July 20

2024 Calendar

July 20 is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 164 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

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

1901 – 2000

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

From 2001

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

Births

1901 – 1950

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

1951 – 1975

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

From 1976

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

Deaths

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.