About May 20

May 20, 2025 is the 140th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 225 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.

You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.

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Taurus is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 273 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

What Happened On May 20

  • 1498
    Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
  • 1570
    Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
  • 1775
    Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence signed in Charlotte, North Carolina
  • 1802
    By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution
  • 1840
    York Minster is badly damaged by fire
  • 1873
    Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
  • 1882
    The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed.
  • 1891
    History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope.
  • 1896
    The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier falls on the crowd below resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others.
  • 1927
    At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.
  • 1941
    World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
  • 1949
    In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.
  • 1956
    In Operation Redwing (shot Cherokee), the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean;
  • 1965
    PIA Flight 705, a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720 – 040 B, crashes while descending to land at Cairo International Airport, killing 119 of the 125 passengers and crew.
  • 1969
    The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
  • 1980
    In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
  • 1985
    Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
  • 1989
    The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.
  • 1996
    Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
  • 2002
    The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).

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