Today in History: Turkey's First Painting and Sculpture Museum Opened

September 20 is the 263th (264th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 102.

Railways

• 20 September 1908 Bulgarians, who used the pretext of the railway workers, occupied the East Rumelia Railways.

Events 

• 622 – Muhammad and Abu Bakr migrated to Medina.
• 1187 - Saladin besieged Jerusalem.
• 1519 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets off from Spain with 270 people and 5 ships.
• 1633 - Galileo Galilei is tried at the Roman Inquisition for saying that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
• 1922 – French and Italian forces withdrew from Çanakkale.
• 1928 - The "Supreme Fascist Council" becomes the highest legislative body in the Kingdom of Italy.
• 1933 – During the visit of Prime Minister İsmet İnönü and Foreign Minister Tevfik Rüştü Aras to Sofia, the term of the Bulgaria-Turkey Neutrality Agreement dated 6 March 1929 was extended.
• 1937 – Turkey's first “Painting and Sculpture Museum” was opened in the Dolmabahçe Palace Crown Prince's Office, upon Atatürk's request.
• 1937 – Second Turkish History Congress convened in Dolmabahçe Palace.
• 1942 – In Letichiv, Ukraine, German SS troops kill nearly 3 Jews in two days.
• 1946 – The Press Law was passed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
• 1946 – Cannes Film Festival begins in France.
• 1951 – Turkey's accession to NATO is accepted.
• 1969 - John Lennon left the Beatles.
• 1974 – Hurricane in Honduras: 10 dead.
• 1977 - North Vietnam was admitted to the United Nations.
• 1980 – Retired Admiral Bülend Ulusu was appointed as the Prime Minister.
• 1981 - Iran announces it has executed 149 leftist militants.
• 1984 – Suicide bombing of a truck loaded with explosives on the US Embassy in Beirut; 22 people died.
• 1988 – Naim Süleymanoğlu broke 6 world records in weightlifting at the Seoul Olympic Games.
• 1990 – South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia.
• 1993 – CINE 5 started broadcasting.
• 1994 – The oil agreement was signed in Baku. British BP, American Amaco and Pennzoil, Russian Lukoil and Turkish TPAO formed a consortium.
• 1995 – Deniz Baykal overturned the DYP-CHP Coalition Government, which he led with Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, who refused Necdet Menzir's request to be dismissed. Tansu Çiller handed the resignation of the government to President Süleyman Demirel.
• 2002 - Israeli soldiers blew up three buildings in the headquarters of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Births 

• 1161 – Takakura, 80th emperor of Japan in the traditional succession (d. 1181)
• 1486 - Arthur Tudor, King of England VII. First child of Henry and Elizabeth of York (d. 1502)
• 1758 – Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Emperor of Haiti (d. 1806)
• 1820 – John F. Reynolds, American soldier who served in the Civil War (d. 1863)
• 1833 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian journalist, nationalist, revolutionary soldier, and pacifist (d. 1918)
• 1842 – James Dewar, Scottish chemist (d. 1923)
• 1853 – Chulalongkorn, king of Siam (today Thailand) (d. 1910)
• 1872 – Maurice Gamelin, French general (d. 1958)
• 1878 – Upton Sinclair, American author and Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 1968)
• 1889 – Jomo Kenyatta, first Prime Minister of Kenya (d. 1978)
• 1899 – Leo Strauss, German philosopher (d. 1973)
• 1913 – Sidney Dillon Ripley, American ornithologist and wildlife conservationist (d. 2001)
• 1917 – Fernando Rey, Spanish actor (d. 1994)
• 1917 – Obdulio Varela, Uruguayan football player and manager (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Kadir Has, Turkish businessman (d. 2007)
• 1924 – Gogi Grant, American popular singer (d. 2016)
• 1925 – Ananda Mahidol, eighth king of the Chakri Dynasty of Siam (d. 1946)
• 1930 – Yılmaz Öztuna, Turkish historian (d. 2012)
• 1932 – Atilla Karaosmanoğlu, Turkish politician (d. 2013)
• 1933 – Hamit Kaplan, Turkish wrestler (d. 1976)
• 1934 – Sophia Loren, Italian actress
• 1937 – Monica Zetterlund, Swedish singer and actress (d. 2005)
• 1940 – Tarō Asō, Japanese politician
• 1940 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, President of Afghanistan (d. 2011)
• 1941 – Dale Chihuly, American glass sculptor and entrepreneur
• 1942 – Rose Francine Rogombé, Gabonese politician (d. 2015)
• 1947 – Mia Martini, Italian singer (d. 1995)
• 1947 – Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, French television journalist and author
• 1948 – Sulhi Dölek, Turkish writer and screenwriter (d. 2005)
• 1948 – George RR Martin, American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction
• 1949 – Ekrem Günalp, Turkish football player
• 1951 – Javier Marías is a Spanish novelist, translator and columnist.
• 1951 – Güldal Mumcu, Turkish politician
• 1952 – Manuel Zelaya, Honduran politician
• 1956 - Gary Cole, American actor
• 1958 – Gassan Mesud, Syrian actor
• 1959 – Meral Okay, Turkish screenwriter, actress and songwriter (d. 2012)
• 1961 – Erwin Koeman, Dutch football player and manager
• 1962 – Jim Al-Khalili, Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist and author
• 1964 – Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong actress
• 1964 – Muharrem Akkaya, Turkish lawyer and Chairman of the Supreme Election Board
• 1966 – Nuno Bettencourt, Portuguese-American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer
• 1966 – Lee Hall, English playwright and screenwriter
• 1969 – Davor Dujmovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina actor (d. 1999)
• 1969 – Richard Witschge, Dutch national football player
• 1971 – Henrik Larsson, Swedish football player
• 1972 – Durul Bazan, Turkish theater and film actor
• 1972 – Victo Ponta, Romanian lawyer and politician
• 1973 – Cansel Elçin, Turkish film and television actress
• 1975 – Asia Argento is an Italian film actress and director.
• 1975 - Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian driver, NASCAR racing driver
• 1977 – Bülent Çolak, Turkish theater, cinema and TV series actor
• 1978 – Patrizio Buanne is an Italian-Austrian baritone
• 1982 – Begüm Birgören, Turkish TV series and movie actress
• 1984 – Brian Joubert, French figure skater
• 1986 – Ibrahim Kas, Turkish football player
• 1987 – Gain, South Korean singer and actress
• 1988 – Habib Nurmagomedov, Russian retired mixed martial artist of Avar descent
• 1991 – Isaac Cofie is a Ghanaian international football player.
• 1993 – Julian Draxler, German national football player
• 1994 – Gokhan Sazdagi, Turkish football player
• 1995 – Rob Holding is an English footballer.
• 1996 – Yuki Ueda, Japanese football player

Deaths 

• 1565 – Cipriano de Rore served actively in Italy rönesans Franco-Flemish composer of his time (b. 1515)
• 1625 – Heinrich Meibom, German historian and poet (b. 1555)
• 1863 – Jacob Grimm, German author (elder of the Brothers Grimm) (b. 1785)
• 1894 – Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Italian epigrapher and archaeologist (b. 1822)
• 1898 – Theodor Fontane, German writer and pharmacist (b. 1819)
• 1908 – Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist and composer (b. 1844)
• 1937 – Lev Karahan, Armenian revolutionary and Soviet diplomat (b. 1889)
• 1940 – Edward Denison Ross, English naturalist (b. 1871)
• 1941 – Mikhail Kirponos, Soviet Red Army general (b. 1892)
• 1945 – Eduard Wirths was SS Chief Doctor at Auschwitz concentration camp from September 1942 to January 1945 (b.
• 1947 – Fiorello La Guardia, American politician and Mayor of New York (b. 1882)
• 1957 – Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (b. 1865)
• 1964 – Lazare Lévy, French pianist, organist, composer and teacher (b. 1882)
• 1970 – Alexandros Otoneos, distinguished Greek general who was briefly appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1879)
• 1971 – Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• 1975 – Saint-John Perse, French poet and diplomat (b. 1887)
• 1979 – Ludvík Svoboda, Czech general and politician (b. 1895)
• 1985 – Ruhi Su, Turkish folk music artist (b. 1912)
• 1992 – İlhami Soysal, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1928)
• 1992 – Musa Anter, Turkish journalist, writer and poet (b. 1920)
• 1993 – Erich Hartmann, II. Luftwaffe fighter fighter pilot in the Nazi Germany Air Force in World War II (b. 1922)
• 1996 – Max Manus, Norwegian resistance fighter (during World War II) (b. 1914)
• 1996 – Paul Erdös, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1913)
• 1999 – Raisa Gorbachev, wife of Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1932)
• 2000 – German Titov, Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, fourth human in space after American astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom (b. 1935)
• 2002 – Sergey Sergeyevich Bodrov was born in South Ossetia. Russian director, actor and screenwriter (b. 1971)
• 2002 – Necdet Kent, Turkish diplomat (b. 1911)
• 2004 – Brian Clough, English football player (b. 1935)
• 2005 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Jewish and Nazi hunter (b. 1908)
• 2006 – Sven Nykvist, Swedish cinematographer (b. 1922)
• 2008 – Nazmi Bari, Turkish national tennis player (b. 1929)
• 2010 – Fud Leclerc, Belgian singer (b. 1920)
• 2011 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, President of Afghanistan (b. 1940)
• 2013 – Ercan Aktuna, Turkish former national football player, coach, manager (b. 1940)
• 2013 – Süha Özgermi, Turkish businessman and organizer (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Anatoli Berezovoy, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1942)
• 2014 – Polly Bergen, American actress and singer (b. 1930)
• 2014 – Şeref Taşlıova, Turkish folk poet, State Artist (b. 1938)
• 2015 – CK Williams, American poet (b. 1936)
• 2016 – Curtis Hanson, American film director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1945)
• 2017 – Ene Mihkelson, Estonian writer (b. 1944)
• 2017 – Lillian Ross, American journalist and author (b. 1918)
• 2017 – Shakila, Indian actress (b. 1935)
• 2018 – İbrahim Ayhan is a Kurdish politician (b. 1968)
• 2018 – Fadil Cemil al-Bervari, Iraqi rank soldier (b. 1966)
• 2018 – Inge Feltrinelli, German-Italian female photographer (b. 1930)
• 2018 – George N. Hatsopoulos, Greek-American mechanical engineer (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Mohammed Karim Lamrani, Moroccan politician and former prime minister (b. 1919)
• 2018 – Mohammed Sahnun, Algerian ambassador (b. 1931)
• 2018 – Oytun Şanal, Turkish theater and voice actor (b. 1937)
• 2018 – Reinhard Tritscher, Former Austrian skier (b. 1946)
• 2020 – Robert Graetz, American Lutheran cleric and activist (b. 1928)
• 2020 – Rossana Rossanda, Italian left-wing politician, women's rights activist, author and journalist (b. 1924)
• 2020 – Gerardo Vera, Spanish actor, costume and set designer, opera, film and theater director (b. 1947)

Holidays and special occasions 

• International Fenerbahce Women's Day