What Happened on March 20

Significant Events

  • 1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms
  • 1800 Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London
  • 1815 Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule
  • 1890 German Emperor Wilhelm II fires chancellor Otto von Bismarck
  • 1900 US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an 'open door' policy in China have essentially accepted his stand
  • 1933 Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed
  • 2016 Barack Obama becomes the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 2 day tour
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March 20 in Film & TV

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Did You Know?

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published in Boston

On March 20, 1852

Famous Birthdays

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Would You Believe?

Indian rivers Yamuna and the Ganges declared "living entities" by court in the state of Uttarakhand

On March 20, 2017

Famous Weddings

  • 1848 King Louis I of Bayern abdicates to marry dancer Lola Montez
  • 1878 53rd UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose (31) weds heiress Hannah de Rothschild (27) at the Board of Guardians in Mount Street, London
  • 1934 Vietnam emperor Bảo Đại (20) weds empress Nam Phương (19) at the imperial city of Huế
  • 1963 Sikkim crown prince Paldan Thondup Namgyal marries Hope Cooke
  • 1969 Beatle John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar

Famous Divorces

  • 2009 "Dawson's Creek" actor Kerr Smith (37) divorces actress Harmoni Everett (34) due to irreconcilable differences after 6 years of marriage
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Famous Deaths

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March in History