History of 20 March
- 1991 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that employers could not exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage a fetus.
- 1991 – The U.S. forgave $2 billion in loans to Poland.
- 1992 – Janice Pennington was awarded $1.3 million for accident on the set of the “Price is Right” TV show.
- 1993 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule. He set a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.
- 1993 – An Irish Republican Army bomb was detonated in Warrington, England. A 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy were killed.
- 1995 – About 35,000 Turkish troops crossed the northern border of Iraq in pursuit of the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
- 1995 – In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.
- 1996 – In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.
- 1996 – The U.K. announced that humans could catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease).
- 1997 – Brian Grazer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1997 – Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry marketed cigarettes to teenagers and agreed to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.
- 1998 – India’s new Hindu nationalist-led government pledges to “exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons.”
- 1999 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. The non-stop trip began on March 3 and covered 26,500 miles.
- 1999 – Legoland California opened Carlsbad, California.
- 2000 – Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured following a shootout that left a sherriff’s deputy dead.
- 2002 – Actress Pamela Anderson disclosed that she had hepatitis C.
- 2002 – Arthur Andersen pled innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.
- 2003 – Cisco Systems Inc. announced it was buying The Linksys Group INc. for $500 million in stock.
- 2003 – U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.
- 2019 – Europe’s antitrust regulators fined Google $1.7 billion for freezing out rivals in the online advertising business.
- 2019 – Disney acquired the rights to 21st Century Fox. Fox Corporation was formed with the remaining assets.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Amy Lee, American singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1981 – Mathis Bailey, American-Canadian novelist and fiction writer
- 1982 – Dan Hamhuis, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Ayumi Kinoshita, Japanese actress and model
- 1982 – Ricky Nolasco, American baseball player
- 1982 – Tuka Rocha, Brazilian race car driver (d. 2019)
- 1982 – Koutaro Tanaka, Japanese actor
- 1982 – Dominik Werling, German footballer
- 1983 – Matt Deis, American bass player and songwriter
- 1983 – Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer
- 1983 – Janeth Jepkosgei, Kenyan runner
- 1984 – Santi Cazorla, Spanish footballer
- 1984 – Hanna-Maria Seppälä, Finnish swimmer
- 1985 – Michael Bumpus, American football player
- 1985 – Laurence Leboeuf, Canadian actress
- 1985 – Alby Mathewson, New Zealand rugby player
- 1986 – Mathieu Gnanligo, Beninese sprinter
- 1988 – Rickie Fowler, American golfer
- 1988 – Olly Lancashire, English footballer
- 1988 – James Tamou, New Zealand-Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Hellen Onsando Obiri, Kenyan runner
- 1989 – Ben Ridge, Australian rugby league player
- 1989 – Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress
- 1991 – Sénah Mango, Togolese footballer
- 1991 – Aaron Telitz, American race car driver
- 1996 – Gleyber Torres, Venezuelan baseball player