May 20

Events

• 1570 - Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
• 1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
• 1861 - American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
• 1902 - Cuba gains independence from the United States.
• 1927 - Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, touching down at Le Bourget Field in Paris the next day.
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
• 1941 - World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
• 1969 - Alex Rackley is murdered by his fellow Black Panthers for being an informant. In October 1970 the trials began with Yale law student Hillary Clinton and others participating as monitors looking for ways to free the Panthers.
• 1990 - The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

Births

• 1768 - Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (d. 1849)
• 1806 - John Stuart Mill, English philosopher (d. 1873)
• 1885 - William Ernest Kullgren, astrologer and nationalist publisher (d. 1966)
• 1908 - James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
• 1915 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (d. 1981)
• 1957 - Stewart Nozette, American scientist and admitted spy for Israel

Deaths

• 1506 - Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer (b. 1451)
• 1834 - Marquis de Lafayette, French soldier and statesman (b. 1757)
• 1968 - Louis Marschalko, Hungarian nationalist and author (b. 1903)
• 2002 - Stephen Jay Gould, Jewish pseudo-paleontologist (b. 1941)