On This Day — 20 December

2000s

2024

Six people are killed and over 200 are injured when an anti-Islam activist drives a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

2024 Magdeburg car attack

2024

A mass stabbing occurs in a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia, in which a 7-year-old pupil is killed and six more are injured by a knife-wielding 19-year-old male.

Zagreb school stabbing

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2022

A Vega C rocket carrying two Pléiades Neo satellites fails after liftoff.

Vega C

2019

The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.

United States Space Force

2016

Aerosucre Flight 157 crashes during takeoff from Germán Olano Airport in Puerto Carreño, Colombia, killing five people.

Aerosucre Flight 157

2007

Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days.

Elizabeth II

2007

The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil. Both will be recovered a few weeks later.

Portrait of Suzanne Bloch

2004

A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.

Northern Bank robbery

1900s

1999

Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.

Macau

1995

American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia, killing 159 of the 163 people on board.

American Airlines Flight 965

1991

A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.

Murder of Tina Isa

1989

The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.

United States invasion of Panama

1988

War on drugs: The United Nations agrees upon and promulgates the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, one of three major drug control treaties currently in force.

War on drugs

1987

In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait of the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

MV Doña Paz

1985

Pope John Paul II announces the creation of World Youth Day.

Pope John Paul II

1984

The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.

Summit Tunnel fire

1984

Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."

Murder of Jonelle Matthews

1977

With the approval of the State Council, China's two largest newspapers, the People's Daily and the Guangming Daily, publish in full for the first time the Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme.

State Council of China

1973

Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ETA in Madrid kills three people, including the Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco.

Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco

1970

Koza riot: After a series of hit-and-runs and other vehicular incidents involving American service personnel, roughly 5,000 Okinawans take to the streets, clashing with American law enforcement in protest against the U.S. occupation of Okinawa.

Koza riot

1968

The Zodiac Killer murders his first two officially confirmed victims, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, on Lake Herman Road in Benicia, California, United States.

Zodiac Killer

1960

Vietnam War: The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, popularly known as the Viet Cong, is formally established in Tân Lập village, present day Tây Ninh province.

Vietnam War

1957

The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.

Boeing 707

1955

Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.

Cardiff

1952

A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington, killing 87 of the 115 people on board.

United States Air Force

1951

The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.

Experimental Breeder Reactor I

1948

Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia.

Indonesian National Revolution

1946

It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews.

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

An earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan causes a tsunami which kills at least one thousand people and destroys 36,000 homes.

1946 Nankai earthquake

1942

World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service

1941

World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers", in Kunming, China.

World War II

1940

Captain America Comics #1, containing the first appearance of the superhero Captain America, is published.

Captain America Comics

1924

Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.

Adolf Hitler

1917

Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.

Cheka

1915

World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.

World War I

1800s

1860

South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States with the South Carolina Declaration of Secession.

South Carolina

1848

French presidential election: Having won the popular vote in a landslide, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is inaugurated in the chamber of the National Assembly as the first (and only) president of the French Second Republic.

1848 French presidential election