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What happened in history on this day: April 20?
On April 20 in ...
- 1777 - New York adopts new constitution as an independent state.
- 1832 - US Congress passes legislation making the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas the first nationally protected area in the USA. This is also the first effort in the world to set aside protected lands.
- 1861 - Battle of Norfolk, Virginia.
- 1861 - Confederates seize the Charlotte Mint.
- 1865 - Chicago's Crosby Opera House opens.
- 1871 - Third Enforcement Act (President can suspend writ of habeas corpus).
- 1894 - 136,000 mine workers strike in Ohio for pay increase.
- 1896 - Congress appropriates $60,000 to purchase property to erect a mint facility in Denver, Colorado.
- 1896 - First public film showing in US: John Philip Sousa's El Capitán, premieres in New York City.
- 1898 - US Congress adopts a Joint Declaration of War against Spain.
- 1898 - US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota, opens.
- 1914 - 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow, Colorado, USA.
- 1920 - Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama and Mississippi, USA.
- 1933 - US government suspends convertibility of paper money to gold, and forbids export, holding, and transactions in gold.
- 1939 - New York World's Fair opens.
- 1940 - RCA demonstrates its new electron microscope in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- 1945 - US 7th Army and Allied forces capture Nuremberg and Stuttgart in Germany.
- 1945 - US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa.
- 1948 - United Auto Workers' president Walter P Reuther shot and wounded at his home in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
- 1950 - Baltimore's Memorial Stadium opens - Orioles of International League.
- 1951 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak Atoll.
- 1955 - The Riviera casino opens on Highway 91 in Nevada.
- 1961 - American Harold Graham makes first rocket belt flight.
- 1964 - 86 percent of black students boycott Cleveland, Ohio schools.
- 1969 - 23rd Tony Awards: Great White Hope and 1776 win.
- 1971 - US Supreme Court upholds use of bussing to achieve racial desegregation.
- 1972 - Apollo 16 with John Young and Charles Duke lands on Moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2.
- 1975 - 29th Tony Awards: Equus and The Wiz win.
- 1980 - The Castro regime announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel west of Havana. 125,000 Cubans flee by the end of the exodus in October, with 27 deaths.
- 1982 - Timex Computer announces the Timex/Sinclair 1000, the first personal computer to retail for under $100. The unit is an improved Sinclair ZX81 with 2 kB RAM.
- 1986 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
- 1987 - US deports Karl Linnas, charged with German war crimes, to USSR.
- 1988 - US accuses Renamo of killing 100,000 Mozambiquians.
- 1990 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
- 1992 - Madonna signs $60-million deal with Time Warner.
- 1994 - American Telephone & Telegraph changes its company name to AT&T Corporation.
- 1994 - Danny Harold Rolling sentenced to death in Florida for killing five.
- 1997 - 27th Easter Seal Telethon raises $47,392,682.
- 1999 - Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their Columbine High School teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher, and then themselves.
- 2009 - Oracle announces it will acquire Sun Microsystems for more than US$7 billion.
- 2010 - The Deepwater Horizon oil platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers.
- 2020 - Price of crude oil drops from $18 to -$38 per barrel, due to lack of storage space brought on by the pandemic.
- 2020 - The Industrial Bank of Korea agrees to pay US$86 million and will enter a two-year deferred prosecution agreement to settle lawsuits with the U.S. Department of Justice and the state of New York over a 2011 scheme to help transfer US$1 billion to Iran.
- 2021 - Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is found guilty of the murder of George Floyd.
Births on April 20
- 1893 - Birth of Edna Parker; died at age 115 in USA, world's oldest living person.
- 1893 - Birth of Harold Lloyd in Burchard, Nebraska, USA; silent comic (Why Worry, Safety Last).
- 1904 - Birth of Bruce Cabot in Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA; actor (Diamonds are Forever, King Kong).
- 1913 - Birth of Dick Wessel in Wisconsin, USA; actor (Dick Tracy versus Cueball, Beware of Blondie).
- 1920 - Birth of John Paul Stevens in Chicago, Illinois, USA; 103rd Supreme Court Justice (1975-).
- 1929 - Birth of Bob Braun in Ludlow, Kentucky, USA; singer (Dotty Mack Show).
- 1931 - Birth of Lee H Hamilton in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA; American politician (Representative-Democrat-Indiana, 1965-).
- 1938 - Birth of Johnny Tillotson in Jacksonville, Florida, USA; singer ("Gidget", "Poetry in Motion").
- 1940 - Birth of George Takei in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Sulu - Star Trek, Green Berets).
- 1940 - Birth of James Gammon in Newman, Illinois, USA; actor (Cool Hand Luke, Nick - Nash Bridges).
- 1941 - Birth of Joni Evans in New York City, New York, USA; publisher (Simon and Schuster, Random House).
- 1941 - Birth of Ryan O'Neal in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Peyton Place, Paper Moon, Love Story).
- 1943 - Birth of Edie Sedgwick in Santa Barbara, California, USA; actor (Ciao Manhattan).
- 1943 - Birth of Michael Greer in Galesburg, Illinois, USA; actor (Bobby Gentry Show).
- 1949 - Birth of Jessica Lange in Cloquet, Minnesota, USA; actress (King Kong, Tootsie).
- 1951 - Birth of Luther Vandross in the Bronx, New York, USA; rock vocalist ("Here and Now", "Never Too Much").
- 1955 - Birth of Donald R Pettit in Silverton, Oregon, USA; PhD/astronaut.
- 1959 - Birth of Clint Howard in Burbank, California, USA; actor (Gentle Ben).
- 1961 - Birth of Don "Hitman" Mattingly in Evansville, Indiana, USA; New York Yankees first baseman (Most Valuable Player 1985).
- 1961 - Birth of Marci Bozarth in Lampasas, Texas, USA; LPGA golfer (1994 Lady Keystone Open-37th).
- 1965 - Birth of Jim Terrell in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; sprint canoe (Olympics-1996).
- 1967 - Birth of J D Roth in Beverly Hills, California, USA; TV host (Fun House).
- 1967 - Birth of Lara Jill Miller in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; actress (Samantha - Gimme a Break).
- 1967 - Birth of Townsend Saunders in White Sands, New Mexico, USA; freestyle wrestler (Olympics-silver-1992, 1996).
- 1968 - Birth of LeShundra Nathan in Birmingham, Alabama, USA; heptathlete.
- 1970 - Birth of Ben Weir in Rock Island, Illinois, USA; Canadian Tour golfer (1993 Bogey Hills-second).
- 1970 - Birth of Shemar Moore in Oakland, California, USA; actor (Malcolm - The Young and the Restless).
- 1973 - Birth of Todd Hollandsworth in Dayton, Ohio, USA; outfielder (Los Angeles Dodgers).
- 1974 - Birth of Ben[jamin] Lincoln Holbrook in Hartland, Wisconsin, USA; rower (Olympics-1996).
- 1975 - Birth of Joey [Joseph Mignogna Junior] Lawrence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; actor (Brotherly Love, Joey - Gimme a Break, Blossom).
Deaths on April 20
- 1812 - Death of George Clinton at age 73; fourth US Vice President, first Vice President to die in office.
- 1968 - Death of Rudolf Dirks in New York City, New York, USA; cartoonist (New York Journal, "Katzenjammer Kids", "The Captain and the Kids").
- 1980 - Death of Helmut Käutner in Castellina, Italy (born in Düsseldorf, Germany); German/American film director.
- 1982 - Archibald MacLeish, American lawyer/writer (Conquistador), dies at age 89.
- 1984 - Death of Mabel Mercer at age 84; English/US singer ("Fly Me to the Moon").
- 1997 - Death of Henry Mucci, American Colonel of the 98th Ranger Battalion (born 1909).
- 1999 - Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their Columbine High School teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher, and then themselves.
- 1999 - Death of Richard Rood, American professional wrestler (born 1958).
- 2014 - Death of Rubin Carter, American boxer (born 1937).
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