Holidays Calendar for July 20, 2016
The Republic of Colombia celebrates its Independence Day on July 20. It is a public holiday that commemorates the Colombian Declaration of Independence that eventually led to the creation of the Republic of Gran Colombia.
Lao Women Union’s Day is an important public holiday in Laos celebrated on July 20. It honors the organization that fights for women’s rights and against gender discrimination.
Vassa, also referred to as Buddhist Lent or Rains Retreat, is the three-month annual retreat observed by the practitioners of Theravada Buddhism. The first day of Vassa is a public holiday in Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
World Jump Day is an exciting holiday celebrated annually on July 20. It was created in 2006 to raise awareness of global warming and encourage people to join the fight against it.
Glioblastoma Awareness Day is observed annually on the third Wednesday of July. It was created to raise awareness of the most aggressive and the most common type of brain cancer that has a very poor survival prognosis.
Engineer's Day is annually celebrated in Costa Rica on July 20. This holiday marks the foundation anniversary of the Pan American Union of Engineering Association in 1949.
Romanian Air Force Day is celebrated annually on July 20. It is marked by a spectacular aviation parade in the sky over the country’s capital of Bucharest, featuring military aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Romanian Intelligence Service, as well as various civilian aircraft.
National Guard Day in Kyrgyzstan is celebrated annually on July 20. On this day in 1992, the troops of the National Guard of Kyrgyzstan took their first oath of allegiance to their Motherland and people.
Ecological Observances →
Central African Republic
National Tree Planting Day in the Central African Republic
The forests of the Central African Republic have been dramatically reduced during 20 years to provide the ground for charcoal production. In 2006 the government of the CAR introduced National Tree Planting Day, an annual event that would help restore forests of the CAR.
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay celebrate Friend's Day every year on July 20. This holiday was initiated by Dr. Enrique Ernesto Febbraro.
Lempira Day is a Honduran holiday celebrated annually on July 20. It is dedicated to an indigenous leader of the Lenca people who led the resistance against the Spanish conquistadors in the 1530s.
Birthdays of the members of the Norwegian Royal House (the king, the queen, the heir apparent and their spouse, and the hair apparent's eldest child) are official flag flying days in Norway. For instance, the birthday of Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, is celebrated on July 20.
Anne and Samantha Day is observed twice a year, on the days of the summer and winter solstice. It was created to honor Anne Frank and Samantha Smith, two young girls who left a visible trace in history but whose lives were tragically cut short.
On July 20, National Lollipop Day is celebrated. This food holiday is devoted to candies on stick that come in various shapes, flavors, sizes, and colors.
Unlike the majority of informal food holidays that were created in the United States, International Cake Day is a Russian invention. It was founded by the Kingdom of Love, an international non-commercial project that specializes in global cultural, humanitarian and peacemaking initiatives.
National Hot Dog Day is an informal holiday in the United States celebrated every July. It was established by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Hot Dog Day celebrates hot dogs as one of the staples of American cuisine.
National Fortune Cookie Day is unofficially celebrated every July 20. It is the perfect day to order some Chinese takeout with a delicious crunchy fortune cookie for dessert — and to learn that these supposedly Chinese cookies aren’t Chinese at all!
International Chess Day (FIDE) or World Chess Day (UN) is observed annually on July 20. It was established by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1966 and declared as a United Nations international observance in 2019.
International Moon Day is a United Nations observance celebrated every July 20 to commemorate the anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s landing on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission and to promote international cooperation in space exploration.
Festivals on July 20, 2016
- Gathering of the Juggalos in Thornville, USA
- Zagreb International Folklore Festival in Zagreb, Croatia
- Hong Kong Book Fair in Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- The Borderland in Boesedal Kalkbrud, Denmark
- Moldejazz in Molde, Norway
- Saulkrasti Jazz Festival in Saulkrasti, Latvia
- Giffoni Film Festival in Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy
- Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Gentse Feesten in Ghent, Belgium
- Odesa International Film Festival in Odesa, Ukraine
- Boryeong Mud Festival in Boryeong, South Korea
- Kaltenberg Knights’ Tournament (Kaltenberger Ritterturnier) in Geltendorf, Germany
- Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada
- Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in Winnipeg, Canada
- Just for Laughs in Montreal, Canada
This Day in History
- 2021 Jeff Bezos launched on the NS-16 mission with his half-brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen. Their suborbital flight lasted over 10 minutes.
- 2017 O.J. Simpson was granted parole to be released from prison after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.
- 2017 Died: Chester Bennington, American singer and songwriter best known as the frontman for the rock band Linkin Park. He was found dead in his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California from apparent suicide by hanging.
- 2013 Died: Pierre Fabre, French pharmaceutical and cosmetics executive and pharmacist, who founded Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, best known for its anticancer drug vinorelbine.
- 2003 Died: Nicolas Freeling, British crime novelist, best known as the author of the Van der Valk series of detective novels that was adapted for television several times.
- 1999 Died: Sandra Gould, American actress, known for her role as Gladys Kravitz on the sitcom Bewitched. She was the second actress to portray the role, debuting at the start of the third season.
- 1999 The Chinese Communist Party began a persecution campaign against Falun Gong, a new religious movement founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in the early 1990s.
- 1988 Born: Julianne Hough, American dancer, singer, and actress. She is a two-time professional champion of ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
- 1980 Born: Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian model, actress, and activist. She was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1999 until 2006 and is credited with pioneering and popularizing the horse walk.
- 1977 The Central Intelligence Agency of the USA released documents under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
- 1976 American spacecraft Viking 1 successfully landed on Mars.
- 1975 Born: Judy Greer, American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress who rose to prominence for her supporting roles in the films 13 Going on 30, Elizabethtown, and 27 Dresses.
- 1973 Born: Roberto Orci, Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer best known for his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman.
- 1973 Died: Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist, widely considered to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century.
- 1973 Born: Omar Epps, American actor, rapper, and producer. He starred in many films, including Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball.
- 1971 Born: Sandra Oh, Canadian and American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Rita Wu in Arliss, Dr. Cristina Yang in Grey's Anatomy, and Eve Polastri in Killing Eve.
- 1969 Apollo 11's crew successfully made the first landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon.
- 1968 The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, USA. About 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities participated.
- 1965 Died: Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan, who reigned from May 25, 1946 till his death.
- 1951 Died: Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire. His surviving descendants are in the line of succession to the British throne.
- 1949 Israel and Syria signed a truce to end their 19-month war.
- 1947 Born: Carlos Santana, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known as a founding member of the rock band Santana.
- 1945 Died: Paul Valéry, French author. He is best known for his poetry and is sometimes considered to be the last of the French symbolists. His best-known work is La Jeune Parque.
- 1944 German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The attempt failed.
- 1940 Denmark left the League of Nations.
- 1938 Born: Natalie Wood, American actress and singer, best known for her roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, and West Side Story.
- 1937 Died: Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, electrical engineer, and politician, known for his creation of a practical radio wave–based wireless telegraph system.
- 1922 The League of Nations awarded mandates to Tanganyika to the United Kingdom and to Togoland to France.
- 1903 Died: Pope Leo XIII, born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci. At the time of his death, he was the oldest pope and had the third longest pontificate. He is well known for his intellectualism and development of social teachings.
- 1903 The Ford Motor Company shipped its first car.
- 1897 Born: Tadeusz Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate his for work on hormones of the adrenal cortex, which culminated in the isolation of cortisone.
- 1866 Died: Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician and academic, remembered for his lasting contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry, some of them enabling the later development of general relativity.
- 1864 Born: Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet, known for his highly symbolic poetry masquerading as regionalism. His works won him a Nobel Prize in 1931.
- 1822 Born: Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist and botanist, the founder of modern science of genetics. He coined the terms "recessive" and "dominant" in reference to certain traits and demonstrated how invisible factors (now called genes) provided for visible traits in predictable ways.
- 1804 Born: Richard Owen, English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist, best remembered for coining the word Dinosauria ("terrible reptile"). He is also known as an outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.
- 1304 Born: Francesco Petrarca, commonly anglicized as Francis Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar of the early Italian Renaissance and one of the earliest humanists.