20 June History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 451    -    Roman and barbarian warriors halt Attila's army at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.
  • 1397    -    The Union of Kalmar unites Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch.
  • 1756    -    Nearly 150 British soldiers are imprisoned in the 'Black Hole' cell of Calcutta. Most die.
  • 1793    -    Eli Whitney applies for a cotton gin patent.
  • 1819    -    The paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrives in Liverpool, England, after a voyage of 27 days and 11 hours–the first steamship to successfully cross the Atlantic.
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  • 1837    -    18-year-old Victoria is crowned Queen of England.
  • 1863    -    President Abraham Lincoln admits West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state.
  • 1898    -    On the way to the Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam.
  • 1901    -    Charlotte M. Manye of South Africa becomes the first native African to graduate from an American University.
  • 1910    -    Mexican President Porfirio Diaz proclaims martial law and arrests hundreds.
  • 1920    -    Race riots in Chicago, Illinois leave two dead and many wounded.
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  • 1923    -    France announces it will seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying her war debts.
  • 1941    -    The U.S. Army Air Force is established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
  • 1955    -    The AFL and CIO agree to combine names for a merged group.
  • 1963    -    The United States and the Soviet Union agree to establish a hot line between Washington and Moscow.
  • 1964    -    General William Westmoreland succeeds General Paul Harkins as head of the U.S. forces in Vietnam.
  • 1967    -    Boxing champion Muhammad Ali is convicted of refusing induction into the American armed services.
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  • 1972    -    President Richard Nixon names General Creigton Abrams as Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
  • 1999    -    NATO declares an official end to its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

  • 20 June Birthdays

  • 1723    -    Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philopsopher (Principals of Moral and Political Science).
  • 1858    -    Charles Chesnutt, African-American novelist.
  • 1887    -    Kurt Schwitters, German artist.
  • 1899    -    Jean Moulin, French Resistance fighter during World War II.
  • 1907    -    Lillian Hellman, playwright (The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic).
  • 1909    -    Errol Flynn, film actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood).
  • 1910    -    Chester Arthur Burnett, blues singer.
  • 1910    -    Josephine Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Jordanstown, Wildwood).
  • 1924    -    Chet Atkins, guitarist.
  • 1924    -    Audie Murphy, American soldier during World War II, author and actor.
  • 1928    -    Jean-Marie Le-Pen, leader of the National Front party in France.
  • 1946    -    Andre Watts, pianist.