June 20 - Events

Events

• 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
• 1214 – The University of Oxford receives its charter.
• 1631 – The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
• 1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire, served until 21 March 1653.
• 1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England atBridgwater.
• 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
• 1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
• 1787 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.
• 1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
• 1791 – King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during The French Revolution.
• 1819 – The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.
• 1837 – Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
• 1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.
• 1862 – Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
• 1863 – American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
• 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• 1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother.
• 1919 – 150 die at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.
• 1944 – Continuation war: Soviet Union demands for an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successfulVyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. Finnish government declines the demand.
• 1948 – Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, makes its television debut.
• 1956 – A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.
• 1959 – A rare June hurricane struck Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
• 1960 – Independence of Mali and Senegal.
• 1963 – The so-called "red telephone" is established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• 1973 – Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
• 1979 – ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparked international outcry of the regime.
• 1982 – The Argentine base (Corbeta Uruguay) on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of theFalklands War.
• 1990 – Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
• 1991 – The German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.
• 2003 – The WikiMedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.