April 20

Tuesday 20, 2004:

2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars were fired on Abu Ghraib Prision by insurgents. 22 detainees were killed and 92 wounded. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-20-iraq_x.htm

Saturday 20, 2002:

The Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition holds its first Community Smoke-In for Human Rights in Darwin, Australia. Police arrest five activists.

Friday 20, 2001:

Anti-globalization marches and a "People's Summit" are held to protest the Quebec City Summit of the Americas, a FTAA summit in Quebec City, Quebec.

Tuesday 20, 1999:

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the Columbine High School massacre.

Monday 20, 1998:

German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.

Sunday 20, 1997:

The San Diego Padres face the St. Louis Cardinals in the first Major League Baseball game ever played in Hawaii.

Monday 20, 1992:

An all-star concert in memory of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury is held at Wembley Stadium in London.

Friday 20, 1979:

President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Swamp Rabbit while on vacation in Plains, Georgia.

Thursday 20, 1978:

Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets.

Thursday 20, 1972:

Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.

Saturday 20, 1968:

English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.

Thursday 20, 1967:

A Swiss Britannia turboprop crashes at Toronto, Canada, killing 126.

Friday 20, 1945:

US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

Tuesday 20, 1926:

Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.

Saturday 20, 1918:

Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.

Monday 20, 1914:

Seventeen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike.

Saturday 20, 1912:

Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

Monday 20, 1908:

Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.

Sunday 20, 1902:

Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

Sunday 20, 1884:

Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.

Sunday 20, 1862:

The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.

Saturday 20, 1861:

American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

Wednesday 20, 1836:

U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

Friday 20, 1792:

France declares war on Austria.

Thursday 20, 1775:

American Revolutionary War: British troops begin siege of Boston, Massachusetts

Friday 20, 1770:

Lieutenant James Cook's expedition (first voyage) makes first sighting of eastern Australian coastline, naming the spot Cape Hicks. His logbook recorded the date as April 19, but the 20th was the actual calendar date.

Wednesday 20, 1689:

The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.

Friday 20, 1657:

Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City) granted freedom of religion.

Sunday 20, 1653:

Oliver Cromwell grows sick with a broken pelvis.

More on April, 20

• People Born on April, 20
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