20th September, on this day

622 Mohammad's Hegira
1187 Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.
1378 Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the Butcher of Cesena, is elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.
1519 Magellan starts 1st successful circumnavigation of the world
1565 Spaniards capture Fort Caroline, Fla and massacre the French
1596 Diego de Montemayor founded the city of Monterrey in New Spain
1633 Galileo Galilei is tried before the Inquisition for teaching that the Earth orbits the Sun.
1664 Maryland enacts 1st anti-amaglmation law to prevent widespread intermarriage of English women and black men
1697 The Treaty of Rijswijk was signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic ending the Nine Years' War (1688–97).
1737 Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
1777 Paoli massacre
1792 French troops stop allied invasion of France, during the War of the First Coalition at Valmy.
1835 Farroupilha's Revolution begins in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
1850 Slave trade abolished in DC, but slavery allowed to continue
1854 In the Crimean War, British and French troops defeat Russians at t
he Battle of Alma -
1857 The Indian Mutiny ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.
1859 Patent granted on the electric range
1860 1st British royalty to visit US, Prince of Wales (King Edward VII)
1863 Civil War Battle of Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, Tenn, ends
1870 Bersaglieri corps enters Rome through Porta Pia and completes the unification of Italy; see capture of Rome.
1871 Bishop John Coleridge Patteson martyred on the island of Nukapu a Polynesian outlier island now in the Temotu province of the Solomon Islands. He was the first bishop of Melanesia.
1873 Panic sweeps NY Stock Exchange (railroad bond default/bank failure)
1879 Cliftonville Football Club, the oldest club in Ireland, is founded.
1881 Chester A Arthur sworn in as president
1884 6.2 mile Arlberg railroad tunnel completed in Austria
1891 The first gasoline-powered car debuts in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
1906 An Imperial Edict in China orders the end of the use of opium within 10 years
1906 Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania is launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle, England.
1917 The first RSPCA animal clinic opens in Liverpool
1939 A German Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down by Fairey Battle gunner Sgt. F. Letchard during a patrol near Aachen. This is the RAF's first aerial victory of the Second World War.
1942 Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days German SS murders at least 3,000 Jews
1945 German rocket engineers begin work in US
1946 The first Cannes Film Festival is held.
1948 Mexican Baseball league disbanded
1951 1st North Pole jet crossing
1954 1st FORTRAN computer program run
1954 Roger Bannister awarded Britain's Silver Pears Trophy
1954 New Zealand's Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents reports just ten days after concluding hearings.
1958 Martin Luther King Jr stabbed in chest by a deranged black woman in NYC
1960 UN General Assembly admit 13 African countries and Cyprus (96 nations)
1961 Argentinian Antonio Albertondo attempts the first non-stop swim across the English Channel and back. He completes it in 43 hours, 5 minutes
1962 James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
1966 US Surveyor B launched toward Moon; crashed Sept 23
1967 Hurricane Beulah hits Texas-Mexican border, kills 38
1967 In Britain, the launch of cruise liner, the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth II).
1970 Luna 16 lands on Moon's Mare Fecunditatis, drills core sample
1970 Syrian tanks roll into Jordan in response to continued fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen. The Jordanians knock out 30 of the Syrian tanks
1972 Police find cannabis growing on Paul and Linda McCartney's farm
1973 Billy Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in battle-of-sexes tennis match
1975 David Bowie's "Fame," single goes to number 1 for 2 weeks
1975 Gary Sentman draws a record 176 lb longbow to a maximum 28¬" draw
1976 Playboy releases Jimmy Carter's interview that he lusts for women
1976 Sid Berstein offers $230 million charity concert for Beatle reunion
1977 Victor the Giraffe dies of heart failure at Marwell Park Zoo in Britain six days after doing the splits (all four legs) and not being able to get up again
1977 The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations
1979 Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation.
1979 The Punjab wing of the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) formally splits and constitutes a parallel UCCRI(ML).
1979 Assassination of French left-wing militant Pierre Goldman.
1979 Bloodless coup in Central African Rep overthrows Emperor Bokassa I
1979 NASA launches HEAO
1982 US National Football League players begin a 57-day strike.
1984 A terrorist suicide bomber drives a lorry full of explosives into the US Embassy in Beirut killling 40 people
1984 Suicide car bomb attacks US Embassy annex in Beirut
1985 Walt Disney World's 200-millionth guest
1989 In South Africa, F.W. De Klerk is sworn in as President
1990 South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia.
1990 Both Germanys ratify reunification
1990 Saddam Hussein demands US networks broadcast his message
1995 A European Court decides that transfer fees between clubs within the European Community are illegal when a player reaches the end of his contract. The judgement becomes known as the 'Bosman Ruling' following the a legal case brought by Belgian footballer Marc Bosman against his club FC Liege
2000 The British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building was attacked by a Russian-built Mark 22 anti-tank missile
2001 In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American People president George W. Bush declares "war on terror".
2002 Kolka-Karmadon rock/ice slide started.
2003 A referendum is held in Latvia to decide the country's accession to the European Union.
2003 Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.

20th September 2005

Florida Keys braced for hurricane

London bombers staged 'dummy run'

Iraq probe into soldier incident

20th September 2006

Thai coup leader unveils PM plans

Gas leak kills 13 in Ukraine mine

Thousands at Irwin memorial event

20th September 2007

Mortgage woes 'exceed forecasts'

France approves immigration curbs

Tennessee bans lethal injection

20th September 2008

Dozens killed in Pakistan attack

Fire at China club leaves 43 dead

Hadron Collider halted for months

20th September 2009

Cuba rocks to huge peace concert

Firm agrees Ivorian waste payouts

Israel tank shell kills militants

20th September 2010

Birthdates which occurred on 20th September:

357 -BC- Alexander III the Great, king of Macedonia, emperor
1833 Ernesto Teodoro Moneta Italy, journalist (Nobel Peace Prize 1907)
1878 Upton Sinclair novelist (Jungle)
1885 Ferdinand (Jelly Roll) Morton New Orleans, jazz pianist/composer
1899 Elliot Nugent director (And so They were Married)
19-- Ben Shepherd Wash, rock bassist (Soundgarden-Badmotorfinger)
19-- Frances Heflin Okla City, OK, actress (Mona Tyler-All My Children)
19-- Yvonne Wilder NYC, actress (Operation Petticoat, Condo)
1902 Kermit Maynard Vevey Ind, cowboy actor (Saturday Roundup)
1902 Steve Smith singer (Lawrence Welk Show)
1910 Jacques-Baptise LeBrun France, finn yachtsman (Olympic-gold-1932)
1911 Frank Devol Moundsville WV, orch leader (I'm Dickens He's Fenster)
1917 Arnold "Red" Auerbach NBA coach/GM (Boston Celtics)
1920 Alexander Thereat
1922 Frank Comstock SD Calif, orch leader (Jimmie Rodgers Show)
1924 James Galanos Phila, fashion designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1959)
1927 Clarice Taylor Va, actress (Nurse Bailey-Nurse)
1927 Rachel Roberts Wales, actress (Foul Play, Doctor's Wife)
1928 Dr Joyce Brothers NYC, pop psychiatrist ($64,000 question winner)
1929 Anne Meara Bkln NY comedian/actress (Stiller & Meara, Archie's Place)
1933 Bob Banas NYC, choreographer (Malibu U, Jonathan Winters Show)
1934 Sophia Loren Rome, actress (Desire Under the Elms, Black Orchid)
1936 Dany Carrel Touraine Indo-china, actress (Passionate Summer)
1938 Pia Lindstom entertainment critic (WNBC-TV)
1938 Tom Tresh NY Yankee (1962 AL Rookie of the Year)
1941 Dale Chihuly Tacoma Wash, artist in glass (Louis Tiffany Award 1967)
1941 John A Wismont Jr Calif, watercolor painter (over 50,000)
1950 Debi Morgan Dunn NC, actress (Angie-All My Children, Cry Uncle)
1950 Loredana Berte Milan Italy, 2nd wife of Bjorn Borg
1951 Guy LaFleur Quebec, NHL right wing (Montreal, NY Rangers)
1951 JoAnna Cameron Colo, actress (I Love My Wife, Isis)
1954 Brinke Stevens [Charlene Brinkman] Ca, actr (Slumber Party Massacre)
1954 Silvio Leonard Cuba, 100m sprinter (Olympic-silver-1980)
1957 Fran Drescher NYC, actress (Cadillac Man)
1957 Vladmir Tkachenko USSR, basketball (Olympic-bronze-1980)
1959 Alannah Currie rocker (Thompson Twins-Doctor, Doctor)
1966 Nuno Bettencourt Azores, rock guitarist (Extreme-More Than Words)
1967 Gunnar Nelson rock singer (Nelsons-Love & Affection)
1967 Matthew Nelson rock singer (Nelsons-Love & Affection)

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Deaths which occurred on September 20th:
1947 Fiorello La Guardia (Mayor-R-NYC), dies
1957 Jean Sibelius Finnish composer, dies at 91
1959 Olin Howlin actor (Swifty-Circus Boy), dies at 63
1971 James Westerfield actor (Travels of Jaime McPheeters), dies at 59
1973 Jim Croce singer/songwriter (Time In A Bottle, Bad Bad Leroy Brown), dies in a plane crash at 30
1973 Glenn Strange actor (Sam the Bartender-Gunsmoke), dies at 74