On This Day — 20 November

2000s

2022

The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.

2022 FIFA World Cup

2016

Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time.

Jimmie Johnson

2015

Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali.

Radisson Blu Bamako attack

📅

2003

After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate.

November 15

1900s

1998

A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Taliban

1998

The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Zarya (ISS module)

1996

A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81.

Garley Building fire

1994

The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.)

Angola

1993

Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.

Savings and loan crisis

1993

North Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurs when Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Ohrid Airport, killing all 116 people on board.

North Macedonia

📅

1992

In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.

1992 Windsor Castle fire

1991

An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan

1990

Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings.

Andrei Chikatilo

1989

Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.

Velvet Revolution

1985

Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.

Microsoft

📅

1980

Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole.

Lake Peigneur

1979

Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.

Grand Mosque seizure

1977

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

Egypt

1974

The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.

United States Department of Justice

1974

The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board.

Boeing 747

1969

Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

Vietnam War

1969

Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.

Occupation of Alcatraz

1968

A total of 78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in the Farmington Mine disaster.

Farmington Mine disaster

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.

Cuban Missile Crisis

1959

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.

Declaration of the Rights of the Child

1947

The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.

Elizabeth II

1946

Indonesian National Revolution: 96 Indonesian including I Gusti Ngurah Rai were killed during the Battle of Margarana with Dutch forces.

Indonesian National Revolution

1945

Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.

Nuremberg trials

1943

World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins: United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.

Battle of Tarawa

1940

World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.

World War II

1936

José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad.

José Antonio Primo de Rivera

1917

World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.

World War I

1910

Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution.

Mexican Revolution

1900

The French actress Sarah Bernhardt receives the press at the Savoy Hotel in New York at the outset of her first visit since 1896. She talked about her impending tour with a troupe of more than 50 performers and her plans to play the title role in Hamlet.

Sarah Bernhardt

1800s

1873

Garnier Expedition: French forces under Lieutenant Francis Garnier captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese.

Garnier Expedition

1861

American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government.

American Civil War

1845

Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.

Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata

1820

An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this incident.)

Sperm whale

1815

The Second Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by troops of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia for several more years.

Treaty of Paris (1815)

1805

Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Before 1800

1789

New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

New Jersey

1776

American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey.

American Revolutionary War

1739

Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Battle of Porto Bello (1739)

1695

Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.

Zumbi

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1441

The Peace of Cremona ends the war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, after the victorious Venetian enterprise of military engineering of the Galeas per montes.

Peace of Cremona (1441)