April 20

Historic Events

2023

SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight. ›

2021

State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota. ›

2020

For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war. ›

2015

Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland. ›

2013

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands. ›

2012

One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan. ›

2010

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that lasted six months. ›

2008

Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race. ›

2007

Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself. ›

2004

The Nicoll Highway in Singapore collapses, killing four workers. ›

1999

Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. ›

1998

Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board. ›

1985

University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in advocacy for animal rights. ›

1972

Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon. ›

1968

English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech. ›

1968

South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near J.G. Strijdom Airport in South West Africa (now Hosea Kutako International Airport in Namibia), killing 123 people. ›

1961

Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba. ›

1949

Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War. ›

1946

The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations. ›

1945

World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union. ›

1945

World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth. ›

1945

Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school. ›

1922

The Soviet government creates the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR. ›

1918

World War I: Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day. ›

1914

Nineteen men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War. ›

1908

Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League. ›

1902

Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride. ›

1898

U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War. ›

1884

Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry. ›

1876

The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War. ›

1865

Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion. ›

1862

Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation. ›

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. ›

1861

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, attempting to display the value of balloons, makes record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina. ›

1836

U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory. ›

1828

René Caillié becomes the second non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, following Major Gordon Laing. He would also be the first to return alive. ›

1809

Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory. ›

1800

The Septinsular Republic is established. ›

1792

France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. ›

1789

George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration. ›

1770

The Georgian king, Erekle II, abandoned by his Russian ally Count Totleben, wins a victory over Ottoman forces at Aspindza. ›

1752

Start of Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War, a new phase in the Burmese Civil War (1740–57). ›

1657

English Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet, under heavy fire from the shore, at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. ›

1657

Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City). ›

1653

Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament. ›

1535

A complex halo display is observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring the Vädersolstavlan ("The Sundog painting"), the earliest depiction of such an event, and the oldest colour depiction of the city. ›

1303

The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII. ›

1303

The Bahri Mamluks defeat the Ilkhanate in the battle of Marj al-Saffar, marking the end of the Mongol incursions into Syria. ›

1152

After an eight-year conflict, Baldwin III of Jerusalem wins sole control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende. ›