SpaceX's Starship launched for the first time before exploding four minutes into flight.
20 April 1690
A Thursday in history
Weekday
Thursday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
17th century
Records
292
2023- 2021
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota court.
2010An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.
2008American racing driver Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar auto race.
2008Fernando Lugo became the first candidate not from the Colorado Party candidate to be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years.
2004An incomplete tunnel leading to the Nicoll Highway MRT station in Singapore collapsed, resulting in four deaths and the station's relocation.
- 1999
Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out a massacre at Columbine High School, killing 13 people before committing suicide.
1985The Animal Liberation Front raided a laboratory at the University of California, Riverside, rescuing 467 animals and causing $700,000 in damage.
1978Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace and was forced to make an emergency landing.
1968Enoch Powell, a British Conservative member of Parliament, made a controversial speech in opposition to immigration and anti-discrimination legislation, resulting in his removal from the shadow cabinet.
1968Pierre Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister of Canada, succeeding Lester B. Pearson.
1968South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after take-off from Windhoek in South West Africa, resulting in 123 deaths.
1942World War II: German and Italian forces began a large-scale counter-insurgency operation in occupied Yugoslavia.
1939Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday was celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
1939Billie Holiday (pictured) recorded the song "Strange Fruit", which later became an emblem of the civil rights movement.
1922The Soviet government created the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR.
1914A fire and a gun battle between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners led to 17 deaths in the Ludlow Massacre.
1828French explorer René Caillié reached Timbuktu in present-day Mali, and later received a 9,000-franc prize from the Société de Géographie for being the first European to return with a description of the city.
- 1818
Four days after the Court of King's Bench upheld an English murder suspect's right to a trial by battle in Ashford v Thornton, the plaintiff declined to fight, allowing the defendant to go free.
1809War of the Fifth Coalition: Commanded by Napoleon, Franco-German forces defeated a reinforced Austrian corps at the Battle of Abensberg.
1657Anglo-Spanish War: The English navy sank much of a Spanish treasure fleet at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife off the Canary Islands, but was unable to capture the treasure.
1537Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation in present-day Colombia, was conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1535Sun dogs were observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring Vädersolstavlan, the oldest coloured depiction of the city.
Photo archive
24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.
What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
Sources & fact check
Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.