November
20
Universal
Children's Day
By
resolution 836(IX) of 14 December 1954, the
General Assembly recommended that all countries
institute a Universal Children's Day, to be
observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and
understanding between children. It recommended
that the Day was to be observed also as a day
of activity devoted to promoting the ideals
and objectives of the Charter and the welfare
of the children of the world. The Assembly suggested
to governments that the Day be observed on the
date and in the way which each considers appropriate.
The date 20 November, marks the day on which
the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the
Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
In
2000 world leaders outlined the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme
poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and
providing universal primary education, all by
the target date of 2015. Though the Goals are
for all humankind, they are primarily about
children. UNICEF notes that six of the eight
goals relate directly to children and meeting
the last two will also make critical improvements
in their lives.
November
20 : Africa Industrialization Day
Within
the framework of the Second Industrial Development
Decade for Africa (1991-2000), the UN General
Assembly, in 1989, proclaimed 20 November Africa
Industrialization Day (resolution 44/237). The
Day is intended to mobilize the commitment of
the international community to the industrialization
of Africa.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon states in his 2009 message for the
Day that "the African economy, like the
rest of the world economy, continues to feel
the impact of the global economic and financial
crisis", but notes that to benefit from
a recovery, "the continent must focus on
industrialization as a critical engine of economic
growth and development".
November
20 : World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic
Victims
Road
traffic crashes kill nearly 1.3 million people
every year and injure or disable as many as
50 million more. They are the leading cause
of death among young people aged 10–24 years.
In
October 2005, the United Nations General Assembly
adopted a resolution which calls for governments
to mark the third Sunday in November each year
as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic
Victims. The day was created as a means to give
recognition to victims of road traffic crashes
and the plight of their relatives who must cope
with the emotional and practical consequences
of these tragic events.
WHO
and the UN Road Safety Collaboration encourage
governments and nongovernmental organizations
around the world to commemorate this day as
a means of drawing the public’s attention to
road traffic crashes, their consequences and
costs, and the measures which can be taken to
prevent them.
November
20 : Child Rights day The
date 20 November marks the day on which the
Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights
of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
The
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
is the most widely ratified human rights treaty
in the world. Today, 193 states have ratified
the CRC. In fact, only two countries in the
world — Somalia and the United States — have
not yet given the CRC legal force, although
both have signed it.
The
situation for children in Somalia is worried;
following the worst violence in the country
for close to two decades and many children are
currently living in IDP camps inside and outside
the country without education, good health and
shelter.
An
increasing number of Somali children are being
recruited by the Somali armed forces or militia
groups in violation of international law particularly
for those underage and many of the children
are joining because their families are unable
to provide for them on the other hand some of
children are keen on to be prominent gangsters
so as to maintain their existence.
Events
284
– Diocletian is chosen as Roman Emperor.
762 – During An Shi Rebellion, Tang Dynasty,
with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptured Luoyang
from the rebels.
1194 – Palermo is conquered by Emperor Henry
VI.
1407 – A truce between John the Fearless, Duke
of Burgundy and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans
is agreed under the auspices of John, Duke of
Berry. Orléans would be assassinated three days
later by Burgundy.
1695 – Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo
dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by
the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos
Jorge Velho.
1739 – Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between
British and Spanish forces during the War of
Jenkins' Ear.
1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state
to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex
(a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts)
2,000 miles from the western coast of South
America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick
is in part inspired by this story).
1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la
Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado.
1861 – American Civil War: Secession ordinance
is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government.
1910 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero
issues the Plan de San Luis Potosi, denouncing
President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution
to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively
starting the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins
– British forces make early progress in an attack
on German positions but are later pushed back.
1917 – Ukraine is declared a republic.
1923 – Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as
the official currency of Germany at the exchange
rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion (One
Billion on the long scale) Papiermark
1936 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder
of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution
squad.
1940 – World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory
of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the
Axis Powers.
1943 – World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation
Galvanic) begins – United States Marines land
on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer
heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine
guns.
1945 – Nuremberg Trials: Trials against 24 Nazi
war criminals start at the Palace of Justice
at Nuremberg.
1947 – The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant
Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
1952 – Slánský trials – a series of Stalinist
and anti-Semitic show trials in Czechoslovakia.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response
to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles
from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends
the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
1969 – Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer publishes
explicit photographs of dead villagers from
the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
1974 – The United States Department of Justice
files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T.
This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T
and its Bell System.
1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes
the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel,
when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem
Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem,
seeking a permanent peace settlement.
1979 – Grand Mosque Seizure: About 200 Sunni
Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of
the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and
take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government
receives help from French special forces to
put down the uprising.
1980 – Lake Peigneur drains into an underlying
salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had
been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine,
causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding
the edges of the hole. The resulting whirlpool
sucked the drilling platform, several barges,
houses and trees thousands of feet down to the
bottom of the dissolving salt deposit.
1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
1989 – Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters
assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from
200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
1991 – An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying
19 peacekeeping mission team with officials
and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military
forces in Khojavend district of Azerbaijan.
1992 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor
Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing
over £50 million worth of damage.
1993 – Savings and loan crisis: The United States
Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure
of California senator Alan Cranston for his
"dealings" with savings-and-loan executive
Charles Keating.
1994 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels
sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19
years of civil war (localized fighting resumes
the next year).
1998 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan
declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a
man without a sin" in regard to the 1998
U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
1998 – The first module of the International
Space Station, Zarya, is launched.
2001 – In Washington, D.C., U.S. President George
W. Bush dedicates the United States Department
of Justice headquarters building as the Robert
F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late
Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his
76th birthday.
2003 – After the November 15 bombings, a second
day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings occurs in
Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head
office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate.
2008 – After critical failures in the US financial
system began to build up after mid-September,
the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its
lowest level since 1997.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Bernward of Hildesheim
Edmund the Martyr (Church of England)
November 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Black Awareness Day (Brazil)
Day of National Sovereignty (Argentina)
Earliest day on which the Feast of Christ the
King can fall, while November 26 is the latest;
celebrated on the last Sunday before Advent.
(Roman Catholic Church)
Revolution Day (Mexico)
Teacher's Day or Ngày nhà giáo Việt Nam (Vietnam)
Transgender Day of Remembrance (LGBT community)
Universal Children's Day (International)
Wedding day of Queen Elizabeth II, official
flag day. (United Kingdom)
For details, contact Datacentre
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