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Today in History, June 20th

On June 20, 1789, France's Third Estate swore the Tennis Court Oath. Plus Queen Victoria's accession and West Virginia statehood.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published June 20, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

June 20 is best known for 1789, when deputies of France’s Third Estate swore the Tennis Court Oath, vowing not to break up until the country had a constitution. The date also saw Victoria become queen of the United Kingdom in 1837 and West Virginia join the Union in 1863.

The big story: The Tennis Court Oath (1789)

France was broke in 1789, and Louis XVI’s fix was to summon the Estates-General, an assembly that had not met since 1614. It was split into three estates: clergy, nobles and everyone else. The Third Estate, speaking for commoners and the lower clergy, had the most deputies, and it declared itself the National Assembly. On June 20 its members found themselves locked out of their usual hall at Versailles. The king had ordered them to disperse. Instead they gathered on an indoor tennis court, the jeu de paume, and swore to keep meeting until France had a written constitution. Louis at first seemed to give way and recognized the assembly. Then he ringed Versailles with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker, a popular minister who favored reform. Parisians answered on July 14 by storming the Bastille, and the French Revolution was underway.

More events on June 20

Year	What happened
1782	After six years of debate, Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States, with its bald eagle holding an olive branch and arrows.
1837	Victoria became queen of the United Kingdom after the death of William IV.
1863	West Virginia entered the Union as the 35th state, and Arthur Boreman was inaugurated as its first governor.
1893	A Massachusetts jury acquitted Lizzie Borden of murdering her father and stepmother. The killings were never officially solved.
1900	Boxer rebels in Peking (Beijing) killed the German envoy, Baron von Ketteler, and laid siege to the foreign legations for 55 days.
1903	Barney Oldfield drove a car a mile in a minute at Indianapolis, which Britannica credits as a first.
1919	Germany’s cabinet resigned after deadlocking over whether to accept the Treaty of Versailles.
1941	After years of fighting organized labor, Ford Motor Company signed its first contract with the United Auto Workers.
1963	Months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to set up a direct “hot line” to lower the risk of accidental nuclear war.
1975	Steven Spielberg’s Jaws opened in theaters and helped invent the summer blockbuster.
1992	A new constitution took effect in Paraguay, closing the book on military rule that began under Alfredo Stroessner in the 1950s.
2002	In Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing intellectually disabled defendants violates the Eighth Amendment.

Born on June 20

1905: Lillian Hellman, playwright and screenwriter, born in New Orleans.
1925: Audie Murphy, decorated World War II soldier turned movie actor, born near Kingston, Texas.
1949: Lionel Richie, singer and songwriter who rose to fame with the Commodores before a solo career, born in Tuskegee, Alabama.