What are the important events that happened on April 20? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

April 20: Facts & Myths About This Day

April 20 is the 111^th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 255 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 7, 2024 – a Saturday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 28,559,520 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectadecahenagon’ day.

Aries is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Diamond is the modern birthstone for this month. Opal is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 284 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,138 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

April 20 Historical Events

• 1689 –
  The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
• 1828 –
  René Caillié becomes the first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou.
• 1876 –
  The April Uprising, a key point in modern Bulgarian history, leading to the Russo-Turkish War and the liberation of Bulgaria from domination as an independent part of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1939 –
  Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday is celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
• 1964 –
  BBC Two launches with a power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.
• 1968 –
  English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
• 1978 –
  Korean Air Flight 902 is shot down by the Soviet Union.
• 1984 –
  The Good Friday Massacre, an extremely violent ice hockey playoff game, is played in Montreal, Canada.
• 2007 –
  Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
• 2008 –
  Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.

Who were born on April 20?

• 1851 –
  Young Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (d. 1875)
• 1889 –
  Albert Jean Amateau, Turkish-born businessman and activist (d. 1996)
• 1913 –
  Mimis Fotopoulos, Greek actor (d. 1986)
• 1918 –
  Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2007)
• 1920 –
  John Paul Stevens, American jurist
• 1936 –
  Pat Roberts, American politician
• 1961 –
  Konstantin Lavronenko, Russian actor
• 1962 –
  Henry Joseph Nasiff Jr. (AKA: Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf), American radio personality (d. 2001)
• 1965 –
  April March, American musician
• 1965 –
  Kostas Hatzidakis, Greek politician

Who died on April 20?

• 1887 –
  Muhammad Sharif Pasha, Egyptian statesman (b. 1826)
• 1899 –
  Joseph Wolf, German artist (b. 1820)
• 1902 –
  Joaquim de Sousa Andrade, Brazilian poet who designed the flag of the State of Maranhão (b. 1833)
• 1964 –
  Eddie Dyer, American baseball player (b. 1899)
• 1977 –
  Sepp Herberger, German football coach (b. 1897)
• 1996 –
  Christopher Robin Milne, son of A. A. Milne (b. 1920)
• 1999 –
  Cassie Bernall, Columbine High School massacre victim (b. 1981)
• 2003 –
  Bernard Katz, German-born biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
• 2008 –
  Monica Lovinescu, Romanian essayist, literary critic and journalist (b. 1923)
• 2011 –
  Chris Hondros, American photographer (b. 1970)