See what makes March 20 special at Famous Daily.
History, birthdays, holiday, and a quote!
What happened on March 20
- March 20, 0141 6th predicted perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
- March 20, 1345 "Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction; thought ""cause of plague epidemic"""
- March 20, 1413 "King Henry IV, the first English monarch from the Lancastrian dynasty, dies after years of illness, and his eldest son, Henry, ascends to the English throne"
- March 20, 1525 Paris' parliament begins pursuit of Protestants
- March 20, 1569 "Duke van Alva leads ""tenth penning"" in Ponts the Cé"
- March 20, 1598 French king Henri IV & duke van Mercour sign treaty
- March 20, 1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms
- March 20, 1616 Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years imprisonment.
- March 20, 1616 Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana
- March 20, 1627 France & Spain signs accord for fighting protestantism
- March 20, 1697 "Willem de Vlamingh returns to Batavia after exploring ""South Land"""
- March 20, 1739 "Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne."
- March 20, 1760 Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings
- March 20, 1760 "The ""Great Fire"" of Boston destroys 349 buildings."
- March 20, 1800 "French army defeats Turks at Helipolis Turkey, & advance to Cairo"
- March 20, 1804 "A royalist conspiracy against France's first consul Napoleon Bonaparte comes to light in February One conspirator, Gen Jean Victor Moreau, 41, escapes to America, but the duc d'Enghien Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon Condé, 32, is seized in Baden, condemned by a commission acting under Bonaparte's orders without regard to law, and shot at Vincennes the night of March 20
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- March 20, 1814 Prince Willem Frederik becomes monarch of Netherlands
- March 20, 1815 "Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule"
- March 20, 1816 US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions
- March 20, 1833 US & Siam conclude commercial treaty
- March 20, 1848 King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez
- March 20, 1848 Revolutions of 1848 in the German states: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.
- March 20, 1854 "Republican Party Founded: In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig political party meet to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories"
- March 20, 1856 Costa Rican troops rout Walker's soldiers.
- March 20, 1861 "An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, a city in western Argentina."
- March 20, 1863 Battle of Pensacola FL: evacuated by Federals
- March 20, 1865 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville NC
- March 20, 1865 Michigan authorizes workers' cooperatives
- March 20, 1868 "Jesse James Gang robs bank in Russelville KY of $14,000"
- March 20, 1878 Postmaster-General John Delaney and meteorologist John Higgins install Newfoundland's first telephone.
- March 20, 1883 Signature of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
- March 20, 1883 Unity treaty of Paris signed; protects industrial property
- March 20, 1885 John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine
- March 20, 1890 German emperor Wilhelm II fires republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck
- March 20, 1896 Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens
- March 20, 1896 Uprising in Matabeleland
- March 20, 1897 France signs treaty with emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia
- March 20, 1899 "At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place is sentenced to become the first woman executed in an electric chair."
- March 20, 1901 General Electric starts construction of a large Canadian factory in Toronto.
- March 20, 1911 National Squah Tennis Association formed (New York NY)
- March 20, 1913 "Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later."
- March 20, 1914 "In New Haven, Connecticut, the first international figure skating championship takes place."
- March 20, 1916 Allies attack Zeebrugge Belgium
- March 20, 1917 "Lieutenant FH McNamara, 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, becomes the only member of the AFC to win a Victoria Cross for his action in the raid on Tel el Hasi, Palestine"
- March 20, 1920 The first flight from London to South Africa lands (1½ months)
- March 20, 1922 The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
- March 20, 1923 Bavarian minister of Interior refuses to forbid Nazi SA
- March 20, 1923 Belgian Senate rejects Dutch University in Ghent
- March 20, 1924 Finnair begins scheduled flight of Helsinki-Tallinn
- March 20, 1929 "British Columbia Telephone Company sets up subsidiary, North-West Telephone Company, the world's first radiotelephone company"
- March 20, 1930 Clessie Cummins sets diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph
- March 20, 1931 Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin
- March 20, 1932 Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kara-Kalpak ASSR
- March 20, 1933 "Dachau, first concentration camp, completed"
- March 20, 1933 Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida's electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
- March 20, 1934 "1934 Great Hakodate fire, 4,170 square kilometers has lost, caused fire. Japanese authority estimated 2,165 killed, injured 9,485, 145,500 homeless. The great urban fire has worst disaster, except air bomb, earthquake fire in Japanese history."
- March 20, 1934 Test of practical radar apparatus made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Kiel Germany
- March 20, 1935 """Your Hit Parade"" made its debut on radio"
- March 20, 1937 Franco-offensive at Guadalajara Spain
- March 20, 1939 "7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania"
- March 20, 1939 Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King tells Parliament that Canada will consider any attack on Britain as an attack on the Commonwealth.
- March 20, 1940 Paul Reynoud becomes French premier
- March 20, 1941 Nazi-German/Yugoslav pact drawn
- March 20, 1942 Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia
- March 20, 1942 "General MacArthur vows, ""I shall return"""
- March 20, 1942 "Holocaust: in Rohatyn, western Ukraine, German SS murder 3,000 Jews, including 600 children, annihilating 70% of Rohatyn's Jewish ghetto."
- March 20, 1942 "In Zgierz, Poland, 100 Poles are taken from a labor camp and shot by the Germans."
- March 20, 1942 Major German assault on Malta
- March 20, 1943 British offensive against Mareth-line
- March 20, 1943 German U-384 bombed & sunk
- March 20, 1944 "Bus falls off bridge into Passaic River NJ, killing 16"
- March 20, 1944 "Lt. Gen. Henry Duncan Graham Crerar 1888-1965 appointed to command of 1st Canadian Army; largest field formation ever formed by Canada; includes British, Dutch, Belgian, and Polish units."
- March 20, 1945 US 70th Infantry division/7th Armour division attack Saar
- March 20, 1947 180-metric ton blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic
- March 20, 1948 "20th Academy Awards: ""Gentleman's Agreement"", Ronald Colman, Loretta Young win"
- March 20, 1948 "With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC."
- March 20, 1951 "Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honsh is founded."
- March 20, 1951 Indonesian army offensive against Darul Islam on Java
- March 20, 1952 "24th Academy Awards: ""American in Paris"", Humphrey Bogart & Vivian Leigh win"
- March 20, 1952 US Senate's final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan
- March 20, 1954 """King & I"" closes at St James Theater NYC after 1246 performances"
- March 20, 1954 Newspaper vending machine first used (Columbia Pennsylvania)
- March 20, 1956 Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) explodes
- March 20, 1956 Tunisia gains independence from France
- March 20, 1956 Union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp
- March 20, 1957 "Britain accepts NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejects it"
- March 20, 1958 "50"" snow across the Mason-Dixon line"
- March 20, 1958 "Greek Clandestine Burasi Bizim Radio (communist), Voice of Truth first transmission"
- March 20, 1962 Sjoukje Dijkstra becomes world champion figure skater
- March 20, 1963 Sikkim crown prince Paldan Thondup Namgyal marries Hope Cooke
- March 20, 1964 "ESRO established, European Space Research Organization"
- March 20, 1964 "The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962."
- March 20, 1965 Venkataraghavan takes 8-72 vs New Zealand at Delhi
- March 20, 1966 "In Uganda a 6.75 earthquake was the most destructive earthquake in recent African history, about 140 fatalities and hundreds of injuries were reported"
- March 20, 1967 "Supremes release ""The Happening"""
- March 20, 1968 Military intervene in South-Yemen (leftist ministers resign)
- March 20, 1968 "Number one hit on UK music charts - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Legend Of Xanadu"
- March 20, 1968 President Lyndon Johnson signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money
- March 20, 1969 Beatle John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar
- March 20, 1969 John Lennon & Yoko Ono marry in Gibraltar
- March 20, 1969 US President Nixon proclaims he will end Vietnam war in 1970
- March 20, 1971 Number one hit on UK music charts - T Rex - Hot Love
- March 20, 1972 19 mountain climbers killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche
- March 20, 1972 Sicco L. Mansholt succeeds Franco M. Malfatti as chairman of European Committee
- March 20, 1973 "On the Kerguelen-Gausberg Rise a 5.4 earthquake, the first instrumental epicenter associated with this structure and is located in the Antarctic plate 1,800 kilometers from the nearest seismic belt"
- March 20, 1974 "A failed kidnap attempt is made on Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London."
- March 20, 1974 Hydro Quebec workers on James Bay project riot; destroy millions of dollars of equipment; project closes down
- March 20, 1976 "In California, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is convicted of taking part in a 1974 armed robbery of a San Francisco bank"
- March 20, 1976 Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery
- March 20, 1977 Parisians elect former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac as first mayor in a century
- March 20, 1977 Premier Indira Gandhi loses election in India
- March 20, 1979 Columbia flies on Shuttle carrier aircraft to Kennedy Space Center
- March 20, 1979 "The last variant of the P-2 Neptune rolled off the production line at ceremonies in Japan. This was the longest production run of any aircraft type in history, 34 years from the first model which was built in 1945"
- March 20, 1980 The Mi Amigo ship containing England's pirate Radio Caroline sinks
- March 20, 1980 "The Quebec National Assembly approves wording of referendum question on Sovereignty Association, and so it begins"
- March 20, 1980 "The Radio Caroline ship, Mi Amigo founders in a gale off the English coast."
- March 20, 1980 US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran
- March 20, 1981 Argentine ex-President Isabel Perón sentenced to 8 years
- March 20, 1981 Jean Harris sentenced 15-to-life for slaying of Scarsdale Diet Doctor
- March 20, 1982 "1st-class debut of Richie Richardson, Leeward Islands vs Barbados"
- March 20, 1982 "Joan Jett & Blackhearts' ""I Love Rock 'n' Roll"" goes #1 for 7 weeks"
- March 20, 1982 Reverend A Treurnicht forms Conservative Party of South Africa
- March 20, 1983 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Women's Kemper Golf Open
- March 20, 1984 "Andy Kaufman & Fred Blassie's ""My Breakfast With Blassie"" premieres"
- March 20, 1984 Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools
- March 20, 1985 "Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race."
- March 20, 1985 Libby Riddles is first woman to win Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race
- March 20, 1986 228 KPH gust of wind strikes Cairngorm (UK record)
- March 20, 1986 Jacques Chirac become Prime Minister of French government
- March 20, 1986 Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.
- March 20, 1986 "Sondra Gotlieb, wife of Canada's then-ambassador to the USA Alan Gotlieb, slaps an aide in public during a reception for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney."
- March 20, 1987 FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)
- March 20, 1987 "Soap opera ""Capitol"" final episode"
- March 20, 1987 Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit
- March 20, 1988 "David Henry Hwang's ""M Butterfly"", premieres in New York NY"
- March 20, 1988 Mike Tyson KOs Tony Tubbs in 2 for heavyweight boxing title
- March 20, 1989 Baseball announces Reds manager Pete Rose is under investigation
- March 20, 1989 Richard J Kerr replaces Robert M Gates as deputy director of CIA
- March 20, 1990 "Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering."
- March 20, 1990 Singer Gloria Estefan breaks her collarbone in a bus accident
- March 20, 1991 Consumer and Corporate Affairs reports that personal and business bankruptcies reached their highest level ever; up 68% from 1990.
- March 20, 1991 Court awards Peggy Lee $3 million in contract violation suit against Disney
- March 20, 1991 Michael Jackson signs $65M six album deal with Sony records
- March 20, 1991 US forgives $2 billion in loans to Poland
- March 20, 1992 Janice Pennington is awarded $1.3M for accident on Price is Right set
- March 20, 1992 Noriega's wife Felicidad arrested for stealing buttons from dresses
- March 20, 1993 IRA-bomb kills 3 year old in Warrington England
- March 20, 1994 14th Golden Raspberry Awards: Indecent Proposal wins
- March 20, 1994 Brett Hart wins WWF championship at Wrestlemania X
- March 20, 1994 El Salvador's first Presidential election following 12-year-old civil war
- March 20, 1994 Mashonaland U-24 beat Matabeleland on first inn to win Logan Cup
- March 20, 1994 "Wrestlemania X at Madison Square Garden New York, Bret Hart pins Yokozuna"
- March 20, 1994 Zulu-king Goodwill Zwelithini founds realm in South Africa
- March 20, 1995 "A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons."
- March 20, 1995 "Beatles song, ""Free As A Bird"", with late John Lennon as lead singer, is released, first Fab Four single in more than 30 years"
- March 20, 1995 Dow-Jones hits 4083.68 (record)
- March 20, 1995 "In Tokyo, Japan, at the height of the morning rush hour, five two-man terrorist teams from the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult, riding on separate subway trains, converge at the Kasumigaseki station and secretly release lethal sarin gas into the air"
- March 20, 1995 "Poison Gas released in Tokyo subway 12 killed, 4,700 injured"
- March 20, 1996 Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents
- March 20, 1996 UK admits humans can catch CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease aka Mad Cow Disease)
- March 20, 1997 Tobacco company Liggett admits cigarettes are addictive
- March 20, 1999 "Legoland California opens in Carlsbad, California."
- March 20, 2000 "Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff's deputy dead."
- March 20, 2004 "Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, thus becoming the first leader in the party's history."
- March 20, 2006 "Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop."
- March 20, 2006 Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.
- March 20, 2008 Jewish Holiday - Ta'anit Esther - Work permitted
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