Today In History - September 20

622 Mohammad's Hegira
1519 Magellan starts the first successful circumnavigation of the world
1565 The Spaniards capture Fort Caroline and massacre the French
1664 Maryland enacts the first anti-amalgamation law to prevent widespread intermarriage of English women and black men
1777 The Paoli massacre
1792 The French defeat the Prussians at Valmy
1797 The US frigate Constitution "Old Ironsides" is launched in Boston
1830 The first National Black convention meets in Philadelphia
1850 The slave trade is abolished in DC - but slavery is allowed to continue
1854 The British and the French defeat the Russians at Alma
1859 A patent granted on the electric range
1860 The first British royalty to visit the US: Prince of Wales
1863 The Civil War Battle of Chickamauga ends
1873 Panic sweeps New York Stock Exchange because of the railroad bond default/bank failure
1877 Chase National Bank opens in New York City
1879 President U.S. Grant comes to San Francisco for an extended visit
1881 Chester A. Arthur is sworn in as president
1884 The 6.2 mile Arlberg railroad tunnel is completed in Austria
1884 The Equal Rights Party nominates female candidates for president and vice president
1942 Gunther Hagg becomes the world champion of all records from 1500m to 5000m
1945 German rocket engineers begin work in the US
1948 The Mexican Baseball league disbanded
1949 Tennis player Pancho Gonzales turns professional
1951 The first North Pole jet crossing
1951 Ford Frick is elected the Commissioner of Baseball
1954 The first FORTRAN computer program ran
1954 The first National People's Congress adopts Chinese constitution
1954 Roger Bannister awarded Britain's Silver Pears Trophy
1958 Martin Luther King, Jr. is stabbed in the chest by a deranged black woman in New York City
1960 The UN General Assembly admits 13 African countries and Cyprus
1962 James Meredith is blocked from entering Mississippi University as its first black
1964 Paramount theater (New York City) presented the Beatles and Steve and Eydie
1967 Hurricane Beulah hits Texas-Mexican border and kills 38 people
1968 Mickey Mantle hits final career home run: #536
1970 Luna 16 lands on Moon's surface and drills core samples
1972 Police find cannabis growing on Paul and Linda McCartney's farm
1973 Billy Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in a 'battle-of-the-sexes' tennis match
1973 Jim Croce (Time in a Bottle • Bad, Bad Leroy Brown) dies in a plane crash at age 30
1973 Willie Mays announces retirement at end of 1973 season
1976 Playboy Magazine releases President Jimmy Carter's interview saying that he lusts for women
1976 Sid Berstein offers $230 million charity concert for a Beatle reunion
1979 NASA launches HEAO
1981 Joe Danelo kicks then New York Giant record 55 yard field goal
1982 NFL players begin a 57 day strike
1984 Suicide car bomb attacks US Embassy annex in Beirut
1985 Walt Disney World's 200-millionth guest arrives
1987 Walter Payton scores NFL record 107th rushing touchdown
1990 Both Germanys (East/West) ratify reunification
1990 Saddam Hussein demands that US television networks broadcast his message

Today In History - September 20

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