July 20
1810
Colombia declared independence from Spain.
1881
Fugitive Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops.
1951
King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated.
1960
Sirima Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became the world’s first woman prime minister.
1969
Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon.
1985
Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank off the coast of Key West, Fla., in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots.
Birthdays
Sir Edmund Hillary
1919–2008, New Zealand mountain climber and explorer.
Petrarch
poet and humanist (1304)
Elliot Lee Richardson
government official (1920)
Cormac McCarthy
novelist (1933)
Natalie Wood
actress (1938)
Carlos Santana
musician (1947)