Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on May 20th?

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

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

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

Christopher Columbus sets sail on his fourth and final voyage to the New World.

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 on the process of putting rivets in men’s work pants for the very first time creating what we now call jeans. More

Charles Lindbergh becomes the first man to fly solo completed the first solo across the Atlantic Ocean, flying 3,610 miles from New York to Paris in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis in 33 1/2 hours. More

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.