- 295 8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
- 850 Guntherus becomes bishop of Cologne
Today in History April 20: What Happened on This Date?
- 1139 2nd Lateran Council (10th ecumenical council) opens in Rome
- 1505 Jews are expelled from Orange Burgandy by Philibert of Luxembourg
- 1551 John Dudley becomes Earl Marshal of England
- 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis
- 1908 12th Boston Marathon won by Tom Morrissey in 2:25:43.2
- 1908 Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
- 1910 Cleveland Naps Addie Joss 2nd no-hitter, beats Chicago, 1-0
- 1910 Halley’s Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km
- 1912 Fenway Park officially opens, Red Sox beat NY Highlanders 7-6 in 11
- 1912 Tiger Stadium in Detroit opens, Tigers beat Cleveland Indians 6-5
- 1914 18th Boston Marathon won by Canadian James Duffy in 2:25:01.2
- 1914 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow, Colo
- 1914 US President W Wilson, having dispatched more naval ships to Mexico, asks a joint session of Congress to approve armed force if necessary; Congress approves
- 1915 The Armenians rise and seize the Turkish town of Van, which they hold until Russians relieve them on 19 May; thousands of Armenians are killed
- 1916 German-British sea battle off Belgian coast
- 1916 Chicago Cubs play their 1st game at Weeghman Park (now Wrigley Field) and beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-6
- 1944 Dutch Communist Party resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death
- 1944 NFL legalizes coaching from bench
- 1945 Cleveland Browns organization formed by Arthur “Mickey” McBride
- 1945 German occupiers flood Beemster & Fencer
- 1945 Soviet artillery begins shelling Berlin
- 1945 US 7th army captured German city of Nuremberg
- 1945 US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
- 1946 1st baseball broadcast in Chicago, Cards vs Cubs
- 1947 Frederik IX becomes King of Denmark
- 1948 NYC hikes subway fare from 5 cents to 10 cents
- 1948 Walter P. Reuther UAW President shot & wounded at his home in Detroit
- 1949 Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 1st race, in Albany, California
- 1950 Balt’s Memorial Stadium opens – Orioles of International League
- 1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
- 1951 Velsen city council demands investigation of police collaborators
- 1951 4th Cannes Film Festival: “Miss Julie” directed by Alf Sjoberg and “Miracle in Milan” directed by Vittorio De Sica jointly awarded the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
- 1953 57th Boston Marathon won by Keizo Yamada of Japan in 2:18:51
- 1954 “Golden Apple” opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 125 performances
- 1955 “Saint of Bleecker St” closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 92 performances
- 1957 Yankee Bill Skowron becomes 3rd player to hit a ball out of Fenway
- 1962 New Orleans Citizens Co gives free 1-way ride to blacks to move North
- 1962 OAS-leader ex-general Salan arrested in Algiers
- 1963 “Sophie” closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 8 performances
- 1963 -30] All Africa Conferences of Churches opens in Kampala Uganda
- 1963 10th National Film Awards (India): “Dada Thakur” wins the Golden Lotus
- 1964 68th Boston Marathon won for second straight year by Aurele Vandendriessche of Belgium in 2:19:59
- 1964 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools
- 1965 People’s Republic China offers North Vietnam military aid
- 1966 WDCA TV channel 20 in Washington, D.C. (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1967 French author Régis Debray caught in Bolivia
- 1967 US Surveyor 3 lands on Moon
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1993 Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years)
- 1994 Danny Harold Rolling sentenced to death in Florida for killing 5
- 1994 Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed
- 1994 Sohail & Inzamam make world record ODI partnership of 263
- 1994 Space shuttle STS-59 (Endeavour 6), lands
- 1996 Chicago Bulls win record 72 games in a season
- 1996 1996 NFL Draft: Keyshawn Johnson from USC first pick by New York Jets
- 1997 “Gin Game” opens at Lyceum Theater NYC for 144 performances
- 1997 “Present Laughter” closes at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
- 1997 1st baseball game in Hawaii, Cards beat Padres in doubleheader
- 1998 TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53.
- 1998 German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
- 1998 102nd Boston Marathon: Moses Tanui of Kenya wins men’s title in 2:07:34; Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia wins back-to-back women’s events in 2:23:21
- 1999 Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School, Colorado
- 2002 NFL Draft: Fresno State quarterback David Carr first pick by Houston Texans
- 2004 In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
- 2007 Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
- 2008 Danica Patrick driving for Andretti Green Racing wins the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi; first female driver in history to win an IndyCar Series race
- 2008 54th British Academy Television Awards: “Fonejacker” Best Comedy, “The Street” best Drama
- 2009 113th Boston Marathon: Deriba Merga of Ethiopia wins men’s event in 2:08:42; Salina Kosgei of Kenya women’s champion in 2:32:16
- 2010 The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes, killing 11 and causing the rig to sink, causing a massive oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and an environmental disaster
- 2012 Plane crash near Islamabad, Pakistan, kills 127 people
- 2012 40 people are killed and 27 injured after a tractor trailer collided with a bus in Alamo, Mexico
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