History Events on September 20

At the Battle of Fulford, Harald Hardrada defeats earls Morcar and Edwin.

#Battle_of_Fulford

The White Star Line's RMS Olympic collides with the British warship HMS Hawke.

#RMS_Olympic

Agnes of Poitou and Andrew I of Hungary meet to negotiate about the border territory of Burgenland.

#Agnes_of_Poitou

The South Africa Act 1909 creates the Union of South Africa from the British Colonies from four smaller colonies.

#South_Africa_Act_1909

Charles Duryea and his brother road-test the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.

#Charles_Duryea

The Holocaust in Lithuania: Lithuanian Nazis and local police murder 403 Jews in Nemen?in?.

#The_Holocaust_in_Lithuania

Having weakened after making landfall in Nicaragua the previous day, Hurricane Irene regains enough strength to be renamed Hurricane Olivia, making it the first known hurricane to cross from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.

#Hurricane_Irene-Olivia

The ocean liner SS France, later known as the "Versailles of the Atlantic", is launched.

#SS_France_(1910)

Civil unrest in the Maldives breaks out after a prisoner is killed by guards.

#2003_Maldives_civil_unrest

American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, ends in a Confederate victory.

#American_Civil_War

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.

#Indian_Rebellion_of_1857

A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.

#1984_United_States_embassy_annex_bombing_in_Beirut

South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia.

#South_Ossetia

Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, resulting in 2,975 deaths, US$90 billion in damage, and a major humanitarian crisis.

#Hurricane_Maria

The United States military ends its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

#Don't_ask,_don't_tell

French troops stop an allied invasion of France at the Battle of Valmy.

#Battle_of_Valmy

Cardinal Robert of Geneva is elected as Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.

#Antipope_Clement_VII

Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations.

#Vietnam

The Bersaglieri corps enter Rome through the Porta Pia, and complete the unification of Italy.

#Capture_of_Rome

Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem.

#Siege_of_Jerusalem_(1187)

The Nankai tsunami washes away the building housing the Great Buddha at K?toku-in. It has been outside since then.

#1498_Nankai_earthquake

A dump truck full of explosives detonates in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 54 people and injuring 266 others.

#Islamabad_Marriott_Hotel_bombing

James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

#James_Meredith

Crimean War: British and French troops defeat Russians at the Battle of Alma.

#Crimean_War

At least 161 people die after a ferry capsized close to the pier on Ukara Island in Lake Victoria and part of Tanzania.

#Ukara_Island

The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania is launched at Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

#RMS_Mauretania_(1906)

The decade-long Ragamuffin War starts when rebels capture Porto Alegre in Brazil.

#Ragamuffin_War

The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed seven years due to World War II.

#Cannes_Film_Festival

Six days after a referendum, King Christian X of Denmark annuls the declaration of independence of the Faroe Islands.

#1946_Faroese_independence_referendum

The Holocaust in Ukraine: In the course of two days a German Einsatzgruppe murders at least 3,000 Jews in Letychiv.

#The_Holocaust_in_Ukraine

U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in, the morning after becoming President upon James A. Garfield's death.

#Chester_A._Arthur

Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.

#Ferdinand_Magellan

Singer Jim Croce, songwiter and musician Maury Muehleisen and four others die when their light aircraft crashes on takeoff at Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana.

#Jim_Croce

The finish of the Walking Purchase which forces the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.

#Walking_Purchase

Roughly 4 million people, mostly students, demonstrate across the world against climate change. 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden leads the demonstration in New York City.

#September_2019_climate_strikes

Football players begin a 57-day strike during the 1982 NFL season.

#1982_NFL_season

Between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena, Louisiana, in support of six black youths who had been convicted of assaulting a white classmate.

In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "War on Terror".

The United Kingdom's MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building is attacked by individuals using a Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank missile.

A French-supported coup d'état in the Central African Empire overthrows Emperor Bokassa I.

Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome.

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched Clydebank, Scotland.

Following the Battle of Burki, the Indian Army captures Dograi in course of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

Greek general Konstantinos Dovas becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

The Treaty on Relations between the USSR and the GDR is signed.

Bishop John Coleridge Patteson, first bishop of Melanesia, is martyred on Nukapu, now in the Solomon Islands.

The future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom begins the first visit to North America by a Prince of Wales.

The Treaty of Ryswick is signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, ending the Nine Years' War.

Diego de Montemayor founds the city of Monterrey in New Spain.

The Great Prussian Uprising among the old Prussians begins against the Teutonic Knights.