Holidays Calendar for June 20, 2024
In Argentina, National Flag Day is a public holiday celebrated on June 20. It commemorates the anniversary of the death of Manuel Belgrano who created the national flag of Argentina.
Martyrs' Day is an Eritrean public holiday celebrated on June 20 each year. It honors those who gave their lives during the Eritrean War of Independence that lasted for thirty years.
International Nystagmus Awareness Day is observed annually on June 20. It was created to bring attention to an eye condition that affects million of people across the globe, many of whom are infants or older children, and often results in reduced or limited vision.
Tennis is one of the most widely played sports in the world, so it is not surprising that there are not one, but two holidays celebrating it: World Tennis Day is observed on the first Monday of March, while International Tennis Day always falls on June 20. The catch is that the two holidays celebrate different kinds of tennis.
What comes to mind when you hear the words “Spanish food”? Paella, jamón, gazpacho, chorizo sausage, and tapas are among the most common associations with Spanish cuisine. In fact, tapas are so iconic that they even have a holiday dedicated to them. World Tapas Day is celebrated annually on the third Thursday of June.
World Productivity Day is celebrated every year on June 20. It was created to help people find ways to be more productive without burning themselves out, in other words, to overcome barriers that keep them from being efficient.
Gas Sector Day is an official professional holiday in Azerbaijan celebrated on June 20 each year. It was established by President Ilham Aliyev in 2006 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the creation of Azerbaijani gas sector.
Arbor Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, but mostly the event is organized on different dates. For instance Arbor Day is celebrated in Australia on June 20.
National American Eagle Day, also known as simply American Eagle Day, is celebrated annually on June 20. It was created to commemorate the day in 1782 when the final design of the Great Seal of the United States, with a bald eagle holding an olive branch and a bundle of 13 arrows, was submitted to the Congress.
West Virginia Day is a state holiday in the state of West Virginia. It is celebrated annually on June 20 to commemorate the state’s admission to the Union in 1863, during the American Civil War.
June 20 is National Vanilla Milkshake Day. People across country happily celebrate this day annually.
Looking for an unusual food holiday to celebrate? National Kouign Amann Day is exactly what you need! Observed on June 20, it celebrates what has been described as “the fattiest pastry in all of Europe”.
National Ice Cream Soda Day is an unofficial food holiday observed annually on June 20. It celebrates a popular summertime refreshment that has been around since the late 19th century.
World Refugee Day is a United Nations global observance held on June 20 each year. It was established by the UN General Assembly on December 4, 2000.
National Dump the Pump Day is observed annually on the third Thursday in June. It was created to encourage people to leave their private vehicles at home for the day and use public transportation or other alternative means of travel instead.
Festivals on June 20, 2024
- Summerfest in Milwaukee, USA
- International Diaghilev Festival in Perm, Russia
- JazzAscona (Ascona Jazz Festival) in Ascona, Switzerland
- Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa
- Isle of Wight Festival in Newport (Isle of Wight), United Kingdom
- National Arts Festival (South Africa) in Grahamstown, South Africa
- Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in Cape Town, South Africa
- Belgrade Beer Fest in Belgrade, Serbia
- Raindance Film Festival in London, United Kingdom
- Beijing International Book Fair in Beijing, China
- Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France
- Mumbai International Film Festival in Mumbai, India
- Schubertiade Vorarlberg in Schwarzenberg, Austria
- Colorado Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, USA
- Venice International Theater Festival (Biennale Teatro) in Venice, Italy
This Day in History
- 2024 Died: Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor. With a career spanning over seven decades, Sutherland received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
- 2019 Iran's air defense shot down a United States surveillance drone with a surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz. The incident nearly resulted in an armed confrontation.
- 2013 Died: Jean-Louis Scherrer, French fashion designer. Although he was known for his work and fame, he was sacked from his own-name label in 1992.
- 2009 The Acropolis Museum was opened in Athens, Greece. The museum houses artifacts dated from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece.
- 2005 Died: Jack Kilby, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate for the invention of the integrated circuit.
- 1973 The Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires: snipers fired upon left-wing Peronists, supporters of President Juan Domingo Perón, who came to acclaim his return from an 18-year exile in Spain.
- 1971 Born: Josh Lucas, American actor, best known for his roles in American Psycho, Sweet Home Alabama, Hulk, Glory Road, The Lincoln Lawyer, J. Edgar, and other films.
- 1967 Born: Nicole Kidman, Australian-American actress and producer. Known for her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses.
- 1963 Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United Stats established the so-called red telephone link. Despite its popular name, this connection was never a telephone link and used no red phones.
- 1960 Born: John Taylor, English singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of Duran Duran. He left the band in 1997 to pursue a solo recording and film career.
- 1959 Born: Robert B. Weide, American screenwriter, producer, and director best known for his documentaries focused on comedians: W. C. Fields, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, and Woody Allen.
- 1958 Died: Kurt Alder, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate for his work on what is now known as the Diels-Alder reaction.
- 1956 A Venezuelan Lockheed Constellation aircraft crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey. 74 people were killed.
- 1949 Born: Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling artists of all time.
- 1933 Died: Clara Zetkin, German activist, theorist and advocate for women's rights. She organized the first celebration of International Women's Day.
- 1925 Died: Josef Breuer, Austrian physician who made discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work during the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., developed the talking cure.
- 1909 Born: Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor, singer, and producer, known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his playboy lifestyle.
- 1906 Died: John Clayton Adams, English painter, particularly known for his harvesting paintings. His best known paintings are Harvest Time, The Evening Sun, Flowers of the Field, Evening Reflection, Returning from the Harvest.
- 1900 Boxer Rebellion: the Imperial Chinese Army began a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.
- 1895 The Kiel Canal was officially opened in Germany. The canal crosses the base of the Jutland peninsula; nowadays it is the busiest artificial waterway in the world.
- 1894 Born: Lloyd Hall, American chemist. He made numerous contributions to the science of food preservation. By the end of his career, he had 59 United States patents, and some of his inventions were also patented in other countries.
- 1888 Died: Johannes Zukertort, Polish chess player, one of the leading world players of the end of the 19th century.
- 1877 The world's first commercial telephone service was installed by Alexander Graham Bell in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
- 1875 Born: Reginald Punnett, English geneticist, statistician, and academic. He is best remembered for the popularization of genetics and his book Mendelism, considered to be the first textbook on genetics.
- 1870 Died: Jules de Goncourt, French author. He wrote books together with his brother Edmond. Germinie Lacerteux is considered to be their best novel.
- 1861 Born: Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate for the discovery of vitamins.
- 1840 Samuel Morse patented his invention, the telegraph.
- 1837 Died: William IV, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover from 1830, the last monarch of House of Hanover.
- 1837 Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days—which was longer than those of any of her predecessors—constituted the Victorian era.
- 1819 Born: Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer of the Romantic period. His legacy includes nearly 100 operettas and the uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffman.
- 1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool, United Kingdom. This ship became the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.
- 1756 Born: Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer in the Classical era. He is sometimes referred to as the Swedish Mozart, and his life span was very similar to that of Mozart.
- 1597 Died: Willem Barentsz, Dutch navigator, cartographer, and explorer. He went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northeast passage and died on the return voyage from his third expedition.