How many days and weeks until October 20th?

The Sunday Times first appeared under that title on October 20th 1822, having begun the previous year under a different name and no connection whatever to The Times. It came out in an age when a good many people held that a Sunday newspaper was close to blasphemous, and it survived by being better written than its rivals. It is still appearing two centuries later, interrupted only by the eleven months of 1978 and 1979 when Times Newspapers shut down over new printing technology.

At Navarino on October 20th 1827 a British, French and Russian squadron under Sir Edward Codrington destroyed an Ottoman and Egyptian fleet in about four hours, which secured Greek independence. It was the last major battle fought entirely under sail. Codrington was thanked by Parliament and then quietly recalled, the government having wanted a show of force rather than a battle.

The Sydney Opera House was opened by the Queen on October 20th 1973, ten years late and many times over budget. Its Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, had resigned in 1966 after a dispute over fees and never saw the finished building. He was not mentioned in the speeches at the opening.

Christopher Wren, the architect who rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire, was Professor of Astronomy at Oxford before he built anything at all, and a country parson’s son from East Knoyle in Wiltshire, born on October 20th 1632.

Born on October 20th: star sign, birthstone and birth flower

Sir Christopher Wren and Tom Petty — both named above — share this star sign with everyone else born in the same window.

None of this is settled fact in the way the history above is — zodiac dates, birthstones and birth flowers are conventions rather than laws, and different sources hedge them slightly differently. The birthstone is the most standardised of the three (set by the trade in 1912 and revised since); the birth flower is the least, resting on Victorian tradition rather than any governing body.

Gift ideas for a October 20th birthday

A small, themed starting point rather than a shopping list — opal for the stone, Libra for the sign, and the sky itself on the day.

October birthstone necklace

A simple pendant in the actual October birthstone colour, from a long-running UK jewellery brand.

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Libra constellation necklace

Stainless steel, sign selectable at checkout — choose Libra for a October 20th birthday.

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Personalised birth flower & birthstone disc

Engraved with a name, the October birthstone and the marigold — both in one pendant, in a gift box.

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Personalised star map print

The actual night sky over a chosen place on October 20th, whichever year — a print rather than jewellery.

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