'''October_20''' is the 293rd day of the year (294th in Leap_years) in the Gregorian_Calendar, with 72 days remaining.
{{OctoberCalendar}}
== Events ==
* 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.
* 1803 - United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana_Purchase.
* 1827 - Battle_of_Navarino - a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is destroyed by an allied British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece. The most important result of this battle is the end of the Greek Liberation War and the affirmation of independence of modern Greece.
* 1883 - Peru and Chile signed the Treaty_of_Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province was ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War_of_the_Pacific.
* 1910 - The hull of the RMS_Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS_Titanic, is launched from the Harland_and_Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.
* 1935 - The Long_March ends
* 1944 - The Soviet army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
* 1944 - Liquid Natural_gas leaks from storange tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
* 1944 - General_Douglas_MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assult on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
* 1947 - The House_Un-American_Activities_Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
* 1955 - Publication of The_Return_of_the_King, being the last part of The_Lord_of_the_Rings
* 1967 - A purported Bigfoot is filmed by Patterson and Gimlin
* 1968 - Former First Lady Jacqueline_Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle_Onassis.
* 1971 - The Nepal stock exchange collapses.
* 1973 - The Saturday_Night_Massacre: President Nixon fires Attorney_General Elliot_Richardson and Deputy_Attorney_General William_Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald_Cox, who is finally fired by Robert_Bork.
* 1973 - The Sydney_Opera_House opens.
* 1973 - ''The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man'' premieres on ABC.
* 1977 - A plane carrying Lynyrd_Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing several band members, including lead singer Ronnie_Van_Zant and guitarist Steve_Gaines.
* 1979 - The John_F_Kennedy library is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.
* 1982 - St._Louis_Cardinals defeat Milwaukee_Brewers 6-3 to win their 9th World_Series Championship.
* 1986 - Yitzhak_Shamir begins his second office term as Israel's prime minister
* 1989 - Brisbane bound coach collides with semi-trailer north of Grafton in New South Wales, Australia. This is known as the Grafton Bus Crash
* 1991 - The Oakland_Hills_firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.
* 1995 - Filmmaker Kevin_Smith releases ''Mallrats''.
* 2004 - The Boston_Red_Sox win the American League pennant, defeating the New_York_Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, becoming the first team in major league baseball history to recover from a 3-0 postseason series deficit.
* 2004 - Susilo_Bambang_Yudhoyono is sworn in as the President of Indonesia.
== Births ==
*1463 - Alessandro_Achillini, Italian philosopher (d. 1512)
*1469 - Guru_Nanak_Dev, first Sikh Guru (d. 1539)
*1496 - Claude,_Duke_of_Guise, French soldier (d. 1550)
*1616 - Thomas_Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian (d. 1680)
*1620 - Aelbert_Cuyp, Dutch painter (d. 1691)
*1632 - Sir Christopher Wren, English architect (d. 1723)
*1656 - Nicolas_de_Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
*1660 - Robert_Bertie,_1st_Duke_of_Ancaster_and_Kesteven, English statesman (d. 1723)
*1677 - Stanislaus_I_Leszczyński,_King_of_Poland (d. 1766)
*1711 - Timothy_Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (d. 1795)
*1719 - Gottfried_Achenwall, German statistician (d. 1772)
*1759 - Chauncey_Goodrich, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (d. 1815)
*1808 - Karl_Andree, German geographer (d. 1875)
*1819 - The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábí Faith (d. 1850)
*1822 - Thomas_Hughes, English novelist (d. 1896)
*1854 - Arthur_Rimbaud, French poet (d. 1891)
*1858 - John_Burns, English politician (d. 1943)
*1859 - John_Dewey, American philosopher (d. 1952)
*1874 - Charles_Ives, American composer (d. 1954)
*1882 - Bela_Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor (d. 1956)
*1889 - Margaret_Dumont, American actress (d. 1965)
*1890 - Jelly_Roll_Morton, American composer (d. 1941)
*1891 - James_Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
*1891 - Jomo_Kenyatta, President_of_Kenya (d. 1978)
*1893 - Charley_Chase, American comedian (d. 1940)
*1894 - Olive_Thomas, American actress (d. 1920)
*1897 - Crown Prince Eun of Korea (d. 1970)
*1900 - Wayne_Morse, U.S. Senator from Oregon (d. 1974)
*1904 - Anna_Neagle, English actress (d. 1986)
*1904 - Tommy_Clement_Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
*1905 - Ellery_Queen, pseudonym of two American writers (d. 1982)
*1907 - Arlene_Francis, American television personality (d. 2001)
*1913 - Grandpa_Jones, American banjo player and singer (d. 1998)
*1918 - Robert_Lochner, German journalist (d. 2003)
*1925 - Art_Buchwald, American newspaper columnist
*1928 - Joyce_Brothers, American psychologist and television personality
*1931 - Mickey_Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)
*1932 - Rosey_Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
*1935 - Jerry_Orbach, American actor (d. 2004)
*1937 - Juan_Marichal, baseball player
*1940 - Kathy_Kirby, British singer
*1942 - Earl_Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
*1942 - Christiane_Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine
*1944 - David_Mancuso, American disc jockey
*1946 - Elfriede_Jelinek, Austrian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
*1949 - Valeri_Borzov, Ukrainian athlete
*1950 - Tom_Petty, American musician
*1955 - Aaron_Pryor, American boxer
*1956 - Danny_Boyle, English film director
*1958 - Viggo_Mortensen, American actor
*1958 - Ivo_Pogorelic, Croatian pianist
*1960 - Konstantin_Aseev, Russian chess player (d. 2004)
*1963 - Julie_Payette, Canadian astronaut
*1964 - Curt_Gunz, American author
*1965 - William_Zabka, American actor
*1966 - Allan_Donald, South African cricketer
*1966 - Stefan_Raab, German entertainer
*1969 - Juan_Gonzalez, baseball player
*1971 - Snoop_Dogg, American rapper
*1971 - Dannii_Minogue, Australian-born singer
*1976 - Tom_Wisniewski, American guitarist (Mxpx)
*1978 - Virender_Sehwag, Indian cricketer
*1981 - Willis_McGahee, American football player
*1984 - Scott_Fuller, Radio personality
*1984 - Florent_Sinama-Pongolle, French footballer
*1988 - Risa_Niigaki, Japanese singer (Morning_Musume)
*1989 - Christopher David Ray, American
== Deaths ==
*460 - Aelia_Eudocia, Byzantine Empress
*1570 - João_de_Barros, Portuguese historian (b. 1496)
*1640 - John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
*1652 - Antonio_Coello, Spanish writer
*1713 - Archibald_Pitcairne, Scottish physician (b. 1652)
*1740 - Charles_VI,_Holy_Roman_Emperor (b. 1685)
*1865 - Champ_Ferguson, Confederate guerilla
*1900 - Naim_Frashëri, Albanian poet (b. 1846)
*1910 - David_B._Hill, Governor of New York (b. 1843)
*1920 - Max_Bruch, German composer (b. 1838)
*1936 - Anne_Sullivan, American teacher (b. 1866)
*1935 - Arthur_Henderson, Scottish politician, recipient of the Nobel_Peace_Prize (b. 1863)
*1964 - Herbert_Hoover, 31st President_of_the_United_States (b. 1874)
*1967 - Yoshida_Shigeru, Prime_Minister_of_Japan (b. 1878)
*1972 - Harlow_Shapley, American astronomer (b. 1885)
*1977 - Members of the American rock group Lynyrd_Skynyrd killed in a plane crash:
**Cassie_Gaines (b. 1948)
**Steve_Gaines (b. 1949)
**Ronnie_Van_Zant (b. 1948)
*1983 - Peter_Dudley, British actor
*1984 - Carl_Ferdinand_Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel_Prize_in_Physiology_or_Medicine (b. 1896)
*1984 - Paul_Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
*1987 - Andrey_Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1903)
*1989 - Anthony_Quayle, English actor (b. 1913)
*1990 - Joel_McCrea, American actor (b. 1905)
*1994 - Burt_Lancaster, American actor (b. 1913)
*1995 - Christopher Stone, American actor (b. 1942)
*2002 - Barbara_Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
*2003 - Jack_Elam, American actor (b. 1918)
*2004 - Anthony_Hecht, American poet (b. 1923)
*2004 - Chuck_Hiller, baseball player (b. 1934)
*2005 - Shirley_Horn, American singer (b. 1934)
*2005 - Endon_Mahmood, First Lady of Malaysia (breast cancer) (b. 1941)
*2005 - Eva_Svankmajerova, Czech artist (b. 1940)
==Holidays and observances==
This day is unusually devoid of official commemorations.
* R.C. Saints: Bertilla Boscardin of Vicenza
* Also see October_20_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
* Vietnamese women's day
== External links ==
* BBC: On This Day
----
October_19 - October_21 - November_20 - September_20 - more Historical_anniversaries
{{months}}
Af:20_Oktober
Ar:20_اكتوبر
Ast:20_d'ochobre
Bg:20_октомври
Be:20_кастрычніка
Ca:20_d'octubre
Co:20_d'uttrovi
Cs:20._říjen
Cv:Юпа,_20
Cy:20_Hydref
Da:20._oktober
De:20._Oktober
Et:20._oktoober
El:20_Οκτωβρίου
Es:20_de_octubre
Eo:20-a_de_oktobro
Eu:Urriaren_20
Fr:20_octobre
Fy:20_oktober
Gl:20_de_outubro
Ko:10월_20일
Hr:20._listopada
Io:20_di_oktobro
Id:20_Oktober
Is:20._október
It:20_ottobre
He:20_באוקטובר
Csb:20_rujana
Ku:20'ê_kewçêrê
Lt:Spalio_20
Lb:20._Oktober
Hu:Október_20
Mk:20_октомври
Nl:20_oktober
Ja:10月20日
No:20._oktober
Nn:20._oktober
Oc:20_d'octobre
Pl:20_października
Pt:20_de_Outubro
Ro:20_octombrie
Ru:20_октября
Simple:October_20
Sk:20._október
Sl:20._oktober
Sr:20._октобар
Fi:20._lokakuuta
Sv:20_oktober
Tl:Oktubre_20
Tt:20._Öktäber
Th:20_ตุลาคม
Tr:20_Ekim
Uk:20_жовтня
Wa:20_d'_octôbe
Zh:10月20日