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