Events
- 0325-05-20: 1st Christian ecumenical council opens at Nicaea - Asia Minor
- 1506-05-20: Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain
- 1775-05-20: Mecklenburg County - NC citizens declare independence from England
- 1830-05-20: 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper -`Baltimore American'
- 1845-05-20: 1st legislative assembly convenes in Hawaii
- 1861-05-20: NC becomes 10th state to secede from US
- 1862-05-20: Homestead Act provides cheap land for settlement of West
- 1875-05-20: Intl Bureau of Weights & Measures established by treaty
- 1902-05-20: US ends occupation of Cuba
- 1926-05-20: Thomas Edison said Americans preferred silent movies over talkies
- 1927-05-20: Lindbergh flew NY-Paris - 1st solo flight across Atlantic
- 1932-05-20: Earhart left Newfoundland 1st woman fly solo across Atlantic
- 1939-05-20: Pan Am began transatlantic passenger & air mail service
- 1956-05-20: Atomic fusion (thermonuclear) bomb dropped from plane - Bikini Atoll
- 1959-05-20: Yanks sink to last place - 1st time since May 25 - 1940
- 1961-05-20: White mob attacks `Freedom Riders' in Montgomery - Alabama
- 1972-05-20: Republic of Cameroon declared
- 1974-05-20: Soyuz 14 returns to Earth
- 1976-05-20: Viking 1 - Mars landing
- 1978-05-20: US Launches Pioneer Venus 1-produces 1st global radar map of Venus
- 1979-05-20: Cambodian Martyrs Day
- 1985-05-20: Dow Jones Avg closes above 1300 for 1st time
- 1985-05-20: FBI arrests John A Walker Jr - convicted of spying for USSR
- 1985-05-20: US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti
Birthdays
- 1750-05-20: Stephen Girard, bailed out U.S. bonds during War of 1812
- 1768-05-20: Dolly Dandridge Payne Madison, first lady
- 1799-05-20: Honore de Balzac, French novelist (Pere Goriot)
- 1806-05-20: John Stuart Mill, philosopher, political economist, Utilitarian
- 1818-05-20: William George Fargo, helped to found Wells, Fargo & Co
- 1822-05-20: Frederic Passy, cowinner of 1st Nobel Peace Prize (1901)
- 1882-05-20: Sigrid Undset, Norweg. novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter) (Nobel '28)
- 1890-05-20: Beniamino Gigli, Italian tenor
- 1894-05-20: Adela Rogers St. Johns, journalist, author
- 1901-05-20: Max Euwe, of the Netherlands, world chess champion (1935-37)
- 1908-05-20: Jimmy Stewart, Actor
- 1913-05-20: William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard Co
- 1915-05-20: Moshe Dayan, Israeli general & politician
- 1919-05-20: George Gobel, Comedian
- 1933-05-20: Constance Towers
- 1934-05-20: Alexei A. Leonov, Soviet cosmonaut (Voskhod 2, Apollo-Soyuz)
- 1940-05-20: Sadaharu Oh, of Yomiuri Giants (Japan), hit 868 career HR
- 1944-05-20: Joe Cocker, in Engl
- 1946-05-20: Cher Bono, California "I got you babe"
- 1958-05-20: Ron Reagan Jr., President's son
- 1958-05-20: Jane Wiedlin, (GoGos)
- 1966-05-20: Mindy Cohn, LA (Facts of Life)