December 20
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
[edit] 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
[edit] Deaths
[edit] 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.
