On this day: 20 December
Events, births and deaths on 20 December. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
- Events · Aerosucr Fliht666
100 years ago1926
- Births · Geoffrey Howe
- Births · Otto Graf Lambsdorff
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1046 · Events · Council of Sutri
- 977 · Deaths · Fujiwara no Kanemichi
Events · 17
- 1046(Julian date)Council of Sutri — synod
- 1808Second Siege of Zaragoza — 1808-1809 siege of the Peninsular War
- 1917Cheka — national security agency of Soviet Russia (1917–1922)
- 1948Operation Kraai — Dutch military offensive during the Indonesian National Revolution
- 19521952 Moses Lake C-124 crash — fatal passenger airplane crash in Washington state
- 1970Koza riot — 1970 anti-military riot in Okinawa, Japan
- 1973Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco — political killing in 1973 by ETA
- 1977second round of simplified Chinese characters — aborted reform of the Chinese writing system, promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the Chinese government
- 1989United States invasion of Panama — 1989 military action in Panama
- 1995American Airlines Flight 965 — December 20, 1995 crash of a U.S. airliner in Colombia
- 1999Macau — city and special administrative region of China
- 1999transfer of sovereignty over Macau — transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to China
- 2009Stonecutters Bridge — bridge in Hong Kong
- 2016Aerosucr Fliht666 — Air accident in Colombia
- 2019United States Space Force — space warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces
- 20242024 Magdeburg car attack — car-ramming attack in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany on 20 December 2024
- 2024Zagreb school stabbing — knife attack in Zagreb, Croatia
Births · 60
- 1537John III of Sweden — Swedish king (1537-1592)
- 1629Pieter de Hooch — Dutch Golden Age painter (1629-1684)
- 1838Edwin Abbott Abbott — British theologian and author (1838-1926)
- 1841Ferdinand Buisson — French academic and politician (1841-1932)
- 1851Knut Wicksell — Swedish economist (1851–1926)
- 1861Ivana Kobilca — Slovenian artist (1861–1926)
- 1873Mehmet Âkif Ersoy — Turkish poet and writer (1873–1936)
- 1890Jaroslav Heyrovský — Czech chemist (1890-1967)
- 1894Robert Menzies — Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia (1894-1978)
- 1898Irene Dunne — American actress and singer (1898–1990)
- 1901Robert J. Van de Graaff — American physicist (1901–1967)
- 1902Prince George, Duke of Kent — Royal Navy admiral (1902–1942), member of the House of Windsor
- 1904Yevgenia Ginzburg — Russian author of Jewish ancestry
- 1915Aziz Nesin — Turkish writer (1915–1995)
- 1917David Bohm — American theoretical physicist (1917-1992)
- 1920Väinö Linna — Finnish writer
- 1921George Roy Hill — American film director (1921–2002)
- 1926Geoffrey Howe — British politician (1926–2015)
- 1927Kim Young-sam — President of South Korea from 1993 to 1998
- 1932John Hillerman — American actor (1932–2017)
- 1933Rik Van Looy — Belgian road racing cyclist (1933–2024)
- 1939Kathryn Joosten — American actress (1939–2012)
- 1942Jean-Claude Trichet — French economist and central banker
- 1945Peter Criss — American drummer
- 1946Uri Geller — Israeli illusionist
Deaths · 60
- 217(Julian date)Zephyrinus — Pope and Bishop of Rome from 199 to 217
- 910(Julian date)Alfonso III of Asturias — Spanish King
- 977(Julian date)Fujiwara no Kanemichi — Japanese statesman, courtier and politician (925-977)
- 1295Margaret of Provence — Queen of France 1234-1270
- 1355(Julian date)Stefan Dušan — emperor of Serbia 1331–1355
- 1552(Julian date)Katharina von Bora — wife of Martin Luther (1499-1552)
- 1590Ambroise Paré — French surgeon
- 1722Kangxi Emperor — 3rd Emperor of the Qing dynasty (r. 1661–1722)
- 1765Louis, Dauphin of France — French Dauphin (1729-1765)
- 1783Antonio Soler — Catalan & Spanish composer
- 1862Robert Knox — Scottish physician, anatomist, zoologist and ethnologist (1791-1862)
- 1911William McGregor — Scottish football administrator (1846–1911)
- 1915Upendra Kishore Ray Choudhury — Bengali artist (1863-1915)
- 1917Lucien Petit-Breton — French cyclist
- 1921Julius Richard Petri — German microbiologist (1852–1921)
- 1927Frederick Semple — American tennis player (1872–1927)
- 1929Émile Loubet — 8th president of France (1838–1929)
- 1937Erich Ludendorff — German general and politician (1865–1937)
- 1938Lida Howell — American archer
- 1939Hans Langsdorff — Recipient of the Iron Cross (1894–1939)
- 1941Igor Severyanin — Russian poet (1887–1941)
- 1950Enrico Mizzi — Prime Minister of Malta (1885-1950)
- 1954James Hilton — British novelist and screenwriter (1900–1954)
- 1961Earle Page — Australian politician, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (1880-1961)
- 1961Moss Hart — American playwright, librettist, and theatre director (1904-1961)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.