October 20 is:
World Osteoporosis Day
World Statistics Day
National Brandied Fruit Day
Foodimentary.com says:
Brandy is distilled from fruits such as grape, apple, blackberry, apricot and so on.
Based on the region and the fruit, brandy can be divided into several categories: Cognac, Armagnac, American Brandies, and fruit brandies.
The word brandy originally comes from the Dutch word brandewijn, which means burnt wine.
Long before the 16th century, wine was a popular product for trading in European region. In the early 16th century, a Dutchman trader invented the way to ship more wine in the limited cargo space by removing water from the wine. Then he could add the water back to the concentrated wine at the destination port in Holland.
Most brandy is 80 proof (40% alcohol/volume) and has been enjoyed for centuries as a cocktail and cooking ingredient.
Birthday of Sir Christopher Wren (October 20, 1632), English architect.
His greatest public building was Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Its construction, completed in Wren’s lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding program in the City after the Great Fire of London. It serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London for the Anglican Church. Services held at St Paul’s have included the funerals of Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer; the launch of the Festival of Britain; and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II.
1803 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase with a vote of twenty-four to seven The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States, at a sum of less than 3 cents per acre.
The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
Birthday of John Dewey (October 20, 1859), American educator and philosopher whose watchword was “learn by doing”. He self-identified as a “democratic socialist”.
1882-Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in 1931.
1944 – American general Douglas MacArthur fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines when he commanded an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
Death of Herbert Clark Hoover in 1964, thirty-first President of the United States. He died at New York City at age 90. He died of massive gastrointestinal bleeding believed to be from a malignant tumor.
Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968.
Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, was officially opened in 1973.