Today in History
June 20
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. | |
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. | |
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. | |
1972 | President Richard Nixon names General Creighton Abrams as Chief of Staff of the United States Army. | |
1999 | NATO declares an official end to its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia. | |
Born on June 20 | ||
1723 | Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philosopher (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. |
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