What Happened Today In History

About October 20

October 20, 2023 is the 293^rd day of the year 2023 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 72 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

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

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

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 113 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

What Happened On October 20

• 1548 –
  The city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace) is founded by Alonso de Mendoza by appointment of the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
• 1720 –
  Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured by the Royal Navy.
• 1740 –
  Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
• 1818 –
  The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
• 1827 –
  Battle of Navarino – a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is defeated by British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece.
• 1873 –
  Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
• 1917 –
  The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting.
• 1939 –
  Pope Pius XII publishes his first major encyclical entitled Summi Pontificatus.
• 1944 –
  Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
• 1947 –
  United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
• 1951 –
  The “Johnny Bright Incident” occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma
• 1968 –
  Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
• 1970 –
  Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state.
• 1971 –
  The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
• 1973 –
  “Saturday Night Massacre”: President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
• 1973 –
  The Sydney Opera House opens.
• 1981 –
  Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery in Rockland County, NY, carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.
• 1982 –
  During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
• 1991 –
  A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.
• 1991 –
  The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.