This Day In History : July 20

1969 United States

Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. This historic event occurred during the Apollo 11 mission, with their landing site being the Sea of Tranquility.

Also on This Day in History July 20

Discover what happened on July 20 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries,
famous births and notable deaths.

Births on This Day, July 20
  • 1929 Mike Ilitch

    American businessman who co-founded Little Caesars

  • 1947 Gerd Binnig

    German physicist who co-invented the scanning tunneling microscope with Heinrich Rohrer

  • 1822 Gregor Mendel

    Austrian monk and geneticist (discoverer of laws of heredity)

  • 1897 Tadeusz Reichstein

    Polish-Swiss chemist (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 1950 - isolation and discovery of cortisone )

  • 1919 Edmund Hillary

    New Zealand explorer and mountaineer who was 1st to scale Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay

Deaths on This Day, July 20
  • 1973 Bruce Lee

    American actor and martial artist and instructor

  • 1937 Guglielmo Marconi

    Italian  electrical engineer who pioneered work on long distance radio transmission (Nobel 1909) and inventor of  the wireless telegraph (1935)

  • 2009 Edward T. Hall

    American anthropologist (introduced Anthropology of Space)

  • 2000 Roberto Suárez Gómez

    Bolivian drug lord called the "King of Cocaine" whose story was the basis of the movie "Scarface"

  • 1824 Joan Melchior Kemper

    Dutch lawyer (designed civil code law book)

1848

Seneca Falls, New York hosts the first Women's Rights Convention

The first Women's Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19-20, 1848. The convention was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, among others, and resulted in the drafting of the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the injustices faced by women and called for equal rights.
1960

A Polaris missile is successfully launched for the first time from a submarine, the USS George Washington

The first successful launch of a Polaris missile from a submarine occurred on July 20, 1960. The launch was carried out by the USS George Washington, marking a significant milestone in naval and missile technology for the United States.
1808

Napoleon decrees all French Jews must adopt a fixed family name

On July 20, 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte issued a decree requiring all Jews in France to adopt fixed family names. This was part of a series of reforms aimed at integrating Jewish communities into broader French society, ensuring that they had surnames similar to those used by the rest of the population.
1969

Apollo 11 lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin lands on the surface of the Moon

Apollo 11's lunar module, known as "Eagle," landed on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon approximately six hours later, on July 21, 1969, at 02:56 UTC. Meanwhile, Michael Collins remained in orbit around the Moon in the command module "Columbia."
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