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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 ...