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Explore 20 April

Explore 20 April: Nelson Mandela speaks from the dock at the Rivonia Trial, Oliver Cromwell throws the Rump Parliament out of Westminster, Japan opens its first modern postal service and the Deepwater Horizon rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico. Meet Harold Lloyd, Tito Puente and Gro Harlem Brundtland, born on this date, and remember Cantinflas.

This day through time →14 verified events across 5 eras

⌛14Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙8Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ☆1Sporting
Moments ♫1Culture
Stories ☉1Observances
The Palace of Justice on Church Square in Pretoria, where the Rivonia Trial was held.
The Palace of Justice on Church Square in Pretoria, where the Rivonia Trial was held.
Image creditThe Wandering Angel from Makati City, Philippines · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
1964

Mandela speaks from the dock at the Rivonia Trial

On 20 April 1964, in the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, Nelson Mandela chose not to give evidence under cross-examination and instead read a statement from the dock. For about three hours he explained why the African National Congress had turned to sabotage after decades of peaceful protest against apartheid had been met with bans and bullets.

He closed by describing the ideal of a free, democratic society in which all people live together in harmony, and said it was an ideal for which he was prepared to die. Two months later he and seven co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment; the speech became one of the defining statements of the struggle for South African democracy.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: South African History Online: ‘I am Prepared to Die’ - Mandela’s statement from the dock, 20 April 1964 ↗
Oliver Cromwell Dissolving the Long Parliament, painted by Benjamin West in 1782.
Oliver Cromwell Dissolving the Long Parliament, painted by Benjamin West in 1782.
Image creditBenjamin West · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1653

Cromwell throws the Rump Parliament out of Westminster

On 20 April 1653 Oliver Cromwell, angered that MPs were pressing ahead with a bill he believed they had agreed to shelve, walked into the Commons with a company of musketeers waiting outside. After lecturing the members with mounting fury, he had the chamber cleared and declared their sitting over.

The Rump was what remained of the Long Parliament after the army’s purge of 1648. Its dismissal left England without an elected legislature; a hand-picked assembly followed that summer, and by December Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: UK Parliament: The Rump dissolved ↗
A sheet of Japan's first postage stamps, the 48 mon 'dragon' issue of 1871.
A sheet of Japan’s first postage stamps, the 48 mon ‘dragon’ issue of 1871.
Image creditGovernment of Japan · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1871

Japan opens its first modern postal service

On 20 April 1871 a government-run mail service began carrying letters between Tokyo and Osaka, replacing the old network of private couriers and relay runners. It was the brainchild of Maejima Hisoka, a Meiji official who had studied Britain’s cheap, uniform penny post.

Japan’s first postage stamps were issued for the new service, and within little more than a year it reached across the country. Maejima is still honoured in Japan as the father of its postal system.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Hisoka Maejima ↗
Fireboats spray the burning Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, April 2010.
Fireboats spray the burning Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, April 2010.
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
2010

Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico

On the evening of 20 April 2010 a blowout on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, working a BP well about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, triggered an explosion and fire. Eleven workers were killed and many more injured; the burning rig sank two days later.

Oil then poured from the damaged well a mile below the surface for 87 days before it was capped in July. It became the largest marine oil spill in history, fouling hundreds of miles of coastline and prompting years of legal action and environmental restoration work.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Deepwater Horizon oil spill ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Daniel Chester French
Image creditJames E. Purdy · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1850

Daniel Chester French

American sculptor who carved the seated Abraham Lincoln in Washington’s Lincoln Memorial.

Harold Lloyd
Image creditDaniel Blum · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1893

Harold Lloyd

Silent-film comedian remembered for hanging from a clock face high above a city street in Safety Last!

George Takei
Image creditGage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1937

George Takei

Actor who played Sulu in Star Trek and speaks about his childhood in a US wartime internment camp.

Gro Harlem Brundtland
Image creditChristophe Licoppe · CC BY 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1939

Gro Harlem Brundtland

Norway’s first woman prime minister, who later led the World Health Organization.

Jessica Lange
Image creditiDominick · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1949

Jessica Lange

Actor whose Oscar-winning career runs from Tootsie to Blue Sky.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

The Sun Dog Painting: a 1636 copy of the lost original, showing the halo display over Stockholm in 1535.
The Sun Dog Painting: a 1636 copy of the lost original, showing the halo display over Stockholm in 1535.
Image creditJacob Heinrich Elbfas · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1535

Stockholm’s sky fills with halos and false suns

On the morning of 20 April 1535 people in Stockholm watched rings and arcs of light spread across the sky for about two hours, with extra ‘suns’ glowing either side of the real one. The display was an ice-crystal halo with sun dogs, but at the time it was read as an omen.

A painting of the scene, now known as the Vädersolstavlan (the Sun Dog Painting), was made soon afterwards. The original is lost, but a copy of 1636 hangs in Stockholm Cathedral; it is the oldest known colour image of the city and one of the earliest pictures of a halo display.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Atmospheric Optics (Les Cowley): Stockholm 1535 halos ↗
☆
SPORTING HISTORY

Sporting Moments

Danica Patrick in 2025.
Danica Patrick in 2025.
Image creditUSDAgov · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
2008

Danica Patrick becomes IndyCar’s first woman winner

On 20 April 2008 Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, north of Tokyo, becoming the first woman to win a top-level IndyCar race. Starting sixth, she stretched her fuel further than her rivals and crossed the line almost six seconds ahead of Hélio Castroneves.

It was her 50th start in the series. The victory remains the only one by a woman in IndyCar.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: IndyCar: Classic Rewind - Danica makes history in Motegi ↗
♫
MUSIC • FILM • BOOKS • CULTURE

Culture Stories

A Warner Bros. Vitaphone 'talking pictures' advertisement from The Film Daily, 1929.
A Warner Bros. Vitaphone ‘talking pictures’ advertisement from The Film Daily, 1929.
Image creditNew York, Wid's Films and Film Folks, Inc. · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1926

Warner Bros takes on Vitaphone sound

On 20 April 1926 the newly formed Vitaphone Corporation, set up by Warner Bros, signed a lease with Western Electric for its sound-on-disc system, together with the right to license it to other studios. The equipment synchronised a film with music and speech recorded on large gramophone discs.

The gamble paid off that August with Don Juan, shown with a recorded orchestral score, and in 1927 with The Jazz Singer. Within a few years silent pictures had all but vanished from Hollywood.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Indiana University Press: The Birth of the Talkies (Donald Crafton) ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Giuseppe Peano
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1932

Giuseppe Peano

Italian mathematician who set out the basic axioms of the natural numbers and a clear logical notation.

Christian X
Image creditBain News Service · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1947

Christian X

King of Denmark who became a symbol of quiet resistance during the German occupation.

Steve Marriott
Image creditDina Regine · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 1991

Steve Marriott

Singer and guitarist of the Small Faces and Humble Pie.

Cantinflas
Image creditPress photo · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1993

Cantinflas

Mexican comic actor whose fast, tangled talk made him a film star across the Spanish-speaking world.

Dorothy Height
Image creditAdrian Hood · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 2010

Dorothy Height

Civil rights leader who headed the National Council of Negro Women for four decades.

☉
AROUND THE WORLD

Observances & Anniversaries

Calligraphy by the 4th-century master Wang Xianzhi, in a Tang dynasty copy.
Calligraphy by the 4th-century master Wang Xianzhi, in a Tang dynasty copy.
Image creditWang Xianzhi（344–386） · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
UN day

Chinese Language Day

The United Nations marks Chinese Language Day on 20 April, one of six days celebrating its official languages, launched in 2010 to promote multilingualism.

The date falls close to Guyu, or Grain Rain, a traditional Chinese seasonal marker linked to Cangjie, the legendary inventor of Chinese characters, when millet was said to have rained from the sky.

Source: United Nations: Chinese Language Day, 20 April ↗
HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 20 April chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 14 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading