November 20 Events |
Read about how to open files in Open File Database. |
| November 20th, 2003 (November 20 2003) | Event | After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate. | Roy Turk Quotes |
| November 20th, 2001 (November 20 2001) | Event | In Washington, D.C., U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates the United States Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday. | Robert F. Kennedy Quotes |
| November 20th, 1998 (November 20 1998) | Event | A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. | Osama bin Laden Quotes |
| November 20th, 1998 (November 20 1998) | Event | The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched. | |
| November 20th, 1994 (November 20 1994) | Event | The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (localized fighting resumed the next year). | |
| November 20th, 1993 (November 20 1993) | Event | Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating. | Alan Cranston Quotes |
| November 20th, 1993 (November 20 1993) | Event | An Avioimpex Yak 42D crashes near Ohrid, Macedonia. The aircraft was on a flight from Geneva, Switzerland to Skopje, but had been diverted to Ohrid due to poor weather conditions at the Skopje airport. On landing the aircraft crashed into Mount Trojani near Ohridied in All eight crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers were killed. | |
| November 20th, 1992 (November 20 1992) | Event | In England, a fire breaks out in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period). | |
| November 20th, 1989 (November 20 1989) | Event | Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million. | |
| November 20th, 1985 (November 20 1985) | Event | Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released. | |
| November 20th, 1984 (November 20 1984) | Event | SETI is founded. | |
| November 20th, 1983 (November 20 1983) | Event | An estimated 100 million people watch the controversial made-for-television movie The Day After, depicting a nuclear war and its effects on the United States. | |
| November 20th, 1979 (November 20 1979) | Event | Grand Mosque Seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages in the Kaaba. The Saudi government received help from French special forces to put down the uprising. | |
| November 20th, 1975 (November 20 1975) | Event | Francisco Franco, Caudillo of Spain dies after 36 years in power. He died on the 39th anniversary of the death of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. | |
| November 20th, 1974 (November 20 1974) | Event | The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the break up of AT&T and its Bell System. | |
| November 20th, 1969 (November 20 1969) | Event | Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. | |
| November 20th, 1968 (November 20 1968) | Event | Vietnam War: Eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit. | Earl Long Quotes |
| November 20th, 1962 (November 20 1962) | Event | Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation. | John F. Kennedy Quotes |
| November 20th, 1952 (November 20 1952) | Event | Slansky trialsa series of Stalinist and anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia. | |
| November 20th, 1947 (November 20 1947) | Event | The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London. | |
| November 20th, 1945 (November 20 1945) | Event | Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg. | |
| November 20th, 1943 (November 20 1943) | Event | World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) beginsUnited States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns. | |
| November 20th, 1940 (November 20 1940) | Event | World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers. | |
| November 20th, 1936 (November 20 1936) | Event | Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange is killed by a republican execution squad. | |
| November 20th, 1936 (November 20 1936) | Event | The levee of a pond fails at Mitsubishi Osarizawa mine, Kazuno, northeastern Akita, Japan, killing at least 362. | |
| November 20th, 1923 (November 20 1923) | Event | Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency of Germany at the exchange rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion (One Billion on the long scale) Papiermark | |
| November 20th, 1917 (November 20 1917) | Event | World War I: Battle of Cambrai beginsBritish forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back. | |
| November 20th, 1917 (November 20 1917) | Event | Ukraine is declared a republic. | |
| November 20th, 1910 (November 20 1910) | Event | Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosi, denouncing President Porfirio Diaz, declaring himself president, and calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution. | |
| November 20th, 1861 (November 20 1861) | Event | Secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky s Confederate government. | |
| November 20th, 1820 (November 20 1820) | Event | An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville s 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story). | Herman Melville Quotes |
| November 20th, 1789 (November 20 1789) | Event | New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights. | |
| November 20th, 1700 (November 20 1700) | Event | Great Northern War: Battle of NarvaKing Charles XII of Sweden defeats the army of Tsar Peter the Great at Narva. | |
| November 20th, 1695 (November 20 1695) | Event | Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed. | |
| November 20th, 1407 (November 20 1407) | Event | A truce between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orleans is agreed under the auspices of John, Duke of Berry. Orleans would be assassinated three days later by Burgundy. | |
| November 20th, 1194 (November 20 1194) | Event | Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry VI. | |
| November 20th, 0762 (November 20 0762) | Event | Bogu, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire. | |
| November 20th, 0284 (November 20 0284) | Event | Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor. | |
