On this day - 20 April

On April 20th 1941 the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe fought over the skies of Athens. Author Roald Dahl was amongst those flying and detailed the battle in his one of his autobiographies, "Going Solo".

Greece was invaded by Italian forces in October of 1940 and had been holding with the support of the Allied forces. Germany then joined the invasion of Greece in April 1941, forming another front line by attacking from Bulgaria. The combination of Italian and German forces was too much to hold up against, despite assistance from the Allies, and Greece fell to German control with Athens taken on April 27th 1941.

The Deepwater Horizon was an offshore drilling facility for oil located in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20th 2010 an explosion occurred followed by a fire that would last until the Deepwater Horizon sunk on April 22nd. This led to the largest oil spill in history and the oil well wasn't declared sealed for over four months after the explosion. 11 missing workers from the rig were never found and presumed dead.