# On this day: July 20

July 20 is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years), with 164 days left until the end of the year.

## July 20 in one line

Headline entries for July 20, from Wikipedia: in 1969, The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later; born 1304: Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (died 1374); died 1973: Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (born 1940). In 2026 it is a Monday, in 2027 a Tuesday.

## Events on July 20

- 1333 Second War of Scottish Inde­pen­dence: The Scottish-held town of Berwick-upon-Tweed surrendered to English forces, ending a siege led by King Edward III. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Berwick_(1333))
- 1592 During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were ultimately unable to hold it. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imjin_War)
- 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms: After crossing the Firth of Forth, English Commonwealth forces defeated a Scottish army at the Battle of Inverkeithing, opening the rest of the country to occupation. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Inverkeithing)
- 1793 Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific coast at Bella Coola, British Columbia, completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer))
- 1807 French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce received a patent for their Pyréolophore, one of the world's first internal combustion engines. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyr%C3%A9olophore)
- 1867 The United States Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to seek peace treaties with a number of Native American tribes. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Peace_Commission)
- 1903 The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company)
- 1914 George V reviewed more than 200 Royal Navy vessels at Spithead, England. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_fleet_review)
- 1917 Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić and Yugoslav Committee president Ante Trumbić signed the Corfu Declaration, agreeing to seek the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corfu_Declaration)
- 1936 The July 1936 military uprising in Barcelona is defeated by anarchist militias and Republican loyalists, beginning the Spanish Revolution of 1936. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_1936_military_uprising_in_Barcelona)
- 1940 Denmark leaves the League of Nations. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations)
- 1944 World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_plot)
- 1950 Korean War: After a month-long campaign, much of the North Korean air force was destroyed by United Nations forces. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Battle_of_South_Korea)
- 1951 Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated while visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abdullah_I_of_Jordan)
- 1968 The first games of the Special Olympics, for athletes with intellectual disabilities, were held at Soldier Field in Chicago. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Olympics)
- 1969 The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11)
- 1969 A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, six days after the beginning of the "Football War". [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War)
- 1976 The Viking 1 lander became the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and perform its mission. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1)
- 1977 Rain from a stalled thunderstorm caused six dams to fail, flooding Johnstown, Pennsylvania, resulting in 84 deaths and $340 in damages. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_flood_of_1977)
- 1982 Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in London, killing eleven British Army personnel and seven horses. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park_and_Regent's_Park_bombings)
- 1989 Burma's ruling junta puts opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi)
- 1992 Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel)
- 1997 USS Constitution, one of the United States Navy's original six frigates, sailed for the first time in 116 years after a full restoration. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy)
- 2001 Twenty-three-year-old Italian anti-globalist Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a police officer while protesting outside the 27th G8 summit held in Genoa, Italy. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Carlo_Giuliani)
- 2012 A gunman carried out a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_theater_shooting)
- 2015 A suicide attack in Suruç, Turkey, for which Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility, killed 34 people and injured 104 others. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suru%C3%A7_bombing)

## Born on July 20

- 1304 Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (died 1374) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrarch)
- 1519 Pope Innocent IX (died 1591) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_IX)
- 1789 Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (died 1839) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmud_II)
- 1804 Richard Owen, English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (died 1892) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Owen)
- 1822 Gregor Mendel, Austro-German monk, geneticist and botanist (died 1884) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel)
- 1864 Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1931) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Axel_Karlfeldt)
- 1873 Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian pilot (died 1932) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont)
- 1897 Tadeusz Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Reichstein)
- 1919 Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (died 2008) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary)
- 1925 Frantz Fanon, French–Algerian psychiatrist and philosopher (died 1961) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon)
- 1925 Jacques Delors, French economist and politician, 8th President of the European Commission (died 2023) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Delors)
- 1933 Cormac McCarthy, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (died 2023) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy)
- 1938 Natalie Wood, American actress (died 1981) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Wood)
- 1938 Diana Rigg, English actress (died 2020) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Rigg)
- 1947 Carlos Santana, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Santana)
- 1947 Gerd Binnig, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Binnig)
- 1962 Carlos Alazraqui, American actor, producer, and screenwriter [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Alazraqui)
- 1964 Chris Cornell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2017) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cornell)
- 1966 Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican lawyer and politician, 57th President of Mexico [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Pe%C3%B1a_Nieto)
- 1973 Haakon VIII of Norway [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haakon_VIII)
- 1977 Alessandro Santos, Brazilian-Japanese footballer [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Santos)
- 1980 Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian model, fashionista, and businesswoman [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gisele_B%C3%BCndchen)

## Died on July 20

- 1031 Robert II, king of France (born 972) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_II_of_France)
- 1816 Gavrila Derzhavin, Russian poet and politician (born 1743) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrila_Derzhavin)
- 1866 Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician and academic (born 1826) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Riemann)
- 1903 Leo XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1810) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIII)
- 1922 Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician and theorist (born 1856) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Markov)
- 1923 Pancho Villa, Mexican general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua (born 1878) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Villa)
- 1926 Felix Dzerzhinsky, Soviet educator and politician of Belarusian origin (born 1877) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Dzerzhinsky)
- 1927 Ferdinand I, king of Romania (born 1865) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_I_of_Romania)
- 1937 Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi)
- 1945 Paul Valéry, French author and poet (born 1871) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Val%C3%A9ry)
- 1951 Abdullah I, king of Jordan (born 1882) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan)
- 1973 Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (born 1940) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee)
- 2011 Lucian Freud, German-English painter and illustrator (born 1922) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Freud)
- 2017 Chester Bennington, American singer (born 1976) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Bennington)

## Holidays and observances

- Birthday of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus (Norway) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_flying_days_in_Norway)
- Christian feast day: Ansegisus [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansegisus)
- Christian feast day: Apollinaris of Ravenna [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollinaris_of_Ravenna)
- Christian feast day: Aurelius of Carthage [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelius_of_Carthage)
- Christian feast day: Elijah [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah)
- Christian feast day: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman (Episcopal Church (USA)) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cady_Stanton)
- Christian feast day: Frumentius [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frumentius)
- Christian feast day: Giuseppe Beotti [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Beotti)
- Christian feast day: John Baptist Yi (one of The Korean Martyrs) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baptist_Yi_Kwang-nyol)
- Christian feast day: Margaret the Virgin [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_the_Virgin)
- Christian feast day: Rita Josefa Pujalte Sánchez [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Josefa_Pujalte_S%C3%A1nchez)
- Christian feast day: Thorlac (relic translation) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thorlak)
- Christian feast day: Wilgefortis [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilgefortis)
- Christian feast day: July 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics))
- Día del Amigo (Argentina, Brazil) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Day)
- Engineer's Day (Costa Rica) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineer's_Day)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of Colombia from Spain in 1810. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Colombia)
- International Chess Day [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Chess_Day)
- Lempira Day (Honduras) [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Honduras)

## Sources

- [Wikipedia — “July 20”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20) — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
- [Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/July 20”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries/July_20) — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
- [vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence)](https://github.com/vacanza/holidays) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article [“July 20”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20) and the articles it links to ([authors and history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20?action=history)), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for July 20 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.

## July 20 in the calendar

| Year | Weekday | ISO week | Moon (UTC) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2026 | Monday | 2026-W30 | 🌒 Waxing Crescent |
| 2027 | Tuesday | 2027-W29 | 🌖 Waning Gibbous |
| 2028 | Thursday | 2028-W29 | 🌘 Waning Crescent |
| 2029 | Friday | 2029-W29 | 🌔 Waxing Gibbous |
| 2030 | Saturday | 2030-W29 | 🌖 Waning Gibbous |

Moon phases are for the day in UTC; at the edges of a phase your local date can differ.

## Public holidays on July 20

- [🇯🇵 Japan](https://whathappen.today/holidays/japan/): Marine Day (2026)
- [🇨🇴 Colombia](https://whathappen.today/holidays/colombia/): Independence Day (2026 and 2027)

[Today's holidays in 28 countries →](https://whathappen.today/holidays/)

## Nearby dates

[← July 19](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/july-19/) · [July 21 →](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/july-21/)

[All 366 days](https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/)

Last updated: 15 October 2026

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Web page: https://whathappen.today/on-this-day/july-20/