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This day in history

This day in history: 20 December

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Events44

Born on this day · Died on this day173 · 98

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Key facts

315 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 20 December.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2024: A mass stabbing occurs in a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia, in which a 7-year-old pupil is killed and six more are injured by a knife-wielding 19-year-old male.

Holidays and observances

Abolition of Slavery Day, also known as Fête des Cafres (Réunion, French Guiana)

Bo Aung Kyaw Day (Myanmar)

Christian feast day: Blessed Michał Piaszczyński

Christian feast day: December 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Dominic of Silos

Christian feast day: Katharina von Bora (Lutheran)

Christian feast day: O Clavis

Christian feast day: Philogonius

Christian feast day: Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne

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)

Events

2024A mass stabbing occurs in a primary school in Zagreb, Croatia, in which a 7-year-old pupil is killed and six more are injured by a knife-wielding 19-year-old male.

2024Six people are killed and over 200 are injured when an anti-Islam activist drives a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

2019The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.

2016Aerosucre Flight 157 crashes during takeoff from Germán Olano Airport in Puerto Carreño, Colombia, killing five people.

2007Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days.

2007The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil. Both will be recovered a few weeks la

2004A 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.

1999Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.

1995American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia, killing 159 of the 163 people on board.

1991A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.

1989The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.

1988War on drugs: The United Nations agrees upon and promulgates the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, one of three major drug control treaties currently in force.

1987In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait of the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

1985Pope John Paul II announces the creation of World Youth Day.

1984Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."

1984The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.

1977With the approval of the State Council, China's two largest newspapers, the People's Daily and the Guangming Daily, publish in full for the first time the Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme.

1973Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ETA in Madrid kills three people, including the Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco.

1970Koza riot: After a series of hit-and-runs and other vehicular incidents involving American service personnel, roughly 5,000 Okinawans take to the streets, clashing with American law enforcement in protest against the U.S. occupation of Okin

1968The Zodiac Killer murders his first two officially confirmed victims, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, on Lake Herman Road in Benicia, California, United States.

1960Vietnam War: The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, popularly known as the Viet Cong, is formally established in Tân Lập village, present day Tây Ninh province.

1957The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.

1955Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.

1952A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington, killing 87 of the 115 people on board.

1951The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.

1948Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia.

1946An earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan causes a tsunami which kills at least one thousand people and destroys 36,000 homes.

1946It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews.

1942World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.

1941World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers", in Kunming, China.

1940Captain America Comics #1, containing the first appearance of the superhero Captain America, is published.

1924Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.

1917Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.

1915World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.

1860South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States with the South Carolina Declaration of Secession.

1848French presidential election: Having won the popular vote in a landslide, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is inaugurated in the chamber of the National Assembly as the first (and only) president of the French Second Republic.

1832HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands.

1808Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.

1803The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

1334Cardinal Jacques Fournier, a Cistercian monk, is elected Pope Benedict XII.

Born on this day

2007Gavin McKenna, Canadian ice hockey player

2001Facundo Pellistri, Uruguayan footballer

2000Gaboro, Assyrian Swedish rapper and songwriter (died 2024)

1998Kylian Mbappé, French footballer

1997De'Aaron Fox, American basketball player

1997Suzuka Nakamoto, Japanese singer

1996Jarrod Bowen, English football player

1995Anžejs Pasečņiks, Latvian basketball player

1994Calvin Ridley, American football player

1993Andrea Belotti, Italian footballer

1993Robeisy Ramírez, Cuban boxer

1992Ksenia Makarova, Russian-American figure skater

1991Fabian Schär, Swiss footballer

1991Jillian Rose Reed, American actress

1991Jorginho, Brazilian footballer

1991Rachael Boyle, Scottish footballer

1990JoJo, American singer and actress

1990Marta Xargay, Spanish basketball player

1987Malcolm Jenkins, American football player

1986Chay Genoway, Canadian ice hockey player

1984Bob Morley, Australian actor

1984David Tavaré, Spanish singer and DJ

1983Jonah Hill, American actor, producer, and screenwriter

1982David Cook, American singer-songwriter

1982David Wright, American baseball player

1982Kasper Klausen, Danish footballer

1982Mohammad Asif, Pakistani cricketer

1981James Shields, American baseball player

1981Royal Ivey, American basketball player and coach

1980Anthony da Silva, French-Portuguese footballer

1980Ashley Cole, English footballer

1980Israel Castro, Mexican footballer

1980Martín Demichelis, Argentine footballer

1979Michael Rogers, Australian cyclist

1978Andrei Markov, Russian-Canadian ice hockey player

1978Bouabdellah Tahri, French runner

1978Geremi Njitap, Cameroon footballer

1978Yoon Kye-sang, South Korean singer

1976Nenad Vučković, Croatian footballer

1975Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer

Died on this day

2024Casey Chaos, American singer (born 1965)

2024George Eastham, English footballer (born 1936)

2024Rickey Henderson, American baseball player (born 1958)

2022Franco Harris, American football player (born 1950)

2020Ezra Vogel, American sociologist (born 1930)

2020Fanny Waterman, British pianist (born 1920)

2014John Freeman, English lawyer, politician, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (born 1915)

2014Per-Ingvar Brånemark, Swedish surgeon and academic (born 1929)

2013Pyotr Bolotnikov, Russian runner (born 1930)

2012Robert Juniper, Australian painter and sculptor (born 1929)

2012Stan Charlton, English footballer and manager (born 1929)

2012Victor Merzhanov, Russian pianist and educator (born 1919)

2011Barry Reckord, Jamaican playwright and screenwriter (born 1926)

2010K. P. Ratnam, Sri Lankan academic and politician (born 1914)

2009Arnold Stang, American actor (born 1918)

2009Brittany Murphy, American actress and singer (born 1977)

2008Adrian Mitchell, English author, poet, and playwright (born 1932)

2008Igor Troubetzkoy, Russian aristocrat and racing driver (born 1912)

2008Robert Mulligan, American director and producer (born 1925)

2006Anne Rogers Clark, American dog breeder and trainer (born 1929)

2005Raoul Bott, Hungarian-American mathematician and academic (born 1923)

2001Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegalese poet and politician, 1st President of Senegal (born 1906)

1999Hank Snow, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1914)

1999Riccardo Freda, Egyptian-Italian director and screenwriter (born 1909)

1998Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916)

1997Dawn Steel, American film producer (born 1946)

1997Denise Levertov, English-American poet and translator (born 1923)

1997Dick Spooner, English cricketer (born 1919)

1996Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist (born 1934)

1995Madge Sinclair, Jamaican-American actress (born 1938)

Quote of the day

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

Seneca

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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