What are the important events that happened on June 20? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
June 20: Facts & Myths About This Day
June 20 is the 171st day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 194 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is June 7, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 486,216 hours 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 ‘hectaheptacontahenagon’ day.
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Gemini is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Pearl is the modern birthstone for this month. Moonstone is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 242 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 4,564 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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June 20: This Day In History
On leap years, this day usually marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere.
June 20 Historical Events
- 1605 –After only three months as tsar, 16-year-old Feodor II of Russia is assassinated.
- 1756 –A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
- 1819 –The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. She is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.
- 1887 –Victoria Terminus, the busiest railway station in India, opens in Bombay.
- 1895 –The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.
- 1942 –The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
- 1944 –Continuation war: the Soviet Union demands an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.
- 1963 –The so-called “red telephone” is established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 1972 –Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.
- 1979 –ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
Who were born on June 20?
- 1583 –Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1652)
- 1756 –Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (d. 1792)
- 1761 –Jacob Hübner, German entomologist (d. 1826)
- 1862 –Marco Praga, Italian playwright (d. 1929)
- 1884 –Johannes Heinrich Schultz, German psychiatrist, psychotherapist (d. 1970)
- 1924 –Fritz Koenig, German sculptor
- 1928 –Martin Landau, American actor
- 1934 –Wendy Craig, English actress
- 1946 –Bob Vila, American television host
- 1950 –Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq
Who died on June 20?
- 840 –Louis the Pious, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 778)
- 1176 –Mikhail of Vladimir, Russian prince
- 1597 –Willem Barentsz, Dutch navigator (b. 1550)
- 1605 –Feodor II of Russia, tsar of Russia (b. 1589)
- 1958 –Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1902)
- 1972 –Howard Johnson, American businessman, originator of restaurant chain (b. 1897)
- 1976 –Lou Klein, American baseball player (b. 1918)
- 2002 –Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist (b. 1905)
- 2006 –Billy Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1918)
- 2010 –Harry Blackmore Whittington, British palaeontologist (b. 1916)
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