| 20 July 1031 | France [political events] | Henry I succeeds to the throne of France following the death of his father, Robert II the Pious, king of France. |
| 20 July 1304 | Tuscany [births and deaths] | Petrarch (Petrarca), Italian poet whose work was a major influence on the growth of Renaissance poetry, born in Arezzo, Tuscany (–1374). |
| 20 July 1500 | Spain, Portugal [political events] | Dom Miguel, the infant heir to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, dies, dashing the hopes of his grandparents King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile for a union of these kingdoms and leaving Joanna (‘the Mad’) and Philip (‘the Handsome’), Archduke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy, heirs to Spain. |
| 20 July 1885 | UK [football] | The Football Association in England legalizes professionalism. |
| 20 July 1903 | [political events] | Following the death of Pope Leo XIII, Giuseppe Sarto is elected Pope Pius X. |
| 20–24 July 1922 | Togoland, Cameroon, France, Tanganyika, Palestine, UK [colonies and mandate] | The Council of the League of Nations approves mandates for the former German colonies of Togoland (now Togo) and the Cameroons to France and Britain, and Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Palestine to Britain. |
| 20 July 1937 | Italy [births and deaths] | Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and inventor of radio, dies in Rome, Italy (63). |
| 20 July 1944 | Germany [World War II (1939–45)] | An abortive assassination attempt is made on the German Führer Adolf Hitler in his Rastenburg headquarters. The planter of the bomb, Count Claus von Stauffenberg, is shot the same evening. |
| 20 July 1954 | North Vietnam, South Vietnam, France, Switzerland [diplomacy] | An armistice ending the fighting in Indochina is signed in Geneva, Switzerland. Under the terms of the agreement France is to evacuate North Vietnam, while the communists are to evacuate South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. France also undertakes to respect the independence of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and the communist leader Ho Chi Minh is to form a government in North Vietnam. |
| 20 July 1969 | world, USA [television] | Over 700 million people worldwide watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the lander module from the US spacecraft Apollo 11 touch down on the Moon. |
| 20–22 July 1974 | Cyprus, Turkey [political events] | Turkey invades Cyprus, claiming right of intervention under the 1960 treaty which sets Turkey as a guarantor, along with Greece and Britain, of the Cypriot constitution. A ceasefire follows on 22 July. |
| 20 July 1995 | Bosnia-Herzegovina [wars] | Serbs and allies attack the United Nations (UN) safe haven of Bihac in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina; on 27 July, Croat troops enter Bosnia to relieve pressure on Bihac. |
| 20 July 2003 | England [golf] | US golfer Ben Curtis, a 250–1 outsider making his debut in a major championship, wins the 132nd British Open tournament at Sandwich in Kent, England. |
| 20–31 July 2007 | UK [natural disasters] | Areas of England and Wales, particularly along the Severn and Thames rivers, are inundated by the worst flooding in decades as torrential summer rain again hits Britain following earlier deluges in June. Communities are cut off, thousands of people are left without power and water supplies, and transport is disrupted. |
