Today in History
October 20

480 BC		Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis.
1587		In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse's larger Catholic force at Coutras.
1709		Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the Netherlands.
1714		George I of England crowned.
1805		Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoleon's army at the battle of Ulm.
1818		The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.
1870		The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force.
1903		The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, rules in favor of the United States. The deciding vote is Britain's, which embitters Canada. The United States gains ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.
1904		Bolivia and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognizes Chile's possession of the coast, but provides for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, on the coast.
1924		Baseball's first 'colored World Series' is held in Kansas City, Mo.
1938		Czechoslovakia, complying with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews.
1940		German troops reach the approaches to Moscow.
1944		U.S. troops and on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur's pledge "I shall return."
1945		Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
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.
1968		Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.
1973		Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.