Oct. 20 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1818, the United States and Britain agreed to establish the 49th parallel as the official boundary between the U.S. and Canada.
In 1918, Germany accepted U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s terms to end World War I.
In 1944 American troops landed on the eastern coast of Leyte Island in the Philippines. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, forced off the island two years earlier said as he strode ashore, “I have returned.”
File Photo by US Army/UPI
In 1947, the U.S. House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee opened public hearings into alleged communist influence in Hollywood.
In 1968, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis on the Greek island of Skorpios.
In 1973, during the Watergate scandal, two Justice Department officials — Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy attorney General William Ruckelshaus — resigned after U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered them to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Solicitor-General Robert Bork ultimately carried out Nixon’s orders. The incident became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”
In 1977, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, were killed in the Mississippi crash of a plane chartered by the rock band. Twenty people survived the crash.
In 1982, up to 340 soccer fans were crushed to death in a stampede on icy steps in a Moscow stadium passageway during a match between Soviet and Dutch players.
In 1994, Hollywood star Burt Lancaster died at the age of 80.
In 2004, retired Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in as Indonesia’s sixth president after winning the country’s first direct elections for head of state.
In 2011, deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed as he tried to escape from his hometown hideout in the coastal city of Sirte while troops, including NATO forces, closed in. Gadhafi, 69, ousted from power in a massive revolt two months earlier, had ruled Libya for 42 years.
Libyan National Transitional Council fighters celebrate in the streets of Tripoli following news of the fall of Sirte, Libya, the last holdout of Libyan former leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed in the attack on October 20, 2011. File Photo by Amru Taha/UPI
In 2017, Pixar’s Coco premiered at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico. It was the first movie with a nine-figure budget to feature an all-Latino principal cast.
In 2019, Qantas’ historic 10,200-mile non-stop flight from New York to Sydney landed after 19 hours and 16 minutes.
In 2021, Barbados elected its first president, Sandra Mason, to replace Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The island officially became a republic and Mason took office November 30, 2021.
In 2022, Liz Truss announced her plans to resign as British prime minister. She stepped down Oct. 25, 2022, after 50 days in office, the shortest term for a PM in British history.
File Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI
