May 20

This day in history:

• 1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.
• 1521 – Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna.
• 2012 – At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.
• 1714 – Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.

Births:

• 1945 – Vladimiro Montesinos, Peruvian intelligence officer
• 1984 – Patrick Ewing Jr., American basketball player
• 1908 – Francis Raymond Fosberg, American botanist and author (d. 1993)

Deaths:

• 1946 – Jacob Ellehammer, Danish pilot and engineer (b. 1871)
• 1973 – Jarno Saarinen, Finnish motorcycle racer (b. 1945)
• 1956 – Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian swimmer and trainer (b. 1881)

Holidays:

• *National Awakening Day (Indonesia), and its related observances:*
• European Maritime Day (European Council)
• Independence Restoration Day, celebrates the independence of East Timor from Indonesia in 2002.

Random Article of the day:

HMS Sans Pareil (1851)

#wikipedia #May20 #HMSSansPareil(1851)