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April 20

Events

1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII.
1534 - Jacques Cartier begins his voyage, in which he will discover Canada and Labrador.
1653 - Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament.
1657 - Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish silver fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
1657 - Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
1689 - The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: the siege of Boston begins, which followed the first battles at Lexington and Concord.
1792 - France declares war on Austria, the beginning of French Revolutionary Wars.
1810 - The Governors of Caracas declares the national sovereignty from Spain.
1828 - René Caillié is first non-Muslim to enter Timbouctou.
1836 - U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
1861 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
1862 - The first pasteurization test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.
1871 - Civil Rights Act of 1871
1884 - Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical, Humanum Genus.

1902 - Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.
1908 - Opening day of competition of the New South Wales Rugby League.
1912 - Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
1914 - Forty-five men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miner's strike.
1916 - Chicago Cubs played their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7-6 in 11 innings
1918 - Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1926 - Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
1945 - World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
1945 - World War II: Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
1961 - Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US troops against Cuba.
1964 - BBC Two launches with the power cut because of the fire at Battersea Power Station.
1967 - A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126.
1968 - A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes during takeoff at Windhoek, South-West Africa, killing 122.
1968 - English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech.
1972 - Apollo 16 lands on the Moon.
1978 - Korean Air Flight 902 shot down by Soviets.
1980 - Climax of Berber Spring in Algeria as hundreds of Berber political activists are arrested.
1985 - ATF raid on The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord compound in northern Arkansas.
1986 - Pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed in his native Russia for the first time in 61 years.
1986 - Professional basketball player Michael Jordan sets all-time record for points in an NBA playoff game with 63 against the Boston Celtics.
1998 - TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53.
1998 - German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
1999 - Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado.
2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
2007 - Johnson Space Center Shooting: A man with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
2008 - Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.