October 20

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MMXI

October 20 in recent years

2011 (Thursday)

2010 (Wednesday)

2009 (Tuesday)

2008 (Monday)

2007 (Saturday)

2006 (Friday)

2005 (Thursday)

2004 (Wednesday)

2003 (Monday)

2002 (Sunday)

October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 72 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 1548 – The city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace) is founded by Alonso de Mendoza by appointment of the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
• 1720 – Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy.
• 1740 – Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
• 1781 – Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
• 1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
• 1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
• 1827 – Battle of Navarino – a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is defeated by British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece.
• 1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
• 1883 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
• 1904 – Chile and Bolivia sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, delimiting the border between the two countries.
• 1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• 1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting.
• 1935 – The Long March ends.
• 1939 – Pope Pius XII publishes his first major encyclical entitled Summi Pontificatus.
• 1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
• 1943 – The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Suda Bay, Crete, and sunk. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown with it.
• 1944 – The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
• 1944 – Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
• 1944 – General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
• 1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
• 1947 – United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
• 1951 – The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma
• 1952 – Governor Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency in Kenya and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya.
• 1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class submarine.
• 1962 – China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, beginning the Sino-Indian War.
• 1967 – A purported bigfoot is filmed by Patterson and Gimlin.
• 1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
• 1970 – Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state.
• 1971 – The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
• 1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
• 1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.
• 1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.
• 1977 – A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot.
• 1981 – Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery in Rockland County, NY, carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.
• 1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
• 1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.
• 1991 – A 6.8 M_w earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.
• 2011 – The former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and his son Moatassem Gaddafi are killed shortly after the battle of Sirte (2011) while in the custody of NTC fighters.

Births

• 1463 – Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (d. 1512)
• 1496 – Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (d. 1550)
• 1616 – Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian (d. 1680)
• 1620 – Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (d. 1691)
• 1632 – Sir Christopher Wren, English architect (d. 1723)
• 1656 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
• 1660 – Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (d. 1723)
• 1677 – Stanisław I Leszczyński, King of Poland (d. 1766)
• 1700 – Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans, Duchess of Modena (d. 1761)
• 1711 – Timothy Ruggles, American politician (d. 1795)
• 1719 – Gottfried Achenwall, German statistician (d. 1772)
• 1740 – Isabelle de Charrière, Dutch writer (d. 1805)
• 1759 – Chauncey Goodrich, American politician (d. 1815)
• 1780 – Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1825)
• 1784 – Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, British statesman (d. 1865)
• 1785 – George Ormerod, British historian and antiquarian (d. 1873)
• 1801 – Melchior Berri, Swiss architect (d. 1854)
• 1808 – Karl Andree, German geographer (d. 1875)
• 1819 – Báb, Persian founder of Bábism and a central figure in the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1850)
• 1819 – Carl Mikuli, Polish pianist (d. 1897)
• 1822 – Thomas Hughes, English novelist (d. 1896)
• 1832 – Constantin Lipsius, German architect (d. 1894)
• 1854 – Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (d. 1891)
• 1858 – John Burns, English politician (d. 1943)
• 1859 – John Dewey, American philosopher (d. 1952)
• 1864 – James F. Hinkle, American politician (d. 1951)
• 1873 – Nellie McClung, Canadian feminist (d. 1951)
• 1874 – Charles Ives, American composer (d. 1954)
• 1882 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born American actor (d. 1956)
• 1889 – Margaret Dumont, American actress (d. 1965)
• 1891 – James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• 1891 – Jomo Kenyatta, Kenyan politician (d. 1978)
• 1893 – Charley Chase, American comedian (d. 1940)
• 1894 – Olive Thomas, American actress (d. 1920)
• 1895 – Rex Ingram, American actor (d. 1969)
• 1897 – Crown Prince Euimin of Korea (d. 1970)
• 1900 – Wayne Morse, American politician (d. 1974)
• 1904 – Anna Neagle, English actress (d. 1986)
• 1904 – Tommy Clement Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
• 1905 – Arnold Luhaäär, Estonian weightlifter (d. 1965)
• 1905 – Frederic Dannay, American novelist (d. 1982)
• 1907 – Arlene Francis, American actress and television personality (d. 2001)
• 1909 – Sugiyama Yasushi, Japanese painter (d. 1993)
• 1909 – Carla Laemmle, American actress
• 1910 – Bob Sheppard, American sports public address announcer (d. 2010)
• 1913 – Grandpa Jones, American banjo player and singer (d. 1998)
• 1913 – J. Michael Hagopian, Turkish-born American documentarian (d. 2010)
• 1914 – Fayard Nicholas, American dancer (d. 2006)
• 1917 – Jean-Pierre Melville, French director (d. 1973)
• 1918 – Robert Lochner, German journalist (d. 2003)
• 1919 – Tracy Hall, American inventor (d. 2008)
• 1921 – Hans Warren, Dutch writer (d. 2001)
• 1922 – John Anderson, American actor (d. 1992)
• 1923 – Robert Craft, American conductor
• 1925 – Art Buchwald, American humorist (d. 2007)
• 1925 – Tom Dowd, American recording engineer (d. 2002)
• 1925 – Roger Hanin, French actor
• 1927 – Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, Indian poet (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Richard Caliguiri, American politician (d. 1988)
• 1931 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
• 1932 – Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
• 1932 – William Christopher, American actor
• 1934 – Bill Chase, American trumpet player (d. 1974)
• 1934 – Eddie Harris, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)
• 1934 – Empress Michiko of Japan
• 1935 – Jerry Orbach, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1935 – Barrie Chase, American dancer
• 1937 – Juan Marichal, Dominican baseball player
• 1937 – Wanda Jackson, American rock and rockabilly singer
• 1938 – Iain Macmillan, Scottish photographer (d. 2006)
• 1940 – Kathy Kirby, British singer (d. 2011)
• 1940 – Robert Pinsky, American poet and Poet Laureate of the United States
• 1942 – Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1942 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1942 – Bart Zoet, Dutch cyclist (d. 1992)
• 1943 – Dunja Vejzovic, Croatian soprano
• 1944 – David Mancuso, American disc jockey
• 1944 – Nalin de Silva, Sri Lankan theoretical physicist and political analyst
• 1946 – Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist (d. 1994)
• 1946 – Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1946 – Richard Loncraine, British film director
• 1946 – Lucien Van Impe, Belgian cyclist
• 1948 – Melih Gökçek, Turkish politician
• 1948 – Piet Hein Donner, Dutch politician and minister
• 1950 – Tom Petty, American musician
• 1951 – Patrick Hall, British politician
• 1951 – Leif Pagrotsky, Swedish politician
• 1951 – Claudio Ranieri, Italian football player and manager
• 1951 – Ken Ham, Australian evangelist and businessman
• 1951 – Al Greenwood, American rock musician (Foreigner)
• 1952 – Melanie Mayron, American actress
• 1953 – Keith Hernandez, American baseball player
• 1953 – Bill Nunn, American actor
• 1954 – Steve Orich, American composer
• 1954 – Günter Müller, German percussionist
• 1955 – Robert ten Brink, Dutch TV personality and actor
• 1955 – Thomas Newman, American composer
• 1955 – David Profumo, English novelist
• 1955 – Aaron Pryor, American boxer
• 1956 – Danny Boyle, English film director
• 1957 – Susanna Haavisto, Finnish actress and singer
• 1957 – Hilda Solis, American politician
• 1957 – Chris Cowdrey, English cricketer
• 1958 – Valerie Faris, American film director
• 1958 – Lynn Flewelling, American fantasy author
• 1958 – Scott Hall, American professional wrestler
• 1958 – Mark King, English musician and singer (Level 42)
• 1958 – Dave Krieg, American football player
• 1958 – Viggo Mortensen, American actor
• 1958 – Ivo Pogorelic, Croatian pianist
• 1958 – Dave Finlay, Irish professional wrestler
• 1959 – Mark Little, Australian actor and comedian
• 1960 – Konstantin Aseev, Russian chess player (d. 2004)
• 1960 – Lepa Brena, Yugoslav singer
• 1961 – Ian Rush, Welsh footballer
• 1961 – Michie Tomizawa, Japanese voice actress
• 1962 – David M. Evans, American screenwriter and film director
• 1962 – Dave Wong, Hong Kong/Taiwanese singer-songwriter
• 1963 – Julie Payette, Canadian astronaut
• 1963 – Nikos Tsiantakis, Greek footballer
• 1963 – Stan Valckx, Dutch retired footballer and general football manager
• 1965 – Norman Blake, Scottish musician
• 1965 – Jil Caplan, French singer and songwriter
• 1965 – Mikhail Shtalenkov, Russian ice hockey player
• 1965 – William Zabka, American actor
• 1966 – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian militant and Al-Qaeda figure (d. 2006)
• 1966 – Allan Donald, South African cricketer
• 1966 – Fred Coury, American drummer (Cinderella)
• 1966 – Stefan Raab, German entertainer
• 1966 – Patrick Volkerding, American computer operating systems developer
• 1967 – Luigi Lo Cascio, Italian actor
• 1967 – Elizabeth Carling, English actress and singer
• 1967 – Luck Mervil, Québécois actor and singer
• 1967 – Marco Ngai, Hong Kong actor
• 1968 – Susan Tully, English actress (Eastenders)
• 1969 – Juan González, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1969 – Laurie Daley, Australian rugby league footballer
• 1969 – Lambros Papakostas, Greek high jumper
• 1970 – Chavo Guerrero, Jr., American professional wrestler
• 1970 – Michelle Malkin, American political commentator and author
• 1970 – Sander Boschker, Dutch footballer
• 1971 – Dannii Minogue, Australian singer
• 1971 – Snoop Dogg, American rapper
• 1971 – Matt Norman, Australian director/producer
• 1971 – Eddie Jones, American basketball player
• 1971 – Kamiel Maase, Dutch long-distance runner
• 1972 – Pie Geelen, Dutch swimmer
• 1972 – Will Greenwood, England rugby union player
• 1976 – Nikolaos Bacharidis, Greek footballer
• 1976 – Tom Wisniewski, American guitarist (MxPx)
• 1976 – Nicola Legrottaglie, Italian footballer
• 1977 – Matt Jansen, English footballer
• 1977 – Leila Josefowicz, Canadian classical violinist
• 1977 – Sam Witwer, American actor
• 1978 – Virender Sehwag, Indian cricketer
• 1978 – Paul Wilson, Scottish bass player (Snow Patrol)
• 1979 – Paul Ifill, Barbadian footballer
• 1979 – John Krasinski, American actor
• 1979 – Paul O'Connell, Irish rugby player
• 1980 – Gary Jarman, English musician
• 1980 – Niall Matter, Canadian actor
• 1980 – Jose Veras, Dominican baseball player
• 1981 – Willis McGahee, American football player
• 1981 – Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
• 1982 – Kristian Bak Nielsen, Dutch footballer
• 1982 – Becky Brewerton, Welsh golfer
• 1983 – Luis Saritama, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1983 – Takayuki Yamada, Japanese actor
• 1984 – Florent Sinama-Pongolle, French footballer
• 1984 – Andrew Trimble, Northern Irish rugby player
• 1985 – Jennifer Nicole Freeman, American actress
• 1985 – Alphonso Smith, American football player
• 1985 – Dominic McGuire, American basketball player
• 1985 – James Sutton, British racing driver
• 1986 – Priyanka Sharma, Indian actress
• 1986 – Wanlop Saechio, Thai Port football player
• 1987 – Raphael Hackl, German rugby player
• 1988 – Risa Niigaki, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
• 1988 – Candice Swanepoel, South African model
• 1989 – Colin Wilson, Canadian-American ice hockey player
• 1992 – Ksenia Semenova, Russian gymnast
• 1994 – Morgan Featherstone, Australian model
• 1995 – Zhenwei Wang, Chinese actor and martial artist

Deaths

• 460 – Aelia Eudocia, Byzantine Empress
• 1139 – Henry X, Duke of Bavaria
• 1570 – João de Barros, Portuguese historian (b. 1496)
• 1631 – Michael Maestlin, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1550)
• 1640 – John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
• 1652 – Antonio Coello, Spanish writer (b. 1611)
• 1713 – Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (b. 1652)
• 1740 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1685)
• 1842 – Grace Darling, English heroine (b. 1815)
• 1865 – Champ Ferguson, Confederate guerrilla (b. 1821)
• 1870 – Michael William Balfe, Irish composer (b. 1808)
• 1890 – Sir Richard Francis Burton, British explorer and writer (b. 1821)
• 1900 – Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet (b. 1846)
• 1907 – Said Pasha Kurd, Kurdish statesman (b. 1834)
• 1910 – David B. Hill, Governor of New York (b. 1843)
• 1926 – Eugene Debs, American labor leader and Socialist presidential candidate (b. 1855)
• 1935 – Arthur Henderson, Scottish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)
• 1936 – Anne Sullivan, American teacher (b. 1866)
• 1940 – Gunnar Asplund, Swedish architect (b. 1885)
• 1953 – Werner Baumbach, German bomber pilot (b. 1916)
• 1957 – Michalis Dorizas, Greek Olympic medalist (b. 1890)
• 1964 – Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874)
• 1967 – Yoshida Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1878)
• 1968 – Bud Flanagan, British wartime entertainer (b. 1896)
• 1972 – Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (b. 1885)
• 1977 – Members of the American rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd killed in a plane crash:

• Cassie Gaines (b. 1948)
• Steve Gaines (b. 1949)
• Ronnie Van Zant (b. 1948)

• 1978 – Gunnar Nilsson, Swedish race car driver (b. 1948)
• 1983 – Peter Dudley, British actor (b. 1935)
• 1983 – Yves Thériault, French Canadian author (b. 1915)
• 1984 – Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
• 1984 – Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• 1987 – Andrey Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1903)
• 1988 – Sheila Scott, English aviatrix (b. 1922)
• 1989 – Anthony Quayle, English actor (b. 1913)
• 1990 – Joel McCrea, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1992 – Werner Torkanowsky, German conductor (b. 1926)
• 1993 – Sugiyama Yasushi, Japanese painter (b. 1909)
• 1994 – Burt Lancaster, American actor (b. 1913)
• 1995 – Christopher Stone, American actor (b. 1942)
• 1999 – Calvin Griffith, Former owner of Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins (b. 1911)
• 1999 – Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of Ireland (b. 1917)
• 2001 – Ted Ammon, American financier (b. 1949)
• 2002 – Barbara Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
• 2002 – Bernard Fresson, French actor (b. 1931)
• 2003 – Jack Elam, American actor (b. 1918)
• 2003 – Miodrag Petrović, Serbian actor (b. 1924)
• 2004 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (b. 1923)
• 2004 – Chuck Hiller, American baseball player (b. 1934)
• 2005 – Shirley Horn, American singer (b. 1934)
• 2005 – Endon Mahmood, First Lady of Malaysia (b. 1941)
• 2005 – Eva Svankmajerova, Czech artist (b. 1940)
• 2006 – Jane Wyatt, American actress (b. 1910)
• 2007 – Max McGee, American football player (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Paul Raven, British bass-player (Killing Joke, Ministry) (b. 1961)
• 2008 – Gene Hickerson, American football player (b. 1935)
• 2010 – Bob Guccione, American publisher (Penthouse magazine) (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Parthasarathy Sharma, Indian cricketer (b. 1948)
• 2011 – Muammar Gaddafi, Ruler of Libya (b. 1942)
• 2011 – Moatassem Gaddafi, Son of Moammar Gaddafi and National Security Adviser of Libya (b. 1977)
• 2011 – Tone Pavček, Slovenian poet and translator (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances

• Birth of the Báb (Bahá'í Faith)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Acca of Hexham
  • Andrew of Crete
  • Artemius
  • Caprasius of Agen
  • Irene of Tomar
  • John Cantius (Extraordinary Form, celebrated by Traditionalist Catholic)
  • October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Kenyatta Day (Kenya)
• Revolution Day, one of the two Patriotic Days (Guatemala)
• World Osteoporosis Day
• Spirit Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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