Skip to content

Home arrow Trivia Resources arrow On this day in history

On this day in History Archives
 
At PaulsQuiz.com we aim to provide you with as much information as we possibly can. That's why we have built our On This Day in History section, to do just that. Our database is forever growing, we're adding more and more events from history to help you write your quiz questions.

Simply enter a date using the drop-down boxes below and click the 'Go' button to display events from the past that ocurred on that day.
 

 
20 April, 2007
Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
20 April, 2004
In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
20 April, 1999
Columbine High School massacre: Two gunmen kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado.
20 April, 1998
TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53.
20 April, 1998
German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
20 April, 1986
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years.
20 April, 1986
Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in an NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics.
20 April, 1985
ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
20 April, 1980
Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria as hundreds of Berber political activists are arrested.
20 April, 1978
Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets.
20 April, 1972
Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
20 April, 1968
A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa, killing 122.
20 April, 1968
English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
20 April, 1967
A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126.
20 April, 1964
BBC Two launches with the power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.
20 April, 1961
Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US troops against Cuba.
20 April, 1945
World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
20 April, 1945
Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
20 April, 1926
Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
20 April, 1918
Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
20 April, 1914
Forty-five men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miners strike.
20 April, 1912
Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
20 April, 1908
Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
20 April, 1902
Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
20 April, 1884
Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.
20 April, 1871
Civil Rights Act of 1871
20 April, 1862
The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
20 April, 1861
American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
20 April, 1836
U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
20 April, 1828
René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou.
20 April, 1810
The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain.
20 April, 1792
France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
20 April, 1775
American Revolutionary War: the siege of Boston begins, which followed the first battles at Lexington and Concord.
20 April, 1689
The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
20 April, 1657
Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
20 April, 1657
Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
20 April, 1653
Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.
20 April, 1534
Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador.
20 April, 1303
The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.

Choose another day in history

January

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

February

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29

March

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

April

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

May

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

June

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

July

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

August

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

September

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

October

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

November

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

December

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31

PaulsQuiz.com Exclusive: Free Questions in Your Inbox

Join the PaulsQuiz.com Facebook Group

Christmas Quizzes

Copyright © 2008 - Paul Abrook and Dave Small
RSS Feed RSS Feed | Free Quiz Questions | Pub Quiz Questions - at our Sister site