Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on March 20th?

Roman Emperor Claudius is poisoned, and Nero ascends to the throne.

Pope Dionysius declares March 25 as the official date of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ (Christmas).

The Council of Chalcedon declares Jesus Christ to have two natures—fully divine and fully human.

Battle at the Tigris: Seljuk Turks defeat the Abbasids near Baghdad.

Thomas Becket is exiled from England by King Henry II.

Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn, a rival claimant to the Scottish throne, at Greyfriars Church in Dumfries.

Treaty of Paris: England recognizes Scotland as an independent kingdom with Robert the Bruce as its king.

Combat of the Thirty: Thirty Breton knights led by Robert Bemborough fight thirty English knights in Brittany.

King Richard II of England relinquishes the throne to Henry IV.

Rebellion against Henry IV: Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr is proclaimed Prince of Wales.

Turko-Mongol leader Tamerlane defeats the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara.

The Council of Pisa opens to discuss the Great Schism in the Catholic Church.

King Henry IV of England dies, and his son becomes King Henry V.

The Hussite Wars in Bohemia begin with the First Defenestration of Prague.

English King Charles II announces a state of emergency due to the plague in London.

Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explores the Mississippi River.

Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician, dies.

The USS Alliance defeats the HMS Sybil in the last naval action of the American Revolutionary War.

The United States Senate ratifies the peace treaty with Japan, officially ending World War II.

President Lyndon B. Johnson places the Alabama National Guard under federal control to protect a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery to the state capital. 2,500 U.S. Army troops and 1,900 Alabama National Guard troops, along with FBI agents and U.S. Marshals were dispatched to provide protection for the marchers. On March 7, demonstrators sought to march there to protest the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a black man shot by a state trooper. State and local police had attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas. Televised scenes of “Bloody Sunday” outraged many Americans. More

Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese doomsday cult, carries out a sarin gas attack by releasing several packages on the Tokyo subway system, killing 13 and injuring over 5000. The odorless, colorless, and highly toxic nerve gas was invented by the Nazis and is one of the most lethal nerve gases known to man.

The Taliban destroy two ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley.

The United States and its allies invade Iraq, initiating the Iraq War.

A total solar eclipse, visible across parts of Northern Europe and the Arctic occurs.