Historical timeline for October 20

Liz Truss steps down as British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party amid the country's political crisis, serving for the least time of any British Prime Minister (49 days).

Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declare victory in the Raqqa campaign.

Libyan Crisis: Rebel forces capture Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim in his hometown of Sirte and kill them shortly thereafter, ending the first Libyan civil war.

The general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passes the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

The Sloan Great Wall, once the largest cosmic structures known to humanity, is discovered by students at Princeton University.

Top Gear, the revived popular British TV motoring magazine, premieres on BBC.

Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-73.

A massive firestorm breaks out in the hills of Oakland and Berkeley, California killing 25 people and destroying more than 3,000 homes, apartments and condominiums.

A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.

Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashes while landing at Kuibyshev Airport (now Kuromoch International Airport) in Kuibyshev (now present-day Samara, Russia), killing 70 people.

During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.

Two police officers and a Brink's armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground in Nanuet, New York.

A plane carrying the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in woodland in Mississippi, United States. Six people, including three band members, are killed.

The Luling–Destrehan Ferry MV George Prince is struck by the Norwegian freighter SS Frosta while crossing the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die, and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.

Watergate scandal: "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork.

The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction.

China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War.

The Soviet Navy performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine.

The Governor of Kenya Evelyn Baring declares a state of emergency and begins arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising.

The "Johnny Bright incident" occurs during a football game between the Drake Bulldogs and Oklahoma A&M Aggies.