Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/September 20
This is a list of selected September 20 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
September 20: Eid ul-Fitr ends at sunset (Islam, 2009); Feast Day of the Korean Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church)
- 1378 – Papal Schism: Unhappy with Pope Urban VI (pictured), a group of cardinals started a rival papacy with the election of Antipope Clement VII, throwing the Roman Catholic Church into turmoil.
- 1854 – The Crimean War began with a Franco-British victory over Russian forces at the Battle of Alma near the River Alma in Crimea.
- 1870 – The Bersaglieri entered Rome, ending the temporal power of the Pope and completing the unification of Italy.
- 1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival opened in Cannes, France, with eleven films eventually sharing the Palme d'Or award, then known as the Grand Prize of the Festival, that year.
- 1979 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Republic, was ousted in a coup d'état backed by the French government.
- 2001 – During a televised address to a joint session of the United States Congress, U.S. President George W. Bush declared a "war on terror" against Al-Qaeda and other global terrorist groups.