Viet Nam News, Vietnam
Oct 21 2004

Today in History

October 20 in History

2000
Turkey praises the US Congress’s abandonment of a resolution
accusing Turks of genocide against the Armenians 85 years before,
removing a major threat to Turkish-US relations.

1524
Death of Thomas Linacre, the British physician and the first
president of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

1616
Birth of Danish physician and mathematician Thomas Bartholin. In
1652, he became the first to fully describe the human lymphatic
system.

1632
Birth of English architect and mathematician Sir Christopher Wren
(died 1723). He designed and built over 50 churches in London. His
most famous designs are St. Paul’s Cathedral, Greenwich Hospital and
the Pembroke College chapel at Cambridge university.

1728
A huge fire ravages Copenhagen, destroying most of the city.

1740
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and pretender to the throne of Spain,
dies.

1818
In an agreement between the United States and Britain, the US-Canada
border is set at the 49th parallel, with joint occupation of Oregon
for 10 years.

1822
Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper is first published.

1879
The governor of Cochinchina (South Viet Nam) approves the
establishment of the Municipalite de Cho Lon (now part of HCM City).

1883
Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of Ancon, under which Tarapaca
Province is ceded to Chile.

1890
Death of Sir Richard Burton born 1821, the British scholar and
explorer. He was the first European to locate Lake Tanganyika in
Africa and he translated the Arabian Nights tales.

1891
Birth of Sir James Chadwick; the British physicist who won the Nobel
Prize for Physics in 1935 for his discovery of the neutron.

1898
Viet Nam’s King Thanh Thai gives township status to Thanh Hoa in
Thanh Hoa Province, Vinh in Nghe An, Hue in Thua Thien, Faifo (now
Hoi An) in Quang Nam, Quy Nhon in Binh Dinh and Phan Thiet in Binh
Thuan.

1921
The Franco-Turkish agreement is signed at Ankara.

1930
Establishment of Viet Nam Anti-Imperialist Women’s Association which
then became the Viet Nam Women’s Union in 1946. The first chairwoman
was Nguyen Thi Minh Khai.

1930
Birth of Vietnamese soldier-writer Nguyen Minh Chau (died 1989). His
famous works include Co Lau (Reeds) and Dau Chan Nguoi Linh
(Soldiers’ Footsteps).

1950
Viet Nam’s Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) newspaper is first
published.

1960
Penguin Books goes on trial in London, charged with contravening
Britain’s Obscene Publications Act by publishing D.H. Lawrence’s
novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

1973
In Australia, Queen Elizabeth officially opens the Sydney Opera
House.

1989
Sir Anthony Quayle, the English actor best remembered for his roles
in Lawrence of Arabia, Ice Cold in Alex and The Guns of Navarone,
dies of cancer.

1991
An earthquake strikes the Himalayan foothills in India, killing at
least 341 people and destroying tens of thousands of homes.

1995
Inauguration of the Viet Nam Women’s Museum in Ha Noi.

1999
Moslem leader Abdurrahman Wahid wins Indonesia’s first contested
presidential election, beating the favourite Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Megawati was elected vice president the next day.

2000
Turkey praises the US Congress’s abandonment of a resolution
accusing Turks of genocide against the Armenians 85 years before,
removing a major threat to Turkish-US relations. – VNS/REUTERS/AP