December 20



Events

Up to 1950 
 69 - Vespasian enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
 1192 - Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria.
 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.
 1606 - The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and set sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
 1803 – Louisiana Purchase is completed.
 1808 - Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
 1860 – South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States.
 1870 - The Cape Blanco lighthouse goes into operation at the western tip of Oregon.
 1915 – The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli during World War I.
 1917 – Cheka, first Soviet secret police, is founded.
 1924 - Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.
 1942 - World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta.
 1942 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake in Erbaa, Turkey, kills around 3,000 people.
 1946 - The popular Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
 1946 - The Tonankai earthquake in Japan kills around 1,300 people.

1951  2000 
 1951 - The EBR in Arco, Idaho, becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity.
 1952 – United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington, killing 87.
 1955 - Cardiff is officially proclaimed as the capital city of Wales.
 1957 - The European Nuclear Energy Agency is founded.
 1957 - The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.
 1960 – National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
 1961 - The Dominican Republic holds its first elections.
 1967 - A Pennsylvania Railroad metroliner reaches over the limit of 155 miles per hour in speed on its New York Division.
 1968 - The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
 1971 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becomes the 4th President of Pakistan.
 1973 - Spanish Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco is assassinated by a car bomb in Madrid.
 1977 - Djibouti and Vietnam join the UN.
 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, England.
 1985 - Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
 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.
 1991 - Paul Keating becomes the 24th Prime Minister of Australia.
 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.
 1999 - NASA starts the ACRIMSat satellite to study the Sun.

From 2001 
 2002 – US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
 2004 - A gang of thieves steal 26.5 million pounds from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
 2007 - Elizabeth II overtakes Queen Victoria as the UK's oldest-ever monarch, having reached an age of 81 years, 7 months and 29 days. As of December 2014, Elizabeth is 88 years of age.
 2015 - Spain holds its parliamentary election, with no party winning overall control.
 2016 - A fireworks market explosion near Mexico City kills at least 30 people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1537 – King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
 1579 - John Fletcher, English dramatist (d. 1625)
 1629 – Pieter de Hooch, painter (d. 1684)
 1633 - Abbas II of Persia (d. 1666)
 1648 - Tommaso Ceva, Italian poet and mathematician (d. 1736)
 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 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/writer of Flatland (d. 1926)
 1841 – Ferdinand Buisson, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1927 (d. 1932)
 1856 – Ferdinand Avenarius, writer (d. 1923)
 1858 - Kuno Meyer, German scholar (d. 1919)
 1860 – Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
 1861 – Ivana Kobilca, Slovene painter (d. 1926)
 1865 – Elsie De Wolfe, aka Lady Mendl, actress & interior decorator (d. 1950)
 1868 - Arturo Alessandri, President of Chile (d. 1950)
 1868 – Harvey Firestone, automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
 1873 - Mahmet Akif Ersoy, Turkish poet, writer, academic and politician (d. 1936)
 1876 - Walter Sydney Adams, American astronomer (d. 1956)
 1881 – Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
 1886 – Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis star (d. 1974)
 1890 – Yvonne Arnaud, French actress (d. 1958)
 1890 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1967)
 1891 - Erik Almlöf, Swedish triple jumper (d. 1971)
 1893 – Charlotte Bühler, psychologist
 1894 – Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
 1898 – Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)
 1898 - Konstantinos Dovas, Greek general and politician (d. 1973)
 1899 - Martin Lloyd-Jones, Welsh preacher and physician (d. 1981)

1901  1950 
 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)
 1904 - Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (d. 1977)
 1908 - Dennis Morgan, American actor (d. 1994)
 1914 – Harry F. Byrd, Jr., American politician (d. 2013)
 1916 - Gonzalo Rojas, Chilean poet (d. 2011)
 1917 - David Bohm, American-born philosopher, physicist and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)
 1918 - Audrey Totter, American actress (d. 2013)
 1918 - Jean Marchand, Canadian trade union leader and politician (d. 1988)
 1922 – George Roy Hill, American movie director (d. 2002)
 1923 – James Leasor, mystery writer
 1924 - Judy LaMarsh, Canadian soldier, lawyer and politician (d. 1980)
 1924 – Friederike Mayröcker, writer
 1924 - Charlie Callas, American comedian (d. 2011)
 1925 - Benito Lorenzo, Italian footballer (d. 2007)
 1926 – Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), British politician (d. 2015)
 1926 – Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician (d. 2009)
 1927 – Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea (d. 2015)
 1927 - Jim Simpson, American sportscaster (d. 2016)
 1927 - Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark (d. 2016)
 1930 – Noel Ferrier, producer and actress
 1932 - John Hillerman, American actor (d. 2017)
 1933 – Jean Carnahan, US Senator
 1934 - Julius Darmaatmadja, Indonesian cardinal
 1939 - Kathryn Joosten, American actress (d. 2012)
 1942 - Jean-Claude Trichet, French economist and banker
 1942 – Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002)
 1944 - Bobby Colomby, American drummer and producer
 1945 - Peter Criss, American musician
 1945 - Tom Tancredo, American politician
 1945 - Pierre Bürcher, Swiss bishop
 1946 – Dick Wolf, American TV drama series creator
 1946 – Uri Geller, Israeli-British psychic TV presenter
 1946 - Sonny Perdue, American politician, former Governor of Georgia and 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture
 1946 - John Spencer, American actor (d. 2005)
 1947 - Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer

1951  1975 
 1951 - Kate Atkinson, English writer
 1951 - Lynne Featherstone, English politician
 1951 - Peter May, Scottish author and screenwriter
 1951 - Christopher Le Brun, English painter and sculptor
 1952 – Jenny Agutter, English actress
 1952 - Sky Gilbert, Canadian drag queen performer, actor and producer
 1954 – Michael Badalucco, actor
 1954 - Sandra Cisneros, American writer
 1955 – Lonesome Bob, singer, songwriter
 1955 - Binali Yildirim, Prime Minister of Turkey
 1955 - Martin Schulz, German politician, President of the European Parliament
 1956 - Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania
 1957 – Anna Vissi, Greek singer
 1957 – Billy Bragg, English singer, songwriter
 1957 – Mike Watt, bassist
 1958 - Jürgen Raab, German footballer
 1959 - Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, former Prime Minister of Poland
 1960 – Nalo Hopkinson, science fiction writer
 1963 - Infanta Elena of Spain
 1963 - Mats Gren, Swedish footballer
 1965 – Rich Gannon, American football quarterback
 1970 – Nicole DeBoer, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Dead Zone)
 1972 - Anders Odden, Norwegian musician
 1975 - Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer

From 1976 
 1976 - Aubrey Hoff, American baseball player
 1976 - Nenad Vuckovic, Croatian footballer
 1977 - Sonja Aldén, Swedish singer
 1978 - Andrei Markov, Russian-Canadian ice hockey player
 1978 - Bouabdellah Tahri, French runner
 1979 - George Lamb, English television presenter
 1980 - Ashley Cole, English footballer
 1980 - Martin Demichelis, Argentine footballer
 1981 - Julien Benneteau, French tennis player
 1982 - David Cook, American singer
 1982 - David Wright, American baseball player
 1982 - Keny Arkana, French singer and rapper
 1982 - Mohammed Asif, Pakistani cricketer
 1983 - Lara Stone, Dutch model
 1983 - Jonah Hill, American actor
 1983 - Lucy Pinder, English model and actress
 1983 - Mapei, Swedish-American singer
 1987 - Michihiro Yasuda, Japanese footballer
 1990 – Joanna Levesque, AKA JoJo, American singer
 1990 - Marta Xargay, Spanish basketball player
 1991 - Hunter Gomez, American actor
 1992 - Ksenia Makarova, Russian-American figure skater
 1995 - Feliks Zembegs, Australian speed cuber
 1997 - Suzuka Nakamoto, Japanese singer and model
 1998 - Kylian Mbappé, French footballer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 69 - Vitellius, Roman Emperor
 217 - Pope Zephyrinus
 860 - Ethelbald of Wessex (b. 834)
 910 - King Alfonso III of Leon (b. 848)
 1022 - Elvira Mendes, Queen of Castile (b. 996)
 1295 - Margaret of Provence (b. 1221)
 1355 - Stefan Dusan, Emperor of Serbia (b. 1308)
 1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardi, Italian poet (b. 1434)
 1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician (b. 1460)
 1539 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. 1506)
 1552 - Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther (b. 1499)
 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
 1765 - Louis, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XV of France (b. 1729)
 1768 - Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, Italian poet and academic (b. 1692)
 1783 - Antonio Soler, Spanish composer (b. 1729)
 1812 - Sacagawea, Native American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition (b. 1788)
 1856 - Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (b. 1820)

1901  2000 
 1915 - Upendrakishore Ray, Indian writer, painter and composer (b. 1863)
 1917 - Lucien Petit-Breton, French racing cyclist (b. 1882)
 1927 - Frederick Semple, American golfer and tennis player (b. 1872)
 1929 - Emile Loubet, French statesman (b. 1838)
 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
 1941 - Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
 1944 - Abbas II of Egypt (b. 1874)
 1950 - Enrico Mizzi, 6th Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1885)
 1961 - Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
 1961 - Moss Hart, American dramatist (b. 1904)
 1968 - Max Brod, Austrian-Israeli writer and composer (b. 1884)
 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer (b. 1902)
 1971 - Roy O. Disney, American entertainment industry executive (b. 1893)
 1971 - Shigeyoshi Suzuki, Japanese footballer (b. 1902)
 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1936)
 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish politician (b. 1904)
 1976 - Richard J. Daley, American politician (b. 1902)
 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish pianist (b. 1887)
 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
 1994 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
 1996 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (b. 1934)
 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
 1998 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist (b. 1916)
 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Bangladeshi statesman and philanthropist (b. 1920)

From 2001 
 2001 - Leopold Sedar Senghor, 1st President of Senegal (b. 1906)
 2009 - Brittany Murphy, American actress (b. 1977)
 2010 - Brian Hanrahan, British journalist (b. 1949)
 2011 - Hana Andronikova, Czech writer (b. 1967)
 2012 - Jimmy McCracklin, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1921)
 2013 - Nelly Omar, Argentine actress and singer (b. 1911)
 2014 - John Freeman, English politician, diplomat and broadcaster (b. 1915)
 2014 - Bob Lanier, American businessman and politician, Mayor of Houston (b. 1925)
 2015 - Ray Mathews, American football player (b. 1929)
 2015 - Patricia Elliott, American actress (b. 1938)
 2016 - Michèle Morgan, French actress (b. 1920)
 2017 - William Agee, American business executive (b. 1938)
 2017 - Florence Bjelke-Petersen, Australian politician (b. 1920)
 2017 - Henryk Cioch, Polish lawyer and politician (b. 1951)
 2017 - Annie Goetzinger, French comic artist (b. 1951)
 2017 - Bernard Francis Law, American cardinal (b. 1931)
 2017 - Red Murrell, American basketball player (b. 1933)
 2017 - Stan Pilecki, Polish-born Australian rugby player (b. 1947)
 2017 - Randolph Quirk, British linguist and life peer (b. 1920)
 2018 - F. W. Bernstein, German poet and cartoonist (b. 1938)
 2018 - Klaus Hagerup, Norwegian author (b. 1946)
 2018 - Donald Moffat, English-American actor (b. 1930)
 2019 - Fazle Hasan Abed, Bangladeshi philanthropist (b. 1936)
 2019 - Matti Ahde, Finnish politician (b. 1945)
 2019 - Zilda Cardoso, Brazilian actress (b. 1936)
 2019 - Thomas Chandy, Indian politician (b. 1947)
 2019 - Junior Johnson, American racing driver (b. 1931)
 2019 - Eduard Krieger, Austrian footballer (b. 1946)
 2019 - Roland Matthes, German swimmer (b. 1950)
 2019 - Yuri Pshenichnikov, Uzbek-Russian handball player (b. 1940)
 2019 - Daniel Selvaraj, Indian writer (b. 1938)
 2020 - Nicette Bruno, Brazilian actress (b. 1933)
 2020 - Doug Anthony, Australian politician (b. 1929)
 2020 - Fanny Waterman, British pianist (b. 1920)
 2020 - Ezra Vogel, American sociologist (b. 1930)

Observances 
 Earliest possible date for the December Solstice (usually on December 21 or 22)
 International Day of Human Solidarity

Days of the year