March 20

2024 Calendar

March 20 is the 79th day of the year (80th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 286 days remaining until the end of the year.

March 20 is usually the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first day of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

Events[change | change source]

Up to 1800[change | change source]

325 – The First Council of Nicaea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church – is held.
526 – An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia.
685 – The Battle of Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
1217 – The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
1293 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
1413 - Henry V of England becomes King.
1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).
1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
1521 – Battle of Pampeluna.
1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
1600 - Linkoping bloodbath in Sweden.
1602 - The Dutch East India Company is founded.
1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years War.
1690 – England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of Catholic James II.
1713 - An earthquake destroys most of the city of Foggia, Italy, and kills around 2,000 people.
1760 - One tenth of Boston, Massachusetts is destroyed by fire.

1801 – 1900[change | change source]

1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte, after his escape from the Italian island of Elba, enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of over 200,000.
1845 – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All crew members die on the expedition.
1848 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria gives up the throne, through his affair with Lola Montez.
1852 – The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published for the first time.
1854 - The US Republican Party is founded in Ripon, Wisconsin.
1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
1861 – Mendoza, Argentina, is completely destroyed by an earthquake in which around 6,000 people are killed.
1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church – In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a United States patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1882 – The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed.
1888 - The premiere (first showing) of the very first Romani language operetta is staged in Moscow.
1890 - Leo von Caprivi replaces Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany.
1891 – History of cinema: First public display of Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope (shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs).

1901 – 1950[change | change source]

1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.
1913 - Chinese politician Sung Chiao-jen is targeted in a assassination attempt, dying two days later.
1913 - Passenger steamer Koombana sinks in a cyclone off Western Australia, killing 138 people.
1916 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage").
1916 – The U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by an F2 tornado.
1917 – The U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by an F3 tornado.
1918 – For the third consecutive year on this date, the U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by a tornado.
1920 – The Weimarer Nationalversammlung, the national assembly of Germany's Weimar Republic, is permanently dissolved.
1920 – Montreal Quebec station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America.
1927 – By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
1940 – Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
1949 – In the United States, the AFSA (the predecessor of the NSA) is established.

1951 – 2000[change | change source]

1951 - Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture is founded in central Honshu, Japan.
1952 - The United States Senate supports a peace treaty with Japan.
1954 – Chiang Kai-shek is selected for another term as President of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.
1956 – Tunisia becomes independent from France.
1964 - The European Space Research Organization is founded, as a precursor to the European Space Agency.
1965 – A Pakistani Airlines Boeing 720-B crashes on landing at Cairo airport, killing 121 people.
1966 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy is stolen in England. It is found a week later.
1969 – The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
1970 - Organisation internationale de la Francophonie is established.
1972 - The Troubles: The Provisional IRA carry out a car bomb attack in Belfast, killing 7 people, and injuring 148.
1974 - Near Buckingham Palace, Ian Ball attempts to kidnap Anne, Princess Royal and her then-husband Mark Phillips. They both escape unhurt.
1980 – In a Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
1985 – Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska.
1988 - Eritrean War of Independence: The Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet.
1989 – The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.
1990 – The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
1993 – The television sitcom, Cheers ends an 11-year run on NBC.
1993 - An IRA bomb explodes in Warrington, England, killing two boys.
1995 – The Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, under leadership of Shoko Asahara carries out a deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
1996 – Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
1999 - LEGOLAND California opens in Carlsbad, California.

From 2001[change | change source]

2003 – The US-led invasion of Iraq begins.
2005 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Fukuoka, Japan, killing one person, and leading to hundreds being injured or evacuated.
2006 - Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in Eastern Chad by members of the rebel United Front for Democratic Change. The rebel group had the intention of removing President Idriss Déby from office.
2006 - Cyclone Larry hits Queensland, Australia.
2008 - Emirates becomes the first airline to offer a mobile phone service during flights.
2013 - President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman dies aged 84. Abdul Hamid takes over as caretaker President.
2015 - A train crash in Uttar Pradesh, India, kills at least 30 people.
2015 - A solar eclipse coincides with the Spring Equinox in Europe, Greenland, and parts of North Africa and Northern and West-Central Asia. Totality occurs over the Faroe Islands and Svalbard.
2015 - A series of bombings in Yemen kills over 100 people.
2016 - US President Barack Obama starts a historic visit to Cuba - the first by a serving US president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
2017 - An accident at the Kintampo waterfalls in Ghana kills at least 18 people.