April 20 in history — What Happened Today in History

University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in advocacy for animal rights.

Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon.

English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech.

South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near J.G. Strijdom Airport in South West Africa (now Hosea Kutako International Airport in Namibia), killing 123 people.

Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.

Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War.

The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.

World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.

Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school.

The Soviet government creates the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR.

World War I: Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.

Nineteen men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War.

Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League.

Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride.

U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War.

Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry.

The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War.

Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion.

Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.

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.

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, attempting to display the value of balloons, makes record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina.

U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.

René Caillié becomes the second non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, following Major Gordon Laing. He would also be the first to return alive.

Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

The Septinsular Republic is established.

France declares war against the "King of Hungary and Bohemia", the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars.

George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration.

Killer Mike, American rapper

Randy Fine, American politician and former gambling industry executive

Julie Powell, American food writer and memoirist (died 2022)

Carmen Electra, American model and actress

Stephen Marley, Jamaican-American musician

Allan Houston, American basketball player

Mikey Welsh, American bassist and painter (died 2011)

Shemar Moore, American actor

Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (died 2025)

Will Hodgman, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Tasmania

Julia Morris, Australian entertainer

Lara Jill Miller, American actress

Mike Portnoy, American drummer and songwriter

Neville Wran, Australian politician, 35th Premier of New South Wales (born 1926)

Bert Weedon, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1920)

Tim Hetherington, English photographer and journalist (born 1970)

Dorothy Height, American educator and activist (born 1912)

Monica Lovinescu, Romanian journalist and author (born 1923)

Andrew Hill, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1931)

Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese bishop (born 1931)

Robert Rosenthal World War II B 17 Commander Pilot who also served on the Nuremburg Trials (born 1917)

Fumio Niwa, Japanese journalist and author (born 1904)

Lizzy Mercier Descloux, French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter (born 1956)

Bernard Katz, German-English biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)

Alan Dale, American singer (born 1925)

Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer (born 1946)