On This Day

Today in History, March 20th

On March 20, 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was published as a book. Plus Napoleon's return to Paris and the Tokyo subway attack.

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

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

March 20 is best known as the day in 1852 when Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin first came out as a book. The date also saw Napoleon return to Paris in 1815 and a meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin, in 1854 that helped launch the Republican Party.

The big story: Uncle Tom’s Cabin Hits the Bookstores (1852)

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s story of enslaved people in the American South first reached readers in installments in an antislavery paper, The National Era, in 1851 and 1852. Boston publisher John P. Jewett took a chance on a book version, and it was published on March 20, 1852. It sold fast. Roughly 300,000 copies were sold in the United States within a year, and it was a hit in Britain as well. The book put faces and families on an issue many Northern readers had treated as an abstraction. Scenes like Eliza crossing the icy Ohio River with her child stuck in people’s minds. Southern critics attacked it as unfair to the South. Later generations criticized its stereotypes, and “Uncle Tom” turned into an insult. But few books have done more to stir public feeling in the years before the Civil War.

More events on March 20

Year	What happened
1760	The Great Boston Fire broke out and burned roughly 350 homes, shops and warehouses. Remarkably, no one was reported killed.
1815	Napoleon arrived in Paris after escaping exile on Elba, beginning the period known as the Hundred Days. It ended with his defeat at Waterloo.
1854	Opponents of the spread of slavery met in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, and agreed a new party was needed. Ripon calls itself the birthplace of the Republican Party.
1956	France granted Tunisia full independence, ending 75 years as a French protectorate. Habib Bourguiba became prime minister.
1969	John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in a brief ceremony at the British Consulate in Gibraltar. Days later they staged their “Bed-In” for peace in Amsterdam.
1987	Federal health officials announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved AZT, the first drug shown to work against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
1995	Members of the Aum Shinrikyo group released sarin nerve gas on Tokyo subway trains. Thirteen people died and thousands were sickened.
2003	U.S.-led forces launched the invasion of Iraq with strikes on Baghdad aimed at Saddam Hussein.

Born on March 20

1828: Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright of A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler.
1928: Fred Rogers, creator and host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
1948: Bobby Orr, Boston Bruins defenseman who changed how the position is played.
1957: Spike Lee, filmmaker of Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X.