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HISTORY & TIMELINE
20 June

A journey through
20 June in history

The story of 20 June runs from Attila’s clash with Rome on the Catalaunian Plains in 451 to New Zealand’s victory in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. In between come a corsair raid on an Irish harbour, a crowded prison cell in Calcutta, an oath sworn on a tennis court, the first steamship across the Atlantic, a new queen for Britain, a state carved out of Virginia in wartime, a germ caught in a Hong Kong laboratory hut, a flight over the North Pole, new money for western Germany, a teleprinter line between the superpowers, a short-lived West African federation and the film that invented the summer blockbuster.

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I
EARLIEST RECORDS

Ancient & Early History

The earliest worthwhile records and events connected with this date.

451
Attila's battle on the Catalaunian Plains, an illustration from the 15th-century Chronica Hungarorum of Johannes de ThuroczAttila’s battle on the Catalaunian Plains, an illustration from the 15th-century Chronica Hungarorum of Johannes de ThuroczImage: Johannes de Thurocz · Public domain
world · Europe

Rome and the Visigoths stop Attila on the Catalaunian Plains

In 451 Attila led a great army of Huns and subject peoples into Gaul and besieged Orléans. The Roman general Flavius Aetius, allied with the Visigothic king Theodoric I, forced him to withdraw, and the two sides met on the Catalaunian Plains in Champagne. The battle is usually dated to 20 June 451, though some historians have argued for a date as late as September. Theodoric was killed, but Attila retreated from Gaul, and turned on Italy the next year.

Source: Britannica: Battle of the Catalaunian Plains ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1631
The entrance to Baltimore harbour in west CorkThe entrance to Baltimore harbour in west CorkImage: Neil Turnbull · CC BY-SA 2.0
world · Europe

Corsairs from Algiers carry off the villagers of Baltimore

Before dawn on 20 June 1631 two ships from Algiers, guided up the channel by a captured Dungarvan fisherman named Hackett, landed raiders at Baltimore in west Cork. They seized more than a hundred men, women and children from the village and sailed for the slave markets of North Africa. Hackett was later tried and hanged at Cork. Only a handful of the captives are known ever to have returned, and the village was largely abandoned.

Source: History Ireland: From Baltimore to Barbary, the 1631 sack of Baltimore ↗
1756
The obelisk in Kolkata that commemorates those who died in the Black Hole of CalcuttaThe obelisk in Kolkata that commemorates those who died in the Black Hole of CalcuttaImage: Schwiki · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Asia

Prisoners are crowded into the Black Hole of Calcutta

In the 1750s the East India Company was strengthening the defences of Fort William, its trading base at Calcutta, without the permission of the young nawab of Bengal, Siraj al-Dawlah. The nawab saw the fortifications as a challenge to his authority, and in June 1756 he marched on the city. Many of the English, including the governor, fled down the river, and the remaining defenders surrendered under John Zephaniah Holwell. On the night of 20 June 1756 the European prisoners were shut into the fort’s small punishment cell, a room about 5.5 by 4 metres with two small windows, in the heat of a Bengal summer. By morning most of them were dead. How many were held is disputed: Holwell later wrote of 146 prisoners, while a later study put the figure at about 64, and Britannica records that 21 survived the night. The story was retold in Britain for generations, and the Company’s recapture of Calcutta and its victory at Plassey in 1757 opened the way to British rule in Bengal.

Source: Britannica: Black Hole of Calcutta ↗
1789
The Tennis Court Oath, Jacques-Louis David's drawing of the scene, 1791The Tennis Court Oath, Jacques-Louis David’s drawing of the scene, 1791Image: Jacques-Louis David · Public domain
politics · Europe

France’s deputies swear the Tennis Court Oath

Three days after they had declared themselves the National Assembly, the deputies of the Third Estate arrived at their meeting hall in Versailles on 20 June 1789 to find it locked and guarded. They crowded into a nearby indoor tennis court and, led by the astronomer Jean-Sylvain Bailly, swore never to separate until they had given France a constitution. Within a week Louis XVI ordered the clergy and nobles to join them.

Source: Britannica: French Revolution, events of 1789 ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1819
The Savannah under sail and steam in 1819, a painting by Hunter WoodThe Savannah under sail and steam in 1819, a painting by Hunter WoodImage: Hunter Wood · Public domain
science · Americas

The Savannah reaches Liverpool, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic

The Savannah was a sailing ship fitted with a steam engine and paddle wheels that could be folded up and stowed on deck. She left Savannah, Georgia, on 22 May 1819 with no passengers or cargo, as nobody would risk the voyage, and arrived at Liverpool on 20 June. Her engine ran for only about 80 hours of the crossing, since she could not carry enough coal for more, but she was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.

Source: Smithsonian National Museum of American History: Logbook for first transatlantic steamship Savannah, 1819 ↗
1837
Victoria Regina, Henry Tanworth Wells's painting of the young Victoria receiving the news that she was queenVictoria Regina, Henry Tanworth Wells’s painting of the young Victoria receiving the news that she was queenImage: Henry Tanworth Wells · Public domain
politics · Europe

An eighteen-year-old Victoria wakes to find herself queen

King William IV, the third son of George III, had come to the throne in 1830 at the age of 64. He had no surviving legitimate children, so his heir was his niece Victoria, the only child of his late brother Edward, Duke of Kent. She had been brought up quietly at Kensington Palace under a strict regime devised by her mother, and the king was said to be determined to live until she came of age, so that there would be no regency. She turned eighteen on 24 May 1837. Less than a month later William IV died at Windsor Castle in the early hours of 20 June 1837. The archbishop of Canterbury and the lord chamberlain drove to Kensington and woke the young princess to tell her she was queen. Her reign was to last almost 64 years, the longest of any British monarch until Elizabeth II, and gave its name to an age. Hanover, which could not be ruled by a woman, passed to her uncle Ernest Augustus, ending the link between the two crowns.

Source: Britannica: Victoria, accession to the throne ↗
1863
Independence Hall in Wheeling, where the conventions that created West Virginia metIndependence Hall in Wheeling, where the conventions that created West Virginia metImage: WVnativeson at English Wikipedia · Public domain
politics · Americas

West Virginia becomes the 35th state

When Virginia voted to leave the Union in 1861, many people in its mountainous north-western counties refused to follow. They had few slaves, felt neglected by the planters who dominated the state’s politics, and traded along the Ohio River with the free states. Delegates met in conventions at Wheeling, declared the secession void and set up a Restored Government of Virginia loyal to the Union, with Francis H. Pierpont as governor. That loyal government then gave its consent for the western counties to form a new state. Congress passed a statehood bill, and President Lincoln signed it at the end of 1862 on condition that the new state adopt a plan for the gradual end of slavery. With that condition met, West Virginia entered the Union on 20 June 1863 as the 35th state, with Arthur I. Boreman as its first governor. It remains the only state formed by breaking away from a Confederate state during the Civil War, and 20 June is still celebrated there as West Virginia Day.

Source: Britannica: West Virginia, history ↗
1894
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, seen through a scanning electron microscopeYersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, seen through a scanning electron microscopeImage: Unknown · Public domain
science · Asia

Alexandre Yersin finds the germ that causes plague

In 1894 bubonic plague spread from southern China to Hong Kong, where it killed thousands. The Swiss-born French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin, a pupil of Louis Pasteur working in French Indochina, was sent to investigate and reached Hong Kong on 5 June. A Japanese team led by Kitasato Shibasaburo had arrived shortly before him and had access to the hospitals, so Yersin set up a makeshift laboratory in a straw hut and took samples from the swollen lymph glands of plague victims. On 20 June 1894, according to the Institut Pasteur, he isolated the plague bacillus. Kitasato also reported finding a germ, and for years the credit was disputed, but Yersin’s description was the accurate one, and the bacterium was later named Yersinia pestis in his honour. Four years later Paul-Louis Simond showed that fleas carried by rats spread the disease, and Yersin’s discovery paved the way for vaccines and treatments against one of history’s deadliest illnesses.

Source: Institut Pasteur: Alexandre Yersin, the man who discovered the bacterium responsible for the plague ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1937
The long-winged ANT-25 (in red), the aircraft type Chkalov flew over the pole, on display in the Chkalov museum at Chkalovsk, RussiaThe long-winged ANT-25 (in red), the aircraft type Chkalov flew over the pole, on display in the Chkalov museum at Chkalovsk, RussiaImage: Bestalex · CC BY-SA 3.0
science · Global

Soviet airmen land in America after flying over the North Pole

Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baidukov and Alexander Belyakov left Moscow in a single-engined ANT-25 bound for California, on a route straight across the North Pole. After 63 hours in the air, battling ice and cloud, a sudden drop in oil pressure forced them down at Pearson Field in Vancouver, Washington, on 20 June 1937. It was the first flight from Europe to America over the pole, and a monument now marks the landing site.

Source: National Park Service: A Red Bolt from the Blue, Valery Chkalov and the world’s first transpolar flight ↗
1948
Bank clerks counting notes at an exchange counter during the currency reform of 1948 in western GermanyBank clerks counting notes at an exchange counter during the currency reform of 1948 in western GermanyImage: Unknown photographer (Bundesarchiv, Bild 147-0739) · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
politics · Europe

The Deutsche Mark arrives in western Germany

Three years after the Second World War, Germany’s old currency, the Reichsmark, was close to worthless. Prices were frozen and goods were rationed, so shops stood half empty while much of the country’s trade went on through barter and the black market, where cigarettes served as money. The American, British and French occupation authorities decided to replace it with a new currency in their three western zones. The law came into force on Sunday 20 June 1948. That day each person in the western zones could collect 40 Deutsche Mark from the ration offices in exchange for 60 Reichsmark, with a further 20 to follow; from 21 June the new money was the only legal tender. Wages and rents were converted at one to one, but savings shrank to less than a tenth. Almost at once goods reappeared in shop windows, helped by the lifting of many price controls, and the reform came to be seen as the start of West Germany’s economic miracle. The Soviet Union answered with a currency reform of its own and a blockade of West Berlin.

Source: Deutsche Bundesbank: The economic and currency reform of 1948 ↗
1960
Léopold Sédar Senghor, president of the Mali Federation's assembly and later Senegal's first presidentLéopold Sédar Senghor, president of the Mali Federation’s assembly and later Senegal’s first presidentImage: Dominique Roger · CC BY-SA 3.0 igo
politics · Africa

The Mali Federation becomes independent

As France loosened its hold on its West African colonies in the late 1950s, some African leaders hoped to keep the region together rather than let it break into many small states. Senegal and the Sudanese Republic, the former French Sudan, joined in the Mali Federation, which took effect on 4 April 1959. Its name recalled the great medieval empire of Mali. Modibo Keïta of the Sudanese Republic led the federal government, and the Senegalese poet-politician Léopold Sédar Senghor presided over its assembly. On 20 June 1960 the federation achieved full independence, while remaining within the French Community. The union lasted barely two months. The two partners disagreed over how power should be shared and how tightly the federation should be run, and on 20 August 1960 Senegal seceded. Both became separate independent republics: Senegal under Senghor, and the Sudanese Republic, which kept the name and became the Republic of Mali under Keïta.

Source: Britannica: Mali Federation ↗
1963
An East German T63 teleprinter of the kind used on the Moscow-Washington hotline from 1963, on display at the US National Cryptologic MuseumAn East German T63 teleprinter of the kind used on the Moscow-Washington hotline from 1963, on display at the US National Cryptologic MuseumImage: Austin Mills · CC BY-SA 2.0
politics · Global

The superpowers agree to set up a hotline

The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 showed how slowly messages passed between Washington and Moscow at a moment when a misunderstanding could start a nuclear war. On 20 June 1963 American and Soviet representatives in Geneva signed a memorandum setting up a direct communications link between the two governments for emergencies. Despite the popular image of a red telephone, the hotline was a teleprinter link carrying written messages.

Source: US Department of State: Hot Line Agreement ↗
1975
The original poster for Jaws, with artwork by Roger KastelThe original poster for Jaws, with artwork by Roger KastelImage: Roger Kastel · Public domain
culture · Americas

Jaws opens and invents the summer blockbuster

Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws, about a great white shark terrorising a seaside resort, was a best-seller in 1974, and Universal gave the film version to a young director, Steven Spielberg. Shooting on the water off Martha’s Vineyard ran far over schedule, not least because the mechanical shark kept breaking down. Spielberg made a virtue of the problem, keeping the shark largely out of sight and letting John Williams’s menacing two-note theme announce its approach. Jaws was released in the United States on 20 June 1975. Universal backed it with national television advertising and opened it in hundreds of cinemas at once, rather than letting it spread slowly from city to city. Audiences queued round the block, and the film soon overtook The Godfather and The Exorcist to become the highest-earning film yet made. Its success changed how Hollywood sold films, and the big-budget summer release it pioneered has been the industry’s model ever since.

Source: Britannica: Jaws ↗
1987
Eden Park in Auckland, the ground where the first Rugby World Cup final was played, seen from the air in 1965Eden Park in Auckland, the ground where the first Rugby World Cup final was played, seen from the air in 1965Image: Whites Aviation · CC BY 4.0
sport · Oceania

New Zealand win the first Rugby World Cup

Rugby union’s leading nations had long resisted the idea of a world championship, fearing it would erode the amateur ethos of the game. When the first Rugby World Cup was finally held in 1987, co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, sixteen teams took part. The All Blacks went into the tournament under a new captain, the scrum-half David Kirk, after the hooker Andy Dalton was injured on the eve of the competition. New Zealand swept through their matches, and in the final at Eden Park in Auckland on 20 June 1987 they met France, who had beaten Australia in a thrilling semi-final in Sydney. The All Blacks led 9-0 at half-time and pulled away after the break, with tries from Michael Jones, Kirk and John Kirwan, to win 29-9. Kirk became the first captain to lift the Webb Ellis Cup, and the tournament grew into one of the biggest events in world sport.

Source: NZHistory (Ministry for Culture and Heritage): All Blacks win the first World Cup ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 20 June, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 20 June

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

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