Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 20
This is a list of selected April 20 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
Staging area
Images
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Pierre Trudeau -
Claude Bernard -
Louis Pasteur (requires undeletion)Louis Pasteur (requires undeletion)
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Louis Pasteur -
René Caillié -
Ruins of the Ludlow colony -
Portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper -
Red Army Faction logo, showing a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun on top of a red star, overlaid with the letters "RAF" -
Billie Holiday -
Pope Leo XIII -
Enoch Powell -
Danica Patrick -
Fernando Lugo -
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1303 – Pope Boniface VIII issued a bull establishing what is now Sapienza University of Rome, today one of the largest universities in Europe. | refimprove section |
| 1653 – Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament of the Commonwealth of England by force, eventually replacing it with the Barebone's Parliament. | refimprove section |
| 1792 – After Foreign Minister Charles François Dumouriez presented the French Legislative Assembly with a long list of grievances against Austria, France declared war to begin the French Revolutionary Wars. | refimprove section |
| 1862 – French chemist Louis Pasteur and physiologist Claude Bernard completed the first test on pasteurization. | date not in article; Pasteur listed on Sept 28 (death date); fact not in Bernard article |
| 1884 – Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Humanum genus, denouncing Freemasonry as well as a number of beliefs and practices purportedly associated with it such as popular sovereignty and the separation of church and state. | lots of assorted inline maintenance tags |
| 1908 – The inaugural season of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership began with nine teams competing in Australia's first Rugby league football competition. | Season: refimprove section; NSWRL: refimprove |
| 1912 – Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, and Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, were opened. | Fenway: refimprove section |
| 1998 – The violent German revolutionary group known as the Red Army Faction announced that it had dissolved. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 1537 – Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation in present-day Colombia, was conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
- 1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: Commanded by Napoleon, Franco-German forces defeated a reinforced Austrian corps at the Battle of Abensberg.
- 1818 – Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
- 1828 – French explorer René Caillié reached Timbuktu in present-day Mali, and later received a 9,000-franc prize from the Société de Géographie for being the first European to return with a description of the city.
- 1914 – A fire and a gun battle between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners led to 17 deaths in the Ludlow Massacre.
- 1939 – Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday was celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
- 1939 – Billie Holiday recorded the song "Strange Fruit", which later became an emblem of the civil rights movement.
- 1942 – World War II: German and Italian forces began a large-scale counter-insurgency operation in occupied Yugoslavia.
- 1968 – Enoch Powell (pictured), a British Conservative member of Parliament, made a controversial speech in opposition to immigration and anti-discrimination legislation, resulting in his removal from the shadow cabinet.
- 1968 – South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after take-off from Windhoek in South West Africa, resulting in 123 deaths.
- 1978 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace and was forced to make an emergency landing.
- 1999 – Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out a massacre at Columbine High School, killing 13 people before committing suicide.
- 2008 – American racing driver Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar auto race.
- 2008 – Fernando Lugo became the first candidate not from the Colorado Party candidate to be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years.
- Born/died this day: | Cædwalla of Wessex |d|689| Elizabeth Barton|d|1534| Peter Bartholomew|d|1099| Allegra Byron|d|1822| John Abernethy|d|1831| Paul Poiret|b|1879| Dave Bancroft|b|1891| Yoko Matsuoka |b|1916| Elmer Gedeon|d|1944| Toller Cranston |b|1949| Vjekoslav Luburić|d|1969| Nina Davuluri|b|1989| Chito Martínez|d|2025
Vädersolstavlan
April 20: Patriots' Day in some parts of the the United States (2026); Easter (Christianity, 2025); first day of Ridván (Baháʼí Faith, 2025); 420 (cannabis culture)
- 1535 – Sun dogs were observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring Vädersolstavlan (pictured), the oldest coloured depiction of the city.
- 1657 – Anglo-Spanish War: The English navy sank much of a Spanish treasure fleet at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife off the Canary Islands, but was unable to capture the treasure.
- 1968 – Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada, succeeding Lester B. Pearson.
- 2004 – An incomplete tunnel leading to the Nicoll Highway MRT station in Singapore collapsed, resulting in four deaths and the station's relocation.
- 2010 – An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.
- William Bedloe (b. 1650)
- David Brainerd (b. 1718)
- Frances Ames (b. 1920)
- Kojo Laing (d. 2017)