April 20: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded four minutes into its first full flight test.

The Starship rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built, is set to one day carry human colonists to Mars. Despite the explosion, SpaceX's engineers celebrated the launch, as it provided invaluable data.

The price of a barrel of crude oil dipped below zero.

This is the first time in history oil turned negative. On this day, producers were out of space for their supplies, with many giving it away. Before the dip, one barrel of oil was at $18, and the next day the same barrel was worth -$38 on the open markets. With so many people staying home because of COVID-19, oil demand plummeted, and oil futures sunk because more was produced than could be stored.

Prince Charles was appointed to become the next head of the Commonwealth once Queen Elizabeth II passes.

Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first woman to win an Indy car race.

Patrick, just 26 at the time, finished the race 5.86 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves at Japan's Twin Ring Motegi oval.

A swamp rabbit attacked President Jimmy Carter while he was fishing in Plains, Georgia.

Nobody believed him when he returned to work, but a White House photographer released a photo of the incident later on.

Nutella appeared on store shelves in Alba, Italy, and became an instant success.

Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 craft to an altitude of 34 miles (54.6 km).

The League of Nations was officially dissolved by its member states.

The League of Nations was shown to have been a complete and utter failure, given it was unable to prevent World War II. When it was dissolved, many of its institutions were simply transferred to the United Nations.

Nazi-German ace fighter pilot, The Red Baron, shot down his final two victims.

Manfred von Richthofen earned his nickname not from his bloodlust but from the fact that he painted his plane red, and he was the equivalent of a baron. Richtofen joined the German air force at the age of 23, and within the space of just three years, he shot down eighty Allied planes. On April 21st, after reaching his 79th and 80th kills the previous day, the Red Baron finally met his match and died in Northern France.

Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in Paris, France.

Captain James Cook arrived at the shore in New South Wales, Australia.

They docked ashore in the morning, and Captain Cook spoke fondly of the weather and landscape he witnessed. In the afternoon and evening, the crew spotted smoke coming from fires in the distance, and that's when they first found the area to be inhabited.

French mathematician Pierre Louis Maupertuis began his journey to Lapland to plot the shape of the Earth.

He was joined by fellow scientists Anders Celsius, Charles Etienne Louis Camus, Alexis Clairaut, and Pierre-Charles Le Monnier.

Oliver Cromwell dissolved England’s Rump Parliament.

In part of his speech, Cromwell stated, "You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... In the name of God, go!"

The first official performance of Macbeth by Shakespeare took place at the Globe Theatre in London, England.