November 20

On the morning of November 20, 1980, an exploratory oil well being drilled from barges on Lake Peigneur punctured the roof of an active underground salt mine beneath Jefferson Island, Louisiana. The breach turned the lake into a massive sink, creating a whirlpool that pulled barges, equipment, and shoreline into a newly formed abyss. Miraculously there were no confirmed fatalities; the event left the lake permanently altered, the mine flooded, and industry practices around subsurface mapping and coordination sharply rethought.

On November 20, 1979, a group of militants led by Juhayman al‑Otaybi entered and occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca, proclaiming Muhammad al‑Qahtani the Mahdi. The seizure and the two‑week siege that followed—ending with Saudi forces retaking the mosque on December 4, 1979—left hundreds dead, dozens executed, and set off political and social changes that reshaped the kingdom for decades.

On 20 November 1974, a Lufthansa Boeing 747-200 climbing out of Nairobi International Airport suffered a leading-edge slat asymmetry shortly after rotation, stalled at low altitude and crashed near the runway. The forward fuselage burned and the aircraft was destroyed; many lives were lost and survivors were rescued amid chaotic emergency efforts. The subsequent investigation pointed to a slat configuration or actuation/locking failure and prompted industry changes to high-lift device maintenance, indications, and crew procedures.

On the morning of November 20, 1968, an underground explosion at Consolidation Coal Company’s No. 9 mine near Farmington, West Virginia, killed 78 miners and changed the course of U.S. mine safety regulation. Investigators concluded a methane ignition followed by coal‑dust propagation and lethal afterdamp caused most of the deaths. The disaster galvanized passage of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 and remains a defining moment in American mining history.

On November 20, 1946, in the hills near Margarana, western Bali, a small band of Balinese republican guerrillas led by I Gusti Ngurah Rai made a final stand against a larger Dutch column. Outgunned and encircled, they fought until they were all killed—a clash that became known locally as Puputan Margarana and is remembered across Indonesia as a symbolic sacrifice in the struggle for independence.

On November 20, 1943, U.S. Marines assaulted the heavily fortified islet of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll as part of Operation Galvanic. What was meant to be a quick capture of a forward airfield became 76 hours of brutal, close combat against concrete pillboxes, coral reefs, and an enemy determined not to yield.

On November 20, 1917, British forces launched a surprise combined-arms assault near Cambrai, northern France, deploying massed tanks, predicted artillery and air support in an effort to break the deadlock on the Western Front. Initial gains were dramatic, but German counter-attacks in late November rolled back much of the advance. The fighting settled into a new stalemate by early December, and historians remember Cambrai as the first large-scale test of armored warfare rather than a decisive strategic victory.