Today in History
What happened on the 20th of May in history?
Change Date:
- 0325
1st Christian ecumenical council opens at Nicaea - Asia Minor
- 1506
Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain
- 1775
Mecklenburg County - NC citizens declare independence from England
- 1830
1st railroad timetable published in newspaper -`Baltimore American'
- 1845
1st legislative assembly convenes in Hawaii
- 1861
NC becomes 10th state to secede from US
- 1862
Homestead Act provides cheap land for settlement of West
- 1875
Intl Bureau of Weights & Measures established by treaty
- 1902
US ends occupation of Cuba
- 1926
Thomas Edison said Americans preferred silent movies over talkies
- 1927
Lindbergh flew NY-Paris - 1st solo flight across Atlantic
- 1932
Earhart left Newfoundland 1st woman fly solo across Atlantic
- 1939
Pan Am began transatlantic passenger & air mail service
- 1956
Atomic fusion (thermonuclear) bomb dropped from plane - Bikini Atoll
- 1959
Yanks sink to last place - 1st time since May 25 - 1940
- 1961
White mob attacks `Freedom Riders' in Montgomery - Alabama
- 1972
Republic of Cameroon declared
- 1974
Soyuz 14 returns to Earth
- 1976
Viking 1 - Mars landing
- 1978
US Launches Pioneer Venus 1-produces 1st global radar map of Venus
- 1979
Cambodian Martyrs Day
- 1985
Dow Jones Avg closes above 1300 for 1st time
- 1985
FBI arrests John A Walker Jr - convicted of spying for USSR
- 1985
US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti