This Day in History on 20 November
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that occurred on 20 November. The students can refer to them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
World Children’s Day
Important Events
1789: New Jersey became the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1877: Thomas Alva Edison invented the gramophone.
1902: Gandhiji returned to South Africa at the request of the Indian community and revived the Indians against Anti-Asian Laws.
1907: Railroad workers strike in India.
1917: Ukraine became a republic.
1917: J.C. Bose Research Institute was established in Calcutta.
1930: With all the pageantry of the British Empire, a conference of Indian and British leaders had been convened in London to discuss dominion status for India. Surrounded by Maharajahs in turbans, King George V convened the round table conference in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords. Notably absent was Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the nationalist movement. The conference saw a breakdown of the Indian caste system as Brahmins dealt with spokesmen for “untouchables”.
1942: Attri Devi, freedom fighter, was arrested for further six months. She was earlier arrested for personal satyagraha and to hoist the national flag in Delhi Central Jail on January 26.
1945: Trial began against the 24 Nazi leaders in the German city of Nuremberg. They were all charged with war crimes.
1946: Gandhiji starts tour without party.
1947: Parliament gives Indian government censorship powers over press at New Delhi.
1955: Kripal Singh scores 100* on Test debut, India v New Zealand.
1959: United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
1985: Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released.
1993: RBI clears two more private banks: The Times Bank Ltd. and the Indus Ind Bank Ltd.
1994: India’s Aishwarya Rai became Miss World.
1995: Diana, the then Princess of Britain, publicly acknowledged her extramarital affairs for the first time.
1997: Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman astronaut, embarked on her maiden spaceflight.
1997: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrives in New Delhi. India and Palestinian national authority take stock of stalled West Asia peace process. Two sides sign first umbrella Memorandum of Understanding.
1998: The first module of the space station Zarya was launched.
1998: Dr. Mohammed Yunus, Chairman of the Grameen Bank of Dhaka, is selected for the 1998 Indira Gandhi prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.
1998: V. K. Sharma, chairman and managing director of JVG Group of Companies, who allegedly swindled Rs. 600 crores from investors, is arrested in Mumbai.
1999: P.G.S. Mony, Indian scientist, is honoured by the French Government.
1999: Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar, senior journalist `Cho’ Ramaswamy, eminent jurist Fali S. Nariman and veteran RSS leader Nanaji Deshmukh nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Birth/Birth Anniversary
1602: Otto von Guericke, a German physicist.
1750: Tipu Sultan, King of Mysore.
1864: Percy Cox, British Indian Army officer (d. 1937)
1888: Gurunath Bewoor, director general, was born at Bewoor village, district Bijapur.
1889: Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer.
1892: James Collip, co-inventor of insulin.
1905: Minocher Rustom Minoo Masani, an Indian politician.
1910: Willem Jacob van Stockum, Dutch physicist.
1917: Ram Gopal, great Indies /English classical dancer (Blue Peter, Purple Plain), was born.
1924: Benoit Mandelbrot, a French mathematician.
1927: Chandrashekhar Shankar Dharmadhikari, an Indian judge, independence activist, lawyer, and author.
1941: Hasina Moin, Urdu writer.
1942: Joseph Biden Jr., the 46th president of the United States.
1963: Timothy Gowers, English mathematician.
1983: Anup Kumar, a former Indian professional Kabaddi player.
1989: Babita Kumari Phogat, an Indian female wrestler.
1905: Minoo Masani, Indian lawyer and politician (d. 1998)
1962: Rajkumar Hirani, Indian director
1976: Tusshar Kapoor, Indian Bollywood actor and producer
1979: Shalini, Indian actress
1989: Babita Kumari, Indian wrestler
Death/ Death Anniversary
1760: Phattesingh Bhosle passed away.
1859: Mount Stuart Elphinstone, a Scottish diplomat, governor of the Indian state of Mumbai, a skilled administrator, and historian.
1859: Elfinstone, Governor of Bombay Province and historian, passed away.
1908: Kanhaiyalal Dutt, a revolutionary in Bengal.
1910: Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer.
1954: Clyde Vernon Cesena, founder of the Cesena Aircraft Corporation.
1975: Francisco Franco, a Spanish general.
1984: Faiz Ahmed Faiz, an Urdu poet.
2003: David Deco, first president of the Central African Republic.
2007: Ian Smith, Rhodesia’s first prime minister.