Following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 20:
1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and pioneer of wireless telegraphy, died.
1944 – German officers made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler by planting a bomb under a table in the Nazi leader’s “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters in East Prussia.
1969 – One giant leap for mankind with Moon landing.
1974 – Turkish forces invaded northern Cyprus, shelling Kyrenia and moving inland towards Nicosia.
1989 – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for her outspoken attacks on the country’s military rulers.
1998 – Danish ferry Cat-Link V completes crossing of Atlantic Ocean in world record time of two days, 20 hours and nine minutes.
2000 – Vietnam opened a stock market in Ho Chi Minh City in another step into capitalism.
2001 – In Italy, anti-globalisation protester Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a paramilitary policeman as the annual Group of Eight leaders’ meeting opened in Genoa.
2005 – Canadian-born actor James Doohan, best known as the feisty, Scottish-accented chief engineer on television’s original “Star Trek” series — a role immortalised by the catchphrase “Beam me up, Scotty” – died aged 85.
2006 – French film maker Gerard Oury, whose string of fast-paced farces in the 1960s and 1970s made him one of France’s most successful film directors, died at the age of 87.
2006 – Bottle of tequila in solid platinum and gold bottle becomes most expensive bottle of liquor sold, with private collector purchasing a bottle for $225,000.
(Reuters)