This day in history
Every day is full of amazing anniversaries, ancient and modern! As well as today, you can also look at any other day of the year - click the arrows to select the month, then click a number to select the day.
20 July
Events
- 1031: Henry I succeeds to the throne of France following the death of his father, Robert II the Pious, king of France.
- 1500: Dom Miguel, the infant heir to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, dies, dashing the hopes of his grandparents King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile for a union of these kingdoms and leaving Joanna (the Mad) and Philip (the Handsome), Archduke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy, heirs to Spain.
- 1885: The Football Association in England legalizes professionalism.
- 1903: Following the death of Pope Leo XIII, Giuseppe Sarto is elected Pope Pius X.
- 1944: An abortive assassination attempt is made on the German Fhrer Adolf Hitler in his Rastenburg headquarters. The planter of the bomb, Count Claus von Stauffenberg, is shot the same evening.
- 1954: An armistice ending the fighting in Indochina is signed in Geneva, Switzerland. Under the terms of the agreement France is to evacuate North Vietnam, while the communists are to evacuate South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. France also undertakes to respect the independence of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and the communist leader Ho Chi Minh is to form a government in North Vietnam.
- 1969: Over 700 million people worldwide watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the lander module from the US spacecraft Apollo 11 touch down on the Moon.
- 1995: Serbs and allies attack the United Nations (UN) safe haven of Biha in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina; on 27 July, Croat troops enter Bosnia to relieve pressure on Biha.
- 1998: An inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was stabbed to death in London, England, on 22 April 1993, concludes that he was killed by racist thugs and that police investigations were incompetent and plagued by racism.
- 2003: US golfer Ben Curtis, a 2501 outsider making his debut in a major championship, wins the 132nd British Open tournament at Sandwich in Kent, England.
- 2004: Microsoft, the world's largest computer software company, announces the largest return of cash to shareholders in corporate history, planning to hand back up to US$75 billion over four years.
Births and Deaths
- Petrarch
1304: Petrarch (Petrarca), Italian poet whose work was a major influence on the growth of Renaissance poetry, born in Arezzo, Tuscany (1374). - Guglielmo Marconi
1937: Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and inventor of radio, dies in Rome, Italy (63).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
