History Events on April 20

Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.

#Johnson_Space_Center_shooting

The Georgian king, Erekle II, abandoned by his Russian ally Count Totleben, wins a victory over Ottoman forces at Aspindza.

#Georgia_(country)

Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

#First_French_Empire

René Caillié becomes the second non-Muslim to enter (and the first to return from) Timbuktu, following Major Gordon Laing.

#René_Caillié

U.S. President William McKinley signed a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of War against Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War.

#William_McKinley

English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech.

#Enoch_Powell

The Soviet government creates South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within Georgian SSR.

#Soviet_Union

Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus.

#Pope_Leo_XIII

Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.

#Angelo_Secchi

The case of Ashford v Thornton ends, with Abraham Thornton allowed to go free rather than face a retrial for murder, after his demand for trial by battle is upheld.

#Ashford_v_Thornton

Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

#Columbine_High_School_massacre

Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).

#Freedom_of_religion

Jacques Cartier begins his first voyage to what is today the east coast of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador.

#Jacques_Cartier

Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

#Manfred_von_Richthofen

Nineteen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miners' strike.

#Ludlow_Massacre

Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

#Danica_Patrick

One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan.

#Bhoja_Air_Flight_213

Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

#Cold_War

Start of Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War, a new phase in the Burmese Civil War (1740-57).

#Konbaung-Hanthawaddy_War

American Revolutionary War: The Siege of Boston begins, following the battles at Lexington and Concord.

#American_Revolutionary_War

The sun dog phenomenon is observed over Stockholm, as later depicted in the famous painting Vädersolstavlan.

#Sun_dog

Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland.

#2015_Garowe_attack

Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

#Neuengamme_concentration_camp

World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

#Führerbunker

Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.

#Louis_Pasteur

U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

#United_States_Congress

The Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in 11 innings.

#Chicago_Cubs

George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration.

#George_Washington

Three Genoese galleys and a Byzantine blockade runner fight their way through an Ottoman blockading fleet a few weeks before the fall of Constantinople.

#Byzantine_Empire

Apollo program: Apollo 16 lunar module, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the moon.

#Apollo_program

World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

#World_War_II

Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

#Pierre_Curie

Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.

#Oliver_Cromwell

American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.

#American_Civil_War

Deposed monarch James II of England lays siege to Derry.

#James_II_of_England

Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board.

#Air_France_Flight_422

France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.

#Francis_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

#League_of_Nations

Opening day for baseball's Tiger Stadium in Detroit, and Fenway Park in Boston.

#Baseball

The Governor of Caracas, Venezuela declares independence from Spain.

#Caracas

The Septinsular Republic is established.

#Septinsular_Republic

Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

#Robert_Blake_(admiral)

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing more than 150 people and injuring thousands.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.

The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.