governments of 46 U.S. states to settle the states' claims for reimbursement of Medicaid funds they had expended to treat smoking-related illnesses, the settlement costing the tobacco manufacturers $206
  billion beyond the $40 billion they had agreed to pay four other states in 1997.
• 1998 - Galina Starovoitova dies (b. 1946). Russian politician.
• 1999 - Amintore Fanfani dies (b. 1908). Italian politician and prime minister.
• 2000 - Mike Muuss dies (b. 1958). American computer programmer
• 2000 - Kalle Päätalo dies (b. 1919). Finnish writer
• 2000 - Carlos Cardoso is murdered in Maputo. Mozambican journalist, founder and editor of the independent newspaper Metical.
• 2000 - Louis Eugène Néel dies. French physicist.
• 2001 - In Washington, DC, US 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 - Several bombs are detonated in Istanbul, Turkey destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Holdings and the British consulate.
• 2003 - Michael Jackson is arrested by police on charges of child molestation.
• 2003 - Robert Addie dies (b. 1960). British actor.
• 2003 - David Dacko dies (b. 1930). First President of the Central African Republic
• 2003 - Eugene Kleiner dies (b. 1923). American entrepreneur and venture capitalist
• 2003 - Roger Short dies (b. 1944). British Consulate General in Istanbul
• 2003 - Jim Siedow dies (b. 1920). American actor.
• 2003 - Kerem Yilmazer dies (b. 1945). Turkish actor.
• 2003 - Loris Azzaro dies (b. 1933). French fashion designer.
• 2004 - David Grierson dies (b. 1955). Canadian radio host.
• 2004 - Celso Furtado dies (b. 1920). Brazilian economist.
• 2004 - Jenny Ross dies (b. 1962). English musician (Section 25).
• 2005 - Sheldon Gardner dies (b. 1934). American psychologist.
• 2005 - James King dies (b. 1925). American singer.
• Church of England - Edmund the Martyr
• Brazil - Zumbi Day (Since 1978)
• Brazil - Dia da Consciência Negra (day of the Blacks recognition)
• Britain - wedding day of H.M. the Queen (1947), official flag day
• Mexico - Anniversary of the Revolution (1910)
• UNICEF - Universal Children's Day
• Vietnam - Teacher's Day (Ngày nhà giáo Viêt Nam)
• Transgender Day of Remembrance (since 1999)