1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
1877 – Rioting in Baltimore, Maryland by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers is put down by the state militia, resulting in nine deaths.
1881 – Indian Wars:Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota
1894 – The troops sent by Grover Cleveland to Chicago to end the Pullman Strike are recalled.
1903 – Ford Motor Company ships its first car.
1921 – Air mail service begins between New York City and San Francisco.
1921 – Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives.
1928 – The government of Hungary issues a decree ordering Gypsies to end their nomadic ways, settle permanently in one place, and subject themselves to the same laws and taxes as other Hungarians.
1932 – In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.
1933 – In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism.
1933 – Germany: Two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.
1934 – Labor unrest in the U.S., as police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.
1934 – 1934 West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
1938 – The United States Department of Justice files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would
eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.
1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
1940 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Hatch Act of 1939, limiting political activity by Federal government employees.
1942 – World War II: The first unit of the Women’s Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa.
1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the 20 July plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the Democratic Party nomination for the fourth and final time at the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
1945 – The US Congress approves the Bretton Woods Agreement.
1946 – World War II: The US Congress’s Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt is completely blameless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and calls for a unified command structure in the armed
forces.
1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman issues a peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
1948 – In New York City, twelve leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Smith Act including William Z. Foster and Gus Hall.
1954 – At Geneva, Switzerland, an armistice is signed that ends fighting in Vietnam and divides the country along the 17th parallel.
1968 – Special Olympics founded.

One Small Step
1969 – Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully lands on the Moon at 20:17 UTC on July 20. Neil Armstrong becomes first human to step foot on the Moon.
1971 – The Soviet Union says it will support the People’s Republic of China’s admission to the United Nations
1973 – The US Senate passes the War Powers Act.
1973 – Vietnam War: In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, the US Defense Department admits it lied to US Congress about bombing
Cambodia .
1976 – The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
1982 – Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the
deaths of seven horses.
1987 – UN Security Council Resolution 598, condemning the Iran–Iraq War and demanding cease-fire, is unanimously adopted.
1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9′s Fragment Q1 hits Jupiter.
1998 – Two hundred aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups leave Afghanistan on orders of the Taliban.
2000 – Carlos the Jackal sues France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.
Born on July 20:
356 BCE – Alexander the Great, Macedonean king and conqueror of Persia (d. 323 BC)
1890 – King George II of Greece (d. 1947)
1929 – Mike Ilitch, American businessman and sports executive (Owner of Detroit Red Wings)
1945 – Larry Craig, American politician
1958 – Billy Mays, American pitchman (d. 2009)
1964 – Chris Cornell, American musician (Soundgarden, Audioslave)
1964 – Terri Irwin, American naturalist; widow of Steve Irwin
1973 – Peter Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player
1978 – Pavel Datsyuk, Russian ice hockey player (My favorite currently playing hockey player)
Today in Alaskan history:
1929 Alaska Washington Airways initiated fly-in fishing service by taking a group to Hasselborg Lake on Admiralty Island.
1939 A fire consumed the Haines Power Plant, the Post Office, and a theater. The Chilkoot Barracks provided emergency electric power to Haines