May 20
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(Redirected from 20 May)
May 20 is the 140th day of the year (141st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 225 days remaining after May 20 until the end of the year.
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[change] Births
- 1315 – Bonne of Luxembourg, queen of John II of France (d. 1349)
- 1470 – Pietro Bembo, Italian cardinal (d. 1547)
- 1554 – Paolo Bellasio, Italian composer (d. 1594)
- 1660 – Andreas Schlüter, German sculptor (d. 1714)
- 1663 – William Bradford, British-born printer (d. 1752)
- 1706 – Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier (d. 1777)
- 1726 – Francis Cotes, English painter (d. 1770)
- 1737 – William Petty Fitzmaurice, British statesman (d. 1805)
- 1759 – William Thornton, West Indian-born architect (d. 1828)
- 1768 – Dolley Madison, First Lady of the United States (d. 1849)
- 1772 – Sir William Congreve, English inventor (d. 1828)
- 1799 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist (d. 1850)
- 1806 – John Stuart Mill, English philosopher (d. 1873)
- 1822 – Frédéric Passy, French economist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1912)
- 1830 – Hector Malot, French writer (d. 1907)
- 1832 – Garretson W. Gibson, President of Liberia (d. 1910)
- 1838 – Jules Méline, French statesman (d. 1925)
- 1851 – Emil Berliner, German-born telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
- 1860 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
- 1882 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
- 1883 – King Faisal I of Iraq (d. 1933)
- 1886 – Ali Sami Yen, Turkish footballer (d. 1951)
- 1893 – Asmundur Sveinsson, Icelandic sculptor (d. 1972)
- 1895 – R. J. (Reginald Joseph) Mitchell, British aircraft designer (d. 1937)
- 1901 – Max Euwe, Dutch chess player (d. 1981)
- 1906 – Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
- 1908 – James Stewart, American actor (d. 1997)
- 1911 – Gardner Fox, American writer (d. 1986)
- 1912 – Moses I. Finley, American-British historian (d. 1986)
- 1912 – Wilfrid Sellars, American philosopher (d. 1989)
- 1913 – William Hewlett, American engineer and computer manufacturer (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician (d. 1981)
- 1916 – Trebisonda Valla, Italian athlete (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Alexei Petrovich Maresiev, Russian flying ace (d. 2001)
- 1917 – Bergur Sigurbjörnsson, Icelandic politician (d. 2005)
- 1918 – Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- 1919 – George Gobel, American comedian (d. 1991)
- 1920 – Betty Driver, English singer and actress (d. 2011)
- 1921 – Wolfgang Borchert, German writer (d. 1947)
- 1921 – Hal Newhouser, American baseball player (d. 1998)
- 1925 – Alexei Tupolev, Russian engineer and aircraft designer (d. 2001)
- 1926 – Bob Sweikert, American race car driver (d. 1956)
- 1927 – Bud Grant, American football coach
- 1931 – Ken Boyer, American baseball player (d. 1982)
- 1935 – Marinella, Greek singer
- 1935 – Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay
- 1936 – Anthony Zerbe, American actor
- 1938 – Marinella, Greek singer and actress
- 1940 – Stan Mikita, Slovak-born hockey player
- 1940 – Sadaharu Oh, Japanese baseball player
- 1941 – Goh Chok Tong, former Prime Minister of Singapore
- 1941 – John Strasberg, American actor
- 1943 – Al Bano, Italian singer
- 1944 – Joe Cocker, British singer
- 1944 – Boudewijn de Groot, Dutch singer
- 1944 – Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman
- 1946 – Cher, American actress and singer
- 1947 – Greg Dyke, British broadcast executive
- 1951 – Thomas Akers, American astronaut
- 1952 – Roger Milla, Cameroonian footballer
- 1953 – Robert Doyle, Australian politician
- 1954 – David Paterson, American politician, 55th Governor of New York
- 1954 – Cindy McCain, American businesswoman and wife of John McCain
- 1955 – Zbigniew Preisner, Polish film composer
- 1956 – Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author
- 1957 – Yoshihiko Noda, Prime Minister of Japan
- 1958 – Ron Reagan, American dancer and talk show host
- 1958 – Jane Wiedlin, American singer (The Go-Go's)
- 1959 – Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian-American singer (d. 1997)
- 1959 – Bronson Pinchot, American actor
- 1960 – John Billingsley, American actor
- 1960 – Chuck Brodsky, American musician
- 1960 – Tony Goldwyn, American actor
- 1962 – Mike Jeffries, American soccer coach
- 1966 – Mindy Cohn, American actress
- 1968 – Timothy Olyphant, American actor
- 1970 – Louis Theroux, British television presenter
- 1971 – Tony Stewart, American race car driver
- 1972 – Tina Hobley, British actress
- 1972 – Busta Rhymes, American singer and rapper
- 1976 – Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- 1977 – Miriam Parrish, American actress
- 1981 – Iker Casillas, Spanish footballer
- 1981 – Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player
- 1982 – Petr Cech, Czech footballer
- 1983 – Oscar Cardozo, Paraguayan footballer
- 1984 – Patrick Ewing, Jr., American basketball player
- 1992 – Cate Campbell, Australian swimmer
- 1993 – Caroline Zhang, American figure skater
[change] Deaths
- 685 – King Ecgfrith of Northumbria (b. 645)
- 1277 – Pope John XII (b. 1215)
- 1285 – John II of Jerusalem, King of Cyprus (b. 1259)
- 1444 – Bernardino of Siena, Italian Franciscan missionary (b. 1380)
- 1449 – Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra, Prince-regent of Portugal (b. 1392)
- 1503 – Lorenzo de' Medici, Italian banker, politician and patron of the arts (b. 1463)
- 1506 – Christopher Columbus, Italian-Spanish seafarer (b. 1451)
- 1550 – Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shogun (b. 1510)
- 1622 – Osman II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1604)
- 1648 – Wladislaus IV of Poland (b. 1595)
- 1793 – Charles Bonnet, Swiss naturalist (b. 1720)
- 1896 – Clara Schumann, German pianist (b. 1819)
- 1940 – Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish writer (b. 1871)
- 1947 – Philipp Lenard, German physicist (b. 1862)
- 1957 – Gilbert Murray, Australian philologist (b. 1866)
- 1975 – Barbara Hepworth, British sculptor (b. 1903)
- 1976 – Syd Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1911)
- 1984 – Olafur Johannesson, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1913)
- 1989 – John Hicks, English economist (b. 1904)
- 1989 – Gilda Radner, American comedienne and actress (b. 1946)
- 1996 – Jon Pertwee, British actor (b. 1919)
- 2002 – Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist (b. 1941)
- 2005 – Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher (b. 1913)
- 2009 – Lucy Gordon, British actress (b. 1980)
- 2010 – Walter Rudin, Austrian-born mathematician (b. 1921)
- 2011 – Randy Savage, American pro wrestler (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, Libyan, only person convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Robin Gibb, British singer and musician (Bee Gees) (b. 1949)
[change] Events
- 526 – An earthquake in Syria and Antiochia kills 300,000 people.
- 1202 – The Mediterranean Sea area and the Middle East are shaken by a strong earthquake, which is believed to have killed a million people.
- 1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol to look for a route westwards.
- 1498 – Portuguese seafarer Vasco da Gama arrives in Calicut, now Kozhikode, India.
- 1506 – Christopher Columbus dies.
- 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first Atlas.
- 1840 – York Minster is badly damaged by fire.
- 1862 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act.
- 1882 – Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary form a Triple Alliance.
- 1883 – Krakatau begins a series of eruptions that end really violently in August.
- 1884 – Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo becomes the King of the Zulu nation.
- 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States, with Tomas Estrada Palma as its first President.
- 1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland, on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean. She lands in Ireland the next day.
- 1940 – Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz.
- 1948 – Chiang Kai-shek is elected the first President of the Republic of China.
- 1956 – The US drops the first airborne hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
- 1965 – PIA Flight 705, a Boeing 720, crashes on landing at Cairo International Airport in Egypt, killing 119 people.
- 1983 – First publication of the discovery of the HIV virus that leads to AIDS, in the Science journal, by Luc Montagnier
- 1989 – Authorities in China declare martial law, leading to the crushing of pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square two weeks later.
- 1990 – Romania holds its first elections following Communist rule.
- 2002 – East Timor becomes independent from Indonesia.
- 2006 – Finnish monster-rock band Lordi wins the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, Greece, with 292 points.
- 2012 – Taur Matan Ruak becomes President of East Timor on the 10th anniversary of its independence from Indonesia.
- 2012 – A magnitude 6 earthquake strikes Northern Italy, killing 7 people and destroying many historic buildings.
- 2012 – A solar eclipse is seen over part of East Asia, the North Pacific Ocean and Western North America.
