May 20
1347 In Rome, Cola di Rienza takes the title of Tribune and assumes dictatorial powers in his drive to revive the city as the capital of Italy.
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1498 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India, after sailing from Europe.
1501 The Portuguese discover an island in the South Atlantic on Ascension Day and name it Ascension Island.
1506 Death: Christopher Columbus, at 55. "...Weakened by rheumatism, exposure, and years of bad food Columbus had arrived very ill from his last trip, and he spent many months in Seville recuperating at the Monastery of Las Cuevas. Over the next year and a half, until his death, Columbus tried to regain his lost titles of Governor and Viceroy. He wrote letters, petitioned the crown, persuaded others to intercede on his behalf, and when he was well enough, followed the court of King Ferdinand to several cities in Spain hoping to see the king. In May, 1505, King Ferdinand finally granted Columbus an audience in which the discoverer was allowed to present his claims to the titles and the riches of the Indies. His titles were not returned, but the king did allow for arbitration regarding his financial claims. In the end the Admiral’s share was confirmed at ten percent of the royal one-fifth (the quinto real). In effect, this amounted to two percent of the riches of the Indies, a considerable amount, and it afforded the Columbus family a life style equal to that of the richest nobility of Spain. Columbus already had a coat of arms and noble status. King Ferdinand in a final gesture offered to property and its revenue for his claims, but Columbus stubbornly refused. Considering the poor health he was in, it is apparent that concern over profits and rights was not for himself but for his sons Diego and Ferdinand. The Columbus family’s struggle for justice continued well beyond the Admiral’s death. In 1508 King Ferdinand appointed Diego governor of Hispaniola. In late 1505, Columbus became too ill with gout and sadness to travel any more and remained until his death in the city of Valladolid. On May 20, 1506, both sons, brother Bartolomeo and his faithful friend Diego Méndez were at his side when the Admiral murmured "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit" and passed away..."
1690 England passed the Act of Grace, forgiving the followers of James II.
1768 Birth: Dolley Madison, US First Lady. "Dolley Madison was born Dolley Payne in Guilford County, NC, on May 20, 1768. Her family moved to Virginia when she was an infant, and she spent the first 15 years of her life there. In 1783 her Quaker parents moved to Philadelphia, where, in 1790, she married Quaker lawyer John Todd, Jr. They had two children: one died in 1793 during the same yellow-fever epidemic that took her husband's life; the other was John Payne Todd..She married Congressman James Madison, 17 years her senior, on Sept. 15, 1794. The marriage, though childless, was apparently a very happy one. Mrs. Madison first served as "unofficial first lady" during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, a widower, while her husband served as secretary of state. During her husband's presidency (1809-1817), she became the unquestioned center of Washington society. Noted for her graciousness and charm as well as her ability to entertain guests and preside at dinners, she was best known for her Wednesday evening receptions where politicians, diplomats and the general public gathered. At a time of intense party rivalries, these gatherings helped to soothe some of the tensions between Federalists and Republicans. Correspondence indicates that not only was she an effective counter balance to her husband's rather colorless public personality, but that her influence on Madison's political decisions was not in the least insignificant. Notably, during the British invasion of Washington in 1814, she escaped to Virginia carrying important state papers, a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, and other personal valuables. Retiring to Virginia in 1817, the Madisons continued to entertain lavishly. After her husband's death in 1836, Mrs. Madison returned to Washington where her home once again became a center of social life. Her last public appearance was at a ball given for President Polk in 1848. She died in Washington on July 12, 1849."
1774 Britain passes the Quebec Act, extending its boundaries northwards to Hudson's Bay land and as far south as the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
1806 Birth: John Stuart Mill, editor, philosopher, political economist, Utilitarian.
1830 H. D. Hyde of Reading, Pennsylvania patents the fountain pen.
1844 Birth: Henri Rousseau, artist.
1860 Birth: Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionist movement.
1861 US Civil War: North Carolina becomes the last of the Confederate states to secede from the Union.
1861 US Civil War: The capital of the Confederacy is moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia.
1875 The International Bureau of Weights and Measures is established.
1899 Jacob German of New York City becomes the first driver to be arrested for speeding when his taxicab exceeds the posted 12 mile-per-hour speed limit.
1902 Cuba is handed over to a republican government and the last US troops depart.
1914 Volkishness: A letter from Arthur Strauss to Julius Rüttinger says that a Reichshammerbund group was founded in Munich that spring by Wilhelm Rohmeder, chairman of the Deutscher Schulverein and a member of the List Society since 1908. (Bundesarchiv; Roots)
1915 Birth: Moshe Dayan, Israeli general, politician.
1917 WW1: April 27-May 20 Dispatch Runner Lance Corporal Adolf Hitler serves at the front with 3 Company, 16 Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment at Arras. Over the next five days the battle will sporadically draw to a close as the supply of material and men are consumed. Although the British are able to hold on to a few square miles of completely destroyed territory, the only achievement of the battle of Arras is "a fresh butcher's bill: 150,000 British casualties, 100,000 German." Hitler survives the battle unscathed and, the day after the heavy fighting ends, is shifted a few miles north to Artois.
1920 Weimar: A right-handed (counterclockwise) swastika makes its first public appearance as the flag of the Nazi movement at the foundation meeting of the local Starnberg group. Hitler convinced Friedrich Krohn, who originally had proposed a left-handed design, to make the change. Krohn, however, is responsible for the color scheme of a black swastika in a white circle on a red background. (Roots)
1923 British Prime Minister Bonar Law resigns because of ill health and is replaced by Stanley Baldwin.
1926 According to Thomas Edison, Americans prefer silent movies over talkies.
1927 Great Britain signs the Treaty of Jeddah with King Ibn Saud, recognizing the independence of Saudi Arabia.
1927 At 7.52am, American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris.
1928 Weimar: General elections in Germany give the Nazi Party 3 percent of the vote. (Eyes)
1932 Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1935 The Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia, led by Konrad Heiden, an ally of the outlawed Nazi Party, wins 45 out of 300 seats in the national parliament, receiving more tham 250,000 votes.
1937 Holocaust: Professor von Verschuer, now at the University of Frankfurt, mentions in a letter to Professor Fischer his report for Rosenberg, "Proposals for the Registration of Jews and Part-Jews". (Science)
1938 Czechoslovakia orders a partial mobilization in response to Hitler's demands and unrest in the Sudetenland.
1939 Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov invites German Ambassador von der Schulenburg to meet with his staff in the Kremlin; the beginning of Soviet plans for setting up a Soviet-German nonaggression pact.
1939 The Yankee Clipper takes off from Port Washington, New York, bound for Europe. The plane, the flagship of Pan American Airways, establishes the first regular air-passenger service across the Atlantic Ocean.
1940 WW2: German units capture the French cities of Amiens and Abbeville. Advance forces reach the coast at Noyelles, threatening to cut off the British and French forces to the north and east.
1941 Holocaust: Hermann Goering bans emigration of Jews from all German-occupied territories including France and makes one of the first official references to the "Final Solution" (Endlosung).
1941 WW2: The Germans launch an airborne invasion of Crete. Of the first 3,500 German paratroopers dropped on the island, most are killed, but a second wave of 3,000 quickly captures key defenses and overwhelms the remaining British troops.
1941 WW2: Rudolf Hess is transported from the Tower of London to Camp Z (Mytchett Place in Aldershot), which has been specially setup for his arrival with heavy security and bugging devices. (Missing Years)
1946 Nuremberg War Crimes Trials: Grand Admiral Erich Raeder testifies. (Maser II)
1956 The first hydrogen bomb to be dropped from the air is exploded by the Americans over the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1961 A white mob attacks a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in US marshals to restore order.
1969 The Nam: US and South Vietnamese forces capture Apbia Mountain, referred to as 'Hamburger Hill' by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
1970 The Nam: Some 100,000 people demonstrate in New York's Wall Street district in support of US policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.
1972 A referendum in Cameroon approves the country's change from a federation into a unitary state, as the Republic of Cameroon is declared.
1978 Chiang Ching-kuo, who had been premier, becomes president of Taiwan with Shieh Tung-min as his vice president.
1980 The Canadian province of Quebec votes against a proposal to negotiate independence from Canada.
1985 The FBI arrests John A Walker, Jr., for spying for USSR.
1989 Chinese communist authorities declare martial law in the capital of Beijing and order CBS and CNN to end their live on-scene reports.
1990 An Israeli opens fire on a group of Palestinian laborers south of Tel Aviv, killing seven; the gunman will be sentenced to life in prison.
1991 The Soviet parliament approves in principle a law which will allow citizens to travel abroad freely.
1993 The British parliament finally passes a bill aimed at ratifying the Maastricht treaty, after six months of feuding.
1995 Vietnamese refugees riot at the Whitehead detention camp in Hong Kong in protest at an order that they be forcibly repatriated.
1995 President Clinton announces that the two-block stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House will be permanently closed to motor vehicles as a security measure.
1996 Iraq, its economy devastated by nearly six years of sanctions, accepts a tough UN plan to sell limited quantities of oil in order to buy food and medicine.
1998 The House votes overwhelmingly to block future satellite exports to China.
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