March 20 - Events

Events

• 235 – Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed emperor. He is the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.
• 1208 – Michael IV Autoreianos is appointed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
• 1600 – The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden.
• 1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established.
• 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
• 1760 – The "Great Fire" of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings.
• 1815 – After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
• 1848 – Revolutions of 1848 in the German states: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.
• 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
• 1861 – An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.
• 1883 – The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is signed.
• 1888 – The premiere of the very first Romani language operetta is staged in Moscow, Russia.
• 1913 – Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party, is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later.
• 1914 – In New Haven, Connecticut, the first international figure skating championship takes place.
• 1916 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
• 1922 – The USS Langley (CV-1) is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
• 1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States.
• 1933 – Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida's electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• 1942 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".
• 1948 – With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.
• 1951 – Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded.
• 1952 – The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
• 1956 – Tunisia gains independence from France.
• 1964 – The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
• 1972 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA car bomb kills seven and injures 148 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the first of many car bomb attacks by the group.
• 1974 – Ian Ball attempts, but fails, to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
• 1980 – The Radio Caroline ship, Mi Amigo founders in a gale off the English coast.
• 1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
• 1985 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
• 1987 – The Food and Drug Administration approves the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
• 1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
• 1990 – Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
• 1993 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb kills two children in Warrington, England. It leads to mass protests in both Britain and Ireland.
• 1995 – A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons.
• 1999 – Legoland California, the only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.
• 2000 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after murdering Georgia sheriff's deputy Ricky Kinchen and critically wounding Deputy Aldranon English.
• 2003 – 2003 invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.
• 2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.