July 20

July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 164 days remaining.

Template:JulyCalendar2008

Events

1304 - Fall of Stirling Castle: Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
1712 - In the United Kingdom, the Riot Act took effect
1738 - French explorer Pierre de la Verendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan
1810 - Colombia declares independence from Spain.
1833 - Anti-Mormon mob destroys press for the Book of Commandments, now among the most valuable 19th century books.
1861 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America Congress began sitting in Richmond, Virginia
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek - Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
1866 - Austrian navy, led by admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats Italian near the island of Vis
1871 - British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
1872 - The United States Patent Office awards the first patent for wireless telegraphy to Mahlon Loomis
1877 - Rioting in Baltimore, Maryland by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers is put down by the state militia, resulting in nine deaths.
1881 - Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.

20th Century:1900-1950

1917 - Yugoslavia: Corfu Declaration that enabled post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia
1917 - Russia: Alexander Kerensky becomes Prime Minister of the provisional government and survives an assasination attempt
1917 - United States: The first military draft numbers are drawn
1922 - Africa: The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom
1927 - Romania: Michael I becomes King at age five upon the death of his father Ferdinand I
1930 - Soviet Union: Maxim Litvinov is named the Soviet Union's Commisar of Foreign Affairs
1932 - Germany: Martial law is declared
1933 - United Kingdom: In London, 500,000 march against anti-semitism
1936 - Turkey is authorized to fortify the Dardanelles
1937 - United States: Police open fire on striking truckers, wounding 50
1940 - Denmark leaves the League of Nations
1940 - Pop culture: Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart"; the first number one is Frank Sinatra's "I'll Never Smile Again"
1940 - Southeast Asia: Admiral Jean Decoux named governor of Indochina by Marshal Henri Petain
1940 - United States: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill limiting political activity by Federal employees, the Hatch Act
1941 - Soviet Union: Lavrenti Beria is named head of the secret police, the NKVD
1941 - South America: In Bolivia, the government makes arrests and shuts down newspapers claiming a Nazi coup was in the works
1942 - World War II: The first unit of the Women's Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa
1942 - World War II: Red Army troops take bridgeheads over the Don River near Voronezh
1942 - World War II: The Royal Air Force attacks Fuka
1942 - United States: The House of Representatives passes the largest tax increase in American history, $6.3 billion
1943 - World War II: Red Army forces launch an attack on a 450 mile front from Taganrog to Orel
1943 - World War II: American and Canadian troops conquer Enna on Sicily
1943 - World War II: Three Japanese Navy ships are sunk by American planes near Vila in the Solomon Islands
1943 - World War II: In Washington, D.C., Admiral Frederick Horne, Vice Chief of Naval Operations says the U.S. Navy is planning for the war to last until 1949.
1944 - Germany: Adolf Hitler survives the July 20 Plot an assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg.
1944 - World War II: American troops land on Guam near Port Apra
1944 - India: In Bombay, health authorities announce a cholera epidemic has killed 34,000 in three months
1944 - United States: The United States Democratic Party nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for a fourth term as president
1945 - United States: The United States Congress approves the Bretton Woods Agreement
1946 - World War II: The United States Congress's Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt was completely blameless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
1947 - Southeast Asia: Police in Burma arrest former Prime Minister U Saw and 19 others on chargest of assasinating Prime Minister U Aung San and seven members of his cabinet
1948 - Cold War: President Harry S. Truman issues the first peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
1948 - Far East: Syngman Rhee is elected president of South Korea by parliament
1948 - United States: In New York City, twelve leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Smith Act including William Foster and Gus Hall
1949 - Middle East: Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen month war
1949 - Bulgaria: Parliament elects Vassil Kolarov prime minister, replacing Georgi Dimitrov
1949 - United States: Carmine DeSapio becomes leader of Tammany Hall, the Democratic organization in New York City
1949 - Journalism: Colonel Robert R. McCormick announces the purchase of the Washington Times-Herald by his paper, the Chicago Tribune

20th Century:1950-1974

1950 - Belgium: Parliament authorizes king Leopold III to return from exile in Austria
1950 - Korean War: North Korea attacks the temporary South Korean capital, Taejon
1951 - Middle East: King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
1951 - World War II: The United States invites fifty nations to San Francisco to consider a peace treaty with Japan
1953 - Middle East: Israel and the Soviet Union resume diplomatic relations after five month lapse
1953 - United Nations: The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency
1953 - United States: President Dwight Eisenhower presents his agenda to Congressional leaders
1953 - Far East: Eisenhower names Ellis O. Briggs ambassador to South Korea
1954 - Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service, defects to East Germany
1954 - United States: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy accepts the resignation of his aide Roy Cohn
1955 - Far East: China shells Taiwan's islands Quemoy and Matsu
1955 - United States: The United Auto Workers is indicted under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act for its activities in Michigan in the 1954 elections
1955 - United States: The committee working on the merger of America's two largest labor federations, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, agrees to call the combined organization the "AFL-CIO"
1956 - Middle East: The British Foreign Office announces it was cancelling funding for Egypt's Aswan High Dam
1958 -Yugoslavia: 26 are dead in an explosion at a military base near Kokin Breg
1958 - Middle East: Jordan suspends diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic after it regonized the new government of Iraq
1958 - United States: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs legislation to give federal employees a 10 percent raise
1958 - Baseball: Jim Bunning of the Detroit Tigers pitches a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox
1959 - Europe: The Organization for European Economic Cooperation admits Spain
1959 - Africa: Halie Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, arrives in Paris for a state visit with President Charles de Gaulle
1960 - Asia: Ceylon elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.
1960 - United States: The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), for the first time
1960 - United Nations: Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council
1960 - Africa: In Salisbury, Rhodesia, 20,000 protest over police brutality
1960 - Middle East: In Lebanon, Saeb Salem is named Prime Minister
1962 - United States: General Maxwell Taylor is named chairman of the U.S.Joint Chiefs of Staff
1962 - South America: Earthquakes in Columbia kill 40
1962 - Africa: France and Tunisia restore diplomatic relations after one year break
1963 - Pop culture: Jan and Dean's song "Surf City" hits number one
1963 - Indonesia announces it will in the future refer to the Indian Ocean as the "Indonesian Ocean"
1964 - Vietnam War - Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
1964 - Space exploration: NASA successfully tests the first electric rocket engine in California
1964 - Caribbean: Cuba's Premier Fidel Castro compares U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barry M. Goldwater to Adolf Hitler
1965 - United States: Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court
1965 - Pop culture: Columbia Records releases Bob Dylan's groundbreaking single "Like a Rolling Stone" to radio stations.
1966 - United Kingdom: Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces budget cuts to combat inflation
1966 - United States: In Cleveland, Ohio, the National Guard moves in after days of rioting.
1967 - North America: French President Charles de Gaulle arrives in St. Pierre and Miquelon
1969 - Apollo Program: Apollo 11 lands on the Moon and Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first humans to walk on its surface.
1970 - Europe: Finland's President Urho Kaleva completes his state visit to the Soviet Union
1970 - Middle East: President Richard Nixon says he is asking for a three month truce in the Middle East
1970 - Vietnam War: Richard Nixon says the United States will oppose a coalition government for Vietnam that includes the Communist Party
1970 - Vietnam War: Saigon is shelled by the Communists
1970 - United States: Federal Trade Commission accuses McDonald's of fraud in a promotional contest
1971 - United States: President Richard Nixon tells Taiwan it will continue to sell it arms
1971 - United States: The United States Postal Service reaches an agreement with its labor unions
1972 - Netherlands: The cabinet resigns in a dispute over the budget
1972 - United States: Senator George McGovern of South Dakota asks Lawrence O'Brien to become his campaign manager in his campaign for president
1972 - South America: Uruguay is crippled by a general strike called to obtain wage increases in the face of high inflation
1972 - Australia: Police in Canberra break up a protest by Aborigines in front of Parliament over land reform
1973 - United States: The United States Senate passes the War Powers Act
1973 - Vietnam War: In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, the United States Defense Department admits it lied to Congress about bombing Cambodia *1973 - Greece: Seventy-three government officials and military officers are charged with conspiracy to overthrow the goverment
1973 - Kenya: Julius Kiano, the government's Commerce and Industry Minister, tells Asian-owned businesses to close by the end of the year
1973 - Middle East: Palestianian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai
1973 - United States: Indiana is found guilty of operating segregated schools by federal judge S. Hugh Dillin, who orders the state to develop a desegregation plan for Indianapolis's schools
1974 - War of July 1974: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus. NATO's Council praises the United States and the United Kingdom for attempts to settle the dispute. Syria and Egypt put their militaries on alert

20th Century:1975-2000

1976 - Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
1976 - Vietnam War: The United States military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand
1977 - United States: Leon Jaworksi agrees to be the House Ethics Committee's special counsel in its probe of the Koreagate scandal
1977 - United States: Johnstown, Pennsylvania is hit by a flash flood that killed 80 and caused $350 million in damage
1978 - Middle East: Israel's parliament exempts religious women from military service
1978 - Watergate: Former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell is released on parole
1979 - Swimming: Diana Nyad swims the sixty miles from the Bahamas to Florida
1980 - Middle East: Takieddih Solh is named Lebanon's new prime minister
1981 - Middle East: The United States suspends sales of F-16 fighter jets to Israel
1982 - United Kingdom: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding 47 people, and leading to the deaths of 7 horses.
1983 - United States: The United States House of Representatives censures two of its members, Gerry Studds and Daniel Crane, for having sex with congressional pages
1984 - United States: Officials of the Miss America paegant ask Vanessa Williams to quit after Penthouse published nude photos of her
1985 - Oceanography: The main ship wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Se�ora de Atocha (which sank in 1622) is found 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida by treasure hunters who soon begin to raise $400 million in coins and silver
1985 - South Africa: The government declares a state of emergency because of unrest in the black townships
1985 - Austria: 120 Polish pilgrims on their way to Rome ask for asylum
1985- Caribbean: The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles
1987 - Europe: Morocco announces it will apply for membership in the European Community
1988 - United States: The Democrats nominate Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts for President
1988 - Cold War: The United States Department of State rejects a Soviet offer to dismantle the Krasnoyarsk radar in exchange for concessions regarding the ABM Treaty
1989 - Space exploration: President George H.W. Bush calls for a manned mission to Mars
1989 - Art: Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe show opens at Washington, D.C.'s Project for the Arts after the cancellation of the show by the Smithsonian Institution's Corcoran Gallery
1990 - Caribbean: Haiti asks the United States to send observers to monitor its upcoming elections
1990 - United Kingdom: An Irish Republican Army bomb explods at the International Stock Exchange
1990 - United States: Supreme Court Justice William Brennan announces his retirement from the Court
1990 - Iran Contra: All of Colonel Oliver North's convictions for perjury and other offenses are overturned by an appeals court
1991 - Europe: The United States Department of Defense begins airlifting supplies to Albania
1992 - Czechoslovakia: V�clav Havel resigns as president
1992 - Poland: 4,000 copper miners go on strike
1992 - Georgia: A TU-154 cargo plane crashes in the suburbs of Tblisi, killing 40
1993 - United States: President Bill Clinton nominates Judge Louis Freeh to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
1993 - United Kingdom: 20,000 policemen gather at Wembley Stadium in London to protest pay reforms
1994 - Middle East: Israel's Shimon Peres visits Jordan, the highest ranking Israeli official to do so
1994 - Astronomy: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Fragment Q1 hits Jupiter
1995 - United States: The Regents of the University of California vote to end all affirmative action in the UC system by 1997
1996 - Spain: An ETA bomb at an airport kills 35
1997 - United Kingdom: An Irish Republican Army truce took effect
1997 - Yugoslavia: The Serb Democratic Party forces President Biljana Plavsic to resign
1998 - Afghanistan: 200 aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups leave the country on orders of the Taliban
1999 - Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean
1999 - Europe: The European Parliament elects Nichole Fontaine its president
1999 - United States: Officials of the Public Broadcasting System admit in testimony to Congress that its stations gave donor lists to the Democratic party and Democratic candidates

21st Century

2001 - Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.
2002 - Italy: The 27th Annual G8 summit opens in Genoa. An Italian protestor in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.
2002 - United States: The United States Senate confirms Roger L. Gregory as the first black to sit on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
2003 - Liberia: Fighting between militias controlled by the country's president, Charles Taylor, and rebels continues in Monrovia
2003 - Middle East: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.
2003 - South Korea: British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives in Seoul to meet with President Roh Moo Hyun
2004 - Middle East: Palestinian lawmaker Nabil Amr is shot in the West Bank
2004 - Middle East: The United Nations Security Council votes to demand Israel cease construction on its wall through the West Bank
2004 - Iraq War: Angelo de la Cruz, a Fillipino truck driver taken hostage in Iraq, is released
2004 - United Kingdom: The House of Commons debates the Butler repoort on pre-Iraq War intelligence
2004 - Canada: Prime Minister Paul Martin appoints his new cabinet.

Births

1304 - Francesco Petrarch, Italian poet (d. 1374)
1797 - Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist (d. 1873)
1838 - George Otto Trevelyan, British statesman and biographer (d. 1928)
1847 - Max Liebermann, painter and graphic artist (d. 1935)
1868 - Miron Cristea, First patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church (d. 1939)
1873 - Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviator (d. 1932)
1890 - Theda Bara (Theodosia Burr Goodman), American actress (d. 1955)
1890 - Freeman Owens
1890 - King George II of Greece (d. 1947)
1894 - Errett Cord, automobile entrepreneur
1895 - L�szl� Moholy-Nagy, painter, photographer, sculptor (d. 1946)
1901 - Heinie Manush, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1971)
1919 - Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountain climber
1920 - Tommy Prothro, American football coach
1920 - Elliot Richardson, American politician (d. 1999)
1925 - Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission
1926 - Lola Albright, American actress (Peter Gunn)
1928 - Pavel Kohout, writer
1929 - Mike Illitch, American businessman (Little Caesar's Pizza), sports executive, and philanthropist
1932 - Otto Schily, politician
1933 - Chuck Daly, American basketball coach
1933 - Nelson Doubleday, American book publisher and baseball executive
1933 - Cormac McCarthy, author
1933 - Rex Williams, English snooker player
1934 - Sally Ann Howes, British actress
1934 - Uwe Johnson, writer
1935 - Henson Cargil, American country music singer
1935 - Sleepy LaBeef, American country music singer
1936 - Barbara Mikulski, U.S. Senator from Maryland
1938 - Natalie Wood, actress: From Here to Eternity, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story (d. 1981)
1938 - Dame Diana Rigg, actress
1939 - Judy Chicago, American feminist artist
1941 - Kurt Raab, German actor (d. 1988)
1942 - Pete Hamilton, American racecar driver
1943 - Wendy Richard, British television actress (Are You Being Served?, EastEnders)
1943 - John Lodge, American singer (The Moody Blues)
1944 - T. G. Sheppard, American country music singer
1945 - Kim Carnes, American pop singer
1945 - Larry Craig, U.S. Senator from Idaho
1946 - Randal Kleiser, film director
1947 - Carlos Santana, guitarist, singer
1956 - Paul Cook, British singer (The Sex Pistols)
1957 - Donna Dixon, American actress
1959 - Radney Foster, American singer
1963 - Dino Espisito, American singer
1963 - Frank Whaley, American actor
1964 - Chris Cornell, American singer (Audioslave)
1966 - Steve Gossard, American singer (Pearl Jam)
1967 - Reed Diamond, Actor
1968 - Julian Rhind-Tutt, British actor
1969 - Vitamin C, British singer
1973 - Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway
1973 - Peter Forsberg, Swedish NHL star
1974 - Simon Rex, American actor
1975 - Judy Evans Greer, American actress
1978 - Charlie Korsmo, American actor
1980 - Gisele Bundchen, Brazilian model
1985 - John Francis Daley, Actor
1996 - Billi Bruno, American actress (According to Jim)

Deaths

1031 - Robert II, king of France
1870 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, Prix Goncourt
1897 - Jean Ingelow, English poet (b. 1820)
1901 - William Cosmo Monkhouse, poet, critic (b. 1840)
1903 - Pope Leo XIII
1908 - Demetrius Vikelas, Greek IOC president
1922 - Andrey Markov, mathematician
1923 - Pancho Villa, revolutionary (assassinated)
1926 - Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy, head of the Soviet secret police
1927 - King Ferdinand of Romania
1937 - Guglielmo Marconi, radio inventor
1941 - Lew Fields, American vaudeville performer
1945 - Paul Val�ry, French author and poet
1951 - Friedrich Wilhelm Hohenzollern, Crown Prince of Germany
1951 - King Abdullah, King of Jordan
1953 - Dumarsaid Estime, President of Haiti (b. 1900)
1953 - Jan Struther, British author (Mrs. Miniver)
1957 - Dr. Alfred Einstein Cohen, American cardiologist
1959 - Admiral William Leahy, American naval officer
1967 - Albert Lutuli, South African civil rights leader, winner of the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize
1968 - Bray Hammond, American historian
1973 - Bruce Lee, actor and martial artist
1990 - Herbert T. Jenkins, American policeman, former police chief of Atlanta, Georgia (1947-1973)
1991 - Earl Robinson, American singer and composer
1992 - John Bratby, British painter
1996 - Colin Mitchell, British Member of Parliament
1993 - Vincent Foster Jr., White House deputy counsel
1997 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler
1999 - Sandra Gould, American actress (Bewitched)
2001 - Carlo Giuliani Italian activist
2004 - Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fijian chieftainess and former First Lady; widow of long-time former Prime Minister and President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.

Holidays and observances

Colombia - Independence Day
Japan - Marine Day (Umi-no-hi)
Occupied North Cyprus - Peace and Freedom Day
Argentina - Friendship Day
Feast day for Aurelius

July 19 - July 21 - June 20 - August 20 -- listing of all days

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