20 March History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1413    -    Henry IV of England is succeed by his son Henry V.
  • 1739    -    In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupies Delhi and takes possession of the Peacock throne.
  • 1760    -    The Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings.
  • 1792    -    In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approves the use of the guillotine.
  • 1815    -    Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris and begins his 100-day rule.
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  • 1841    -    Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story, is published.
  • 1852    -    Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
  • 1906    -    Army officers in Russia mutiny at Sevastopol.
  • 1915    -    The French call off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
  • 1918    -    The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union ask for American aid to rebuild their army.
  • 1922    -    President Warren G. Harding orders U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
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  • 1932    -    The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, makes the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
  • 1939    -    President Franklin D. Roosevelt names William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court.
  • 1940    -    The British Royal Air Force conducts an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
  • 1943    -    The Allies attack Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
  • 1965    -    President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
  • 1969    -    Senator Edward Kennedy calls on the United States to close all bases in Taiwan.
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  • 1976    -    Patty Hearst is convicted of armed robbery.
  • 1982    -    U.S. scientists return from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
  • 1987    -    The United State approves AZT, a drug that is proven to slow the progress of AIDS.

  • 20 March Birthdays

  • 43BC    -    Ovid, Roman poet.
  • 1811    -    Napoleon II, son of Napoleon Bonaparte, Duke of Reichstadt.
  • 1828    -    Henrik Isben, Norwegian dramatist (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler).
  • 1904    -    B.F. Skinner, American psychologist.
  • 1917    -    Dame Vera Lynn , British singer.
  • 1922    -    Raymond Walter Goulding, Radio comedian of Bob and Ray fame.
  • 1925    -    John Ehrlichman, White House advisor to President Nixon.
  • 1928    -    Fred Rogers, television performer (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood).
  • 1957    -    Shelton 'Spike' Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X).