SomeFacts | December 20

On this day - December 20

69 — Antonius Primus enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor for ...

944 — Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos is arrested by two of his ...

1046 — Emperor Henry III convenes the synod of Sutri to mediate ...

1192 — Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V ...

1334 — Cardinal Jacques Fournier, a Cistercian monk, is elected Pope ...

1803 — The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New ...

1808 — Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.

1832 — HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port ...

1848 — French presidential election: Having won the popular vote in a ...

1860 — South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede ...

1915 — World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from ...

1917 — Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.

1924 — Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.

1940 — Captain America Comics #1, containing the first appearance of ...

1941 — World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, ...

1942 — World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.

1946 — An earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan causes a tsunami which kills ...

1946 — It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in ...

1948 — Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures ...

1951 — The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant ...

1952 — A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses ...

1955 — Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United ...

1957 — The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its ...

1960 — Vietnam War: The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, ...

1968 — The Zodiac Killer murders his first two officially confirmed ...

1970 — Koza riot: After a series of hit-and-runs and other vehicular ...

1973 — Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ...

1977 — With the approval of the State Council, China's two ...

1984 — Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her ...

1984 — The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation ...

1985 — Pope John Paul II announces the creation of World Youth Day.

1987 — In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña ...

1988 — War on drugs: The United Nations agrees upon and promulgates ...

1989 — The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.

1991 — A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa ...

1995 — American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a ...

1999 — Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.

2004 — A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from ...

2007 — The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist ...

2007 — Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the ...

2016 — Aerosucre Flight 157 crashes during takeoff from Germán Olano ...

2019 — The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of ...

2022 — A Vega C rocket carrying two Pléiades Neo satellites fails ...

2024 — A mass stabbing occurs in a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia, ...

2024 — Six people are killed and over 200 are injured when an ...