Holidays Calendar for November 20, 2020
National Sovereignty Day is celebrated in Argentina every year on November 20. This is a national holiday that has been celebrated since 2010.
Black Awareness Day (Dia da Conciência Negra) is a Brazilian holiday celebrated on November 20. It was established in the 1960s to celebrate awareness by the black community about their contribution to the country.
Most Commonwealth realms and British Overseas Territories celebrate the King’s Official Birthday in June. Saint Helena and Ascension Island are an exception, celebrating the sovereign’s official birthday on the Friday closest to his actual birthday (November 14).
Global Organized Hug a Runner Day (G.O.H.A.R.D.), also known as International Hug a Runner Day, is an annual observance held on November 20. It was launched to recognize runners around the globe and create a sense of unity withing the running/walking community.
International STAND UP to Bullying Day is held twice a year, on the last Friday of February and on the third Friday of November. This semi-annual event was launched to take a public stance against bullying.
World Multiplication Table Day (WMT Day) is an annual free educational event held in schools around the world on the third Friday in November (formerly on the first Friday in October). It was created to promote fun ways of teaching and learning math.
Teachers' Day is celebrated in many countries to honor teachers for their contributions. The date of the holiday varies from country to country. For example, Teachers' Day in Vietnam is celebrated on November 20.
Royal Thai Navy Day is observed in Thailand annually on November 20. It commemorates the establishment of the Royal Thai Navy in its present-day form. Although it is not a public holiday, it is widely celebrated in the Royal Thai Armed Forces.
On November 20, pediatricians in many countries across the world celebrate their professional holiday. Although Pediatrician Day hasn’t been officially recognized by any organization, pediatricians surely deserve a holiday to recognize their contribution to healthcare.
Transport Workers Day is an official professional holiday for all Russian transport workers, regardless of what kind of transport their professional activity is associated with. It is celebrated annually on November 20.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed on November 20 every year. It was established to honor the memory of those who have been killed as a result of transphobia and to raise awareness of the continued violence against transgenders.
20-N is a symbolic abbreviation used in Spain to denote the death anniversaries of two controversial figures in the country's history, José Antonio Primo de Rivera and Francisco Franco. The date is mainly commemorated by far-right groups.
National Peanut Butter Fudge Day is celebrated on November 20. This food-related holiday is dedicated to a truly delicious treat.
World Children’s Day, formerly known as Universal Children’s Day, is a United Nations observance that was first proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1954. It is celebrated on November 20. This date marks the day on which the Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted in 1959.
Africa Industrialization Day is a United Nations observance held on November 20. It was officially established in 1989 by the UN General Assembly within the framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa and has been celebrated every year ever since.
Festivals on November 20, 2020
- America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Celebration in Plymouth (MA), USA
- Three Continents Festival in Nantes, France
- Gdansk Christmas Market in Gdansk, Poland
- Wroclaw Christmas Market in Wroclaw, Poland
- Gijón International Film Festival in Gijón, Spain
- PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, USA
- Silver Bells in the City in Lansing, USA
- Guadalajara International Film Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico
- International Film Festival of India in Panaji, India
- Strasbourg Christmas Market in Strasbourg, France
- Jazz Fest Sarajevo in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Zürich Main Station Christmas Market in Zürich, Switzerland
- Düsseldorf Christmas Market in Düsseldorf, Germany
- Beaujolais Nouveau Festival in Lyon in Lyon, France
- Salzburg Christmas Market in Salzburg, Austria
This Day in History
- 2015 Islamist militants took 170 hostages and killed 20 of them in a mass shooting at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali. The siege was ended by Malian special forces, backed by U.S. and French personnel.
- 2007 Died: Ian Smith, Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as prime minister of Rhodesia (then Southern Rhodesia) from 1964 to 1979.
- 2003 Two truck bombs exploded at the headquarters of HSBC Bank AS and the British Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 30 people and injuring 400 others.
- 1998 The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya (also known as the Functional Cargo Block), was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 81.
- 1994 The government of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) signed a ceasefire as part of the Lusaka Protocol.
- 1992 A fire occurred in Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British monarch. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, and no deaths.
- 1986 Born: Kingsley Ben-Adir. He is known by his television roles as Karim Washington on The OA, Colonel Ben Younger on Peaky Blinders, and Gravik on Secret Invasion.
- 1986 Born: Ashley Fink, American actress and singer best known for her roles as Lauren Zizes in the TV series Glee and Carter McMahon in Huge.
- 1985 Microsoft released Windows 1.0, a graphical personal computer operating environment. It ran as a 16-bit multi-tasking shell on top of an existing MS-DOS installation.
- 1984 Born: Jeremy Jordan, American actor and singer known for performing in the Broadway musicals Bonnie & Clyde and Newsies, as well as for his film and television roles.
- 1984 Died: Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistani revolutionary poet and left-wing intellectual. He is considered to be one of the most influential poets of the Urdu language.
- 1975 Died: Francisco Franco, Spanish general and the dictator of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. Following his death, monarchy in Spain was restored.
- 1963 Born: Ming-Na Wen, American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Melinda May / The Cavalry in the ABC television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis ended. When all Soviet missiles had been withdrawn from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally ended the naval blockade.
- 1959 Born: Sean Young, American actress. She is particularly known for her roles in sci-fi films, including Rachael in Blade Runner and Chani in David Lynch's Dune.
- 1954 Died: Clyde Cessna, American aviator, aircraft designer, and entrepreneur. He is primarily remembered as the founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation (1927).
- 1945 The Nuremberg trials against prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany began at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg.
- 1945 Died: Francis William Aston, British chemist and physicist who was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of isotopes in non-radioactive elements.
- 1942 Born: Joe Biden, American politician, the 46th president of the United States. Prior to his presidency, he served as the 47th vice president and represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate.
- 1940 Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact during the Second World War, joining the Axis powers and demanding the concession of Transylvanian territory from Romania.
- 1934 Died: Willem de Sitter, Dutch physicist, astronomer, and mathematician. He is best known for his major contributions to the field of physical cosmology.
- 1925 Born: Maya Plisetskaya, Soviet-born ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress. She is considered to be one of the most outstanding ballerinas of the 20th century.
- 1914 Born: Emilio Pucci, Italian fashion designer and politician. Clothes designed by Pucci were known for geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colors.
- 1910 Died: Leo Tolstoy, renowned Russian novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, and philosopher. His best known works are the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
- 1900 Born: Chester Gould, American cartoonist primarily remembered as the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977.
- 1894 Died: Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor best known as the founder of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862.
- 1892 Born: James Collip, Canadian biochemist. He was part of the Toronto group which discovered insulin. However, he was overlooked in the Nobel Prize.
- 1889 Born: Edwin Hubble, American astronomer who is considered to be one of the most important observational cosmologists of the 20th century. He is known for Hubble's law.
- 1886 Died: William Bliss Baker, American artist. He was just beginning to hit his stride as a landscape painter when he died at the age of 26 after sustaining injuries.
- 1886 Born: Karl von Frisch, Austrian ethologist who was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen.
- 1858 Born: Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author who was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her best known work is The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.
- 1820 Essex, an American whaleship, was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific Ocean. Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick was inspired by this incident.
- 1704 Died: Charles Plumier, French botanist regarded as one of the most important botanical explorers of his time. Plumeria (Frangipani) is named after him.
- 1660 Born: Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian and reformer of Czech origin, who tried to bring about a union between Lutheran and Calvinist Protestants.
- 1602 Born: Otto von Guericke, German scientist, inventor, and politician. One of his major scientific achievements was the establishment of the physics of vacuums.
- 284 Diocletian was proclaimed Roman emperor following the deaths of the Emperor Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia. His reign stabilized the empire.