Wikipedia defines history as the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. It came from the Greek word ‘historia’ – which means ‘inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation’.
Did you know? There are many who claim Herodotus, a fifth century BC Greek historian, as the “father of history”.
This website utilizes pages from Wikipedia to extract historical events from 3761 BC up to the present. There are 105,060 records in the database that include events, births and deaths of popular individuals. The present day Gregorian calendar was adopted to show dates of interest.
Let us begin with today’s history. You may also enter a specific day using the form on the top bar. Year is optional.
What are the important events that happened on May 20? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 20: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 20 is the 140th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 225 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 7, 2025 – a Tuesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 29,128,320 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatetracontagon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 273 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,533 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 20 Historical Events
- 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.
- 1873 –Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
- 1927 –At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 22:22 the next day.
- 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.
- 1985 –Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
Who were born on May 20?
- 1899 –John Marshall Harlan II, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1971)
- 1925 –Chester Ludgin, American baritone (d. 2003)
- 1940 –Shorty Long, American musician (d. 1969)
- 1967 –Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece
- 1982 –Petr Čech, Czech footballer
Who died on May 20?
- 1812 –Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg (b. 1732)
- 1896 –Clara Schumann, German pianist and composer (b. 1819)
- 1940 –Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1859)
- 1961 –Josef “Pips” Priller, German flying ace (b. 1915)
- 2005 –William Seawell, U.S. Army Brigadier General (b. 1918)
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