December 20

December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
• 217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
• 1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade.
• 1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
• 1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
• 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
• 1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
• 1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
• 1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.
• 1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
• 1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
• 1942 – World War II: the Japanese bomb Calcutta.
• 1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York, New York.
• 1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
• 1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
• 1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
• 1957 – Boeing's first jet-powered aircraft, the 707, makes its first flight.
• 1959 – Unknown attackers murder the Walker family in Osprey, Florida.
• 1960 – The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
• 1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
• 1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as the fourth President of Pakistan.
• 1973 – The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
• 1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
• 1984 – The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England in the Pennines.
• 1987 – In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
• 1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna, Austria.
• 1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
• 1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
• 1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
• 1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.
• 1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
• 1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
• 2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
• 2005 – Aleksandër Moisiu University was founded in Durrës, Albania.
• 2005 – US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
• 2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
• 2007 – The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.

Births

• 1494 – Oronce Finé, French mathematician (d. 1555)
• 1537 – John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
• 1626 – Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German politician (d. 1692)
• 1629 – Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter (d. 1684)
• 1641 – Urban Hjärne, Swedish chemist, geologist, physician and writer (d. 1724)
• 1717 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French politician and diplomat (d. 1787)
• 1740 – Arthur Lee, American diplomat (d. 1792)
• 1786 – Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (d. 1853)
• 1792 – Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, French painter (d. 1845)
• 1833 – Samuel Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)
• 1838 – Edwin Abbott Abbott, English educator, theologian, and author (d. 1926)
• 1841 – Ferdinand Buisson, French politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
• 1860 – Dan Leno, English actor (d. 1904)
• 1861 – Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926)
• 1865 – Elsie de Wolfe, American actress and interior decorator (d. 1950)
• 1868 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (d. 1938)
• 1869 – Charley Grapewin, American actor (d. 1956)
• 1873 – Kan'ichi Asakawa, Japanese historian (d. 1948)
• 1874 – Frederick Steep, Canadian soccer player (d. 1956)
• 1881 – Branch Rickey, American baseball player and manager (d. 1965)
• 1886 – Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player (d. 1974)
• 1888 – Yitzhak Baer, German-Israeli historian (d. 1980)
• 1888 – Fred Merkle, American baseball player (d. 1958)
• 1890 – Yvonne Arnaud, French-English actress and singer (d. 1958)
• 1890 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
• 1894 – Robert Menzies, Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
• 1898 – Konstantinos Dovas, Greek general and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1973)
• 1898 – Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)
• 1901 – Robert J. Van de Graaff, American physicist, invented the Van de Graaff generator (d. 1967)
• 1902 – Prince George, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
• 1902 – Sidney Hook, American author (d. 1989)
• 1904 – Spud Davis, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1984)
• 1904 – Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian philosopher (d. 1977)
• 1905 – Bill O'Reilly, Australian cricketer (d. 1992)
• 1907 – Paul Francis Webster, American songwriter (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Dennis Morgan, American actor and singer (d. 1994)
• 1909 – Vakkom Majeed, Indian politician (d. 2000)
• 1911 – Hortense Calisher, American author (d. 2009)
• 1914 – Harry F. Byrd, Jr., American politician
• 1915 – Aziz Nesin, Turkish author (d. 1995)
• 1916 – Michel Chartrand, Canadian union leader (d. 2010)
• 1917 – David Bohm, American-English physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)
• 1918 – Jean Marchand, Canadian trade unionist and politician (d. 1988)
• 1918 – Audrey Totter, American actress
• 1922 – George Roy Hill, American director (d. 2002)
• 1922 – Beverly Pepper, American sculptor and painter
• 1924 – Judy LaMarsh, Canadian politician, author, and broadcaster (d. 1980)
• 1925 – Benito Lorenzi, Italian footballer (d. 2007)
• 1926 – Geoffrey Howe, Welsh politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1926 – Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician (d. 2009)
• 1927 – Charlie Callas, American actor (d. 2011)
• 1927 – Kim Young-sam, South Korean politician, 7th President of South Korea
• 1931 – Mala Powers, American actress (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Terry Sanders, American director and producer
• 1932 – Leslie Adams, American composer and educator
• 1932 – John Hillerman, American actor
• 1933 – Jean Carnahan, American politician
• 1933 – Rik Van Looy, Belgian cyclist
• 1935 – Khalid Ibadulla, Pakistani cricketer
• 1938 – John Harbison, American composer
• 1940 – Pat Chapman, English author, founder The Curry Club
• 1941 – Tommy Cole, American actor, singer, and makeup artist
• 1942 – Rana Bhagwandas, Pakistani judge, Chief Justice of Pakistan
• 1942 – Jean-Claude Trichet, French banker and economist
• 1944 – Bobby Colomby, American drummer (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
• 1944 – Jean Fergusson, English actress
• 1945 – Peter Criss, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer (Kiss, Wicked Lester, and Chelsea)
• 1945 – Sivakant Tiwari, Singaporean lawyer (d. 2010)
• 1946 – Uri Geller, Israeli psychic
• 1946 – Lesley Judd, English dancer and television host
• 1946 – Lloyd Mumphord, American football player
• 1946 – Sonny Perdue, American politician, 81st Governor of Georgia
• 1946 – John Spencer, American actor (d. 2005)
• 1946 – Dick Wolf, American director, screenwriter, and producer
• 1947 – Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer-songwriter and journalist
• 1948 – Alan Parsons, English keyboard player and producer (The Alan Parsons Project)
• 1948 – Stevie Wright, English-Australian singer-songwriter (The Easybeats)
• 1949 – Soumaïla Cissé, Malian politician
• 1949 – Cecil Cooper, American baseball player
• 1949 – Oscar Gamble, American baseball player
• 1949 – Leigh Hamilton, New Zealand-American actress (d. 2012)
• 1950 – Arturo Márquez, Mexican composer
• 1951 – Peter May, Scottish author and scriptwriter
• 1951 – Gilbert Montagné, French singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1952 – Jenny Agutter, English actress
• 1952 – Sky Gilbert, Canadian drag queen performer, actor, and author
• 1954 – Michael Badalucco, American actor
• 1954 – Sandra Cisneros, American author
• 1955 – David Breashears, American mountaineer
• 1955 – Ed Kuepper, German-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Saints, Laughing Clowns, and The Apartments)
• 1955 – Rory Markas, American sportscaster (d. 2010)
• 1956 – Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritanian general and politician, President of Mauritania
• 1956 – Guy Babylon, American keyboardist (d. 2009)
• 1956 – Blanche Baker, American actress
• 1957 – Stephen Bicknell, English organ builder (d. 2007)
• 1957 – Billy Bragg, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1957 – Joyce Hyser, American actress
• 1957 – Anna Vissi, Cypriot singer-songwriter and actress (Epikouri)
• 1957 – Mike Watt, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Banyan, Minutemen, Dos, The Stooges, and Firehose)
• 1958 – James Thomson, American biologist
• 1959 – Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Polish politician, 12th Prime Minister of Poland
• 1959 – Trent Tucker, American basketball player
• 1960 – Nalo Hopkinson, Canadian author
• 1960 – Kim Ki-duk, South Korean director
• 1961 – Mohammad Fouad, Egyptian singer-songwriter and actor
• 1961 – Mike Keneally, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Dethklok)
• 1961 – Freddie Spencer, American twice Grand Prix Motorcycle World Champion (1983 & 1985)
• 1963 – Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo
• 1963 – Joel Gretsch, American actor
• 1963 – Iqbal Theba, Pakistani actor
• 1964 – Mark Coleman, American mixed martial artist
• 1965 – Jim Carr, American educator
• 1965 – Robert Cavanah, Scottish actor
• 1965 – Rich Gannon, American football player
• 1966 – Matt Neal, English race car driver
• 1966 – Chris Robinson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Black Crowes, Phil Lesh and Friends, and Chris Robinson Brotherhood)
• 1968 – Joe Cornish, English comedian and actor
• 1968 – Karl Wendlinger, Austrian race car driver
• 1969 – Bobby Phills, American basketball player (d. 2000)
• 1970 – Nicole de Boer, Canadian actress
• 1970 – Grant Flower, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1970 – Alister McRae, Scottish race car driver
• 1970 – Jörg Schmidt, German footballer
• 1971 – Roger J. Beaujard, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Mortician)
• 1972 – Anders Odden, Norwegian guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Cadaver, Magenta, Satyricon, Celtic Frost, Apoptygma Berzerk, and Doctor Midnight & The Mercy Cult)
• 1973 – David Nedohin, Canadian curler
• 1973 – Cory Stillman, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1974 – Die, Japanese guitarist (Dir En Grey)
• 1975 – Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer
• 1975 – Jaydy Michel, Mexican model
• 1976 – Aubrey Huff, American baseball player
• 1976 – Jang Hyuk, South Korean actor
• 1976 – Adam Powell, Welsh game designer and businessman, co-founded Meteor Games
• 1976 – Ramon Stoppelenburg, Dutch author
• 1976 – Nenad Vučković, Croatian footballer
• 1978 – Andrei Markov, Russian-Canadian ice hockey player
• 1978 – Geremi Njitap, Cameroon footballer
• 1979 – David DeJesus, American baseball player
• 1979 – George Lamb, English radio and television host
• 1979 – Ramón Rodríguez, Puerto Rican American actor
• 1979 – Michael Rogers, Australian cyclist
• 1980 – Israel Castro, Mexican footballer
• 1980 – Ashley Cole, English footballer
• 1980 – Anthony da Silva, French-Portuguese footballer
• 1980 – Martín Demichelis, Argentine footballer
• 1980 – Fitz Hall, English footballer
• 1981 – Royal Ivey, American basketball player
• 1981 – James Shields, American baseball player
• 1981 – Roy Williams, American football player
• 1982 – Keny Arkana, French rapper
• 1982 – Mohammad Asif, Pakistani cricketer
• 1982 – David Cook, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Axium and Midwest Kings)
• 1982 – Kasper Klausen, Danish footballer
• 1982 – David Wright, American baseball player
• 1983 – Jonah Hill, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
• 1983 – Chelsea Johnson, American pole vaulter
• 1983 – Lucy Pinder, English model
• 1983 – Darren Sammy, St. Lucian cricketer
• 1983 – Lara Stone, Dutch model
• 1983 – Adrián Varela, Mexican singer
• 1984 – Nikolaos Karabelas, Greek footballer
• 1984 – David Tavaré, Spanish singer
• 1986 – Benjamin Brierley, English-German rugby player
• 1986 – Anoop Desai, American singer-songwriter
• 1987 – Tariel Zintiridis, Greek martial artist
• 1988 – Andrés Bottiglieri Italian–Argentine footballer
• 1989 – Allan Hyde Danish actor
• 1990 – JoJo, American singer-songwriter and actress
• 1991 – Hunter Gomez, American actor
• 1992 – Ksenia Makarova, Russian-American figure skater

Deaths

• 217 – Pope Zephyrinus
• 860 – Æthelbald of Wessex (b. 834)
• 1022 – Elvira Mendes, Portuguese wife of Alfonso V of León (b. 996)
• 1355 – Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia (b. 1308)
• 1494 – Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet (b. 1434)
• 1524 – Thomas Linacre, English physician and scholar (b. 1460)
• 1539 – Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. 1506)
• 1590 – Ambroise Paré, French physician (b. 1510)
• 1722 – Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
• 1723 – Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, German physician and botanist (b. 1652)
• 1740 – Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English military officer and politician (b. 1675)
• 1765 – Louis, Dauphin of France (b. 1729)
• 1768 – Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)
• 1783 – Antonio Soler, Spanish composer (b. 1729)
• 1812 – Sacagawea, American member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (b. 1788)
• 1856 – Francesco Bentivegna, Italian activist (b. 1820)
• 1862 – Robert Knox, Scottish surgeon and zoologist (b. 1791)
• 1880 – Gaspar Tochman, Polish-American soldier (b. 1797)
• 1915 – Upendrakishore Ray, Indian painter and composer (b. 1863)
• 1916 – Louis de Champsavin, French horse rider (b. 1867)
• 1917 – Lucien Petit-Breton, French cyclist (b. 1882)
• 1920 – Linton Hope, English sailor and architect (b. 1863)
• 1921 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (b. 1850)
• 1927 – Frederick Semple, American golfer and tennis player (b. 1872)
• 1929 – Émile Loubet, French politician, 8th President of France (b. 1838)
• 1935 – Martin O'Meara, Irish-Australian soldier (b. 1882)
• 1937 – Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
• 1938 – Annie Armstrong, American missionary (b. 1850)
• 1938 – Matilda Howell, American archer (b. 1859)
• 1941 – Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
• 1950 – Enrico Mizzi, 6th Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1885)
• 1954 – James Hilton, English author (b. 1900)
• 1956 – Ramón Carrillo, Argentine neuroscientist (b. 1906)
• 1961 – Moss Hart, American playwright (b. 1904)
• 1961 – Earle Page, Australian politician, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
• 1968 – John Steinbeck, American author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• 1971 – Roy O. Disney, American bussnessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (b. 1893)
• 1973 – Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish admiral and politician, 69th President of the Government of Spain (b. 1904)
• 1973 – Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1936)
• 1974 – André Jolivet, French composer (b. 1905)
• 1976 – Richard J. Daley, American politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
• 1981 – Dimitris Rontiris, Greek actor and director (b. 1899)
• 1982 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-American pianist (b. 1887)
• 1984 – Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan baseball player (b. 1946)
• 1986 – Joe DeSa, American baseball player (b. 1959)
• 1988 – Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian businessman (b. 1908)
• 1989 – Kurt Böhme, German opera singer (b. 1908)
• 1991 – Simone Beck, French chef (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Sam Rabin, English wrestler, sculptor and singer (b. 1903)
• 1991 – Albert Van Vlierberghe, Belgian cyclist (b. 1942)
• 1993 – William Edwards Deming American statistician, professor, author, lecturer and consultant (b. 1900)
• 1994 – Dean Rusk, American diplomat, 54th United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
• 1996 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer and author (b. 1934)
• 1997 – Denise Levertov, English-American poet (b. 1923)
• 1997 – Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
• 1997 – Dawn Steel, American film producer (b. 1946)
• 1998 – Irene Hervey, American actress (b. 1909)
• 1998 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist , Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
• 1998 – C. P. Lyons, Canadian historian and author (b. 1915)
• 1999 – Riccardo Freda, Italian director (b. 1909)
• 1999 – Hank Snow, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1914)
• 2000 – Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Bangladeshi politician and philanthropist (b. 1920)
• 2001 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)
• 2001 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegalese politician, 1st President of Senegal (b. 1906)
• 2002 – Bernard King, Australian actor and chef (b. 1934)
• 2005 – Maniam Moorthy, Malaysian mountaineer
• 2006 – Anne Rogers Clark, American dog breeder and trainer (b. 1929)
• 2006 – Piergiorgio Welby, Italian poet and activist (b. 1945)
• 2006 – Shi Yuejun, Chinese spree killer (b. 1970)
• 2007 – Nataline Sarkisyan, American medical patient (b. 1990)
• 2008 – Adrian Mitchell, English poet (b. 1932)
• 2009 – Mairoon Ali, Trinidadian actress (b. 1954)
• 2009 – Jack Hixon, English sports scout (b. 1921)
• 2009 – Brittany Murphy, American actress (b. 1977)
• 2009 – Arnold Stang, American actor (b. 1918)
• 2010 – Brian Hanrahan, English journalist (b. 1949)
• 2010 – Steve Landesberg, American actor and comedian (b. 1936)
• 2010 – James R. Mann, American lawyer and politician (b. 1920)
• 2011 – Barry Reckord, Jamaican playwright (b. 1926)
• 2012 – Stan Charlton, English football player and manager (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Leslie Claudius, Indian field hockey player (b. 1927)
• 2012 – Richard Crandall, American physicist and computer scientist (b. 1947)
• 2012 – Niall FitzGerald, Irish footballer (b. 1931)
• 2012 – Robert Juniper, Australian painter and sculptor (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Eagle Keys, American-Canadian football player and coach (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Larry L. King, American journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Jimmy McCracklin, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1921)
• 2012 – Victor Merzhanov, Russian pianist (b. 1919)
• 2012 – Albert Renaud, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1920)
• 2012 – Kamil Sönmez, Turkish singer and actor (b. 1947)
• 2012 – Dennis Stevens, English footballer (b. 1933)

Holidays and observances

• Abolition of Slavery Day, also known as Fête des Cafres (Réunion, French Guiana)
• Bo Aung Kyaw Day (Myanmar)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Dominic of Silos
  • O Clavis
  • Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne
  • December 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Earliest date for Winter solstice's eve (Northern Hemisphere), and its related observances:
  • Yaldā (Iran)
• International Human Solidarity Day (International)
• Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (Macau)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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