What Happened This Day In History - October 20

Today in History
October 20

480 BC		Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis.
1587		In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse’s larger Catholic force at Coutras.
1709		Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the Netherlands.
1714		George I of England crowned.
1805		Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoleon’s army at the battle of Ulm.
1818		The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.
1870		The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force.
1903		The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, rules in favor of the United States. The deciding vote is Britain’s, which embitters Canada. The United States gains ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.
1904		Bolivia and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognizes Chile’s possession of the coast, but provides for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, on the coast.
1924		Baseball’s first ‘colored World Series’ is held in Kansas City, Mo.
1938		Czechoslovakia, complying with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews.
1941		German troops reach the approaches to Moscow.
1944		U.S. troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur’s pledge "I shall return."
1945		Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
1947		The House Un-American Activities Committee opens public hearings on alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Among those denounced as having un-American tendencies are: Katherine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson. Among those called to testify is Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, who denies that leftists ever controlled the Guild and refuses to label anyone a communist.
1968		Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.
1973		Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.
1977		Charter plane crashes in Mississippi, killing three members of popular Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with their assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.
1991		Oakland Hills firestorm destroys nearly 3,500 homes and apartments and kills 25 people.
2011		In the Libyan civil war, rebels capture deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte, killing him soon afterward.
Born on October 20
1632		Sir Christopher Wren, astronomer and architect.
1854		Arthur Rimbaud, poet.
1874		Charles Ives, composer.
1884		Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born film actor famous for his portrayal of Count Dracula (1931).
1891		Sir James Chadwick, physicist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the neutron.
1901		Adelaide Hall, cabaret singer.
1925		Art Buchwald, humorist.
1931		Mickey Mantle, baseball great who played for the New York Yankees
1932		Michael McClure, beat poet.
1940		Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate.
1946		Lewis Grizzard, journalist and humorist who gained popularity through his syndicated Atlanta Journal-Constitution column; he authored 25 books, including collections of his columns.
1946		Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian playwright and novelist; awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, 2004.
1948		Tom Petty, singer, songwriter, musician; lead singer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and a founder of the Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch bands; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2002.
1971		Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus, Jr.), rapper, songwriter, actor; his debut album, Doggy style, came in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot R&B / Hip-Hop charts.