View Historical Events by Day: What Happened on May 20 in History?

First Council of Nicaea - the first ecumenical council of Christian bishops at Nicaea, Asia Minor.

Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving in Calicut, where he erected a padrão (stone pillar) to prove he had reached India. More

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad during his third voyage to the Americas.

The Siege of Famagusta begins during the Ottoman-Venetian War, with the city of Famagusta in Cyprus being besieged by the Ottoman Empire.

North Carolina became the last of the Confederate states to secede rom the United States, triggering the start of the American Civil War.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act making millions of government owned acres in the west available to "homesteaders". More

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis obtained a U.S. patent for the process of putting rivets in men’s work pants for the very first time creating what we now call jeans. More

Cuba gained its independence from the United States and the Cuban Republic is formally established. The United States governed Cuba as a protectorate after the end of the Spanish-American war when Spain ceded Cuba to the U.S. as part of the Treaty of Paris in 1898. 

"The Nine Sovereigns at Windsor", all present for the funeral of King Edward VII In 1910, represents one of the largest gatherings of European royalty. The nine Heads of State who were famously photographed in Windsor Castle also represented nine of the most important European currencies during that period in history. Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire, King George I of Greece and King Albert I of Belgium. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King-Emperor George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

Cameroon National Day. Cameroon gained independence on 1 January 1960, but does not celebrate that date. Instead, it celebrates the National Day on 20 May commemorating the 1972 Cameroonian constitutional referendum.