On this day: 20 January
Events, births and deaths on 20 January. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Cecile Richards
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Edmonde Charles-Roux
- Deaths · Mykolas Burokevičius
- Deaths · Chang Yung-fa
100 years ago1926
- Births · Patricia Neal
- Births · David Tudor
- Births · Jamiluddin Aali
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1029 · Births · Alp Arslan
- 1029 · Deaths · Heonae
- 1095 · Deaths · Wulfstan
Events · 15
- 1265(Julian date)Simon de Montfort's Parliament — English parliament held from 20 January 1265 until mid-March the same year
- 1576(Julian date)León de Los Aldama — city in Guanajuato, Mexico
- 1785Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút — 1785 battle
- 1839Battle of Yungay — 1839 battle of the War of the Confederation
- 1924
- 1934Fujifilm Corporation — Japanese conglomerate started as photographic film manufacturer
- 1942Wannsee Conference — 1942 meeting of senior officials and functionaries of National Socialist organisations and ministries in Berlin to organise and coordinate the deportation of the entire Jewish population of Europe to the East for extermination
- 1981first inauguration of Ronald Reagan — 49th United States presidential inauguration
- 1986Martin Luther King Jr. Day — U.S. holiday, 3rd Monday of January
- 1990Black January — 1990 massacre in Baku
- 1992Air Inter Flight 148 — plane crash in France
- 2009first inauguration of Barack Obama — 56th United States presidential inauguration
- 2017first inauguration of Donald Trump — 58th United States presidential inauguration
- 2018Turkish military operation in Afrin — Turkish offensive against the SDF in Afrin
- 2021inauguration of Joe Biden — 59th United States presidential inauguration
Births · 60
- 225(Julian date)Gordian III — Roman emperor (225-244)
- 1029Alp Arslan — second sultan of the Seljuk Empire (1063–1072)
- 1292Elizabeth of Bohemia — queen of Bohemia (1292–1330)
- 1488(Julian date)Sebastian Münster — German cartographer, cosmographer, and scholar (1488–1552)
- 1554Sebastian of Portugal — King of Portugal from 1557 to 1578 (1554-1578)
- 1573(Julian date)Simon Marius — German astronomer (1573–1624)
- 1716Charles III of Spain — King of Spain from 1759 to 1788
- 1732Richard Henry Lee — Founding Father of the United States (1732–1794)
- 1741Carl Linnaeus the Younger — Swedish naturalist (1741–1783)
- 1775André-Marie Ampère — French physicist and mathematician (1775–1836)
- 1855Ernest Chausson — French composer (1855–1899)
- 1865Yvette Guilbert — French cabaret singer
- 1873Johannes V. Jensen — Danish author (1873-1950)
- 1876Józef Kazimierz Hofmann — Polish musician (1876-1957)
- 1888Lead Belly — American folk and blues musician (1888–1949)
- 1896George Burns — American comedian, actor, writer and singer (1896–1996)
- 1906Aristotle Onassis — Greek shipping magnate (1906–1975)
- 1910Joy Adamson — Austrian-British naturalist, painter, writer, collector and illustrator (1910–1980)
- 1915Ghulam Ishaq Khan — 7th President of Pakistan (1915-2006)
- 1920Federico Fellini — Italian filmmaker (1920–1993)
- 1920DeForest Kelley — American actor (1920–1999)
- 1921Telmo Zarra — Spanish footballer (1921–2006)
- 1925Ernesto Cardenal — Nicaraguan priest and politician (1925–2020)
- 1926Patricia Neal — American stage and film actress (1926-2010)
- 1930Buzz Aldrin — American astronaut (born 1930)
Deaths · 60
- 250(Julian date)Fabian — pope and bishop of Rome from 236 to 250
- 640(Julian date)Eadbald of Kent — King of Kent
- 820Al-Shafi'i — Arab Muslim theologian, writer and scholar (767–820)
- 842(Julian date)Theophilos — Byzantine emperor from 829 to 842
- 882(Julian date)Louis III the Younger — King of East Francia
- 1191(Julian date)Theobald V, Count of Blois — French noble
- 1191(Julian date)Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia — duke of Swabia
- 1343(Julian date)Robert, King of Naples — King of Naples (1276–1343)
- 1479(Julian date)John II of Aragon — King of Aragon from 1458 to 1479
- 1513(Julian date)Helena of Moscow — Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Queen of Poland (1476-1513)
- 1569(Julian date)Myles Coverdale — English bishop and Bible translator
- 1606Alessandro Valignano — Italian Jesuit missionary
- 1612Emperor Rudolf II — Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria (1552-1612)
- 1666Anne of Austria — Queen, consort of Louis XIII, King of France, lived (1601-1666)
- 1709François de La Chaise — French Jesuit priest (1624-1709)
- 1745Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor — Holy Roman Emperor
- 1779David Garrick — British actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer (1717–1779)
- 1819Charles IV of Spain — King of Spain from 1788 to 1808
- 1826Stanisław Staszic — Polish philosopher and writer (1755–1826)
- 1837John Soane — British architect (1753–1837)
- 1841Minh Mạng — Vietnamese emperor (1791–1841)
- 1841Jørgen Jørgensen — self declared King of Iceland, defied the crown of Denmark. Reigned for a short period (1780-1841)
- 1848Christian VIII of Denmark — King of Norway 1814, King of Denmark 1839-1848
- 1850Adam Oehlenschläger — Danish poet and playwright (1779–1850)
- 1859Bettina von Arnim — German writer and novelist (1785-1859)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.