November 20 facts for kids

November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 41 days remain until the end of the year.

November 20th is a day filled with many important events throughout history, from ancient Roman times to modern-day achievements. It's also a special day for celebrating children's rights and remembering important figures.

Historical Events

Early History (Before 1600)

• 284 – Diocletian became the new Roman emperor.
• 762 – The Tang Dynasty in China, with help from the Uyghur Khaganate, took back the city of Luoyang from rebels during the An Shi Rebellion.
• 1194 – The city of Palermo was taken over by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1407 – John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, agreed to a truce, trying to end their conflict.
• 1441 – The Peace of Cremona officially ended a war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan.

From the 1600s to the 1900s

• 1695 – Zumbi, a brave leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, died fighting against Portuguese forces. This day is now known as Black Awareness Day in Brazil.
• 1739 – The Battle of Porto Bello began between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
• 1776 – During the American Revolutionary War, British forces landed near the Palisades and attacked Fort Lee. The Continental Army then started to retreat across New Jersey.
• 1789 – New Jersey became the first U.S. state to officially approve the Bill of Rights, which protects many important freedoms.
• 1805 – Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, was performed for the first time in Vienna.
• 1815 – The Second Treaty of Paris was signed, changing France's borders back to how they were in 1790 and requiring them to pay large amounts of money.
• 1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacked and sank the Essex, a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the coast of South America. This event partly inspired Herman Melville's famous novel Moby-Dick.
• 1845 – The Battle of Vuelta de Obligado took place during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata.
• 1861 – During the American Civil War, Kentucky's Confederate government filed an official document to leave the Union.
• 1873 – French forces, led by Lieutenant Francis Garnier, captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese.
• 1900 – Famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt met with the press in New York at the start of her tour, discussing her plans to play the main role in Hamlet.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• 1910 – The Mexican Revolution officially began when Francisco I. Madero issued the Plan de San Luis Potosí, calling for a revolution to overthrow the Mexican government.
• 1917 – In World War I, the Battle of Cambrai started. British forces initially made good progress against German positions but were later pushed back.
• 1940 – During World War II, Hungary officially joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact.
• 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) began. U.S. Marines landed on Tarawa Atoll and faced heavy fire from Japanese guns.
• 1945 – The Nuremberg Trials began at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, where 24 Nazi leaders were put on trial for war crimes.
• 1947 – Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London. Philip became the Duke of Edinburgh.
• 1959 – The United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a document outlining the rights of children around the world.
• 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy ended the naval blockade of Cuba.
• 1968 – An explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia, killed 78 miners in the Farmington Mine disaster.
• 1969 – The Plain Dealer newspaper published shocking photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.
• 1969 – Native American activists took control of Alcatraz Island in a protest that lasted until June 11, 1971.
• 1974 – The United States Department of Justice filed its final anti-trust lawsuit against AT&T Corporation, which later led to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.
• 1974 – The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 happened when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashed during takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 people.
• 1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel. He met Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and spoke to the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking lasting peace.
• 1979 – About 200 Sunni Muslims revolted at the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during a pilgrimage, taking about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government, with help from Pakistani special forces, ended the uprising.
• 1980 – Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drained into an underground salt deposit after a Texaco oil probe accidentally drilled into a salt mine, causing water to flow in and erode the hole.
• 1985 – Microsoft released Windows 1.0, its first graphical operating system for personal computers.
• 1989 – During the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, the number of protesters in Prague grew to an estimated half-million people.
• 1991 – An Azerbaijani helicopter carrying 19 people, including officials and journalists, was shot down by Armenian military forces.
• 1992 – A fire broke out in Windsor Castle in England, causing significant damage and costing over £50 million.
• 1993 – North Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurred when Avioimpex Flight 110 crashed near Ohrid, killing all 116 people on board.
• 1994 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels signed the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war.
• 1996 – A fire broke out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81.
• 1998 – The first module for the International Space Station, called Zarya, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
• 2016 – Jimmie Johnson won his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship, tying the record held by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.
• 2022 – The 2022 FIFA World Cup began in Qatar, marking the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East.

Famous Birthdays

Born Before 1900

• 270 – Maximinus II, a Roman emperor.
• 939 – Emperor Taizong of Song, a Chinese emperor.
• 1545 – Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Pomerania.
• 1602 – Otto von Guericke, a German physicist and politician.
• 1620 – Avvakum, a Russian priest and saint.
• 1625 – Paulus Potter, a Dutch painter.
• 1688 – Gyeongjong of Joseon, the 20th king of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea.
• 1750 – Tipu Sultan, an Indian ruler.
• 1752 – Thomas Chatterton, an English poet.
• 1761 – Pope Pius VIII, a leader of the Catholic Church.
• 1787 – Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse, a German inventor of firearms.
• 1820 – Mikhail Dragomirov, a Russian general.
• 1841 – Wilfrid Laurier, the 7th Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1858 – Selma Lagerlöf, a Swedish author and educator who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1866 – Kenesaw Mountain Landis, an American lawyer and judge, known for his role in baseball.
• 1871 – William Heard Kilpatrick, an American educator.
• 1889 – Edwin Hubble, a famous American astronomer and cosmologist who discovered that the universe is expanding.
• 1892 – James Collip, a Canadian biochemist who helped discover insulin.
• 1896 – Carl Mayer, an Austrian-Jewish screenplay writer.

Born After 1900

• 1901 – José Leandro Andrade, a Uruguayan footballer.
• 1907 – Henri-Georges Clouzot, a French film director.
• 1908 – Alistair Cooke, a British-American journalist and author.
• 1910 – Pauli Murray, an American civil rights and women's rights activist, lawyer, and priest.
• 1915 – Kon Ichikawa, a Japanese film director.
• 1915 – Hu Yaobang, a Chinese politician.
• 1917 – Robert Byrd, an American lawyer and politician.
• 1923 – Nadine Gordimer, a South African novelist and activist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1924 – Benoit Mandelbrot, a Polish-American mathematician known for his work on fractals.
• 1925 – Robert F. Kennedy, an American lawyer and politician, and the 64th United States Attorney General.
• 1925 – Maya Plisetskaya, a famous Russian-Lithuanian ballerina.
• 1932 – Richard Dawson, an English-American actor and game show host.
• 1936 – Don DeLillo, an American novelist.
• 1941 – Dr. John, an American singer and songwriter.
• 1942 – Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States.
• 1942 – Bob Einstein, an American actor and comedian.
• 1946 – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
• 1947 – Joe Walsh, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
• 1948 – John R. Bolton, an American lawyer and diplomat, and a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
• 1956 – Bo Derek, an American actress.
• 1957 – Goodluck Jonathan, a former President of Nigeria.
• 1959 – Sean Young, an American actress.
• 1962 – Peng Liyuan, the wife of Xi Jinping, the current leader of China.
• 1963 – Ming-Na Wen, a Chinese-American actress.
• 1965 – Mike D, an American rapper and drummer, member of the Beastie Boys.
• 1970 – Phife Dawg, an American rapper, member of A Tribe Called Quest.
• 1971 – Joel McHale, an American comedian and actor.
• 1975 – Dierks Bentley, an American country singer-songwriter.
• 1976 – Dominique Dawes, an American gymnast.
• 1981 – Carlos Boozer, an American basketball player.
• 1981 – Kimberley Walsh, an English singer and actress.
• 1983 – Future, an American rapper.
• 1989 – Cody Linley, an American actor and singer.
• 2000 – Connie Talbot, an English singer-songwriter.
• 2002 – Madisyn Shipman, an American actress.

Notable Deaths

Died Before 1900

• 284 – Numerian, a Roman emperor.
• 869 – Edmund the Martyr, an English king.
• 996 – Richard I, Duke of Normandy.
• 1316 – John I, King of France and Navarra, who lived only a few days.
• 1591 – Christopher Hatton, an English politician and Lord Chancellor of England.
• 1695 – Zumbi, the Brazilian leader mentioned earlier.
• 1737 – Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of England and Ireland.
• 1764 – Christian Goldbach, a Prussian mathematician known for Goldbach's Conjecture.
• 1882 – Henry Draper, an American doctor and astronomer.
• 1894 – Anton Rubinstein, a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor.

Died After 1900

• 1907 – Paula Modersohn-Becker, a German painter.
• 1910 – Leo Tolstoy, a famous Russian author known for War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
• 1918 – John Bauer, a Swedish painter and illustrator.
• 1924 – Ebenezer Cobb Morley, an English sportsman considered the "father" of the Football Association and modern football.
• 1925 – Alexandra of Denmark, Queen of the United Kingdom.
• 1934 – Willem de Sitter, a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer.
• 1938 – Maud of Wales, Queen of Norway.
• 1945 – Francis William Aston, an English chemist and physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1952 – Benedetto Croce, an Italian philosopher and politician.
• 1954 – Clyde Vernon Cessna, an American pilot and engineer who founded the Cessna Aircraft Corporation.
• 1975 – Francisco Franco, a Spanish general and dictator.
• 1978 – Giorgio de Chirico, a Greek-Italian painter and sculptor.
• 1980 – John McEwen, the 18th Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1995 – Sergei Grinkov, a Russian figure skater.
• 1998 – Galina Starovoytova, a Russian ethnographer and politician.
• 1999 – Amintore Fanfani, a former Prime Minister of Italy.
• 2006 – Robert Altman, an American film director.
• 2007 – Ian Smith, the first Prime Minister of Rhodesia.
• 2013 – Sylvia Browne, an American author.
• 2014 – Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba, a Spanish noblewoman.
• 2018 – Aaron Klug, a Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 2020 – Jan Morris, a Welsh historian, author, and travel writer.

Holidays and Observances Around the World

• 20-N (Spain)
• Africa Industrialization Day (celebrated internationally)
• Black Awareness Day (Brazil)
• Children's Day (celebrated in many places)
• Christian feast day:
  • Agapius
  • Ambrose Traversari
  • Bernward of Hildesheim
  • Edmund the Martyr
  • Blessed Josaphata Hordashevska (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
• Earliest day for the Feast of Christ the King (Roman Catholic Church)
• National Sovereignty Day ( Argentina)
• Day of the Mexican Revolution ( Mexico)
• Royal Thai Navy Day ( Thailand)
• Saint Verhaegen ( Brussels)
• Teachers' Day or Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam ( Vietnam)
• Transgender Day of Remembrance (observed by the LGBT community)

See also

In Spanish: 20 de noviembre para niños