Historical Events on December 20, Facts & Special Events On This Day - CalendarZ

Historical Events on December 20

AD 69
Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
217
Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, although Hippolytus of Rome is soon thereafter elected as a rival pope.
1192
Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.
1334
Pope Benedict XII is elected.
1522
Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1606
The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
1803
The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
1808
Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1832
HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands
1860
South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
1915
World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
1916
World War I: The battle of Verdun results in a French victory after more than 9 months of intense fighting.
1917
Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.
1924
Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941
World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942
World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.
1946
The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
1951
The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952
A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1955
Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
1957
The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.
1967
A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
1968
The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1971
The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.
1973
The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
1984
The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.
1985
Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
1987
In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
1989
The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.
1991
A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1995
NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1995
American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.
1999
Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
2004
A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
2007
Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007
The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.
2013
China successfully launches the Bolivian Túpac Katari 1 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

December 20 Birthdays

December 20 Deaths