Britannica On This Day October 20 2023

This Day in History: October 20

Featured Event

1803







The U.S. Senate, after due consideration and considerable oratory, ratified the Louisiana Purchase.


Louisiana Purchase
United States history




Louisiana Purchase, western half of the Mississippi River basin purchased in 1803 from France by the United States; at less than three cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km), it was the greatest land bargain in U.S. history. The purchase doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers of the federal Constitution. The Louisiana Territory had been the object of Old World interest for many years before 1803. Explorations and scattered settlements in the 17th and 18th ...(100 of 1170 words)


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Featured Biography

Tom Petty
American musician







Tom Petty, in full Thomas Earl Petty, (born October 20, 1950, Gainesville, Florida, U.S.—died October 2, 2017, Santa Monica, California), American singer and songwriter whose roots-oriented guitar rock arose from the new-wave movement of the late 1970s and resulted in a string of hit singles and albums.
At age 10, Petty was introduced by his uncle to Elvis Presley, who was filming Follow That Dream (1962) in Florida, where Petty grew up. Within two years Petty had taken up the guitar. He dropped out of high school to tour with his band Mudcrutch in the early 1970s. After arriving in Los Angeles, the band quickly disintegrated, but in 1975 Petty and two former members, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, joined Ron Blair and Stan Lynch to form Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The band’s eponymous debut album, released in 1976, initially caused little stir in the United States, but the single “Breakdown” was a smash in Britain, and, when it was re-released in the U.S., the song made the Top 40 in 1978. Damn the Torpedoes (1979), featuring the hits “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Refugee,” shot to number two, and, though the group’s success in the 1980s leveled off, there were several hits, including Petty’s duet with Stevie Nicks, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (1981), and the Heartbreakers’ “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (1985). The band also gained notice for its music videos.


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