October 20 in History

Historical Events on October 20

1740 Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.

1873 Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1883 Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.

1941 World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are murdered in the Kragujevac massacre.

1944 Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.

1944 American general Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

1947 The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.

1962 People's Republic of China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War.

2011 Libyan Civil War: National Transitional Council rebel forces capture ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte and kill him shortly thereafter.

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Famous Birthdays on October 20

1784 Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

1958 Scott Hall

1964 Kamala Harris

1971 Snoop Dogg

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Famous Deaths on October 20

1890 Richard Francis Burton

1926 Eugene V. Debs

1964 Herbert Hoover

2011 Muammar Gaddafi

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