April 20
April 20 Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years ). There are 255 days remaining.
Events
1653 - Oliver Cromwell disbands the British Parliament.
1657 - Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City ) granted freedom of religion.
1689 - The former King James II of England , now deposed, lays siege to Derry .
1775 - American Revolutionary War : British troops begin siege of Boston, Massachusetts
1792 - France declares war on Austria .
1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory .
1861 - American Civil War : Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia .
1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard .
1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical , Humanum Genus 1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League .
1912 - Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit , Michigan , and Fenway Park in Boston , Massachusetts .
1914 - Twenty men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike.
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen , aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone , a process to add sound to film.
1945 - US troops capture Leipzig , Germany , only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union .
1967 - A Swiss Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia , Cyprus , killing 126
1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek , South-West Africa , killing 122.
1968 - Pierre Trudeau succeeds Lester B. Pearson as Prime Minister of Canada .
1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood Speech .
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon .
1979 - President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Swamp Rabbit while on vacation in Plains, Georgia .
1992 - An all-star concert in memory of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is held at Wembley Stadium in London .
1997 - The San Diego Padres face the St. Louis Cardinals in the first Major League Baseball game ever played in Hawaii .
1998 - An Air France Boeing 727 -200 crashes into mountain after takeoff from Bogotá , Colombia , killing 53.
1999 - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the Columbine High School massacre .
2001 - Anti-globalization marches and a "People's Summit" are held to protest the Quebec City Summit of the Americas , a FTAA summit in Quebec City, Quebec .
2004 - Severe thunderstorms strike Chicagoland , USA . An F3 tornado touches down in Utica, Illinois , claiming eight lives.
Births
571 - Muhammad (Likely) (d. 634 )
702 - Jafar Sadiq , Muslim scholar (d. 765 )
1586 - Rose of Lima , the first saint in the Americas (d. 1617 )
1633 - Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan (d. 1654 )
1745 - Philippe Pinel , physician (d. 1826 )
1808 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (d. 1873 )
1818 - Heinrich Göbel , inventor (d. 1893 )
1832 - Ernst von Leyden , physician (d. 1910 )
1871 - Slavoljub Eduard Penkala , Croat inventor, (d. 1922 )
1879 - Paul Poiret , French couturier (d. 1944 )
1889 - Albert Jean Amateau , businessman and social activist (d. 1996 )
1889 - Adolf Hitler , German (Austrian -born) dictator , "Führer" and Reichskanzler (d. 1945 )
1893 - Joan Miró , painter (d. 1983 )
1893 - Harold Lloyd , actor (d. 1971 )
1895 - Emile Christian , jazz musician (d. 1973 )
1896 - Wop May , Canadian aviator (d. 1952 )
1900 - Fred Raymond , composer (d. 1954 )
1908 - Lionel Hampton , musician (d. 2002 )
1915 - Joseph Wolpe , psychotherapist (d. 1997 )
1920 - John Paul Stevens , associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1923 - Rita Frances Rizzo, in Canton, Ohio . She became Mother Angelica, Foundress of Eternal Word Television Network
1925 - Tito Puente , musician (d. 2000 )
1928 - Gerald S. Hawkins , astronomer (d. 2003 )
1939 - Gro Harlem Brundtland , former Prime Minister of Norway
1939 - Peter S. Beagle , author
1940 - George Takei , actor, Star Trek 1941 - Ryan O'Neal , actor
1943 - John Eliot Gardiner , English conductor
1943 - Edie Sedgwick , actress (d. 1971 )
1949 - Jessica Lange , actress
1951 - Luther Vandross , singer
1961 - Don Mattingly , baseball player
1962 - Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf , radio and television personality (d. 2001 )
1964 - Crispin Glover , actor
1964 - Rosalynn Sumners , figure skater
1964 - Andy Serkis , actor
1967 - Mike Portnoy , musician
1972 - Carmen Electra , actress
1976 - Joey Lawrence , actor
Deaths
1314 - Pope Clement V (b. 1264 )
1534 - Elizabeth Barton , Christian prophet, executed (b. ~ 1506 )
1769 - Pontiac , Chief of the Ottawa tribe (b. ~ 1720 )
1912 - Bram Stoker , author (b. 1847 )
1932 - Giuseppe Peano , mathematician (b. 1858 )
1947 - King Christian X of Denmark (b. 1870 )
1951 - Ivanoe Bonomi , former Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1873 )
1982 - Archibald MacLeish , poet and writer (b. 1892 )
1984 - Hristo Prodanov , Bulgarian mountaineer
1992 - Benny Hill , comedian (b. 1924 )
1996 - Christopher Robin Milne , son of A.A. Milne , basis for the Winnie the Pooh character Christopher Robin
2001 - Giuseppe Sinopoli , Italian conductor, composer (b. 1946 )
2002 - Alan Dale , singer (b. 1925 )
2005 - Niels-Henning Řrsted Pedersen , Danish jazz bassist (b. 1946 )
Holidays and observances
External links
April 19 - April 21 - March 20 - May 20 – listing of all days
