October 20
1803 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
1944 - Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines, 30 months after he had declared "I shall return."
1947 - The U.S. House Un-American Activities Commission opened meetings about alleged Communist infiltration in the Hollywood film industry.
1964 - Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, died in New York City at age 90.
1967 - A jury in Meridian, Mississippi, convicted seven men of violating the civil rights of slain civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner; the seven received prison terms ranging from 3 to 10 years.
1968 - Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
1973 - During the Watergate scandal, Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus resigned and special prosecutor Archibald Cox were dismissed by President Richard Nixon in what came to be known as the "Saturday Night Massacre."
1976 - 78 people were killed when the Norwegian tanker Frosta rammed the commuter ferry George Prince on the Mississippi River near New Orleans.
1977 - Three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.
1979 - The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum was dedicated in Boston.
1990 - Three members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were acquitted by a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., of violating obscenity laws with an adults-only concert in nearby Hollywood the previous June.
2001 - Officials announced that anthrax had been discovered in a House postal facility on Capitol Hill.
2004 - A U.S. Army staff sergeant, Ivan “Chip” Frederick, pleaded guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. (Frederick was sentenced to eight years in prison; he was paroled in 2007.)
2011 - Moammar Gadhafi, 69, Libya’s dictator for 42 years, was killed as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.
2018 - Saudi Arabia announced that U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi had been killed in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul; there was immediate international skepticism over the Saudi account that Khashoggi had died during a “fistfight.” (A U.S. intelligence report later concluded that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman had likely approved Khashoggi’s killing by a team of Saudi security and intelligence officials.)
2020 - Two weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump called on Attorney General William Barr to immediately launch an investigation into unverified claims about Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, effectively demanding that the Justice Department abandon its historic resistance to getting involved in elections.
2021 - Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murdering 17 people during a February, 2018, rampage at his former high school in Parkland, Florida.
Birthdays
22 - Paige Bueckers (basketball player)
35 - Candice Swanepoel (model)
38 - Jennifer Nicole Freeman (actress)
41 - Kathie Featherston (actress)
44 - John Krasinski (actor)
46 - Sam Witwer (actor)
47 - Dan Fogler (actor/comedian)
52 - Dannii Minogue (singer)
52 - Snoop Dogg (rapper)
52 - Kenneth Choi (actor)
53 - Michelle Malkin (political commentator)
55 - Sunny Hostin (TV host)
59 - Kamala Harris (Vice President of the United States)
65 - Viggo Mortensen (actor)
70 - Keith Hernandez (baseball player)
71 - Melanie Mayron (actress)
73 - William "Rusty" Russ (actor)
86 - Wanda Jackson (singer)
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Today in Sports History - October 20
1936 - The Associated Press released its first weekly college football poll, which featured Minnesota as the nation's first top-ranked team.
1965 - Gordie Howe scored two goals in the NHL All-Star game against the Montreal Canadiens. Howe broke the All-Star Game record with the eighth and ninth of his career.
1968 - American Dick Fosbury using his unconventional technique wins the men's high jump gold medal with 2.24m at the Mexico City Olympics; "Fosbury Flop" becomes accepted most efficient technique.
1982 - In Moscow, 340 people were crushed to death at a Soviet-Dutch soccer game. Police had herded the fans down an open, icy staircase. The details of the incident were not published in the USSR until seven years later.
1982 - The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games to win the World Series.
1988 - The Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Oakland Athletics in five games to win the World Series.
1989 - The Houston Cougars ran up 1,021 yards against Southern Methodist University. The final score was 95-21.
1990 - The Cincinnati Reds swept the Oakland Athletics to win the World Series.
1992 - Toronto hosts the first World Series game ever played outside the United States as the Blue Jays hosted the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the series.
1996 - Andruw Jones (Atlanta Braves), nineteen years old, became the youngest player to hit a home run in the World Series. He hit two home runs against the New York Yankees.
2004 - The Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the AL Championship. The Red Sox had been down 3-0 in the series.
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