October 20 Events |
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| October 20th, 1991 (October 20 1991) | Event | The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage. | |
| October 20th, 1984 (October 20 1984) | Event | The Monterey Bay Aquarium opens in Monterey Bay, California. | |
| October 20th, 1982 (October 20 1982) | Event | During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster. | |
| October 20th, 1979 (October 20 1979) | Event | The John F Kennedy library is opened in Boston, Massachusetts. | |
| October 20th, 1977 (October 20 1977) | Event | 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. | |
| October 20th, 1976 (October 20 1976) | Event | The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, LA. Seventy-eight passengers and crew died; only 18 people aboard the ferry survived. | |
| October 20th, 1973 (October 20 1973) | Event | The Saturday Night Massacre: President Nixon fires Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork. | |
| October 20th, 1973 (October 20 1973) | Event | The Sydney Opera House opens. | |
| October 20th, 1971 (October 20 1971) | Event | The Nepal stock exchange collapses. | |
| October 20th, 1970 (October 20 1970) | Event | Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state. | |
| October 20th, 1968 (October 20 1968) | Event | Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. | Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Quotes |
| October 20th, 1967 (October 20 1967) | Event | A purported bigfoot is filmed by Patterson and Gimlin. | |
| October 20th, 1955 (October 20 1955) | Event | Publication of The Return of the King, being the last part of The Lord of the Rings. | |
| October 20th, 1952 (October 20 1952) | Event | Governor Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency in Kenya and began arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya. | |
| October 20th, 1951 (October 20 1951) | Event | The "Johnny Bright Incident" occurred in Stillwater, Oklahoma | John Bright Quotes |
| October 20th, 1947 (October 20 1947) | Event | 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. | |
| October 20th, 1944 (October 20 1944) | Event | The Soviet army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia | |
| October 20th, 1944 (October 20 1944) | Event | Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130. | |
| October 20th, 1944 (October 20 1944) | Event | 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. | Douglas MacArthur Quotes |
| October 20th, 1941 (October 20 1941) | Event | World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre. | |
| October 20th, 1935 (October 20 1935) | Event | The Long March ends | |
| October 20th, 1910 (October 20 1910) | Event | The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. | |
| October 20th, 1883 (October 20 1883) | Event | Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancon, by which the Tarapaca province was ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru s involvement in the War of the Pacific. | |
| October 20th, 1827 (October 20 1827) | Event | Battle of Navarinoa combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is destroyed by an allied British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece. The most important result of this battle is the end of the Greek Liberation War and the affirmation of independence of modern Greece. | Roy Turk Quotes |
| October 20th, 1818 (October 20 1818) | Event | The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the US-Canada border on the 49th parallel for most of its length. | |
| October 20th, 1803 (October 20 1803) | Event | The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase. | |
| October 20th, 1781 (October 20 1781) | Event | Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, was approved in Habsburg Monarchy. | Ovid Quotes |
| October 20th, 1740 (October 20 1740) | Event | 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. | |
