Today in History – September 20th

Published September 20, 2012 |

1058, Agnes de Poitou and Andrew I of Hungary meet to negotiate about the border-zone in present-day Burgenland.
1187, Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.
1260, the Great Prussian Uprising among the old Prussians begins against the Teutonic Knights.
1519, Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
1596, Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey in New Spain.
1737, finish of Walking Purchase which forces cession of 1.2 million acres of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to Pennsylvania Colony.
1758, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Emperor of Haiti (d. 1806) was born.
1792, French troops stop allied invasion of France, during the War of 1st Coalition at Valmy.
1848, The American Association for the Advancement of Science is created.
1854, Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea.
1857, The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.
1860, The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of the UK) visits the US.
1863, American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga ends.
1863, Jacob Grimm, German writer and folklorist (b. 1785) died.
1870, Bersaglieri corps enter Rome through the Porta Pia and complete the unification of Italy.
1878, Upton Sinclair, American writer (d. 1968) was born.
1881, Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the US following the assassination of James Garfield.
1885, Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz pianist, bandleader and composer (d. 1941) was born.
1893, Charles Duryea and his brother road-test 1st American-made gasoline-powered automobile.
1906, Cunard Line’s RMS Mauretania is launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
1910, The ocean liner SS France, later known as the “Versailles of the Atlantic”, is launched.
1911, White Star Line’s RMS Olympic collides with British warship HMS Hawke.
1942, Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days the German SS murders at least 3,000 Jews.
1947, Fiorello La Guardia, American politician (b. 1882) died.
1962, James Meredith, an African-American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
1967, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. It is operated by the Cunard Line.
1970, Syrian tanks roll into Jordan in response to continued fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen.
1973, Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas.
1973, Jim Croce, American singer and songwriter (b. 1943) died.
1977, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations.
1982, The National Football League players begin a 57-day strike.
1984, A suicide bomber in a car attacks the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.
1990, South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia.
2000, British MI6 Secret Intelligence building is attacked by unapprehended forces using Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank missile.
2001, In an address to joint session of Congress and the American people, US President George W. Bush declares a “war on terror”.
2005, Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Nazi hunter (b. 1908) died.

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Chris Rivait

Chris loves history and hopes that Yesteeyear becomes a place where everyone can share their history knowledge. Chris owns an Internet Marketing company, Arrivait Marketing. He has a wonderful wife and four great children.