On This Day — 20 April

2023

SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight.

SpaceX Starship

2021

State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota.

Trial of Derek Chauvin

2020

For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war.

Price of oil

2015

Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland.

Garowe attack

2013

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands.

Moment magnitude scale

2012

One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan.

Bhoja Air Flight 213

2010

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that lasted six months.

Deepwater Horizon

2008

Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

Danica Patrick

2007

Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself.

Johnson Space Center shooting

2004

The Nicoll Highway in Singapore collapses, killing four workers.

Nicoll Highway

1999

Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

Columbine High School massacre

1998

Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board.

Air France Flight 422

1985

University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in advocacy for animal rights.

University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid

1972

Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon.

Apollo program

1968

English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech.

Enoch Powell

1968

South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near J.G. Strijdom Airport in South West Africa (now Hosea Kutako International Airport in Namibia), killing 123 people.

South African Airways Flight 228

1961

Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

Cold War

1949

Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War.

Amethyst incident

1946

The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

League of Nations

1945

World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

World War II

1945

World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

Führerbunker

1945

Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

Nazi human experimentation

1922

The Soviet government creates the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR.

Soviet Union

1918

World War I: Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

World War I

1914

Nineteen men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War.

Ludlow Massacre

1908

Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.

New South Wales Rugby League

1902

Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

Pierre Curie

1898

U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War.

William McKinley

1884

Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry.

Humanum genus

1876

The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

April Uprising of 1876

1865

Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.

Angelo Secchi

1862

Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.

Louis Pasteur

1861

American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

American Civil War

1861

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, attempting to display the value of balloons, makes record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina.

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe

1836

U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

United States Congress

1828

René Caillié becomes the second non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, following Major Gordon Laing. He would also be the first to return alive.

René Caillié

1809

Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

First French Empire

1800

The Septinsular Republic is established.

Septinsular Republic

1792

France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

1789

George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration.

George Washington

1770

The Georgian king, Erekle II, abandoned by his Russian ally Count Totleben, wins a victory over Ottoman forces at Aspindza.

Georgia (country)

1752

Start of Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War, a new phase in the Burmese Civil War (1740–57).

Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War

1657

English Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet, under heavy fire from the shore, at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Robert Blake (admiral)

1657

Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).

Freedom of religion

1653

Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament.

Oliver Cromwell

1535

A complex halo display is observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring the Vädersolstavlan ("The Sundog painting"), the earliest depiction of such an event, and the oldest colour depiction of the city.

Vädersolstavlan

1303

The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.

Sapienza University of Rome

1303

The Bahri Mamluks defeat the Ilkhanate in the battle of Marj al-Saffar, marking the end of the Mongol incursions into Syria.

Bahri Mamluks

1152

After an eight-year conflict, Baldwin III of Jerusalem wins sole control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende.

Baldwin III of Jerusalem