October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 72 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian feast days:
- Acca of Hexham
- Artemius
- Caprasius of Agen
- Hedwig (in Canada, moved from Oct. 16)
- Irene of Tomar
- Magdalene of Nagasaki
- Margaret Marie Alacoque (in Canada, moved from Oct. 16)
- October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Arbor Day (Czech Republic)
- Heroes’ Day (Kenya)
- Revolution Day (Guatemala), one of the two Patriotic Days (Guatemala)
- Vietnamese Women’s Day (Vietnam)
- World Osteoporosis Day
- World Statistics Day
General events on October 20th
In 1548, The city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace) is founded by Alonso de Mendoza by appointment of the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
In 1632, Happy Birthday to Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St Paul’s Cathedral (d. 1723)
In 1720, Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy.
In 1817, the first “Showboat” leaves Nashville, Tennessee, to give shows along the Mississippi. It is a converted keelboat.
In 1873, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
In 1882, Happy Birthday to Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (d. 1956)
In 1910, The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In 1927, Dr. Joyce Brothers is born: (died May 13, 2013) Columnist, Author, Actress, Panelist, Jewish, Psychologist, RN: Joyce Diane Bauer; some say Sep 20 but that is wrong; also a Gong Show panelist. In 1955, she became the only woman ever to win the top prize on the American game show The $64,000 Question, answering questions on the topic of boxing, which was suggested as a stunt by the show’s producers. In 1958, she presented a television show on which she dispensed psychological advice, pioneering the field. She wrote a column for Good Housekeeping for almost forty years and became, according to The Washington Post, the “face of American psychology”. Brothers appeared in dozens of television roles, usually as herself, but from the 1970s onward she accepted roles portraying fictional characters, often self-parodies. Radio therapist Laura Schlessinger credited Brothers with making psychology “accessible”.
In 1931, Happy Birthday to Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
In 1935, The Long March ends. The Long March (October 1934-October 1935) was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People’s Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. The march decimated 90% of those that started the march.
In 1951, The “Johnny Bright Incident” occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma. A little too much is made about this one.
In 1968, Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
In 1971, The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
In 1973, The Sydney Opera House opens.
Government and Politics on October 20th
In 1781, Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
In 1803, The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1818, The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
In 1883, Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru’s involvement in the War of the Pacific.
In 1904, Chile and Bolivia sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, delimiting the border between the two countries.
In 1926, Eugene V. Debs, American union leader and politician (b. 1855) dies of heart failure on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70. His body was cremated and buried in Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.
Early in his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation’s first industrial unions. After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He called a boycott of the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars, in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike, affecting most lines west of Detroit, and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. To keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison.
In jail, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement. Debs was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America (1897), the Social Democratic Party of America (1898), and the Socialist Party of America (1901).
Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of the United States five times, including 1900 (earning 0.63% of the popular vote), 1904 (2.98%), 1908 (2.83%), 1912 (5.99%), and 1920 (3.41%), the last time from a prison cell. He was also a candidate for United States Congress from his native Indiana in 1916.
Debs was noted for his oratory, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to a term of 10 years. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926, not long after being admitted to a sanatorium.
In 1946, Goverment of Democratic Republic of Vietnam decided that on 20/10 is Vietnam Women’s Day
In 1947, The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
In 1947, United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
In 1950, Henry L. Stimson, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 46th United States Secretary of State (b. 1867) dies one month after his 83rd birthday, he succumbed to complications from a second heart attack. Stimson died at his estate Highhold in Huntington, New York. He is buried in the adjacent town of Cold Spring Harbor, in the cemetery of St. John’s Church. He was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican Party politician and spokesman on foreign policy. He served as Secretary of War (1911–1913) under Republican William Howard Taft, and as Governor-General of the Philippines (1927–1929). As Secretary of State (1929–1933) under Republican President Herbert Hoover, he articulated the Stimson Doctrine which announced American opposition to Japanese expansion in Asia. He again served as Secretary of War (1940–1945) under Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, and was a leading hawk calling for war against Germany. During World War II he took charge of raising and training 13 million soldiers and airmen, supervised the spending of a third of the nation’s GDP on the Army and the Air Forces, helped formulate military strategy, and oversaw the building and use of the atomic bomb.
In 1970, Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state.
In 1973, “Saturday Night Massacre“: President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
In 2016, Tax Foundation Rates Tax Plans of Trump and Clinton: Trump’s Plan Wins
In 2016, Two top Tennessee Republicans, Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, are voicing alarm over GOP Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to accept the results of the Nov. 8 election and we suspect it will cost them. “Our democracy in this republic that’s stood for [240 years] is predicated on a peaceful transfer of power….. I think one of the basics of that is the acceptance of election results.” Gov. Bill Haslam.
War, Crime and Disaster events on October 20th
In 1572, Relief of Goes, Cristóbal de Mondragón with 3000 soldiers of the Spanish Tercios, release the siege of the city.
In 1600, The Battle of Sekigahara results in the establishment of the Tokugawa clan as rulers of Japan (shoguns) until 1865 (basis of Clavell’s novel).
In 1827, Battle of Navarino – a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is defeated by British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece.
In 1865, Champ Ferguson was hung on October 20, 1865, one of only two men to be tried, convicted and executed for war crimes during the Civil War (the other being Captain Henry Wirz, commandant of the infamous Andersonville prison in Georgia). Ferguson was buried in the France Cemetery north of Sparta, White County, Tennessee. This site is now bordered by Highway 84 (Monterey Highway). He was a notorious Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War. He claimed to have killed over 100 Union soldiers and pro-Union civilians. Ferguson organized a guerrilla company and began attacking any civilians he believed supported the Union. Many local feuds were carried out in occupied Tennessee under the guise of war. His men cooperated with Confederate military units led by Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler when they were in the area, and some evidence indicates that Morgan commissioned Ferguson as a captain of partisan rangers. But Ferguson’s men were seldom subject to military discipline and often violated the normal rules of warfare. At the war’s end, Ferguson disbanded his men and returned home to his farm. As soon as the Union troops learned he was back, they arrested him and took him to Nashville. There he was tried by a military court for 53 murders. Ferguson’s trial attracted national attention and soon became a major media event. One of Ferguson’s main adversaries on the Union side, “Tinker Dave” Beaty, testified against him. Just as Ferguson had led a band of guerrillas against any real/or suspected unionists, Beaty had led his own band of guerrillas against any real/or suspected confederates. Not surprisingly each had done his best to kill the other. Ferguson acknowledged his band had killed many of the victims named and said he had killed over 100 men himself. He insisted this conduct was simply part of his duty as a soldier.
In 1941, World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
In 1943, The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Suda Bay, Crete, and sunk. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown with it.
In 1944, The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
In 1944, Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
In 1944, General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
In 1952, Governor Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency in Kenya and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya.
In 1962, China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, beginning the Sino-Indian War.
In 1976, The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.
In 1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s plane crash.
In 1981, Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery in Rockland County, NY, carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.
In 1982, During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
In 1991, The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.
In 1991, A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.
In 2011, Libyan civil war: National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte and kill him shortly thereafter.
Royalty and Religious events on October 20th
In 1740, Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
Human Achievement and Science events on October 20th
In 1961, The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class submarine.
Arts and Prose events on October 20th
In 1939, Pope Pius XII publishes his first major encyclical entitled Summi Pontificatus.
In 1955, J. R. R. Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and professor at the University of Oxford completed publishing his most famous of works. He was best known for his work on the “Lord of the Rings.” The “Lord of the Rings” books were written in phases during the Second World War and is the third best-selling novel ever written. Over 150 million copies were sold. The publisher advised Tolkien that it would be more economically profitable to release the story as three volumes over the course of a year. Within each volume are comprised two books. The stories have been reprinted many times and translated into a variety of languages. On this day, October 20th, in 1955, the third and final volume of the trilogy, “The Return of the King” was released. The two other volumes in the trilogy that preceded it are “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers.” Tolkien felt that the name “The Return of the King” was too revealing of the plot and indicated to his publisher that he preferred the title to be “The War of the Ring.” Tolkien’s work has had a great impact on modern fantasy and is now a common pop cultural reference.
