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1945
Famous birthdays
1971
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more events on October 20
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2011
In the Libyan civil war, rebels capture deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte, killing him soon afterward.
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1991
Oakland Hills firestorm destroys nearly 3,500 homes and apartments and kills 25 people.
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1977
Charter plane crashes in Mississippi, killing three members of popular Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with their assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.
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1973
Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.
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1971
Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus, Jr.), rapper, songwriter, actor; his debut album, Doggy style, came in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot R&B / Hip-Hop charts.
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1968
Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.
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1948
Tom Petty, singer, songwriter, musician; lead singer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and a founder of the Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch bands; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2002.
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1947
The House Un-American Activities Committee opens public hearings on alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Among those denounced as having un-American tendencies are: Katherine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson. Among those called to testify is Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, who denies that leftists ever controlled the Guild and refuses to label anyone a communist.
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1946
Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian playwright and novelist; awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, 2004.
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Lewis Grizzard, journalist and humorist who gained popularity through his syndicated Atlanta Journal-Constitution column; he authored 25 books, including collections of his columns.
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1945
Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
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1944
U.S. troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur’s pledge “I shall return.”
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1941
German troops reach the approaches to Moscow.
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1940
Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate.
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1938
Czechoslovakia, complying with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews.