Historical Events on September 20.

1. 1633, 20th September: Galileo was tried for claiming that the earth revolves around the sun.

2. 1857, 20th September: Indian Rebellion of 1857 – British (East India Company) troops retook Delhi.

3. 1878, 20th September: G. Subramania Iyer founded ‘The Hindu’ English newspaper.

4. 1928, 20th September: In Rome, the supreme legislative body, the Chamber of Deputies, was taken over by the Fascists.

5. 1946, 20th September: The first Cannes Film Festival opened.

6. 1977, 20th September: Vietnam joined the United Nations.

7. 1979, 20th September: Africa’s most bizarre dictator, self-styled Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Empire, was overthrown today in a coup by his cousin, David Dacko.

8. 2001, 20th September: The US declared ‘war on terror’.

Famous Birthdays & Birth Anniversaries on September 20.

1. 1911: Shriram Sharma, Indian philosopher, and activist.

2. 1909: Gulabdas Harjivandas Broker, Indian-Gujarati writer, and critic. 

3. 1923: Akkineni Nageshwar Rao, Indian actor, and producer.

4. 1925: Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Thialand.

5. 1934: Rajinder Puri, Indian cartoonist, journalist, and activist.

6. 1934: Sophia Loren, the Italian actress who married to the man who groomed her for stardom, Carlo Ponti, won an Oscar for ‘Two Women’ and proved her abilities as a comedienne in ‘The millionairess.’

7. 1943: Jayant Hazarika, Indian singer.

8. 1946: Markandey Katju, Indian lawyer and Justice.

9. 1946: Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, Spiritual Master, Head of Science of Spirituality.

10. 1948: Mahesh Bhatt, Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter.

11. 1952: Shekhar Basu, Indian nuclear scientist.

Death Anniversaries of famous people on September 20.

1. 1810:  Mir Muhammad Taqi Mir, an Urdu poet of the 18th century Mughal India, and one of the pioneers who gave shape to the Urdu language itself.

2. 1863: Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm, a German philologist, jurist, and mythologist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm’s Law of linguistics.

3. 1928: Narayana Guru, also known as Shree Narayana Guru Swami, was a spiritual leader, saint and social reformer from Kerala, India.

4. 1933:  Annie Besant, a British socialist, theosophist, women’s rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule.

5. 1942: Kanaklata Barua, an Indian independence activist and AISF leader.

6. 1979: Ludwig Svoboda, Czechoslovakian President.

7. 2015: Jagmohan Dalmiya, Indian entrepreneur. He had served as president of BCCI and ICC.

20-September-1388

Firuz Shah Tughluq, the third emperor of Delhi, died at the age of 83.

20-September-1398

Amir Timur of Timur Lang invaded India with 92 squadrons of horses and 90,000 cavalry and reached the banks of Sindhu river near Atak city (now in Pakistan). He then attacked Delhi because its Muslim Sultanate was too tolerant of Hindu idolatry. A Mongolian follower of Sufism, he was one of the most ruthless of all conquerors. Timur crossed the Indus River at Attock (now in Pakistan) on 24 September 1398.

20-September-1819

Jose Custodio Faria (Joseph Stadio Faria), revolutionary scientist of Goa died.

20-September-1856

Narayan Guru was born in Chempazhanthi village of Kerala. Sri Narayan Guru was a social reformer, led reform movement in Kerala, rejected casteism, and promoted new values of spiritual freedom and social equality. He also stressed the need for the spiritual and social uplift of the downtrodden by their own efforts through the establishment of temples and educational institutions. In the process, he denounced the superstitions that clouded the fundamental Hindu cultural convention of caste.

20-September-1857

British troops conquered Delhi from the Mutineers.

20-September-1878

"Hindu", an English weekly in Madras with G. S. Aiyer as its Editor, was first published with only 80 copies.

20-September-1881

Pandit Kashinath Babaji (Chandrakant Bhringa), famous Marathi writer, was born at Munjawad in Nasik.

20-September-1886

Kuladhor Chaliha, one of the pioneer Congress leaders of Assam, was born at Sibsagar.

20-September-1911

Sri Ram Sharma Acharya, freedom fighter, social reformer and leader, was born at Auvalkhera, Agra.

20-September-1921

Pamanmal Hazari Punjabi, right-hand batsman (164 runs in five tests vs Pakistan in 1954-55), was born at Karachi.

20-September-1928

Narayan Guru "Nanu" of Kerala entered in maha Samadhi. His teachings are held in great reverence even today.

20-September-1932

Gandhiji commences "fast unto death" (hunger strike) in Poona prison to secure abolition of separate electorates for Harijans and untouchables.

20-September-1933

Annie Besant, veteran freedom fighter for India, died.

20-September-1940

Saroj Lalwani, journalist and printing press director, was born.

20-September-1942

Kanak Lata Barua, a yound child who tried to host the national flag at Goupur police station in Assam with the help of 500 people, was shot by the police station incharge.

20-September-1944

Rameshchandra Saxena, a one Test batsman (India vs England 1967), was born in Delhi.

20-September-1989

IPKF suspends its operations against LTTE in Sri Lanka. LTTE, in turn, ceases all operations against the Indian armed forces.

20-September-1992

Vithhal Badgelwar, painter and sculptor, passed away.

20-September-1993

First developmental launch of PSLV and Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-1E) carried remote sensing payloads. Could not be placed in orbit.

20-September-1993

Narsimha Rao, Prime Minister, arrives in Teheran on a three-day visit.

20-September-1996

Arunachal Chief Minister Apang resigns and forms new party Arunachal Congress.

20-September-1997

President K. R. Narayanan inaugurates the first Dr. Ambedkar Law University in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

20-September-1998

India lost the fifth and final match of the Sahara Cup by five wickets. Pakistan won the series 4-1 at Toronto.

20-September-1998

A. B. Bardhan is re-elected CPI general secretary.

20-September-1999

Shobha Subrahmanyam, managing director of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group of publications, was elected President of the Indian Newspaper Society for 1999-2000.

20-September-1999

T. R. Rajakumari (78), the dream girl of the Tamil silver screen for over two decades, died.