DECEMBER 20 Historical Events on December 20
Event of 
- 1448 Pope Nicholas V appoints Rudolf of Diepholt, Bishop of Utrecht, as cardinal
- 1585 English fleet & Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, reach Vlissingen
- 1600 Ottario Rinuccini and Giulio Caccini's opera "Euridice" published
- 1606 Virginia Company settlers leave London to establish Jamestown, Virginia
- 1626 Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Prince of Transylvania Gabor Bethlen sign Peace of Pressburg (Bratislava)
- 1661 Corporation Act enforced in England
- 1669 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery
- 1688 Prince William of Orange's troops arrive in London
- 1694 Frederik van Brandenburg flees Schweiben
- 1820 Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50
- 1830 Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia recognize Belgium
- 1850 Hawaiian post office established
- 1860 South Carolina secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- 1861 Battle of Dranesville, VA
- 1862 -Dec 20th] Battle of Kelly's Ford, VA
- 1862 -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign
- 1862 Confederate raid on Union supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi
- 1880 Battle at Bronker's Spruit, Transvaal: Farmers beat Britten
- 1880 NY's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"
- 1883 Intl cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls
- 1891 Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses
- 1892 Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse, NY
- 1893 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia
- 1894 England beat Australia by 10 runs in the 1st six-day Test Cricket, Australia needed 177 to win, all out at 166 on 6th day
- 1900 Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)
- 1906 Venezuela (under vice-pres Gomez) attacks Dutch fleet
- 1907 Explosion at Yolande Alabama, coal mine kills 91
- 1912 J Hartley Manners' "Peg O' My Heart" premieres in NYC
- 1912 Paul Claudels "L'Annonce Faite à Marie" premieres in Paris
- 1915 Russian troops overrun Qom, Persia
- 1915 Final withdraw of all allied troops from Anzac Cove
- 1917 A second nationwide referendum on military conscription is rejected by the Australian public
- 1918 Eugene O'Neill's "Moon of the Caribees" premieres in NYC
- 1918 The Allies turn their attention to Bolshevik expansion in the East, landing troops in Crimea and Latvia
- 1919 Canadian National Railways established (N America's longest, 50,000 KM)
- 1919 US House of Representatives restricts immigration
- 1920 Bert Collins scores 104 on Test Cricket debut v England SCG
- 1926 Cards trade Rogers Hornsby to Giants for Frankie Frisch & Jimmy Ring
- 1926 Pope Pius XI convicts fascist pursuit in Italy
- 1926 Sidney Howard's "Silver Cord" premieres in NYC
- 1928 1st international dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal, Quebec
- 1928 Ethel Barrymore Theater opens at 243 W 47th St NYC
- 1929 Heinie Wagner replaces Bill Carrigan as Red Sox manager
- 1929 Mount Davidson dedicated as a San Francisco city park
- 1930 Learie Constantine cricket 100 in 52 mins WI v Tas (10x4, 1x6, 1x5)
- 1932 Queensland all out 74 v Victoria, Ironmonger (age 50) 7-13
- 1933 Bolivia & Paraguay sign cease fire
- 1935 Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Ad Catholici Sacerdotii
- 1937 Bill O'Reilly takes 9-41 for NSW against South Australia
- 1939 Radio Australia begins overseas shortwave service
- 1941 Free France under adm Muselier occupies St-Pierre et Miquelon
- 1941 Japanese troops land on Mindanao, Philippines
- 1941 World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
- 1942 1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta
- 1943 "Internationale" is no longer USSR National Anthem
- 1944 Archbishop De Young & bishop Huibers condemn black market
- 1944 Battle of Bastogne: Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!)
- 1944 Bishop forbids membership of non Catholic unions
- 1944 Terence Rattigan's "O Mistress Mine" premieres in London
- 1945 Rationing of auto tires ends in US
- 1946 Darius Milhaud's 2nd Symphony, premieres
Film 
- 1951 Walter Zinn's Experimental Breeder Reactor I, the first nuclear reactor to produce electric power, goes live at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA
- 1952 KHQ TV channel 6 in Spokane, WA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 KID (now KIDK) TV channel 3 in Idaho Falls, ID (CBS) 1st broadcasting
- 1953 KWTV TV channel 9 in Oklahoma City, OK (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales
- 1956 Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra
- 1956 Montgomery, Alabama removes race-based seat assignments on its buses
- 1959 Jasu Patel takes 9-69, India v Australia at Kanpur
- 1960 Auschwitz commandant Richard Bar arrested in German FR
- 1960 The National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, is officially formed in South Vietnam
- 1962 Osmond brothers debut on Andy Williams Show
- 1963 Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners
- 1963 Massemba-Debate elected President of Congo-Brazzaville
- 1963 Trial against 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins
- 1963 "Contempt" film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance, is released
- 1964 Levi Eshkol forms 12th Israeli government
- 1966 NBA awards Seattle Supersonics a franchise for 1967-68 season
- 1966 Nuclear Planning Group forms in Brussels
- 1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1967 474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam
- 1967 Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull
- 1968 The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
- 1968 The People's Democracy (PD) announce that its members will undertake a protest march from Belfast to Derry beginning 1 January 1969
- 1969 Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reaches #1
- 1970 Edward Gierek succeeds Wladyslaw Gomulka as Poland's communist party leader
- 1971 Pakistan president Yahya Khan resigns
- 1974 Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state
Album 
- 1977 1st Space walk made by Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Grechko during Salyut 6 EO-1 mission
- 1977 RAF -terrorist Knut Folkerts sentenced to 20 years
- 1978 H. R. Haldeman, Nixon's White House Chief of Staff released from jail
- 1980 NBC broadcasts NY Jets' 24-17 win over Dolphins without audio
- 1980 USSR formally announces death of Alexei Kosygin
- 1981 Harry Krieger and Tom Eyen's musical "Dreamgirls" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 1522 performances
- 1981 Browns set team records for most fumbles (9) & most turnovers (10)
- 1981 Doug Small (Winnipeg Jets) ties NHL record scoring at 5 second mark
- 1983 El Salvador adopts constitution
- 1983 NY Islanders score their most goals (11) vs Pitts Penguins
- 1987 76th Davis Cup: Sweden beats India in Gothenburg (5-0)
- 1987 Dona Paz ferry sinks after crash with oil tanker Vector in Philippine waters, 4,386 die in world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster
- 1987 Nancy Lopez and Miller Barber wins LPGA Mazda Golf Championship
- 1988 Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod's department store, London
- 1988 NBC signs lease to stay in NYC, 33 more years
- 1988 Premier Ranasinghe Premadasa elected President of Sri Lanka
- 1989 Premier Lubbers sees CDA-party leader Elco Brinkman as successor
- 1990 Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15
- 1990 Robert F X Sillerman purchases WAFL NY-NJ Knights for $11 million
- 1990 Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns
- 1991 NHL grants permanent membership to Tampa Lightning & Ottawa Senators
- 1991 Paul Keating installed as premier of Australia
- 1991 A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
- 1992 Northwest & KLM introduce a new joint logo "Worldwide Reliability"
- 2005 US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
- 2005 The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated
- 2005 New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for three days
- 2005 "The Breakthrough" 7th studio album by Mary J. Bilge is released
- 2006 A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
- 2012 Apple is denied a patent for mobile pinch-to-zoom gestures by the US patent authorities
- 2012 Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for $8 billion
- 2014 Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley kills 2 NYPD officers in Brooklyn, New York, supposedly in revenge for the killing of Eric Garner, before killing himself
- 2015 Landslide from construction waste in Shenzhen, China leaves 74 dead or missing and buries 30 buildings
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