Today in History June 20

451    Roman and barbarian warriors halt Attila's army at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.

1397  The Union of Kalmar unites Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch.

1756  Nearly 150 British soldiers are imprisoned in the 'Black Hole' cell of Calcutta. Most die.

1793  Eli Whitney applies for a cotton gin patent.

1819  The paddle-wheel steamship Savannah arrives in Liverpool, England, after a voyage of 27 days and 11 hours--the first steamship to successfully cross the Atlantic.

1837  18-year-old Victoria is crowned Queen of England.

1863  President Abraham Lincoln admits West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state.

1898  On the way to the Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam.

1901  Charlotte M. Manye of South Africa becomes the first native African to graduate from an American University.

1910  Mexican President Porfirio Diaz proclaims martial law and arrests hundreds.

1920  Race riots in Chicago, Illinois leave two dead and many wounded.

1923  France announces it will seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying her war debts.

1941  The U.S. Army Air Force is established, replacing the Army Air Corps.

1955  The AFL and CIO agree to combine names for a merged group.

1963  The United States and the Soviet Union agree to establish a hot line between Washington and Moscow.

1964  General William Westmoreland succeeds General Paul Harkins as head of the U.S. forces in Vietnam.

1967  Boxing champion Muhammad Ali is convicted of refusing induction into the American armed services.

1972  President Richard Nixon names General Creighton Abrams as Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

1999  NATO declares an official end to its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

Born on June 20

1723  Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philosopher (Principals of Moral and Political Science).

1858  Charles Chesnutt, African-American novelist.

1887  Kurt Schwitters, German artist.

1899  Jean Moulin, French Resistance fighter during World War II.

1907  Lillian Hellman, playwright (The Little Foxes, Toys in the Attic).

1909  Errol Flynn, film actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood).

1910  Chester Arthur Burnett, blues singer.

1910  Josephine Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Jordanstown, Wildwood).

1924  Chet Atkins, guitarist.

1924  Audie Murphy, American soldier during World War II, author and actor.

1928  Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the National Front party in France.

1946  Andre Watts, pianist.