October 20: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining.

Events

• 1740 - Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
• 1781 - Patent of Tolerance, providing limited freedom of worship, was approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
• 1803 - United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
• 1827 - Battle of Navarino - a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is destroyed by an allied British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece. The most important result of this battle is the end of the Greek Liberation War and the affirmation of independence of modern Greece.
• 1883 - Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province was ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
• 1910 - The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.
• 1935 - The Long March ends
• 1944 - The Soviet army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
• 1944 - Liquid natural gas leaks from storange tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
• 1944 - General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
• 1947 - The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
• 1955 - Publication of The Return of the King, being the last part of The Lord of the Rings
• 1967 - A purported bigfoot is filmed by Patterson and Gimlin
• 1968 - Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
• 1971 - The Nepal stock exchange collapses.
• 1973 - The Saturday Night Massacre: President Nixon fires Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
• 1973 - The Sydney Opera House opens.
• 1973 - The Six Million Dollar Man premieres on ABC.
• 1977 - A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing several band members, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines.
• 1979 - The John F Kennedy library is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1982 - St. Louis Cardinals defeat Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 to win their 9th World Series Championship.
• 1989 - Brisbane bound coach collides with semi-trailer north of Grafton in New South Wales, Australia. This is known as the Grafton Bus Crash
• 1991 - The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.
• 1995 - Filmmaker Kevin Smith releases Mallrats.
• 2004 - The Boston Red Sox win the American League pennant, defeating the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, becoming the first team in major league baseball history to recover from a 3-0 postseason series deficit.
• 2004 - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is sworn in as the President of Indonesia.

• 1463 - Alessandro Achillini, Italian philosopher (d. 1512)
• 1469 - Guru Nanak Dev, first Sikh Guru (d. 1539)
• 1496 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (d. 1550)
• 1616 - Thomas Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian (d. 1680)
• 1620 - Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (d. 1691)
• 1632 - Sir Christopher Wren, English architect (d. 1723)
• 1656 - Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
• 1660 - Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (d. 1723)
• 1677 - Stanislaus I Leszczyński, King of Poland (d. 1766)
• 1711 - Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (d. 1795)
• 1719 - Gottfried Achenwall, German statistician (d. 1772)
• 1759 - Chauncey Goodrich, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (d. 1815)
• 1808 - Karl Andree, German geographer (d. 1875)
• 1819 - The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábí Faith (d. 1850)
• 1822 - Thomas Hughes, English novelist (d. 1896)
• 1854 - Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (d. 1891)
• 1858 - John Burns, English politician (d. 1943)
• 1859 - John Dewey, American philosopher (d. 1952)
• 1874 - Charles Ives, American composer (d. 1954)
• 1882 - Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor (d. 1956)
• 1889 - Margaret Dumont, American actress (d. 1965)
• 1890 - Jelly Roll Morton, American composer (d. 1941)
• 1891 - James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
• 1891 - Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya (d. 1978)
• 1893 - Charley Chase, American comedian (d. 1940)
• 1894 - Olive Thomas, American actress (d. 1920)
• 1897 - Crown Prince Eun of Korea (d. 1970)
• 1900 - Wayne Morse, U.S. Senator from Oregon (d. 1974)
• 1904 - Anna Neagle, English actress (d. 1986)
• 1904 - Tommy Clement Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
• 1905 - Ellery Queen, pseudonym of two American writers (d. 1982)
• 1907 - Arlene Francis, American television personality (d. 2001)
• 1913 - Grandpa Jones, American banjo player and singer (d. 1998)
• 1918 - Robert Lochner, German journalist (d. 2003)
• 1925 - Art Buchwald, American newspaper columnist
• 1928 - Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and television personality
• 1931 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)
• 1932 - Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
• 1935 - Jerry Orbach, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1937 - Juan Marichal, baseball player
• 1940 - Kathy Kirby, British singer
• 1942 - Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1942 - Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1944 - David Mancuso, American disc jockey
• 1946 - Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1949 - Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete
• 1950 - Tom Petty, American musician
• 1951 - Claudio Ranieri, Italian football player and manager
• 1955 - Aaron Pryor, American boxer
• 1956 - Danny Boyle, English film director
• 1958 - Viggo Mortensen, American actor
• 1958 - Ivo Pogorelic, Croatian pianist
• 1960 - Konstantin Aseev, Russian chess player (d. 2004)
• 1963 - Julie Payette, Canadian astronaut
• 1965 - William Zabka, American actor
• 1966 - Allan Donald, South African cricketer
• 1966 - Stefan Raab, German entertainer
• 1969 - Juan Gonzalez, baseball player
• 1971 - Snoop Dogg, American rapper
• 1971 - Dannii Minogue, Australian-born singer
• 1976 - Tom Wisniewski, American guitarist (MxPx)
• 1978 - Virender Sehwag, Indian cricketer
• 1981 - Willis McGahee, American football player
• 1984 - Scott Fuller, Radio personality
• 1984 - Florent Sinama-Pongolle, French footballer
• 1985 - Jennifer Nicole Freeman, American actress
• 1988 - Risa Niigaki, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)

• 460 - Aelia Eudocia, Byzantine Empress
• 1570 - João de Barros, Portuguese historian (b. 1496)
• 1640 - John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
• 1652 - Antonio Coello, Spanish writer
• 1713 - Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (b. 1652)
• 1740 - Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1685)
• 1865 - Champ Ferguson, Confederate guerilla
• 1900 - Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet (b. 1846)
• 1910 - David B. Hill, Governor of New York (b. 1843)
• 1920 - Max Bruch, German composer (b. 1838)
• 1936 - Anne Sullivan, American teacher (b. 1866)
• 1935 - Arthur Henderson, Scottish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)
• 1964 - Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874)
• 1967 - Yoshida Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1878)
• 1972 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (b. 1885)
• 1977 - Members of the American rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd killed in a plane crash:
• 1977 - Cassie Gaines (b. 1948)
• 1977 - Steve Gaines (b. 1949)
• 1977 - Ronnie Van Zant (b. 1948)
• 1983 - Peter Dudley, British actor
• 1984 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
• 1984 - Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• 1987 - Andrey Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1903)
• 1989 - Anthony Quayle, English actor (b. 1913)
• 1990 - Joel McCrea, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1994 - Burt Lancaster, American actor (b. 1913)
• 1995 - Christopher Stone, American actor (b. 1942)
• 2002 - Barbara Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
• 2003 - Jack Elam, American actor (b. 1918)
• 2004 - Anthony Hecht, American poet (b. 1923)
• 2004 - Chuck Hiller, baseball player (b. 1934)
• 2005 - Shirley Horn, American singer (b. 1934)
• 2005 - Endon Mahmood, First Lady of Malaysia (breast cancer) (b. 1941)
• 2005 - Eva Svankmajerova, Czech artist (b. 1940)

This day is unusually devoid of official commemorations.

• R.C. Saints: Bertilla Boscardin of Vicenza
• Also see October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Vietnamese women's day
• Bahá'í Faith - Holy Day - Birth of the Báb

October 19 - October 21 - November 20 - September 20 - more historical anniversaries