20th November, on this day

284 Diocletian was chosen as Roman Emperor.
762 Bögü, Khan of the Uyghurs, conquers Lo-Yang, capital of the Chinese Empire
868 St Edmund Saxon king of East Anglia, is martyred by the Vikings, who tie him to a tree, shoot at him with arrows, then behead him. His bodied is enshrined at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk
1194 Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry VI
1272 Edward I proclaimed King of England
1407 A truce between John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans is agreed under the auspices of John, Duke of Berry. Orléans would be assassinated three days later by Burgundy.
1637 Peter Minuit and 1st Swedish immigrants to Delaware sail from Sweden
1695 Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed.
1700 Great Northern War : Battle of Narva - King Charles XII of Sweden defeats the army of Tsar Peter the Great at Narva.
1759 A British fleet, commanded by Admiral Hawke, defeats a French fleet at the Battle of Quiberon Bay
1780 Britain declares war on Holland
1789 New Jersey becomes 1st state to ratify Bill of Rights
1805 The opera "Fidelio" is produced (Vienna)
1818 South American revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar declares Venezuela to be independant of Spain
1820 An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).
1829 Jews are expelled from Russia's Nikolayev and Sevastopol
1862 Confederate army of Tennessee, organizes under Gen Braxton Bragg
1866 1st national convention of Grand Army of the Republic (veterans' organisation)
1866 Pierre Lalemont patents rotary crank bicycle
1888 William Bundy patents the timecard clock
1890 Pope Leo XIII encyclical On slavery in the missions
1894 US intervenes in Bluefields, Nicaragua
1906 Automotive pioneers Charles Rolls and Henry Royce collaborate to form a new car company, Rolls Royce Ltd. On the same day, in 1931, the company buys Bentley Motors
1910 Revolution broke out in Mexico, led by Francisco I Madero
1914 US State Department starts requiring photographs for passports
1917 Battle of Cambrai begins : British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.
1917 Ukrainian Republic declared
1919 1st municipally owned airport in US opens in Tucson, Az
1923 Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency of Germany at the exchange rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion (One Billion on the long scale) Papiermark
1931 Commercial teletype service begins
1936 Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange is killed by a republican execution squad.
1938 1st documented anti-Semitic remarks over US radio (by Father Coughlin
1940 Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers
1943 Battle of Tarawa or 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.
1944 The end of the 'blackout' in London. After five years in the dark, the lights are switched back on in Piccadilly Circus, the Strand and in Fleet Street
1945 Beginning of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial of 20 senior Nazi officials including Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess and Von Ribbentrop.The Trial last 218 days
1947 1st permanent TV installed on seagoing vessel (The New Jersey)
1947 Britain's Princess Elizabeth, marries Duke Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
1947 UN General assembly begins debate on printing their own stamps
1951 Snowdonia in Wales is designated Britain's first National Park
1952 Slánský trials : a series of Stalinist and anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia.
1953 Scott Crossfield in Douglas Skyrocket, 1st to break Mach 2 (1300 MPH)
1959 UN adopts the declaration of children's rights
1962 US lifts blockade of Cuba after the Soviet Union agrees to remove its missiles from Cuba
1967 In US, At 11 AM, Census Clock at Department of Commerce ticks past 200 million
1968 During the Vietnam War eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit.
1969 The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
1974 British Labour MP John Stonehouse fakes his own death -disappearing after leaving a pile of his clothes by the sea
1975 Francisco Franco, Caudillo of Spain dies after 36 years in power.
1977 Egyptian President Sadat became 1st Arab leader to address Israeli Knesset
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 6000 hostages in the Kaaba. The Saudi government received help from French special forces to put down the uprising.
1979 Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, is stripped of his knighthood after being exposed as the Fourth Man in the Burgess, Maclean and Philby spy scandal
1980 Steve Ptacek in Solar Challenger makes 1st solar-powered flight
1980 UA withdraws $44 million movie "Heaven's Gate" for re-editing
1981 Anatoly Karpov, USSR retains world chess championship
1983 100 million watch ABC-TV movie "The Day After," about nuclear war
1984 The SETI Institute is founded.
1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
1986 UN's WHO announces 1st global effort to combat AIDS
1989 Velvet Revolution : The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
1990 Thatcher fails to defeat Heseltine's bid for party leadership
1992 A fire breaks out in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period).
1994 The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (localized fighting resumed the next year).
1995 In a controversial TV interview, Diana, Princess of Wales - wife of Prince Charles - admitts to having had an affair with Captain James Hewitt
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.
1998 The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.
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 20th 2005

Talabani offers insurgents talks

Iran MPs back nuclear snub plans

Bush urges greater China freedoms

November 20th 2006

Gazans gather to foil air strike

Iran and Syria to seek Iraq role

Egypt arrests another blog critic

November 20th 2007

Sarkozy undeterred amid strikes

'Million' homeless in Somalia

UN HIV estimates reduced to 33m

November 20th 2008

UN agrees DR Congo troop increase

China fears grow over job losses

Putin vows to prevent 'collapse'

November 20th 2009

Five shot dead on the Pacific island

1000s flee Congo fishing clashes

Match-fixing inquiry into 200 football games

November 20th 2010

Russia to help Nato with defence shield

Nato backs Afghan exit plan

Pope says Condoms OK

November 20th 2011

Birthdates which occurred on November 20th:

1602 Otto von Guericke inventor (air pump)
1620 Peregrine White son of William & Susanna White, born aboard Mayflower
1726 Oliver Wolcott (Ct-Gov), signed Declaration of Independence
1752 Thomas Chatterton English poet (Christabel)
1761 Pius VIII 253rd Roman Catholic pope (1829-30)
1841 Sir Wilfrid Laurier (L) 7th Canadian PM (1896-1911)
1858 Selma Lagerlof Sweden, novelist (Tales of a Manor-Nobel 1909)
1866 Kenesaw Mountain Landis judge/1st commissioner of baseball
1869 Clark Griffith Missouri, baseball player/manager (NY Yankees)
1873 Daniel Gregory Mason Brookline MA, composer (Chanticker)
1884 Norman Thomas Marion Ohio, socialist (presidential candidate 1928-48)
1886 Karl von Frisch zoologist/bee expert (Nobel 1973)
1889 Edwin Hubble astronomer (discoverer of galaxies, red shift)
1891 Leon Cadore pitcher (pitched all of 26 inning game)
19-- Conny Bloom rocker (Electric Boys-Funk-o-metal Carpet Ride)
19-- Dan Frazer NYC, actor (Frank-Kojak)
19-- Mark Miller Houston TX, actor (Please Don't Eat the Daisies)
19-- Tony Soper Yakima Wash, actor (Kay O'Brien)
1900 Chester Gould cartoonist (gave Dick Tracy a job)
1907 Fran Allison LaPorte City Iowa, actress (Kukla, Fran & Ollie)
1908 Alistair Cooke Manchester England, actor (Masterpiece Theatre)
1909 Alan Bible (Sen-D-NV, 1954-74)
1910 Pauli Murray famous African
1911 Jean Shiley US, high jumper (Olympic-gold-1932)
1914 Emilio Pucci Naples, fashion designer (Neiman-Marcus Award-1954)
1915 Kon Ichikawa Japan, director (Matatabi, Money Talks)
1916 Judy Canova Jacksonville FL, comedienne/actress (Cannonball)
1916 Robert A Bruce MD, pioneer (exercise cardiology)
1917 Robert Byrd (D-Sen-WV) majority leader
1918 Dora Ratjen Germany, man posing as woman high jumper (Oly-4th-1936)
1919 Evelyn Keyes actress (Adventure of Martin Eden)
1920 Douglas Dick Charlestown WV, actor (Carl-Waterfront)
1920 Gene Tierney Brooklyn, actress (Laura, Razor's Edge, Ghost & Mrs Muir)
1921 Phyllis Thaxter Portland Maine, actress (Nora, Fort Worth)
1923 Beryl Sprinkel Missouri, economist (Council of Economic Advisers)
1923 Nadine Gordimer South Africa, actress/writer (Lying Days)
1924 Benoit Mandelbrot Warsaw Poland, mathematician (proved Zipf's law)
1925 Maya Plisetkaya prima ballerina (Bolshoi Ballet)
1925 Robert Francis Kennedy Brookline MA (D-Sen-NY) AG; assassinated
1926 Kaye Ballard Cleveland Ohio, actress/comedienne (Kaye-Mothers-in-Law)
1927 Estelle Parsons Lynn MA, actress (Rachel Rachel, Bonnie & Clyde)
1928 Franklin Cover Cleveland, actor (Tom-The Jeffersons)
1928 Rex Reason Berlin Germany, actor (Man Without a Gun, Roaring 20s)
1929 Dick Clark Mt Vernon NY, TV host (American Bandstand)
1929 Kenneth DeWitt Schermerhorn Schenectady NY, conductor (American Ballet)
1932 Richard Dawson Hampshire England, actor (Hogan's Heroes, Family Feud)
1934 Valentine J Peter Omaha NB, priest (Boy's Town 1985- )
1937 Eero Muntyranta Finland, nordic ski relay (Olympic-gold-1960)
1937 Jack Linkletter San Francisco CA, TV host (Haggis Baggis, Hootenanny)
1937 Ruth Laredo (nee Meckler) Detroit MI, concert pianist
1939 Dick Smothers NYC, comedian (Smother Brothers' Show)
1940 Bob Einstein Los Angeles CA, comedian (Officer Judy, Super Dave Osborne)
1941 Gary Karr Los Angeles CA, double-bassist (Oslo Philharmonic)
1942 Joseph R Biden Jr (D-Sen-Del)
1942 Norman Greenbaum Massachusetts, folk singer (Spirit in the Sky)
1943 Veronica Hamel Philadelphia PA, actress (Joyce-Hill St Blues, 79 Park Ave)
1944 Anthea Stewart Zimbabwe, field hockey coach/player (Olympic-1980)
1946 Duane Allman rocker (Allman Brothers-Jessica, Ramblin' Man)
1946 Judy Woodruff newscaster (McNeil Lehrer Report)
1947 Joe Walsh Wichita KS, guitarist/rocker (Eagles-Take it Easy)
1948 Richard Masur NYC, actor (David-One Day at a Time)
1948 Samuel E Wright Camden SC, actor (Enos, Ball Four)
1949 Juha Mieto Finland, 15KM skier (Olympic-silver-1980)
1949 Ray Vitte NYC, actor (Doc, Cody-Quest)
1952 Robert Lipton NYC, actor (Tom-The Survivors, As the World Turns)
1954 Steve Dahl California, Chicago's anti-disco DJ (WLS-FM)
1956 Bo Derek Long Beach Cal, actress (10, Tarzan the Ape Man)
1956 Mark Gastineau NFL end (NY Jets, Pro Bowl 1981-85)
1959 Sean Young Louisville KY, actress (Dune, Young Doctor in Love)
1962 Steve Alexander rocker (Brother Beyond-Can You Keep a Secret)
1964 Ned Vaughn actor (The Rescuer)
1965 Mike D [Diamond], rocker (Beastie Boys-You Gotta Fight)
1967 Jeff Cotler Long Beach CA, actor (Brian-Struck by Lightning)
1974 Marisa Ryan actress (Major Dad)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Deaths which occurred on November 20th:
1910 Leo Tolstoy Russia, author (Anna Karenina), dies at 82
1962 Jasper McLevy socialist mayor of Bridgeport CT, dies
1968 Cathy Lewis actress (Deidre-Hazel), dies at 50
1973 Allan Sherman songwriter ("Camp Granada"), dies
1975 Gen Francisco Franco Spain's dictator, dies in Madrid at 82
1983 Marcel Dalio actor (Casablanca), dies at 83
1983 Richard Loo actor, dies of cardio-pulmonary arrest
1985 Bill Scott cartoon voice (Mr Peabody, Bullwinkle), dies at 65
1995 Sergei Grinkov Soviet ice skater (Olympic Gold 1988.1994) dies (heart attack ?) at 28