History of the Day for:
December 20
- 1606: Virginia Company settlers left London to establish Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement.
- 1669: The first jury trial in Delaware took place, with Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding and slavery.
- 1803: The Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.
- 1860: South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.
- 1879: Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, N.J.
- 1880: New York's Broadway was first lighted by electricity and became known as the "Great White Way."
- 1920: Bob Hope became an American citizen.
- 1922: Fourteen republics formed the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR).
- 1938: Vladimir Kosma Zworykin of Wilkinsburg, Pa., patented the iconoscope television system.
- 1950: "Harvey," starring James Stewart, premiered in New York.
- 1956: Montgomery, Ala., removed race?based seat assignments on its city's buses.
- 1957: Elvis Presley was given his draft notice to join the U.S. Army for National Service.
- 1962: The Osmond Brothers appeared for the first time on NBC's "Andy Williams Show."
- 1963: The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time. It remained open for the holiday season, but closed again on Jan. 6, 1964. About 4,000 people crossed over to visit relatives during this period.
- 1967: Ian Anderson and Glenn Cornick formed the rock group Jethro Tull; Director Mike Nichols' "The Graduate," starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, premiered.
- 1968: Author John Steinbeck died in New York at age 66.
- 1973: Bobby Darin, a teen idol of the '50s, died of heart failure at age 37.
- 1975: Joe Walsh was recruited to join The Eagles.
- 1976: Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley died at age 74.
- 1980: NBC experimented by broadcasting the New York Jets' 24-17 victory over the Miami Dolphins without play-by-play audio or color commentary.
- 1985: The position of American Poet Laureate was established; Robert Penn Warren was the first.
- 1985: Howard Cosell retired from television sports after 20 years with ABC.
- 1987: The worst-ever peacetime shipping disaster occurred as Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off an explosion that resulted in more than 3,000 deaths.
- 1989: The United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending 12,000 troops into Panama to topple the government of General Manuel Noriega after he declared war on the U.S.
- 1991: A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
- 1995: NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
- 1995: American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160.
- 1995: The Democratic Social Movement is founded in Greece.
- 1996: NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
- 1999: Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
- 2001: Argentine economic crisis: President of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa is forced out of office.
- 2002: US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
- 2005: US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
- 2005: The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated.
- 2006: A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
- 2007: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
- 2007: The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.