On this day: 20 March
Events, births and deaths on 20 March. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Eddie Jordan
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Anker Jørgensen
100 years ago1926
- Events · Zhongshan Warship Incident
- Births · Mitsumasa Anno
1000 years ago1026
Nothing recorded for that year.
Events · 20
- 1600Linköping Bloodbath — 1600 public execution of Swedish nobles
- 17241724 papal conclave — conclave
- 1815Hundred Days — 1815 conflict during the Napoleonic Wars and the hundred-day rule of Napoleon Bonaparte
- 1854Republican Party — American political party
- 18611861 Mendoza earthquake — 1861 earthquake in Mendoza Province, Argentina
- 1883
- 1926Zhongshan Warship Incident — 1926 purge undertaken by Chiang Kai-shek
- 19391939 German ultimatum to Lithuania — 1939 German diplomatic demand on LIthuania
- 1944Landing on Emirau — 1944 landing operation
- 1951Fujiyoshida — city in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
- 1956Tunisia — country in North Africa
- 1956Kingdom of Tunisia — 1956-1957 monarchy in Northern Africa
- 19691969 Aswan Ilyushin Il-18 crash — aviation accident
- 19721972 Donegall Street bombing — 1972 IRA attack during The Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland
- 1995Tokyo subway sarin attack — 1995 terrorist attack by Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo
- 2003Iraq War — 2003–2011 war after an American-led invasion
- 20042004 Taiwanese presidential election — election in Taiwan
- 20102010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull — volcanic events in Iceland
- 20142014 Kabul Serena Hotel attack — 2014 mass shooting in Kabul, Afghanistan
- 2015solar eclipse of March 20, 2015 — total solar eclipse
Births · 60
- 43 BCE(Julian date)Ovid — Roman poet (43 BC – 17/18 AD)
- 1612Anne Bradstreet — Anglo-American poet (1612–1672)
- 1615Dara Shikoh — Indian prince
- 1639Ivan Mazepa — Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks from 1687 to 1708
- 1725Abdul Hamid I — 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1774–1789)
- 1737Phutthayotfa Chulalok — King of Siam (1737–1809)
- 1794René Lesson — French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist (1794-1849)
- 1811Napoleon II — The second Emperor of the French (1815)
- 1828Henrik Ibsen — Norwegian playwright and theatre director (1828–1906)
- 1856Frederick Winslow Taylor — American mechanical engineer (1856–1915)
- 1870Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck — German army officer (1870-1964)
- 1879Maud Menten — Canadian physician and chemist (1879–1960)
- 1882René Coty — 17th President of the French Republic (1882–1962)
- 1904B.F. Skinner — American behaviorist (1904–1990)
- 1908Michael Redgrave — British actor (1908-1985)
- 1911Alfonso García Robles — Mexican diplomat and politician (1911-1991)
- 1915Rudolf Kirchschläger — Austrian diplomat, politician, judge, and eighth President of Austria (1915–2000)
- 1915Sister Rosetta Tharpe — American gospel musician (1915–1973)
- 1916Pierre Messmer — 83rd Prime Minister of France (1916-2007)
- 1917Vera Lynn — British singer (1917–2020)
- 1917Yigael Yadin — Israeli archeologist, military officer and politician (1917–1984)
- 1919Gerhard Barkhorn — German general and fighter pilot during World War II (1919–1983)
- 1921Alfréd Rényi — Hungarian mathematician (1921–1970)
- 1928Fred Rogers — American television personality (1928–2003)
- 1936Lee "Scratch" Perry — Jamaican music producer, singer-songwriter, sound engineer (1936–2021)
Deaths · 60
- 687(Julian date)Cuthbert — 7th-century Anglo-Saxon bishop, monk, hermit and saint (635–687)
- 842Alfonso II of Asturias — King of Galicia (c. 760 – 842)
- 851(Julian date)Ebbo — French archbishop
- 1181(Julian date)Taira no Kiyomori — Japanese samurai (1118–1181)
- 1191(Julian date)Clement III — pope of the Catholic Church from 1188 to 1191
- 1239Hermann von Salza — Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (1170-1239)
- 1281(Julian date)Chabi — Chinese & mongol empress of the Yuan dynasty
- 1351Muhammad ibn Tughluq — 18th Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate and 2nd from the Tughluq dynasty
- 1390Alexios III of Trebizond — emperor of Trebizond
- 1413(Julian date)Henry IV of England — King of England from 1399 to 1413
- 1440(Julian date)Sigismund Kęstutaitis — Lithuanian noble (1365–1440)
- 1549(Julian date)Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley — brother of English queen Jane Seymour (1508–1549)
- 1568(Julian date)Albert, Duke in Prussia — Duke of Prussia from 1525 to 1568
- 1619Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor — Holy Roman Emperor (1557-1619)
- 1727(Julian date)Isaac Newton — English mathematician and physicist (1642–1727)
- 1730Adrienne Lecouvreur — French actress (1692-1730)
- 1746Nicolas de Largillière — French painter (1656–1746)
- 1767Firmin Abauzit — French, and then Genevan, physician, theologian and philosopher (1679–1767)
- 1793William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield — British barrister, politician and judge (1705–1793)
- 1855Joseph Aspdin — British mason, bricklayer and inventor (1778–1855)
- 1874Hans Christian Lumbye — Danish composer (1810–1874)
- 1878Robert Mayer — German physicist (1814-1878)
- 1894Lajos Kossuth — Hungarian politician (1802–1894)
- 1897Apollon Maykov — Russian poet and translator (1821–1897)
- 1925George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston — Viceroy of India and British Foreign Secretary (1859–1925)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.