December 20
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining after December 20 until the end of the year.
[change] Births
- 1537 – King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
- 1629 – Pieter de Hooch, painter (d. 1684)
- 1792 – Nicolas Charlet, painter (d. 1845)
- 1805 – Thomas Graham, Father of colloid chemistry (d. 1869)
- 1833 – Samuel Mudd, physician, possible conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1883)
- 1838 – Edwin Abbott Abbott, schoolmaster/theologian/author of Flatland (d. 1926)
- 1841 – Ferdinand Buisson, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1927 (d. 1932)
- 1856 – Ferdinand Avenarius, author (d. 1923)
- 1860 – Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
- 1861 – Ivana Kobilca, Slovene painter (d. 1926)
- 1865 – Elsie De Wolfe, aka Lady Mendl, actress & interior decorator (. 1950)
- 1868 – Harvey Firestone, automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
- 1881 – Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
- 1886 – Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis star (d. 1974)
- 1890 – Yvonne Arnaud, actress
- 1890 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry (d.1967)
- 1893 – Charlotte Bühler, psychologist
- 1894 – Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Irene Dunne, actress (d. 1990)
- 1901 – Robert Van de Graaff, physicist, inventor (d. 1967)
- 1902 – Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
- 1902 – Max Lerner, American educator (d. 1992)
- 1902 – George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
- 1922 – George Roy Hill, film director (d. 2002)
- 1923 – James Leasor, writer, mystery
- 1924 – Friederike Mayröcker, author
- 1926 – Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), UK politician
- 1926 – Otto Graf Lambsdorff, politician
- 1927 – Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea
- 1930 – Noel Ferrier, producer and actress
- 1933 – Jean Carnahan, US Senator
- 1942 – Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002)
- 1946 – Dick Wolf, American TV drama series creator
- 1946 – Uri Geller, psychic TV presenter
- 1952 – Jenny Agutter, actress
- 1954 – Michael Badalucco, actor
- 1955 – Lonesome Bob, singer, songwriter
- 1957 – Anna Vissi, Greek singer
- 1957 – Billy Bragg, singer, songwriter
- 1957 – Mike Watt, bassist
- 1960 – Nalo Hopkinson, science fiction author
- 1965 – Rich Gannon, American football quarterback
- 1970 – Nicole DeBoer, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Dead Zone)
- 1990 – Joanna Levesque, AKA JoJo, singer
[change] Deaths
[change] Events
- 1522 – Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
- 1803 – Louisiana Purchase completed
- 1860 – South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States
- 1915 – Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli
- 1917 – Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded
- 1952 – United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87
- 1960 – National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed
- 1984 – The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines
- 1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1989 – Operation Just Cause: United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega
- 1995 – The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) begins peacekeeping in Bosnia
- 1995 – An American Airlines Flight 965 Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160
- 1999 – Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples
- 1999 – Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
- 2002 – US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
