SomeFacts | May 20

On this day - May 20

325 — The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the ...

491 — Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is ...

685 — The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army ...

794 — While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a ...

1217 — The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, ...

1293 — King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de ...

1426 — King Mohnyin Thado formally ascends to the throne of Ava.

1449 — The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House ...

1497 — John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship ...

1498 — Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to ...

1520 — Hernan Cortés defeats Pánfilo de Narváez, sent by Spain to ...

1521 — Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of ...

1570 — Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, ...

1609 — Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, ...

1631 — The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the ...

1645 — Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of the residents of ...

1714 — Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his ...

1741 — The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory ...

1775 — The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly ...

1802 — By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates ...

1813 — Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of ...

1861 — American Civil War: The State of North Carolina secedes from ...

1861 — American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its ...

1862 — U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into ...

1864 — American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the ...

1873 — Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue ...

1875 — Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the ...

1882 — The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary ...

1883 — Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months ...

1891 — History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas ...

1902 — Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada ...

1927 — Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in ...

1927 — Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the ...

1932 — Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the ...

1940 — The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new ...

1941 — World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete.

1943 — The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period ...

1948 — Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China ...

1949 — In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the ...

1956 — In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne ...

1958 — Capital Airlines Flight 300 collides in mid-air with a United ...

1964 — Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by ...

1965 — One hundred twenty-one people are killed when Pakistan ...

1967 — The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is ...

1969 — The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.

1971 — In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre ...

1980 — In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, with 60% of ...

1983 — Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by UMkhonto we Sizwe ...

1983 — First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that ...

1985 — Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins ...

1989 — The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of ...

1990 — The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary ...

1996 — Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in ...

2002 — The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, ...

2009 — An Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100 Hercules crashes in ...

2011 — Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West ...

2012 — At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a ...

2013 — An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, ...

2016 — The government of Singapore authorised the controversial ...

2019 — The International System of Units (SI): The base units are ...

2022 — Russo-Ukrainian War: Russia claims full control of the ...