June 20

Events

• 451 - Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
• 1214 - University of Oxford receives its charter.
• 1631 - The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
• 1756 - British garrison imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
• 1791 - King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during The French Revolution.
• 1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
• 1862 - Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
• 1863 - West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
• 1877 - Alexander Graham Bell installs world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• 1960 - Independence of Mali and Senegal.
• 1963 - The so-called "red telephone" is established between Soviet Union and United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• 1991 - German parliament decides to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.

Births

• 1905 - Lillian Hellman, American playwright (d. 1984)
• 1909 – Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959)
• 1924 – Chet Atkins, American guitar player and producer (d. 2001)
• 1924 – Audie Murphy, American Medal of Honor recipient and actor (d. 1971)
• 1928 - Jean-Marie Le Pen, French politician

Deaths

• 451 - Theodorid, King of the Visigoths
• 1947 - Bugsy Siegel, Jewish crime figure (b. 1906)
• 1965 – Bernard Baruch, Jewish financier and power broker (b. 1870)
• 1972 – Howard Johnson, American businessman, originator of restaurant chain (b. 1897)