20 April 1960
A Wednesday in history
Weekday
Wednesday
Season
Spring (N. Hemisphere)
Century
20th century
Records
292

- 2021
Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by a Minnesota court.
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2010An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, resulted in the largest marine oil spill in history.
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2008American racing driver Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar auto race.
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2008Fernando Lugo became the first candidate not from the Colorado Party candidate to be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years.
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2004An incomplete tunnel leading to the Nicoll Highway MRT station in Singapore collapsed, resulting in four deaths and the station's relocation.
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Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out a massacre at Columbine High School, killing 13 people before committing suicide.
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1985The Animal Liberation Front raided a laboratory at the University of California, Riverside, rescuing 467 animals and causing $700,000 in damage.
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1978Korean Air Lines Flight 902 was shot down after violating Soviet airspace and was forced to make an emergency landing.
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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.
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1968South African Airways Flight 228 crashed shortly after take-off from Windhoek in South West Africa, resulting in 123 deaths.
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1942World War II: German and Italian forces began a large-scale counter-insurgency operation in occupied Yugoslavia.
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1939Billie Holiday (pictured) recorded the song "Strange Fruit", which later became an emblem of the civil rights movement.
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1922The Soviet government created the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR.
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1914A fire and a gun battle between the Colorado National Guard and striking coal miners led to 17 deaths in the Ludlow Massacre.
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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.
Source- 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.
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1809War of the Fifth Coalition: Commanded by Napoleon, Franco-German forces defeated a reinforced Austrian corps at the Battle of Abensberg.
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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.
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1537Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation in present-day Colombia, was conquered by Spanish conquistadors led by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
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1535Sun dogs were observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring Vädersolstavlan, the oldest coloured depiction of the city.
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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.