1553 – Volumes of Talmud are burned
1555 – English parliament refuses to recognize Philip of Spain as king
1652 – King Louis XIV returns to Paris
1869 – 1st shipment of fresh oysters comes overland from Baltimore
1899 – Battle at Elandslaagte Natal: (Boers vs British army)
1914 – Battle of Warsaw ends with German defeat
1950 – Death penalty abolished in Belgium
1959 – Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York
1979 – Ozzie Newsome begins NFL streak of 150 consecutive game receptions
2017 – Spanish government suspends Catalonia’s autonomy in the face of a deepening political crisis over the region’s push for independence
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 20th October 2020
1877 – Franz Schubert’s 2nd Symphony in B premieres
1905 – Great General Strike in Russia begins; lasts 11 days
1910 – Soccer team KFC forms in Alkmaar
1918 – In order to secure a WWI armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions
1930 – British White Paper restricts Jews from buying Arab land
1957 – Walter Cronkite begins hosting weekly documentary
1971 – Senator in the US Congress Edward Kennedy calls for a withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and all-party negotiations to establish a United Ireland
1979 – Bob Dylan appears on “Saturday Night Live”
1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
1987 – 10 die as US Air Force jet crashed into a Ramada Inn near Indianapolis
Historical Events for 19th October 2020
1864 – US Brigadier General Emory Upton (25) promoted to Major General
1926 – John C Garand patents semi-automatic rifle
1948 – “My Romance” opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 95 performances
1953 – 1st jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service
1960 – France grants Mauritania independence
1967 – Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27′ 4 3/4″
1974 – Detroit Pistons beat Trailblazers in Portland (next win 6-1-90)
1990 – HCA, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, forms in Prague
2001 – SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en-route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks killing 353
2019 – US Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorses Bernie Sanders for president
Historical Events for 18th October 2020
1889 – 1st all NYC World Series NY Giants (NL) play Bkln (AA)
1918 – NHL’s Quebec Bulldogs sold to a Toronto businessman P. J. Quinn
1962 – US launches Ranger 5 for lunar impact; misses Moon
1968 – Circus Circus hotel opens in Las Vegas, largest permanent big top in the world
1969 – Soyuz 8 returns to Earth
1977 – West German commandos liberate Boeing 737 with 86 hostages at Mogadishu
1992 – Start of Zimbabwe’s 1st Test match, v India at Harare
2009 – QB Tom Brady throws five second quarter touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans, an NFL record for touchdown passes in one quarter
2012 – Syrian military airstrikes kill 40 people in Maaret al-Numan
2019 – 1st all-female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir outside the International Space Station
Historical Events for 17th October 2020
1346 – Battle of Neville’s Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years
1797 – Peace of Campo Formio: Austrian Dutch possessions and France
1871 – Great Britain annexes Griqualand, South Africa
1894 – Ohio national guard kills 3 lynchers while rescuing a black man
1945 – Loyalty Day in Argentina, mass demonstrations held to release Juan Perón
1959 – Queen Elizabeth II is fined $140 for withdrawing her race horse
1965 – “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” opens in NYC for 280 performances
1969 – NY Nets move from Comack to Island Garden, Hempstead NY
1978 – NY Yankees beat Dodgers, 4 games to 2 in 75th World Series
2019 – The ‘Blob’, mysterious yellow slime organism (physarum polycephalum) with 720 sexes, moves and can solve problems to go on display at the Paris Zoological Park
Historical Events for 16th October 2020
1849 – British seize Tigre Island in Gulf of Fonseca from Honduras
1904 – Russian Baltic fleet departs to Port Arthur
1926 – Troop ship sinks in Yangtze River, killing 1,200
1942 – Cyclone in Bay of Bengal kills some 40,000 south of Calcutta India
1949 – WDAF TV channel 4 in Kansas City, MO (NBC) begins broadcasting
1969 – T Agee and Ed Kranepool HR, Tommie Agee makes 2 great catches, New York Mets win Baseball World Series 4-1
1978 – Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Herbert A Simon
1979 – First global telenovela Mexican “Los ricos también lloran” (The Rich Also Cry) premieres, second foreign series to be screened in the Soviet Union
1982 – Mt Palomar Observatory 1st to detect Halley’s comet on 13th return
2013 – 21 people are killed after a minibus hits a land mine in Nawa, Syria
Historical Events for 15th October 2020
1897 – Aaron and Samuel Bloch carry 1st Mail Pouch
1925 – Pittsburgh Pirates beat Washington Senators, 4 games to 3 in 22nd World Series
1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.
1941 – Jews caught outside Nazi Ghetto walls in occupied Poland could be put to death
1951 – First synthesis of an oral contraceptive (norethindrone) made by Luis E. Miramontes under direction of Carl Djerassi and George Rosenkranz at Mexican drug company Syntex
1953 – John Patrick’s “Teahouse of the August Moon” premieres in New York
1969 – Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California) dedicated
1997 – Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Jens Christain Skou, Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker for their work on enzymes in the body
2005 – Riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.
2011 – Global protests break out in 951 cities in 82 countries
Historical Events for 14th October 2020
1940 – Balham tube station in London is bombed by the German Luftwaffe during the Blitz, killing 64-66 people
1945 – Chicago Cardinals end a record 29-game losing streak, beat Bears
1948 – Large scale fighting between Israel and Egypt
1970 – 4th Country Music Association Award: Merle Haggard wins
1980 – Phils rally from 4-0 deficit to beat the Royals, 7-6 to take WS opener
1986 – Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel, for his efforts to ensure the Holocaust was remembered
1988 – NJ Devils raise their 1st pennant by winning the Patrick Division Playoff Championship
1991 – NY Rangers right wing Mike Gartner becomes the first player to score 500th NHL goals
2002 – MLB National League Championship: San Francisco Giants beat St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 1
2007 – “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” featuring Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney Kardashian premieres on the E! cable network in the US
Historical Events for 13th October 2020
1213 – Battle of Steppes: Hugh Pierrepont, Bishop of Liège and Louis II, Count of Loon defeat Henry I, Duke of Brabant
1871 – The Delphic Fraternity is founded as the Delphic Society at the State Normal School in Geneseo, New York.
1902 – US President Theodore Roosevelt threatens to start using army troops to work coal mines struck since 12 may; this brings the owners to agree to abide by a Commission of Arbitration
1917 – 70,000 people gather to see ‘Miracle of the Sun’, solar visions reportedly by the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal after prophecies by local children
1936 – Explosion caused by leaking gas rips out section 12 of Cleve Stadium
1958 – Burial of Pope Pius XII on the 41st anniversary of the “Miracle of the Sun”
1969 – Billy Martin (97-65) is fired as manager of AL West-winning Twins
1973 – Jordan enters Yom Kippur war
1978 – Tiros N, US’s 1st third generation weather satellite, is launched
2007 – 17th College Football Holy War: Boston College beats Notre Dame 27-14 in South Bend
Historical Events for 12th October 2020
1815 – Ex-king Joachim Murat of Naples sentenced to death
1861 – Confederate ironclad Manassas attack Union’s Richmond on Mississippi
1864 – War of the Triple Alliance begins with Brazilian troops under the command of Gen. João Propício Mena Barreto invading Uruguay
1879 – British troops occupy Kabul, Afghanistan
1933 – Gangster George Francis Barnes, aka Machine Gun Kelly, is sentenced to life imprisonment
1935 – Cole Porters musical “Jubilee” premieres in NYC
1957 – Canadian Prime Minister Lester Bowles Pearson wins Nobel Peace Prize
1960 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk at UN General Assembly session
1961 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1969 – Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 7 is launched