-
20 May 2015
The US Air Force Space Command launched the Boeing X-37B spaceplane for a classified mission.
-
20 May 2013
The Church of Scotland voted in favor of allowing openly gay men and women to be ministers.
-
20 May 2006
The Three Gorges Dam is officially opened.
-
20 May 1983
In South Africa, a car bomb planted by anti-Apartheid fighters kills 19.
-
20 May 1980
Quebec held a referendum on whether to begin negotiations with Canada to become independent.
-
20 May 1979
Elton John and his entourage flew into Moscow, making him the first western pop star to tour the USSR.
-
20 May 1972
Hard Job Being God, a Broadway musical, closed at the Edison Theater NYC after six performances.
-
20 May 1940
The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp.
-
20 May 1932
Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland.
-
20 May 1896
The chandelier of the Palais Garnier Opera House broke, and its debris fell on a crowd.
-
20 May 1891
The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope was shown to members of the National Federation of Women's Club.
-
20 May 1873
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented the first blue jeans with copper rivets.
-
20 May 1862
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Acts into law.
-
20 May 1609
Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published in London.
-
20 May 1498
After decades of failed attempts to reach the Indies, Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut, India.
-
20 May 685 AD
The Pictish armies of King Bridei Mac Bili won a decisive victory over the armies of Northumbria at the Battle of Dun Nechtain.
-
20 May 325 AD
The first Christian ecumenical council opens at Nicaea, Asia Minor. It was the first attempt to achieve agreement in the church.
