July
20
Independence
Day
Colombia : July 20
Events
July
20
70 – First
Jewish-Roman War: Siege of Jerusalem – Titus, son of emperor
Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple
Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
911 – Rollo lays siege to Chartres.
1304 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle
– King Edward I of England takes the stronghold using the War
Wolf.
1402 – Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara – Timur, ruler
of Timurid Empire, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan
Bayezid I.
1738 – Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La
Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
1799 – Tekle Giyorgis I begins his first of five reigns as Emperor
of Ethiopia.
1807 – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon Bonaparte
for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion
engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the
river Saône in France.
1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence
from Spain.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near
Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell
Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William
T. Sherman.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa – The Austrian Navy
, led by Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats the Italian
Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
1885 – The Football Association legalizes professionalism in
football under pressure from the British Football Association.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first car.
1917 – World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the
creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by
the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
1922 – The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to
France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
1932 – In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War
I veterans, part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, who attempt
to march to the White House.
1934 – Labor unrest in the U.S.: as police in Minneapolis fire
upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters
Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.
1934 – 1934 West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, police
fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor
of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on
the Portland docks.
1935 – Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from
Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing thirteen.
1936 – The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing
Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing
free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
1938 – The United States Department of Justice files suit in
New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations
of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system.
The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry
in 1948.
1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1941 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats
of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names
Lavrenti Beria its chief.
1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination
attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1949 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen-month
war.
1950 – Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to
spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist
Klaus Fuchs.
1951 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian
while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
1954 – Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service,
defects to East Germany.
1960 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime
Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.
1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine,
the USS George Washington, for the first time.
1961 – French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh
Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military
personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
1968 – The first Special Olympics is held.
1969 – Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully makes the first
manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk
on the Moon almost 7 hours later. (US Time)
1969 – A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador,
6 days after the beginning of the "Football War".
1974 – Turkish occupation of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade
Cyprus after a coup d'etat, organised by the dictator of Greece,
against president Makarios.
1976 – The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
1977 – Johnstown, Pennsylvania is hit by a flash flood that
kills eighty and causes $350 million in damage.
1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under
the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind
control experiments.
1980 – The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member
states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
1982 – Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: The Provisional
IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central
London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people,
and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
1985 – The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede
from the Netherlands Antilles.
1989 – Burma's ruling junta puts opposition leader Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
1992 – Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.
1999 – Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China,
and a large scale crackdown of the practice is launched.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Apollinaris of Ravenna
Aurelius
Elijah
Margaret the Virgin
Thorlac (relic translation)
Wilgefortis (cult suppressed)
July 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Friend's Day (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of
Colombia from Spain in 1810.
For details, contact Datacentre
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