December 20

1192 – Richard the Lionheart of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.

1522 – After 6 months of siege by the fleet and army of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, the Hospitaller Knights of Rhodes are forced to surrender, and are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle in Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

1812 –  Sacagawea of the Shoshone tribe dies, age about 24, at the Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post in North Dakota.

1820 – Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men aged between 21 & 50, which is only paid for 1 year before being repealed in January 1822.

1860 – South Carolina – of course, Fort Sumter being in Charleston harbor – becomes the first state to secede from the United States.

1915 – The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli during World War 1

1924 – Sentenced to 5 years in prison for being convicted of Treason for the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ in Munich, Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison, after serving only 264 days.

1941 – The American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers” has their first engagement against Japanese forces in Kunming, China.

1951 – The EBR-1 reactor at the Argonnne West National Laboratory site near Arco, Idaho, becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity, powering four (4!) light bulbs before finally producing enough electricity to power the entire building.

1952 – A U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster, enroute from Larson Air Force Base, near Moses Lake, Washington to Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas as part of Operation Sleigh Ride, bringing servicemen fighting in the Korean War home for Christmas, crashes just after takeoff, killing 87 of the 115 passengers and crew aboard.

1957 – The first Boeing 707 production passenger jet rolls off the line.

1968 – The Zodiac Killer murders his first victims, Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.

1971 – The international aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières -Doctors Without Borders – is founded by Bernard Kouchner in Paris, France.

1989 – Beginning with troops of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the U.S. Army Ranger Regiment performing Combat Parachute Assaults at 01:00 hrs EST to capture the Rio Hato and Torrijos International Airports, U.S forces begin Operation Just Cause, invading Panama to depose Manuel Noriega.

1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the ‘honor killing’ of their daughter Palestina but both murderous parents later die in prison before execution of sentences.

1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159 of the 163 passengers and crew aboard.

2005 – The New York City’s Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for 3 days

2014  – Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley kills 2 NYPD officers in Brooklyn, New York, supposedly in revenge for the killing of Eric Garner, before killing himself

2019 – The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.

2022 – A 6.4-magnitude earthquake near Eureka, northern California kills 2 people.