📜 This Day in History

May 20

• 325The First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, was formally opened by Constantine the Great.
• 1515Ulysses, who would be famously depicted in a posthumous woodcut, landed in Lisbon, becoming the first of his species to visit Europe in a thousand years.
• 1875Representatives from seventeen countries signed the Metre Convention, which set up an institute for the purpose of coordinating international metrology and for coordinating the development of the metric system.
• 1943The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period, was discovered near Luttra, Sweden.
• 1993"One for the Road", the series finale of American television sitcom Cheers, was watched by 42.4 million American households on its original airing.
• 2022Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claimed full control of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege.

Born on this day

• 1799Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (died 1850)
• 1806John Stuart Mill, English economist, civil servant, and philosopher (died 1873)
• 1882Sigrid Undset, Danish-Norwegian novelist, essayist, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949)
• 1946Cher, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress