What Happened On This Day – July 20
2012 Aurora shooting
A gunman, James Holmes, opened fire in a movie theater during the premier of the Dark Night Rises in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.
1976 Viking I lands on Mars
Part of the Viking program, Viking I became the first American spacecraft to succesfully land on MArs and to complete its mission.
1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Also known as Cyprus Peace Operation or Operation Attila, the invasion was a response to a coup in Cyprus.
1969 Apollo 11 lands on the Moon
Carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who would become the first humans to walk on the Moon, the spacecraft safely landed on the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.
1969 Football War ends
A ceasefire came into effect between Honduras and El Salvador after the two countries fought a brief war over immigration El Salvador to Honduras. The hostilities occurred during North American trials of the FIFA World Cup.
Births On This Day – July 20
1978 Elliott Yamin
American singer-songwriter
1966 Enrique Peña Nieto
Mexican politician
1947 Carlos Santana
Mexican/American singer-songwriter, guitarist
1919 Edmund Hillary
New Zealand mountaineer, explorer
1304 Petrarch
Italian scholar, poet
Deaths On This Day – July 20
2013 Helen Thomas
American journalist
2011 Lucian Freud
English painter
1973 Bruce Lee
American actor, martial artist
1937 Guglielmo Marconi
Italian businessman, inventor, developed Marconi's law, Nobel Prize laureate
1923 Pancho Villa
Mexican general