1500s / 16th century history on the 20th of May
1506 : Christopher Columbus the Italian explorer died aged 54 (born in 1451).
1600s / 17th century history on the 20th of May
1609 : Shakespeare’s sonnets were published for the first time, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe, in London.
1800s / 19th century history on the 20th of May
1862 : U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law, which opened up 84 million acres of public land for settlers.
1873 : Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received their U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. The San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis (Reno, Nevada) were given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of blue jeans, one of the world’s most famous garments.
1875 : Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations established the International System of Units.
1883 : Krakatoa volcano started to erupt, and exploded 3 months later on the 27th August 1883, causing the death of 36,417 people.
1891 : The 1st public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope.
1900s / 20th century history on the 20th of May
1908 : Henry Bolte the 38th Premier of Victoria, in Australia, was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (died in 1990 aged 81).
1932 : Amelia Earhart started the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, when she took off from Newfoundland, and landed in Ireland the following day.
1940 : The first prisoners arrived at the new concentration camp at Auschwitz, during The Holocaust.
1946 : Cher the American singer and actress was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, USA. Official website : Cher.com
1956 : The first United States airborne hydrogen bomb was dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, during Operation Redwing.
1964 : The cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.
1970 : Louis Theroux the British-American journalist was born in Singapore. Official website : LouisTheroux.com
1983 : The discovery of the HIV virus that caused AIDS was published for the first time, in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier.
2000s / 12st century history on the 20th of May
2012 : Northern Italy earthquakes in the Emilia region started, and killed 7 people. 9 days later the 2nd earthquake hit and killed another 20 people, with a total of 400 injured in both earthquakes, which left up to 45,000 people homeless.
2013 : EF5 tornado hit the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, and killed 24 people, leaving 377 injured.
2019 : The International System of Units (Si) redefined the base units, to make the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.
2019 : Niki Lauda the Austrian race car driver died aged 70 (born in 1949).
see more interesting events on all the other days of MAY (History On This Day @ Azoosh)
This page was last updated on the 20th May 2021
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