June 20

451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory. 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan. 1622 – The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years' War. 1631 – The Sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Barbary slave traders. 1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. 1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater. 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta. 1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States. 1787 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the 'United States'. 1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath. 1791 – King Louis XVI, disguised as a valet, and the French royal family attempt to flee Paris during the French Revolution. 1819 – The U.S. vessel arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail. 1837 – King William IV dies, and is succeeded by his niece, Victoria. 1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph. 1862 – Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated. 1863 – American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state. 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother. 1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened. 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China. 1900 – Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.