20 June

Events

Pre-1600

* 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.
* 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.

1601–1900

*1622 – The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years' War.
*1631 – The Sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
* 1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
*1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
*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, disguised as a valet, and the French royal family attempt to flee Paris during the French Revolution.
*1819 – The U.S. vessel arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It 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 of the murders of her father and stepmother.
*1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.
*1900 – Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.
* 1900 – Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship '' Zarya'', never to return.

1901–present

* 1921 – Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.
*1926 – The 28th International Eucharistic Congress begins in Chicago, with over 250,000 spectators attending the opening procession.
*1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
*1943 – The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days.
* 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Avro Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria.
*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: The Soviet Union demands an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.
* 1944 – The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.
*1945 – The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.
* 1948 – The Deutsche Mark is introduced in Western Allied-occupied Germany. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.
*1956 – A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.
*1959 – A rare June hurricane strikes Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
*1960 – The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).
*1963 – Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called " red telephone" link between Washington, D.C. and Moscow.
*1964 – A Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes in the Shengang District of Taiwan, killing 57 people.
*1972 – Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.
*1973 – Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
* 1973 – Aeroméxico Flight 229 crashes on approach to Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport, killing all 27 people on board.
*1975 – The film '' Jaws'' is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as " summer blockbusters".
*1979 – ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan National Guard soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
* 1982 – The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide opens in Tel Aviv, despite attempts by the Turkish government to cancel it, as it included presentations on the Armenian genocide.
* 1982 – The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.
*1988 – Haitian President Leslie Manigat is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant general Henri Namphy.
*1990 – Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
* 1990 – The 7.4 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''), killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.
*1991 – The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of Berlin.
*1994 – The 1994 Imam Reza shrine bomb explosion in Iran leaves at least 25 dead and 70 to 300 injured.
* 2003 – The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.
*2019 – Iran's Air Defense Forces shoot down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions between the two countries.

Births

Pre-1600

*1005 – Ali az-Zahir, Fatimid caliph of Egypt (d. 1036)
* 1389 – John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, English statesman (d. 1435)
*1469 – Gian Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan (d. 1494)
*1566 – Sigismund III Vasa, Polish and Swedish king (d. 1632)
* 1583 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden (d. 1652)

1601–1900

*1634 – Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy (d. 1675)
*1642 – ( O.S.) George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
*1647 – ( O.S.) John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
*1717 – Jacques Saly, French sculptor and painter (d. 1776)
*1723 – ( O.S.) Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
* 1737 – Tokugawa Ieharu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1786)
* 1754 – Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, princess of Baden (d. 1832)
*1756 – Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer and educator (d. 1792)
*1761 – Jacob Hübner, German entomologist and author (d. 1826)
*1763 – Wolfe Tone, Irish rebel leader (d. 1798)
*1770 – Moses Waddel, American minister and academic (d. 1840)
*1771 – Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright (d. 1820)
* 1771 – Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (d. 1848)
*1777 – Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (d. 1840)
*1778 – Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac, French politician, 7th Prime Minister of France (d. 1832)
*1786 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet and author (d. 1859)
* 1796 – Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso, Italian cardinal (d. 1878)
*1808 – Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1888)
*1809 – Isaak August Dorner, German theologian and academic (d. 1884)
*1813 – Joseph Autran, French poet and author (d. 1877)
*1819 – Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer (d. 1880)
*1847 – Gina Krog, Norwegian suffragist and women's rights activist (d. 1916)
*1855 – Richard Lodge, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
*1858 – Charles W. Chesnutt, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1932)
*1859 – Christian von Ehrenfels, Austrian philosopher (d. 1932)
*1860 – Alexander Winton, Scottish-American race car driver and engineer (d. 1932)
* 1860 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
*1861 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
* 1865 – George Redmayne Murray, English biologist and physician (d. 1939)
*1866 – James Burns, English cricketer (d. 1957)
*1867 – Leon Wachholz, Polish scientist and medical examiner (d. 1942)
*1869 – Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Indian businessman, founded the Kirloskar Group (d. 1956)
*1870 – Georges Dufrénoy, French painter and academic (d. 1943)
*1872 – George Carpenter, American 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
*1875 – Reginald Punnett, English geneticist, statistician, and academic (d. 1967)
*1882 – Daniel Sawyer, American golfer (d. 1937)
*1884 – Mary R. Calvert, American astronomer and author (d. 1974)
* 1884 – Johannes Heinrich Schultz, German psychiatrist and psychotherapist (d. 1970)
* 1885 – Andrzej Gawroński, Polish linguist and academic (d. 1927)
*1887 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter and illustrator (d. 1948)
*1889 – John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
*1891 – Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Italian soprano (d. 1951)
* 1891 – John A. Costello, Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1976)
*1893 – Wilhelm Zaisser, German soldier and politician (d. 1958)
*1894 – Lloyd Hall, American chemist and academic (d. 1971)
*1896 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1982)
*1897 – Elisabeth Hauptmann, German author and playwright (d. 1973)
*1899 – Jean Moulin, French soldier and engineer (d. 1943)

1901–present

*1903 – Sam Rabin, English wrestler, sculptor, and singer (d. 1991)
*1905 – Lillian Hellman, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1984)
*1906 – Bob King, American high jumper and obstetrician (d. 1965)
*1907 – Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (d. 1998)
*1908 – Billy Werber, American baseball player (d. 2009)
* 1908 – Gus Schilling, American actor (d. 1957)
*1909 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor (d. 1959)
*1910 – Josephine Johnson, American author and poet (d. 1990)
*1911 – Gail Patrick, American actress (d. 1980)
* 1912 – Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
* 1912 – Jack Torrance, American shot putter and football player (d. 1969)
* 1912 – Geoffrey Baker, English Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the British Army (d. 1980)
*1914 – Gordon Juckes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1994)
* 1914 – Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkish archaeologist and academic
*1915 – Dick Reynolds, Australian footballer and coach (d. 2002)
* 1915 – Terence Young, Chinese-English director and screenwriter (d. 1994)
*1916 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (d. 1973)
* 1916 – T. Texas Tyler, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972)
*1917 – Helena Rasiowa, Austrian-Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1994)
* 1918 – George Lynch, American race car driver (d. 1997)
* 1918 – Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian-American author (d. 2011)
* 1920 – Danny Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader (d. 1954)
* 1920 – Thomas Jefferson, American trumpet player (d. 1986)
* 1921 – Byron Farwell, American historian and author (d. 1999)
* 1921 – Pancho Segura, Ecuadorian tennis player (d. 2017)
*1923 – Peter Gay, German-American historian, author, and academic (d. 2015)
* 1923 – Jerzy Nowak, Polish actor and educator (d. 2013)
*1924 – Chet Atkins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2001)
* 1924 – Fritz Koenig, German sculptor and academic, designed The Sphere (d. 2017)
*1925 – Doris Hart, American tennis player and educator (d. 2015)
* 1925 – Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1971)
*1926 – Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli general and politician, 9th Israeli Minister of Tourism (d. 2001)
*1927 – Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (d. 2014)
*1928 – Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer (d. 1964)
* 1928 – Martin Landau, American actor and producer (d. 2017)
* 1928 – Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician
* 1928 – Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopian surgeon and educator (d. 1999)
*1929 – Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
* 1929 – Anne Weale, English journalist and author (d. 2007)
* 1929 – Edith Windsor, American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activist (d. 2017)
*1930 – Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish sculptor and academic (d. 2017)
* 1930 – John Waine, English bishop (d. 2020)
*1931 – Olympia Dukakis, American actress (d. 2021)
* 1931 – James Tolkan, American actor and director
*1932 – Robert Rozhdestvensky, Russian poet and author (d. 1994)
* 1933 – Danny Aiello, American actor (d. 2019)
* 1933 – Claire Tomalin, English journalist and author
*1934 – Wendy Craig, English actress
* 1935 – Jim Barker, American politician (d. 2005)
* 1935 – Len Dawson, American football player (d. 2022)
* 1935 – Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (d. 1971)
*1936 – Billy Guy, American singer (d. 2002)
* 1936 – Enn Vetemaa

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