October
20
World
Statistics Day
World Statistics Day (WSD) will strengthen public awareness
of the important work that statisticians carry out each day.
Through collecting accurate, objective and comparable data they
support a wide range of national and international activities,
including development efforts that improve the lives of the
poor and the vulnerable.
WHAT
TO EXPECT
On
World Statistics Day, countries will carry out activities and
events that highlight the role of official statistics and the
many achievements of their national statistical systems. International
and regional organizations will also hold promotional activities
and events.
Events
1548
– The city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace) is
founded by Alonso de Mendoza by appointment of the king of Spain
and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
1720 – Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal
Navy.
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 Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship,
is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States
and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the
Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most
of its length.
1827 – Battle of Navarino – a combined Turkish and Egyptian
armada is defeated by British, French, and Russian naval force
in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece.
1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft
the first code of American football rules.
1883 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the
Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to
Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
1904 – Chile and Bolivia sign the Treaty of Peace and Friendship,
delimiting the border between the two countries.
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, Northern Ireland.
1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd
Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian
Revolution, holds its first meeting.
1935 – The Long March ends.
1939 – Pope Pius XII publishes his first major encyclical entitled
Summi Pontificatus.
1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in
German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
1943 – The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft
at Suda Bay, Crete, and sunk. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war
drown with it.
1944 – The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade,
the capital of Yugoslavia
1944 – Liquid natural gas leaks from storage 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.
1947 – United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic
relations for the first time.
1951 – The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurs in Stillwater,
Oklahoma
1952 – Governor Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency
in Kenya and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders
of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future
first President of Kenya.
1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched
ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class submarine.
1962 – China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and
across the McMahon Line, beginning the Sino-Indian War.
1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping
tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
1970 – Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state.
1971 – The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": President Richard
Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy
Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire
Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired
by Robert Bork.
1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.
1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing
the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana.
Seventy-eight passengers and crew die and only 18 people aboard
the ferry survive.
1977 – A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi,
killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines
along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot,
and co-pilot.
1981 – Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed
during an armed robbery in Rockland County, NY, carried out
by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.
1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and
HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki
disaster.
1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469
homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.
1991 – A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of
India, killing more than 1,000 people.
2011 – The former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and his
son Mutassim Gaddafi are killed shortly after the Battle of
Sirte while in the custody of NTC fighters.
Holidays
and observances
Birth
of the Báb (Bahá'í Faith)
Christian Feast Day:
Acca of Hexham
Andrew of Crete
Artemius
Caprasius of Agen
Irene of Tomar
John Cantius (Extraordinary Form, celebrated by Traditionalist
Catholic)
October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Kenyatta Day (Kenya)
Revolution Day, one of the two Patriotic Days (Guatemala)
World Osteoporosis Day
Spirit Day
For details, contact Datacentre
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