November 20 in history — What Happened Today in History

Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings.

Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.

Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.

Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole.

Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6,000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from French special forces to put down the uprising.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System.

The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board.

Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.

A total of 78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in the Farmington Mine disaster.

Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.

The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.

Indonesian National Revolution: 96 Indonesian including I Gusti Ngurah Rai were killed during the Battle of Margarana with Dutch forces.

Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.

World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins: United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.

World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.

José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad.

World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.

Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution.

The French actress Sarah Bernhardt receives the press at the Savoy Hotel in New York at the outset of her first visit since 1896. She talked about her impending tour with a troupe of more than 50 performers and her plans to play the title role in Hamlet.

Garnier Expedition: French forces under Lieutenant Francis Garnier captured Hanoi from the Vietnamese.

American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government.

Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.

An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this incident.)

The Second Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by troops of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia for several more years.

Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.

Amit Guluzade, Azerbaijani footballer

Zoltán Harcsa, Hungarian boxer

Kristiina Mäkelä, Finnish triple jumper

Jenna Prandini, American track and field athlete

Irene Esser, Venezuelan actress and model

Grant Hanley, Scottish footballer

Haley Anderson, American swimmer

Mark Christian, Manx cyclist

Aleksandra Król, Polish snowboarder

Babita Kumari, Indian wrestler

Cody Linley, American actor and singer

Sergei Polunin, Ukrainian ballet dancer

Eduardo Vargas, Chilean footballer

William Trevor, Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer (born 1928)

Keith Michell, Australian actor (born 1926)

Jim Perry, American-Canadian singer and game show host (born 1933)

Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (born 1953)

Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba (born 1926)

Sylvia Browne, American author (born 1936)

Dieter Hildebrandt, Polish-German actor and screenwriter (born 1927)

Kaspars Astašenko, Latvian ice hockey player (born 1975)

William Grut, Swedish pentathlete (born 1914)

Pete La Roca, American jazz drummer (born 1938)

Ivan Kušan, Croatian writer (born 1933)

Chalmers Johnson, American author and scholar (born 1931)

Lino Lacedelli, Italian mountaineer (born 1925)