Historical Events on Tuesday, 20th May

20/05/2022

Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege.

The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. It then supported Russian separatist armed groups who started a war in the eastern Donbas region against Ukraine's military. In 2018, Ukraine declared the region to be occupied by Russia. The first eight years of conflict also involved naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country, starting the current phase of the war, the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

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20/05/2019

The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.

The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. It is the only system of measurement with official status in nearly every country in the world, employed in science, technology, industry, and everyday commerce. The SI is coordinated by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which is abbreviated BIPM from French: Bureau international des poids et mesures.

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20/05/2016

The government of Singapore authorised the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite the international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. Its territory comprises a main island, over 60 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. The country is about one degree of latitude north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south along with the Riau Islands in Indonesia, the South China Sea to the east and the Straits of Johor along with the State of Johor in Malaysia to the north.

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20/05/2013

An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.

The Enhanced Fujita scale is a scale that rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage a tornado causes. It is used in the United States, Brazil and France, among other countries. The EF scale is also unofficially used in other countries, including China. The rating of a tornado is determined by conducting a tornado damage survey.

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20/05/2012

At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.

In May 2012, two major earthquakes struck Northern Italy, causing 27 deaths and widespread damage. The events are known in Italy as the 2012 Emilia earthquakes, because they mainly affected the Emilia region.

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20/05/2011

Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post.

Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician and lawyer who is currently serving as the chief minister of West Bengal since 20 May 2011; she is the first woman to hold the office. The founder and president of the All India Trinamool Congress, she previously served as a Union Cabinet Minister and is also the current leader of the house in West Bengal's Legislative Assembly.

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20/05/2009

An Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100 Hercules crashes in Magetan Regency, killing 99.

The Indonesian Air Force is the aerial branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. The Indonesian Air Force is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is headed by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Its order of battle is split into three Air Operations Commands. Most of its airbases are located on the island of Java. The Indonesian Air Force also has its ground force unit, called Air Force Quick Reaction Force Command (Kopasgat). The corps is also known as the "Orange Berets" due to the distinctive color of their service headgear.

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20/05/2002

The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).

Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and the islands of Atauro and Jaco, for a total land area of 14,950 square kilometres (5,770 sq mi). Timor-Leste shares a land border with Indonesia to the west; Australia is the country's southern neighbour, across the Timor Sea. Dili, on the north coast of Timor, is its capital and largest city.

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20/05/1996

Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in the United States have developed over time, with public opinion and jurisprudence changing significantly since the late 1980s. Lesbian, gay and bisexual rights are considered advanced. Rights of transgender people have faced significant erosion since the beginning of Donald Trump's second presidency.

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20/05/1990

The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

Communism is a political and economic ideology whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products in society based on need. A communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state. Communism is a part of the broader socialist movement.

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20/05/1989

The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Democracy is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitive elections while more expansive or maximalist definitions link democracy to guarantees of civil liberties and human rights in addition to competitive elections.

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20/05/1985

Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.

Radio y Televisión Martí is an international broadcaster based in Miami, Florida, financed by the federal government of the United States through the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It transmits its programs in Spanish to Cuba and its broadcasts can also be heard and viewed worldwide through their website and on shortwave radio frequencies.

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20/05/1983

First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier.

Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIVs) are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Without treatment, the average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.

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Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by UMkhonto we Sizwe explodes on Church Street in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others.

The Church Street bombing was a terrorist car bombing on 20 May 1983 in the South African capital Pretoria by uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC). The bombing killed 19 people, including the two perpetrators, and wounded 217.

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20/05/1980

In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, with 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada.

The 1980 Quebec independence referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on the place of Quebec within Canada and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois (PQ) government, which advocated secession from Canada.

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20/05/1971

In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus.

Chuknagar massacre was a massacre of Bengali Hindus committed by the Pakistan Army and local collaborators during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. The massacre took place on 20 May 1971 at Dumuria in Khulna and it was one of the largest massacres during the war.

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20/05/1969

The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.

The Battle of Hamburger Hill was fought by United States Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces against People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces during Operation Apache Snow of the Vietnam War. Though the heavily fortified Hill 937, a ridge of the mountain Dong Ap Bia in central Vietnam near its western border with Laos, had little strategic value, US command ordered its capture by a frontal assault, only to abandon it soon thereafter. The action caused a controversy among both the US armed services and the public back home, and marked a turning point in the US involvement.

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20/05/1967

The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Popular Movement of the Revolution was the ruling political party in Zaire. For most of its existence, it was the only legally permitted party in the country. It was founded by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu on 20 May 1967.

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20/05/1965

One hundred twenty-one people are killed when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 crashes at Cairo International Airport.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 (PK705) was a Boeing 720 airliner that crashed while descending to land at Cairo International Airport on 20 May 1965. Of the 127 passengers and crew on board, all but 6 were killed.

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20/05/1964

Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.

The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology. In 1964, American physicist Arno Allan Penzias and radio-astronomer Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB), estimating its temperature as 3.5 K, as they experimented with the Holmdel Horn Antenna. The new measurements were accepted as important evidence for a hot early Universe and as evidence against the rival steady state theory as theoretical work around 1950 showed the need for a CMB for consistency with the simplest relativistic universe models. In 1978, Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint measurement. There had been a prior measurement of the cosmic background radiation (CMB) by Andrew McKellar in 1941 at an effective temperature of 2.3 K using CN stellar absorption lines observed by W. S. Adams. Although no reference to the CMB is made by McKellar, it was not until much later after the Penzias and Wilson measurements, that the significance of this earlier measurement was understood.

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20/05/1958

Capital Airlines Flight 300 collides in mid-air with a United States Air Force Lockheed T-33 over Brunswick, Maryland, killing 12.

On May 20, 1958 a Vickers Viscount airliner operating Capital Airlines Flight 300 was involved in a mid-air collision with a United States Air Force T-33 jet trainer on a proficiency flight in the skies above Brunswick, Maryland. All 11 people on board the Viscount and one of the two crew in the T-33 were killed in the accident.

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20/05/1956

In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

Operation Redwing was a United States series of 17 nuclear test detonations from May to July 1956. They were conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF7). The entire operation followed Project 56 and preceded Project 57. The primary intention was to test new, second-generation thermonuclear weapons. Also tested were fission devices intended to be used as primaries for thermonuclear weapons, and small tactical weapons for air defense. Redwing demonstrated the first United States airdrop of a deliverable hydrogen bomb during test Cherokee. Because the yields for many tests at Operation Castle in 1954 were dramatically higher than predictions, Redwing was conducted using an "energy budget": There were limits to the total amount of energy released, and the amount of fission yield was also strictly controlled. Fission, primarily "fast" fission of the natural uranium tamper surrounding the fusion capsule, greatly increases the yield of thermonuclear devices, and constitutes the great majority of the fallout, as nuclear fusion is a relatively clean reaction.

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20/05/1949

In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for global intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees.

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20/05/1948

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing.

Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese military commander, revolutionary, and statesman who led the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 until his death in 1975. His government was based in mainland China until it was defeated in the Chinese Civil War by Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, after which he continued to lead the ROC government on the island of Taiwan.

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20/05/1943

The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928–3651 BC), was discovered near Luttra, Sweden.

The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body discovered in a peat bog in Falbygden near Luttra, Sweden. The remains were found on 20 May 1943 by a peat cutter. The skull was well-preserved, but some bones of the skeleton, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were missing. Osteological assessment identified the remains as those of a young female. The presence of raspberry seeds in her stomach contents, together with an estimated age of early to mid-twenties at death, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan. Radiocarbon-dated to 3928–3651 BC, she was, as of 2015, the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden. In a study, her estimated height of 145 cm was deemed short for a Stone Age woman of the region.

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20/05/1941

World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete.

The Battle of Crete, codenamed Operation Mercury, was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete. Greek and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After only one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation, and German offensive operations, Maleme Airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. More than half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance. The defence of Crete evolved into a costly naval engagement; by the end of the campaign the Royal Navy's eastern Mediterranean strength had been reduced to only two battleships and three cruisers.

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20/05/1940

The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were committed primarily through mass shootings across Eastern Europe and poison gas chambers in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chełmno and Majdanek death camps in occupied Poland. Concurrent Nazi persecutions killed millions of other non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to include the murder and persecution of non-Jewish groups, such as the Romani and Soviet POWs.

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20/05/1932

Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviator and aviation pioneer who became one of the most celebrated figures of early flight.

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20/05/1927

Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The 1927 Treaty of Jeddah, formally the Treaty between His Majesty and His Majesty the King of the Hejaz and of Nejd and Its Dependencies was signed between the United Kingdom and Ibn Saud.

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Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing 33+1⁄2 hours later.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), setting a new flight distance world record. The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.

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20/05/1902

Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises the eponymous main island as well as 4,195 islands, islets, and cays. Situated at the convergence of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola, and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America.

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20/05/1891

History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.

The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century.

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20/05/1883

Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.

Krakatoa, also transcribed Krakatau, is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group comprising four islands. Two of them are known as Lang and Verlaten; another, Rakata, is the only remnant of an island, also called Krakatoa, mostly destroyed by an eruption in 1883 which created the caldera.

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20/05/1882

The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed.

The Triple Alliance was a defensive military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It was formed on 20 May 1882 and renewed periodically until it expired in 1915 during World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. Italy was looking for support against France shortly after it lost North African ambitions to the French. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by any other great power. The treaty provided that Germany and Austria-Hungary were to assist Italy if it was attacked by France without provocation. In turn, Italy would assist Germany if attacked by France without provocation. In the event of a war between Austria-Hungary and Russia, Italy promised to remain neutral. After the Austro-Hungarian empire and Germany declared war without first being attacked by other nations, Italy did not take part in World War I on the side of the Central Powers and later joined on the side of the Allied Powers.

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20/05/1875

Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.

The Metre Convention, also known as the Treaty of the Metre, is an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations: Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Ottoman Empire, United States of America, and Venezuela.

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20/05/1873

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

Levi Strauss was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.

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20/05/1864

American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.

The Battle of Ware Bottom Church was fought on May 20, 1864, between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The Union troops were led by Benjamin Butler, while the Confederates were led by P.G.T. Beauregard. The Confederates were victorious, and Butler's forces remained in their Bermuda Hundred defenses. Following the battle, the Confederates began digging a critical set of defensive earthworks that became known as the Howlett Line.

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20/05/1862

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening eighty-four million acres (340,000 km2) of public land to settlers.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.

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20/05/1861

American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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American Civil War: The State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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20/05/1813

Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.

In the Battle of Bautzen, a combined Prusso-Russian army, retreating after their defeat at Lützen and massively outnumbered, was pushed back by Napoleon but escaped destruction. Some sources claim that Marshal Michel Ney failed to block their retreat. The Prussians were led by General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, and the Russians by General Peter Wittgenstein.

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20/05/1802

By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.

The Law of 20 May 1802 was a decree passed by First Consul Napoleon of the French First Republic on 20 May 1802 that reinstated slavery. It decreed the reinstatement and continuation of slavery in French colonies reversing the Law of 4 February 1794, which had abolished the institution in all of France's overseas possessions but was only implemented in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe and Cayenne.

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20/05/1775

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a text published in 1819 with the now disputed claim that it was the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Concord. If true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year.

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20/05/1741

The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory and the British begin withdrawal towards Jamaica with substantial losses.

The Battle of Cartagena de Indias took place during the 1739 to 1748 War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and Great Britain. The result of long-standing commercial tensions, the war was primarily fought in the Caribbean; the British tried to capture key Spanish ports in the region, including Porto Bello and Chagres in Panama, Havana, and Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia.

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20/05/1714

Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.

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20/05/1645

Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of the residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.

The Yangzhou Massacre refers to the mass killing of people in Yangzhou, China, in May, 1645. Commanded by the Manchu prince Dodo, following the collapse of the Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty forces carried out the attack on the port city and its inhabitants, defended by remaining southern Ming forces. The massacre itself lasted a total of six days, which afterwards the burning of bodies continued. The Yangzhou Massacre served as a reminder to Ming loyalists of the threat to resisting Qing authority, and signals part of the transition from the Ming to the Qing.

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20/05/1631

The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.

Magdeburg is the capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river.

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20/05/1609

Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

William Shakespeare wrote sonnets on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609. However, there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost. There is also a partial sonnet found in the play Edward III.

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20/05/1570

Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.

Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.

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20/05/1521

Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna.

Ignatius of Loyola, venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, who, with six companions, founded the religious order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and became its first Superior General, in Paris in 1541.

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20/05/1520

Hernan Cortés defeats Pánfilo de Narváez, sent by Spain to punish him for insubordination.

Hernán Cortés, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador, military commander, explorer, captain general, and writer who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

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20/05/1498

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.

Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese mariner, explorer and nobleman. His discovery of the first direct maritime route between Europe and India via the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean from Malindi in Kenya to Kozhikode was to open up European exploration of, and commerce with, India, and is considered a landmark event and a turning point in world history.

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20/05/1497

John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).

John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII, King of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments declared Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed.

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20/05/1449

The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal.

The Battle of Alfarrobeira took place on 20 May 1449. It was a confrontation between the forces commanded by King Afonso V of Portugal and his uncle Afonso, Duke of Braganza, against the army of the rebellious Peter, Duke of Coimbra. The place was Vialonga, near Lisbon, at the margins of the creek of Alfarrobeira. The result was the clear defeat and death of the Duke of Coimbra and the establishment of the Braganzas as the most powerful House of Portugal.

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20/05/1426

King Mohnyin Thado formally ascends to the throne of Ava.

Mohnyin Thado was king of Ava from 1426 to 1439. He is also known in Burmese history as Mohnyin Min Taya after his longtime tenure as the sawbwa of Mohnyin, a Shan-speaking frontier state. He founded the royal house of Mohnyin that would rule the kingdom until 1527.

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20/05/1293

King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de Generales in Alcalá de Henares.

Sancho IV of Castile called the Brave, was the king of Castile, León and Galicia from 1284 to his death. Following his brother Ferdinand's death, he gained the support of nobles who declared him king instead of Ferdinand's son Alfonso. Faced with revolts throughout his reign, before he died he made his wife regent for his son, who became Ferdinand IV.

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20/05/1217

The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

The Second Battle of Lincoln occurred at Lincoln Castle on Saturday 20 May 1217, during the First Barons' War, between the forces of the future Louis VIII of France and those of King Henry III of England. Louis's forces were attacked by a relief force under the command of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Thomas, Count of Perche, commanding the French troops, was killed and Louis was expelled from his base in the southeast of England. The looting that took place afterwards is known as the "Lincoln Fair". The citizens of Lincoln were loyal to Louis so Henry's forces sacked the city.

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20/05/0794

While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a view to marrying princess Ælfthryth, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia is taken captive and beheaded.

Mercia was an early medieval English kingdom, one of the seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon period. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England.

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20/05/0685

The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.

The Battle of Dun Nechtain or Battle of Nechtansmere was fought between the Picts, led by King Bridei Mac Bili, and the Northumbrians, led by King Ecgfrith, on 20 May 685.

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20/05/0491

Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery.

Aelia Ariadne was Eastern Roman empress as the wife of Zeno and Anastasius I. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with her feast day falling on August 22.

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20/05/0325

The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.

The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. The Council of Nicaea met from May until the end of July 325.

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