WHAT HAPPENED ON 20. MAY
Want to find out what all happened on 20. May

The First Council of Nicea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church is held. (20. May 325)

Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery. (20. May 491)

An earthquake kills about 250,000 people in what is now Syria and Antiochia. (20. May 526)

The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated. (20. May 685)

The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. (20. May 1217)

King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá. (20. May 1293)

The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal. (20. May 1449)

John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship  Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date). (20. May 1497)

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India. (20. May 1498)

The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish. (20. May 1520)

Ignatius Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna. (20. May 1521)

Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas. (20. May 1570)

Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. (20. May 1609)

The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War. (20. May 1631)

Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is signed in Charlotte, North Carolina (20. May 1775)

By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution (20. May 1802)

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. (20. May 1813)

York Minster is badly damaged by fire. (20. May 1840)

American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. Meanwhile, the State of North Carolina secedes from the Union. (20. May 1861)

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law. (20. May 1862)