July 20

## Events 
### Up to 1900 
* 70 &ndash; Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of Vespasian, storms the fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
* 1189 &ndash; Richard I of England is invested as Duke of Normandy.
* 1304 &ndash; Wars of Scottish Independence: King Edward I of England takes control of Stirling Castle.
* 1402 &ndash; Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara – Timur, ruler of the Timurid Empire, defeats the forces of Ottoman Empire Sultan, Bayezid I.
* 1592 &ndash; Japanese forces under Toyotomi Hideyoshi capture Pyongyang during their invasion of Korea, but ultimately fail to hold on to it.
* 1738 &ndash; Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan. 
* 1799 &ndash; Tekle Giyorgis I starts the first of his five reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.
* 1807 &ndash; Nicéphore Niépce is given a patent by Napoleon Bonaparte for the Pyreolophore, the first internal combustion engine.
* 1810 &ndash; Citizens of Bogota, New Granada (in present–day Colombia), declare independence from Spain.
* 1864 &ndash; American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek.
* 1866 &ndash; Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa – The Austrian Navy, led by Wilhelm von Tegetthof, defeats the Italian Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
* 1871 &ndash; British Columbia joins the Confederation of Canada.
* 1885 &ndash; The English Football Association allows professionalism in association football.
* 1898 &ndash; Spanish-American War: A boiler explodes on the USS *Iowa*, off the coast of Santiago de Cuba.

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1903 &ndash; The Ford Motor company ships its first car.
* 1906 &ndash; Finland gives women the right to vote.
* 1917 &ndash; World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the postwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav committee and the Kingdom of Serbia.
* 1922 &ndash; The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
* 1924 &ndash; FIDE, the worldwide governing body of chess, is founded in Paris.
* 1935 &ndash; Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing 13 people.
* 1940 &ndash; Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
* 1940 &ndash; California opens its first freeway.
* 1944 &ndash; The 20 July plot to kill Adolf Hitler fails.
* 1949 &ndash; Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their 19–month war.
* 1951 &ndash; King Abdullah I of Jordan is murdered by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
* 1954 &ndash; Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service, defects to East Germany.
* 1960 &ndash; In Ceylon (present–day Sri Lanka), Sirimavo Bandaranaike is elected as the world's first female Prime Minister.
* 1961 &ndash; The French military breaks the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
* 1968 &ndash; The Special Olympics are founded.
* 1969 &ndash; A ceasefire ends the 6–day Football War between Honduras and El Salvador.
* 1969 &ndash; Eddy Merckx wins his first Tour de France.
* 1969 &ndash; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon, becoming the first–ever humans to do so.
* 1974 &ndash; Cyprus dispute: The Turkish occupation of Cyprus begins.
* 1976 &ndash; The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
* 1977 &ndash; Johnstown, Pennsylvania is hit by a flash flood that kills 80 people.
* 1982 &ndash; In London, the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings are carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, killing 8 people and 7 horses. 47 people are injured.
* 1985 &ndash; The government of Aruba passes legislation to separate from the Netherlands Antilles.
* 1989 &ndash; Aung San Suu Kyi is put under house arrest by the Burmese military junta for the first time.
* 2000 &ndash; Leaders of Salt Lake City's bid to host the Winter Olympics, are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud and racketeering.

### From 2001 
* 2001 &ndash; Italian activist Carlo Giuliani is shot dead by police during a demonstration against the G8 summit being held in Genoa.
* 2005 &ndash; Same-sex marriage is officially made legal in Canada.
* 2007 &ndash; Heavy rain causes flooding across England and Wales.
* 2012 &ndash; A gunman opens fire at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado during the screening of the new Batman movie. The shooting kills 12 people and 59 are reported injured.
* 2014 &ndash; The 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict goes through its deadliest day, with over 90 Palestinian civilians and 13 Israeli soldiers killed.
* 2015 &ndash; A suicide bombing in Suruc, Turkey, near the Syrian border, kills at least 30 people.
* 2015 &ndash; Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States are fully restored after 54 years of hostilities between the two countries.
* 2017 &ndash; O. J. Simpson is granted parole after serving nine years of a 33–year jail sentence for armed robbery.

## Births 
### Up to 1900 
* 356 BC &ndash; Alexander the Great, Macedonian king and conqueror of Persia (d. 323 BC)
* 810 &ndash; Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim scholar (d. 870)
* 1304 &ndash; Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1374)
* 1519 &ndash; Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
* 1620 &ndash; Nikolaes Heinsius, Dutch scholar (d. 1681)
* 1757 &ndash; Garsevan Chavchavadze, Georgian diplomat and politician (d. 1811)
* 1762 &ndash; Jakob Haibel, Austrian composer, tenor and choirmaster (d. 1826)
* 1766 &ndash; Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British peer, diplomat and art thief (d. 1841)
* 1785 &ndash; Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1839)
* 1797 &ndash; Pawel Edmund Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist (d. 1873)
* 1804 &ndash; Richard Owen, British scientist (d. 1892)
* 1811 &ndash; James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, British colonial officer and diplomat (d. 1863)
* 1822 &ndash; Gregor Mendel, Austrian priest and geneticist (d. 1884)
* 1830 &ndash; Clements Markham, British explorer, writer and geographer (d. 1916)
* 1836 &ndash; Thomas Clifford Allbutt, English physician (d. 1925)
* 1838 &ndash; Augustin Daly, American playwright (d. 1899)
* 1838 &ndash; George Otto Trevelyan, English statesman and biographer (d. 1928)
* 1847 &ndash; Max Liebermann, German painter (d. 1935)
* 1849 &ndash; Robert Anderson Van Wyck, 91st Mayor of New York City (d. 1918)
* 1852 &ndash; Theo Heemskerk, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1932)
* 1859 &ndash; Otto Warburg, German botanist (d. 1938)
* 1864 &ndash; Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer (d. 1931)
* 1868 &ndash; Miron Cristea, Patriarch of Romania (d. 1939)
* 1868 &ndash; José Félix Uriburu, President of Argentina (d. 1932)
* 1873 &ndash; Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviator (d. 1923)
* 1876 &ndash; Otto Blumenthal, German mathematician (d. 1944)
* 1889 &ndash; John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, British broadcaster (d. 1971)
* 1890 &ndash; Verna Felton, American actress (d. 1966)
* 1890 &ndash; Julie Vinter Hansen, Danish astronomer (d. 1960)
* 1890 &ndash; Giorgio Morandi, Italian painter and graphic artist (d. 1964)
* 1894 &ndash; Stefán Jóhann Stefánsson, Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1980)
* 1895 &ndash; László Moholy-Nagy, Hungarian artist (d. 1946)
* 1896 &ndash; Eunice Sanborn, American supercentenarian, officially the second–oldest person in the world (d. 2011)
* 1897 &ndash; Camillo Berneri, Italian writer, philosopher and anarchist (d. 1937)
* 1897 &ndash; Tadeusz Reichstein, Polish–born chemist (d. 1996)
* 1900 &ndash; Maurice Leyland, English cricketer (d. 1967)

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
* 1910 &ndash; Mohamed Amin Didi, first President of the Maldives (d. 1954)
* 1914 &ndash; Dobri Dobrev, Bulgarian philanthropist (d. 2018)
* 1914 &ndash; Magda Frank, Hungarian–Argentinian sculptor (d. 2010)
* 1914 &ndash; Ersilio Tonini, Italian cardinal (d. 2013)
* 1919 &ndash; Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (d. 2008)
* 1920 &ndash; Elliot Richardson, American politician (d. 1999)
* 1922 &ndash; Alan Stephenson Boyd, American attorney and politician (d. 2020)
* 1924 &ndash; Tatyana Lioznova, Russian movie director (d. 2011)
* 1925 &ndash; Jacques Delors, French politician
* 1925 &ndash; Frantz Fanon, Afro–Caribbean psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and writer (d. 1961)
* 1925 &ndash; Lola Albright, American actress (d. 2017)
* 1927 &ndash; Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Russian historian and activist (d. 2018)
* 1928 &ndash; Pavel Kohout, Austrian–Bohemian writer
* 1929 &ndash; Rajendra Kumar, Indian actor (d. 1999)
* 1930 &ndash; Chuck Daly, American basketball coach (d. 2009)
* 1930 &ndash; Heinz Kubsch, German footballer (d. 1993)
* 1932 &ndash; Nam June Paik, Korean video artist (d. 2006)
* 1932 &ndash; Otto Schily, German politician
* 1932 &ndash; Dick Giordano, American comic book artist and editor (d. 2010)
* 1933 &ndash; Cormac McCarthy, American writer
* 1933 &ndash; Rex Williams, English snooker player
* 1934 &ndash; Uwe Johnson, German writer (d. 1984)
* 1935 &ndash; Sleepy LaBeef, American musician
* 1936 &ndash; Alistair MacLeod, Canadian writer (d. 2014)
* 1937 &ndash; Ken Ogata, Japanese actor (d. 2008)
* 1938 &ndash; Roger Hunt, English footballer
* 1938 &ndash; Dame Diana Rigg, British actress
* 1938 &ndash; Heinz Strehl, German footballer (d. 1986)
* 1938 &ndash; Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)
* 1939 &ndash; Judy Chicago, American artist
* 1943 &ndash; Chris Amon, New Zealand Formula One driver (d. 2016)
* 1943 &ndash; Willie Mathieson, Scottish footballer
* 1943 &ndash; Wendy Richard, English actress (d. 2009)
* 1944 &ndash; Mel Daniels, American basketball player (d. 2015)
* 1945 &ndash; Larry Craig, American politician
* 1946 &ndash; Htin Kyaw, former President of Myanmar
* 1947 &ndash; Gerd Binnig, German–born physicist
* 1947 &ndash; Carlos Santana, Mexican–American musician
* 1948 &ndash; Muse Watson, American actor
* 1950 &ndash; Edward Leigh, British politician

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
* 1951 &ndash; Larry Black, American athlete (d. 2006)
* 1953 &ndash; Dave Evans, Welsh–Australian singer (AC/DC)
* 1953 &ndash; Marcia Hines, American–Australian singer, actress and television personality
* 1953 &ndash; Dan Shaughnessy, American writer
* 1954 &ndash; Keith Scott, Canadian guitarist
* 1956 &ndash; Paul Cook, English musician (The Sex Pistols)
* 1956 &ndash; Julio César Falcioni, Argentine footballer
* 1958 &ndash; Billy Mays, American advertising figure (d. 2009)
* 1958 &ndash; Mick MacNeil, Scottish musician (Simple Minds)
* 1960 &ndash; Pedro Zerolo, Spanish lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
* 1962 &ndash; Carlos Alazraqui, American actor, producer and screenwriter
* 1963 &ndash; Paula Ivan, Romanian athlete
* 1963 &ndash; Alexander Zhulin, Russian ice dancer
* 1963 &ndash; John Simmit, British actor and stand–up comedian
* 1964 &ndash; Dean Winters, American actor
* 1964 &ndash; Terri Irwin, American naturalist
* 1964 &ndash; Chris Cornell, American singer and musician (d. 2017)
* 1965 &ndash; Abdourahman Waberi, Djiboutian writer
* 1966 &ndash; Anton du Beke, British ballroom dancer
* 1966 &ndash; Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico
* 1966 &ndash; Stone Gossard, American musician
* 1967 &ndash; Courtney Taylor-Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Dandy Warhols)
* 1967 &ndash; Reed Diamond, American actor
* 1968 &ndash; Carlos Saldanha, Brazilian director
* 1969 &ndash; Josh Holloway, American actor
* 1969 &ndash; Tobi Vail, American musician
* 1971 &ndash; Sandra Oh, Canadian actress
* 1971 &ndash; DJ Screw, American DJ (d. 2000)
* 1973 &ndash; Peter Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player
* 1973 &ndash; Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway
* 1973 &ndash; Claudio Reyna, American footballer
* 1973 &ndash; Roberto Orci, Mexican–American screenwriter and producer
* 1975 &ndash; Erik Hagen, Norwegian footballer
* 1975 &ndash; Rodolfo Arruabarrena, Argentine footballer
* 1975 &ndash; Birgitta Ohlsson, Swedish politician

### From 1976 
* 1977 &ndash; Alessandro Santos, Brazilian–Japanese footballer
* 1978 &ndash; Will Solomon, American basketball player
* 1978 &ndash; Nigel Quashie, British footballer
* 1979 &ndash; Miklos Feher, Hungarian footballer (d. 2004)
* 1980 &ndash; Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian model
* 1982 &ndash; Antoine Vermette, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1985 &ndash; John Francis Daley, American actor and screenwriter
* 1986 &ndash; Osric Chau, Canadian actor and martial artist
* 1987 &ndash; Nicola Benedetti, Scottish violinist
* 1987 &ndash; Niall McGinn, Northern Irish footballer
* 1988 &ndash; Julianne Hough, American dancer
* 1988 &ndash; Stephen Strasburg, American baseball player
* 1989 &ndash; Cristiano Pasquato, Italian footballer
* 1989 &ndash; Javier Cortés, Mexican footballer
* 1990 &ndash; Wendie Renard, French footballer
* 1991 &ndash; Philipp Reiter, German mountaineer and runner
* 1993 &ndash; Steven Adams, New Zealand basketball player
* 1993 &ndash; Alycia Debnam-Carey, Australian actress
* 1999 &ndash; Princess Alexandra of Hanover, Monegasque royalty

## Deaths 
### Up to 1900 
* 985 &ndash; Pope Boniface VII
* 1031 &ndash; King Robert II of France (b. 972)
* 1156 &ndash; Emperor Toba of Japan (1103)
* 1160 &ndash; Peter Lombard, French theologian (b. c. 1100)
* 1320 &ndash; King Oshin of Armenia (b. 1282)
* 1351 &ndash; Margaretha Ebner, German visionary (b.1291)
* 1387 &ndash; Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu (poisoned) (b. 1356)
* 1398 &ndash; Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir to the throne of England (b. 1374)
* 1453 &ndash; Enguerrand de Monstrelet, French chronicler (b. c. 400)
* 1454 &ndash; King John II of Castile (b. 1405)
* 1524 &ndash; Claude of France, queen of Louis XII of France (b. 1499)
* 1616 &ndash; Hugh O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone, Irish soldier (b. c. 1550)
* 1704 &ndash; Peregrine White, first English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1620)
* 1752 &ndash; Johann Christoph Pepusch, German composer (b. 1667)
* 1793 &ndash; Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, French explorer (b. 1737)
* 1796 &ndash; John Houstoun, Governor of Georgia (b. 1744)
* 1816 &ndash; Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, Russian poet (b. 1743)
* 1866 &ndash; Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (b. 1826)
* 1870 &ndash; Jules de Goncourt, French writer (b. 1830)
* 1891 &ndash; Frederick Weld, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1823)
* 1897 &ndash; Jean Ingelow, English poet (b. 1820)

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1901 &ndash; William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic (b. 1840)
* 1903 &ndash; Pope Leo XIII (b. 1810)
* 1908 &ndash; Demetrius Vikelas, Greek International Olympic Committee president (b. 1835)
* 1922 &ndash; Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (b. 1856)
* 1923 &ndash; Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1878)
* 1926 &ndash; Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy, head of the Soviet secret police (b. 1877)
* 1927 &ndash; King Ferdinand of Romania (b. 1865)
* 1932 &ndash; René Bazin, French writer (b. 1853)
* 1937 &ndash; Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1874)
* 1941 &ndash; Lew Fields, American vaudeville performer (b. 1867)
* 1942 &ndash; Germaine Dulac, French movie director (b. 1882)
* 1944 &ndash; Mildred Harris, American actress (b. 1901)
* 1945 &ndash; Paul Valéry, French writer and poet (b. 1871)
* 1951 &ndash; King Abdullah I of Jordan (b. 1882)
* 1951 &ndash; Friedrich Wilhelm Hohenzollern, Crown Prince of Germany (b. 1882)
* 1953 &ndash; Dumarsais Estimé, President of Haiti (b. 1900)
* 1953 &ndash; Jan Struther, British writer (b. 1901)
* 1955 &ndash; Calouste Gulbenkian, Armenian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1869)
* 1959 &ndash; William D. Leahy, American admiral (b. 1875)
* 1967 &ndash; Albert Lutuli, South African civil rights leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. c. 1898)
* 1970 &ndash; Iain Macleod, English politician (b. 1913)
* 1972 &ndash; Friedrich Flick, German industrialist and Nazi war criminal (b. 1893)
* 1973 &ndash; Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (b. 1940)
* 1982 &ndash; Okot p'Bitek, Ugandan poet (b. 1931)
* 1983 &ndash; Frank Reynolds, American television news anchor (b. 1923)
* 1986 &ndash; Stanley Rous, English FIFA President
* 1987 &ndash; Richard Egan, American actor (b. 1921)
* 1989 &ndash; Forrest H. Anderson, 17th Governor of Montana (b. 1920)
* 1990 &ndash; Herbert Jenkins, Atlanta's longest serving police chief (b. 1907)
* 1993 &ndash; Vincent Foster Jr., White House deputy counsel (b. 1945)
* 1997 &ndash; John Akii-Bua, Ugandan hurdler (b. 1949)
* 1999 &ndash; Sandra Gould, American actress (b. 1916)

### From 2001 
* 2001 &ndash; Carlo Giuliani, Italian anti–globalist demonstrator (b. 1978)
* 2003 &ndash; Nicolas Freeling, English writer (b. 1927)
* 2004 &ndash; Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fiji chieftainess, wife of Kamisese Mara (b. 1931)
* 2004 &ndash; Antonio Gades, Spanish dancer and choreographer (b. 1936)
* 2005 &ndash; James Doohan, Canadian–born actor (b. 1920)
* 2005 &ndash; Charles Chibitty, World War II Comanche code talker (b. 1921)
* 2005 &ndash; Finn Gustavsen, Norwegian politician (b. 1926)
* 2005 &ndash; Kayo Hatta, American movie director (b. 1958)
* 2005 &ndash; Alfred Hayes, British–born wrestling announcer (b. 1928)
* 2007 &ndash; Tammy Faye Messner, American televangelist (b. 1942)
* 2010 &ndash; Benedikt Gröndal, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1924)
* 2011 &ndash; Lucian Freud, German–born British painter (b. 1922)
* 2013 &ndash; Helen Thomas, American journalist (b. 1920)
* 2014 &ndash; Kadhal Dhandapani, Indian actor (b. 1943)
* 2014 &ndash; Victor G. Atiyeh, American politician, 32nd Governor of Oregon (b. 1923)
* 2014 &ndash; Klaus Schmidt, German archaeologist (b. 1953)
* 2014 &ndash; Kadhal Dhandapani, Indian actor (b. 1943)
* 2014 &ndash; Panna Rittikrai, Thai martial arts choreographer, actor and director (b. 1961)
* 2015 &ndash; Dieter Moebius, Swiss–German electronic musician (b. 1944)
* 2016 &ndash; Radu Beligan, Romanian actor, director and essayist (b. 1918)
* 2016 &ndash; Dimitri, Swiss clown (b. 1935)
* 2016 &ndash; Mohammed Shahid, Indian field hockey player (b. 1960)
* 2016 &ndash; Pavel Sheremet, Belarusian journalist (b. 1971)
* 2017 &ndash; Marco Aurélio Garcia, Brazilian politician (b. 1941)
* 2017 &ndash; Chester Bennington, American singer and musician (Linkin Park) (b. 1976)
* 2017 &ndash; Bernhard Kempa, German handball player and coach (b. 1920)
* 2017 &ndash; Kenneth Jay Lane, American costume jewellery designer (b. 1932)
* 2017 &ndash; John McCluskey, Baron McCluskey, Scottish lawyer, judge and life peer (b. 1929)
* 2017 &ndash; Claude Rich, French actor (b. 1929)
* 2017 &ndash; Jonathan Shurberg, American attorney and politician (b. 1963)
* 2017 &ndash; Jadwiga Szubartowicz, Polish supercentenarian (b. 1905)
* 2017 &ndash; Pudsey, Border Collie performing dog (b. 2005)
* 2018 &ndash; Thaddeus Radzilowski, Polish–American historian and writer (b. 1938)
* 2018 &ndash; Christoph Westerthaler, Austrian footballer (b. 1965)
* 2018 &ndash; Mitsuo Matayoshi, Japanese political activist (b. 1944)
* 2019 &ndash; Sheila Dikshit, Indian politician (b. 1938)
* 2019 &ndash; Ilaria Occhini, Italian actress (b. 1934)
* 2019 &ndash; Peter McNamara, Australian tennis player (b. 1955)

## Observances 
* Independence Day in Colombia
* Friend's Day in Argentina
* Engineer's Day (Costa Rica)
* International Chess Day

## Additional information 
* In 2007, the date of July 20 could have been written as 20072007, although in the US it was mostly written as 07202007.