Today in History – December 20 in History
What happened on this day in history – December 20 in History around the world
69 | Vespians’s supporters enter Rome and discover Vitellius in hiding. He is dragged through the streets before being brutally murdered. | |
1355 | Stephen Urosh IV of Serbia dies while marching to attack Constantinople. | |
1802 | The United States buys the Louisiana territory from France. | |
1860 | South Carolina secedes from the Union. | |
1861 | English transports loaded with 8,000 troops set sail for Canada so that troops are available if the “Trent Affair” is not settled without war. | |
1924 | Adolf Hitler is released from prison after serving less than one year of a five year sentence for treason. | |
1930 | Thousands of Spaniards sign a revolutionary manifesto. | |
1933 | The German government announces 400,000 citizens are to be sterilized because of hereditary defects. | |
1938 | First electronic television system is patented. | |
1941 | The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, enter combat against the Japanese over Kunming. | |
1943 | Soviet forces halt a German army trying to relieve the besieged city of Stalingrad. | |
1946 | Viet Minh and French forces fight fiercely in Annamite section of Hanoi. | |
1948 | U.S. Supreme Court announces that it has no jurisdiction to hear the appeals of Japanese war criminals sentenced by the International Military Tribunal. | |
1960 | National Liberation Front is formed by guerrillas fighting the Diem regime in South Vietnam. | |
1962 | In its first free election in 38 years, the Dominican Republic chooses leftist Juan Bosch Gavino as president. | |
1963 | Four thousand cross the Berlin Wall to visit relatives under a 17-day Christmas accord. | |
1989 | U.S. troops invade Panama to oust General Manuel Noriega and replace him with Guillermo Endara. | |
1995 | NATO begins peacekeeping operation in Bosnia. | |
1996 | NeXT merges with Apple Computer, leading to the development of groundbreaking Mac OS X. | |
2007 | Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the UK; previously, that honor belonged to Queen Victoria. | |
Born on December 20 | ||
1868 | Harvey Firestone, industrialist and tire maker. | |
1881 | Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers. | |
1901 | Robert J. Van de Graff, physicist, invented the Van de Graaff generator. | |
1904 | Virgil “Spud” Davis, pro baseball catcher, coach, scout and manager. | |
1914 | Harry F. Byrd Jr., first independent ever elected to US Senate by a majority of the popular vote (Virginia). | |
1921 | George Roy Hill, film director (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting). | |
1946 | Dick Wolf, television producer (Miami Vice, Law & Order). | |
1948 | Alan Parsons, musician (The Alan Parsons Project); producer who was involved with The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. | |
1963 | Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, elder daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain; fourth in line of succession to the Spanish throne. | |
1976 | Adam Powell, Welsh game designer; co-founder of Neopets and Meteor Games companies. |