On This Day: 20 April

20 April in world history

• 2023SpaceX's Starship launched for the first time before exploding four minutes into flight.
• 2021State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota.
• 2013A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands.
• 2010An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.
• 2007Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself.
• 1999Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
• 1985University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in advocacy for animal r
• 1972Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon.
• 1968South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after take-off from Windhoek in South West Africa, resulting in 123 deaths.
• 1961Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
• 1949Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War.
• 1922The Soviet government created the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR.
• 1862Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.
• 1818Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
• 1809War of the Fifth Coalition: Commanded by Napoleon, Franco-German forces defeated a reinforced Austrian corps at the Battle of Abensberg.
• 1770The Georgian king, Erekle II, abandoned by his Russian ally Count Totleben, wins a victory over Ottoman forces at Aspindza.
• 1537Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation in present-day Colombia, was conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
• 1303The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.

Born on 20 April

• 1975Killer Mike, American rapper
• 1961Don Mattingly, American baseball player, coach, and manager
• 1950N. Chandrababu Naidu, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Andhra PradeshIndia
• 1920Frances Ames, South African neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist (died 2002)
• 1889Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born German politician, Führer of Nazi Germany (died 1945)
• 1808Napoleon III, French politician, 1st President of France, Emperor of French Second Empire (died 1873)

Died on 20 April

• 2010Dorothy Height, American educator and activist (born 1912)
• 1992Marjorie Gestring, American springboard diver (born 1922)
• 1978Lord Richard Cecil, British soldier and journalist in the Rhodesian Bush War (born 1948)
• 1935John Cameron, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1872)

Frequently asked questions

What happened on 20 April in history?

2023: SpaceX's Starship launched for the first time before exploding four minutes into flight. 2021: State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota. 2013: A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands. 2010: An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.

Which famous people were born on 20 April?

Killer Mike, American rapper (1975); Don Mattingly, American baseball player, coach, and manager (1961); N. Chandrababu Naidu, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (1950); Frances Ames, South African neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist (died 2002) (1920).

Which day is observed on 20 April?

420 (cannabis culture); Evacuee Flag Day (Finland); UN Chinese Language Day (United Nations).