November
20
Universal
Children's Day
By resolution
836(IX) of 14 December 1954, the General Assembly recommended
that all countries institute a Universal Children's Day, to
be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding
between children. It recommended that the Day was to be observed
also as a day of activity devoted to promoting the ideals and
objectives of the Charter and the welfare of the children of
the world. The Assembly suggested to governments that the Day
be observed on the date and in the way which each considers
appropriate. The date 20 November, marks the day on which the
Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child,
in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
In 2000
world leaders outlined the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
– which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread
of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by
the target date of 2015. Though the Goals are for all humankind,
they are primarily about children. UNICEF notes that six of
the eight goals relate directly to children and meeting the
last two will also make critical improvements in their lives.
November
20 : Africa Industrialization Day
Within the
framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa
(1991-2000), the UN General Assembly, in 1989, proclaimed 20
November Africa Industrialization Day (resolution 44/237). The
Day is intended to mobilize the commitment of the international
community to the industrialization of Africa.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon states in his 2009 message for the Day that "the
African economy, like the rest of the world economy, continues
to feel the impact of the global economic and financial crisis",
but notes that to benefit from a recovery, "the continent
must focus on industrialization as a critical engine of economic
growth and development".
November
20 : World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
Road traffic
crashes kill nearly 1.3 million people every year and injure
or disable as many as 50 million more. They are the leading
cause of death among young people aged 10–24 years.
In October
2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution
which calls for governments to mark the third Sunday in November
each year as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
The day was created as a means to give recognition to victims
of road traffic crashes and the plight of their relatives who
must cope with the emotional and practical consequences of these
tragic events.
WHO and
the UN Road Safety Collaboration encourage governments and nongovernmental
organizations around the world to commemorate this day as a
means of drawing the public’s attention to road traffic crashes,
their consequences and costs, and the measures which can be
taken to prevent them.
November
20 : Child Rights day The
date 20 November marks the day on which the Assembly adopted
the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
The Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified
human rights treaty in the world. Today, 193 states have ratified
the CRC. In fact, only two countries in the world — Somalia
and the United States — have not yet given the CRC legal force,
although both have signed it.
The situation
for children in Somalia is worried; following the worst violence
in the country for close to two decades and many children are
currently living in IDP camps inside and outside the country
without education, good health and shelter.
An increasing
number of Somali children are being recruited by the Somali
armed forces or militia groups in violation of international
law particularly for those underage and many of the children
are joining because their families are unable to provide for
them on the other hand some of children are keen on to be prominent
gangsters so as to maintain their existence.
Events
284 – Diocletian
is chosen as Roman Emperor.
762 – During An Shi Rebellion, Tang Dynasty, with the help of
Huihe tribe, recaptured Luoyang from the rebels.
1194 – Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry VI.
1407 – A truce between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and
Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans is agreed under the auspices
of John, Duke of Berry. Orléans would be assassinated three
days later by Burgundy.
1695 – Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares
in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante
Domingos Jorge Velho.
1739 – Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and
Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the
Bill of Rights.
1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship
from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western
coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick
is in part inspired by this story).
1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle
of Vuelta de Obligado.
1861 – American Civil War: Secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's
Confederate government.
1910 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan
de San Luis Potosi, denouncing President Porfirio Díaz, calling
for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively
starting the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins – British forces
make early progress in an attack on German positions but are
later pushed back.
1917 – Ukraine is declared a republic.
1923 – Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency
of Germany at the exchange rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion
(One Billion on the long scale) Papiermark
1936 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange,
is killed by a republican execution squad.
1940 – World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite
Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1943 – World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins
– United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert
Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine
guns.
1945 – Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals
start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.
1947 – The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten
at Westminster Abbey in London.
1952 – Slánský trials – a series of Stalinist and anti-Semitic
show trials in Czechoslovakia.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet
Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President
John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
1969 – Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs
of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
1974 – The United States Department of Justice files its final
anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the
breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.
1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab
leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime
minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem,
seeking a permanent peace settlement.
1979 – Grand Mosque Seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt
in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the
pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government
receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.
1980 – Lake Peigneur drains into an underlying salt deposit.
A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond
Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine,
eroding the edges of the hole. The resulting whirlpool sucked
the drilling platform, several barges, houses and trees thousands
of feet down to the bottom of the dissolving salt deposit.
1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
1989 – Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled
in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before
to an estimated half-million.
1991 – An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping
mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan
and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend
district of Azerbaijan.
1992 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly
damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.
1993 – Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics
Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan
Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan
executive Charles Keating.
1994 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka
Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (localized
fighting resumes the next year).
1998 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused
terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in
regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
1998 – The first module of the International Space Station,
Zarya, is launched.
2001 – In Washington, D.C., U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates
the United States Department of Justice headquarters building
as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late
Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday.
2003 – After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003
Istanbul Bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the
Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate.
2008 – After critical failures in the US financial system began
to build up after mid-September, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
reaches its lowest level since 1997.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Bernward of Hildesheim
Edmund the Martyr (Church of England)
November 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Black Awareness Day (Brazil)
Day of National Sovereignty (Argentina)
Earliest day on which the Feast of Christ the King can fall,
while November 26 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday
before Advent. (Roman Catholic Church)
Revolution Day (Mexico)
Teacher's Day or Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam (Vietnam)
Transgender Day of Remembrance (LGBT community)
Universal Children's Day (International)
Wedding day of Queen Elizabeth II, official flag day. (United
Kingdom)
For details, contact Datacentre
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