December 20

Events

• 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 crashs and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87
• 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed
• 1989 - United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega
• 1995 - NATO begins peacekeping in Bosnia
• 1995 - An American Airlines 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
• 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.

Births

• 1579 (baptized) - John Fletcher, playwright (d. 1625)
• 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)
• 1856 - Ferdinand Avenarius, author (d. 1923)
• 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
• 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
• 1893 - Charlotte Bühler, psychologist
• 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, Australian politician (d. 1978)
• 1898 - Irene Dunne, actress (d. 1990)
• 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, physicist, inventor (d. 1967)
• 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
• 1902 - Max Lerner, American educator (d. 1992)
• 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
• 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
• 1930 - Noel Ferrier, producer and actress
• 1942 - Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002)
• 1946 - Uri Geller, illusionist
• 1952 - Jenny Agutter, actress
• 1955 - Lonesome Bob, singer, songwriter
• 1957 - Billy Bragg, singer, songwriter
• 1957 - Mike Watt, bassist
• 1959 - Tracey Ullman, actress, comedienne

Deaths

• 1939 - Nazi Captain Hans Langsdorff (suicide) (b. 1894)
• 1954 - James Hilton, author (b. 1900)
• 1961 - Moss Hart, author (b. 1904)
• 1968 - John Steinbeck, writer (b. 1902)
• 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish prime minister (assassination) (b. 1903)
• 1973 - Bobby Darin, singer (b. 1936)
• 1976 - Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago, Illinois (b. 1902)
• 1982 - Artur Rubinstein, musician (b. 1887)
• 1994 - Dean Rusk, former United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
• 1996 - Carl Sagan, astronomer, writer (b. 1934)
• 1999 - Hank Snow, country music singer (b. 1914)

See Also

December 19 - December 21 - November 20 - January 20 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By