1999
Oct 20, Elizabeth Dole quit the US presidential race and her Republican bid to be America’s first woman president due to insufficient campaign funds.

2008
Oct 20, Sister Emmanuelle (b.1908), a Belgian-born nun who devoted her life to helping the poor in North Africa and in France, died in France. Madeleine Cinquin had spent 20 years working with children in a slum in Cairo as part of a lengthy career helping the dispossessed.

2011
Oct 20, France said that the Somali kidnappers of Marie Dedieu (66), a disabled Frenchwoman who died after being snatched from her home in Kenya, are demanding a ransom for the return of her body.
2014
Oct 20, Iranian news reported that authorities have arrested four people suspected of throwing acid on women.