On this day: November 20

Events on November 20

• 1776 American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey. Wikipedia
• 1789 New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights. Wikipedia
• 1805 Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna. Wikipedia
• 1917 First World War: The Battle of Cambrai began with British forces having initial success over Germany's Hindenburg Line. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. Wikipedia
• 1945 The Nuremberg trials (defendants pictured) of 24 leading Nazis involved in the Holocaust and various war crimes during World War II began in Nuremberg, Germany. Wikipedia
• 1947 Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI, married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who was given the title Duke of Edinburgh. Wikipedia
• 1947 The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London. Wikipedia
• 1959 The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation. Wikipedia
• 1969 Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1974 The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement. Wikipedia
• 1979 Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising. Wikipedia
• 1979 Armed insurgents attacked and took over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, declaring that one of their leaders was the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam. Wikipedia
• 1989 Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million. Wikipedia
• 1990 Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings. Wikipedia
• 1991 An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan. Wikipedia
• 1993 North Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurs when Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Ohrid Airport, killing all 116 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1993 Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating. Wikipedia
• 1994 The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.) Wikipedia
• 1998 A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Wikipedia
• 1998 The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Wikipedia
• 2003 After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate. Wikipedia
• 2022 The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East. Wikipedia

Born on November 20

• 1688 Gyeongjong of Joseon, 20th king of the Joseon Dynasty (died 1724) Wikipedia
• 1761 Pope Pius VIII (died 1830) Wikipedia
• 1850 Charlotte Garrigue, wife of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (died 1923) Wikipedia
• 1858 Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940) Wikipedia
• 1886 Karl von Frisch, Austrian-German ethologist and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1889 Edwin Hubble, American astronomer and cosmologist (died 1953) Wikipedia
• 1892 James Collip, Canadian biochemist and academic, co-discovered insulin (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1909 Samand Siabandov, Soviet Red Army writer (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1912 Otto von Habsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1913 Libertas Schulze-Boysen, German opponent of the Nazis (died 1942) Wikipedia
• 1923 Nadine Gordimer, South African novelist, short story writer, and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1924 Benoit Mandelbrot, Polish-American mathematician and economist (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1925 Robert F. Kennedy, US Navy officer, lawyer, and politician, 64th United States Attorney General (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1925 Maya Plisetskaya, Russian-Lithuanian ballerina, choreographer, actress, and director (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1942 Joe Biden, American politician, 46th President of the United States Wikipedia
• 1946 Patriarch Kirill of Moscow Wikipedia
• 1946 Algimantas Butnorius, Lithuanian chess Grandmaster (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1953 Nirmal Selvamony, Indian Tamil academician and ecocritic Wikipedia
• 1957 Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria Wikipedia
• 1962 Peng Liyuan, wife of Xi Jinping Wikipedia
• 1972 Tatiana Turanskaya, Transnistrian politician Wikipedia
• 1976 Tusshar Kapoor, Indian Bollywood actor and producer Wikipedia

Died on November 20

• 1889 August Ahlqvist, Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic (born 1826) Wikipedia
• 1910 Leo Tolstoy, Russian author and playwright (born 1828) Wikipedia
• 1924 Ebenezer Cobb Morley, English sportsman and the father of the Football Association and modern football (born 1831) Wikipedia
• 1925 Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Empress Consort of India (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1935 John Jellicoe, Royal Navy officer and First Sea Lord (born 1859) Wikipedia
• 1940 Arturo Bocchini, Chief of Police under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1945 Francis William Aston, English chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877) Wikipedia
• 1946 I Gusti Ngurah Rai, Indonesian officer (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 1952 Benedetto Croce, Italian philosopher and politician (born 1866) Wikipedia
• 1975 Francisco Franco, Spanish general and dictator, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1978 Giorgio de Chirico, Greek-Italian painter and sculptor (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1980 John McEwen, Australian lawyer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 2006 Robert Altman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2018 Aaron Klug, Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• 20-N (Spain) Wikipedia
• Africa Industrialization Day (international) Wikipedia
• Black Awareness Day (Brazil) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (World Children's Day) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Agapius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ambrose Traversari Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ampelus and Caius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Anacleto González Flores, José Sánchez del Río, and companions (Martyrs of Cristero War) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernward of Hildesheim Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dasius of Durostorum Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Edmund the Martyr Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Felec (or Felix) of Cornwall Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gregory of Dekapolis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Josaphata Hordashevska (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Solutor, Octavius, and Adventor Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theonestus of Vercelli Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Earliest day on which the Feast of Christ the King can fall, while November 26 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday before Advent. (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• National Sovereignty Day (Argentina) Wikipedia
• Day of the Mexican Revolution (Mexico) Wikipedia
• Royal Thai Navy Day (Thailand) Wikipedia
• Saint Verhaegen (Brussels) Wikipedia
• Teachers' Day or Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam (Vietnam) Wikipedia
• Transgender Day of Remembrance (LGBTQ community) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 20” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.