Today in History: October 20, MacArthur returns to the Philippines

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 20, the 293rd day of 2026. There are 72 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 20, 1944, Gen. Douglas MacArthur waded ashore in his return to the Philippines against Japanese forces in World War II, fulfilling a promise he made (“I shall return”) after being ordered to evacuate the country in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Also on this date:

In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged communist influence in the U.S. motion picture industry.

In 1967, a jury in Meridian, Mississippi, convicted seven men of violating the civil rights of killed civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner; the seven received prison terms ranging from three to 10 years.

In 1973, in what would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” President Richard M. Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson to fire special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned. Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus also refused to fire Cox and resigned. Acting Attorney General Robert Bork fired Cox.

In 1973, the Sydney Opera House was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1976, 78 people were killed when the Norwegian tanker SS Frosta rammed the commuter ferry George Prince on the Mississippi River near New Orleans.

In 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.

In 1990, three members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were acquitted by a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of violating obscenity laws with an adults-only concert in nearby Hollywood the previous June.

In 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, 69, Libya’s dictator for 42 years, was killed as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

In 2020, a NASA spacecraft gathered more than 2 pounds of rock and dust from the asteroid Bennu and deposited the samples into a capsule for return to Earth. The spacecraft briefly touched the asteroid in NASA's pioneering first mission to retrieve samples believed to be billions of years old.

In 2022, British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just 49 days in office when her plan for billions in tax cuts rocked financial markets and battered the value of the pound; Truss also resigned as head of the Conservative Party.

Today’s Birthdays: Japan’s Empress Michiko is 92. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer Wanda Jackson is 89. Baseball Hall of Famer Juan Marichal is 89. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky is 86. Retired MLB All-Star Keith Hernandez is 73. Composer Thomas Newman is 71. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is 71. Film director Danny Boyle is 70. Actor Viggo Mortensen is 68. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is 62. Actor William Zabka is 61. Journalist Sunny Hostin (TV: “The View”) is 58. Actor Kenneth Choi is 55. Rapper Snoop Dogg is 55. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii is 54. Actor John Krasinski is 47. Rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again is 27.