According to Gregory calendar, January 20, the day number 365 in a year and if it is a leap year then the day number is 366. January 20 has its own special significance in India and world history.
Here you will find some important events that happened today in Indian and world History on January 20. Read on to know more about this day.
List of Important Historical events of 20th January:
- 1817: Raja Ram Mohan Roy established the Hindu College now Presidency University in Calcutta (Kolkata).
- 1820: Indiana University Bloomington established as Indiana State Seminary (renamed Indiana College, 1846).
- 1821: Peter I Island in Antarctica was first noticed by Fabian Gottlieb von Belsinghozen founded Columbia College in the District of Columbia by President Monroe.
- 1841: China handed over Hong Kong to Britain in the First Opium War.
- 1843: Royal Academy (Technical Hague Court) opened in Delft.
- 1869: Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the first woman to testify from the United States Congress.
- 1892: Basketball played for the first time.
- 1894: German inventor and music expert Odolf Sachs died at the age of 75.
- 1930: Aldrin stepped on the moon, he was the second person to go to the moon.
- 1938: Egyptian King Farooq Safinj Zulfisar is married to Queen Farida of Cairo.
- 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the President of the United States for the fourth time.
- 1946: President of France, Charles de Gaulle resigns from his post.
- 1958: The search team met at the South Pole with a mission to cross the Antarctic. This was the first attempt to cross the Antarctic from the surface.
- 1965: Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States.
- 1969: Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States.
- 1972: Arunachal Pradesh becomes a Union Territory and Meghalaya State.
- 1974: The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon made its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
- 1988: Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the greatest activist of Pashtun independence and called Frontier Gandhi, died.
- 1990: Conflict between Indian soldiers and Muslim separatists begins in Kashmir.
- 1993: Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States.
- 2001: US President George W Bush succeeds in achieving the presidency after a tough fight with Ale Gore in the presidential election. It was the most powerful electoral battle in the history of America.
- 2002: Photographs of prisoners in Cuban US military base Guantanamo Bay made public for the first time. There was a lot of controversy about it.
- 2005: Famous Bollywood actress Parveen Bobby died in the 70s and 80s.
- 2008: Bollywood actor Devanand was awarded the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his contribution to Indian cinema.
- 2009: Barack Obama takes over as America’s 44th President.