On This Day: 20 May

Emperor Constantine calls the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (modern Turkey), to attempt to define the beliefs required to obtain the Grace of God		325
Battle (or Fair) of Lincoln: the Earl of Pembroke defeats the French		1217
John Cabot sets sail from Bristol on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (Wikipedia: other sources say 2 May)		1497
Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India, having discovered the sea route		1498
Joao da Nova Castell discovers Ascension Island		1501
Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna (Pamplona) – his leg shattered by a cannonball; his meditations during his long recovery set him on the road to conversion from soldier to priest		1521
Brabantian (Dutch) cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum – the first modern atlas		1570
Shakespeare's Sonnets are published for the first time – possibly without the author's consent – by Thomas Thorpe		1609
In one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War, forces of the Holy Roman Empire seize the city of Magdeburg in Germany and massacre most of its inhabitants		1631
During the 'Transition from Ming to Qing' (a.k.a. the Manchu conquest of China), a ten–day massacre of 800,000 residents of the city of Yangzhou (in central Jiangsu Province, on the north bank of the Yangtze) begins		1645
Spanish troops recover Minorca		1756
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is (allegedly) adopted at Charlotte, North Carolina. If the claims are true, this was the first declaration of independence made in Britain's American colonies – preceding the US Declaration of Independence by over a year		1775
Napoleon reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition during the French Revolution		1802
Napoleon leads his troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia; the battle ends the next day with a French victory		1813
York Minster is badly damaged by fire		1840
Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in the American Civil War; North Carolina secedes from the Union		1861
US President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law – allowing applicants to acquire government land free of charge		1862
Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone of the Royal Albert Hall		1867
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets		1873
Seventeen nations (Wikipedia actually lists 18: Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, the Ottoman Empire and the United States, and twelve European nations, including Russia and Austria–Hungary but excluding the UK) sign the Metre Convention, leading to the establishment of the International System of Units		1875
The German Empire, Austria–Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy form the Triple Alliance		1882
Thomas Edison displays his prototype 'kinetoscope' in public for the first time		1891
US Supreme Court rules that a national income tax is unconstitutional		1895
Siege of Mafeking relieved		1900
Cuba gains independence from the United States		1902
Earth passes through the tail of Halley's Comet – and survives		1910
P&O liner Ushant sinks after a collision off Ushant; 87 die		1922
Stanley Baldwin becomes prime minister		1923
Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt field, Long Island, New York		1927
Treaty of Jedda: the UK recognizes the sovereignty of King ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia		1927
Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland, on the first solo flight across the Atlantic by a female pilot		1932
200,000 people attend the first day of the first Chelsea Flower Show		1939
PanAm inaugurates its first commercial service to Europe		1939
A new concentration camp at Auschwitz receives its first prisoners		1940
German forces begin an aerial invasion of Crete		1941
Chiang Kai–shek is elected as the first President of the Republic of China (Taiwan)		1948
Operation Redwing: the USA explodes the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll		1956
Guy Trebert, in Paris, is the first person to be arrested after identification from an Identikit picture		1959
Orient Express leaves Paris for Istanbul for the last time		1961
US astronomers Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias discover the cosmic microwave background radiation		1964
Home Secretary Sir Frank Soskice announces that Britain's police are to be armed with tear gas guns and grenades, to be used against armed criminals or dangerous individuals		1965
In Vietnam, the Battle of Hamburger Hill ends		1969
Beatles film Let it be premiered in London		1970
Pakistani forces massacre thousands of people, mostly Bengali Hindus, at the town of Chuknagar, near the Indian border in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)		1971
Widespread floods in Romania kill 200		1971
Britain sends three Royal Navy frigates to protect trawlers in the disputed Icelandic 50–mile zone, as the so–called 'cod war' escalates		1973
The original Orient Express leaves Paris on its last journey to Istanbul		1977
British nurse Helen Smith, 23, found dead after falling from a 6^th floor balcony in Jeddah		1979
Voters in Quebec reject, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada		1980
French virologist Luc Montagnier describes his discovery of the HIV virus in the American journal Science		1983
At least 16 people are killed, and more than 130 injured, when a car bomb explodes in the centre of Pretoria in South Africa		1983
Tory MP Harvey Proctor admits to using rent boys		1987
Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro–democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre		1989
Romania holds its first post–Communist presidential and parliamentary elections		1990
The US Supreme Court rules against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in Colorado from taking any action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians		1996
Leo Blair is born – the first baby born to a serving UK prime minister for 150 years		2000
Portugal recognises the independence of East Timor, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself having colonised East Timor until 1976)		2002

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On This Day: 20 May