What happened on 20 October?

11 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1973 Sydney Opera House Jørn Utzon's sail-roofed opera house on Sydney Harbour.
2. 1962 Sino-Indian War China defeats India in a brief border war in the Himalayas.
3. 1973 The Saturday Night Massacre Ordered to fire the special prosecutor demanding his tapes, Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigns rather than comply; so does his deputy. The third in line does it — and the b
4. 1897 Born: Jomo Kenyatta First president of independent Kenya; led the country away from British rule.
5. 1854 Born: Arthur Rimbaud Precocious Symbolist poet who abandoned literature at 21.
6. 1827 Battle of Navarino A British, French and Russian fleet destroys the Ottoman-Egyptian navy in Navarino Bay — the last great battle of sail, and the guarantee of Greek independence.
7. 2011 Death of Gaddafi Fleeing Sirte under NATO air attack, the colonel is dragged from a drainage pipe by rebel fighters and killed on camera within the hour — the only ruler the Arab Spring ends with a
8. 1962 Kennedy chooses a blockade of Cuba Cutting short a campaign trip with a diplomatic 'cold', Kennedy takes ExComm's split verdict on the Soviet missiles in Cuba — air strike or naval blockade — and picks the blockade,
9. 1740 Reign of Maria Theresa Fought the War of the Austrian Succession to keep her inheritance, lost Silesia, and rebuilt the Habsburg state around it.
10. 1740 Maria Theresa inherits the Habsburg lands Charles VI dies and his daughter inherits under the Pragmatic Sanction; within two months Frederick the Great invades Silesia.
11. 1496 Philip the Handsome marries Joanna of Castile Maximilian's son marries the heiress of Castile and Aragon; their son Charles will inherit Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and the Americas in a single person.