On this day: December 20

Events on December 20

• 944 Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos is arrested by two of his sons, forced to abdicate and to live as a monk for the rest of his life. Wikipedia
• 1248 Attempting to form an alliance with the Mongol Empire, Louis IX of France met with two of their envoys while en route to the Seventh Crusade. Wikipedia
• 1334 Cardinal Jacques Fournier, a Cistercian monk, is elected Pope Benedict XII. Wikipedia
• 1803 The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans. Wikipedia
• 1852 Led by George Cathcart, British troops defeated Basuto and Taung forces at the Battle of Berea in present-day Lesotho, leading to an offer of peace from King Moshoeshoe I. Wikipedia
• 1860 South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States with the South Carolina Declaration of Secession. Wikipedia
• 1915 World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli. Wikipedia
• 1917 Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded. Wikipedia
• 1940 The superhero Captain America made his first published appearance in the comic book Captain America Comics #1. Wikipedia
• 1946 It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews. Wikipedia
• 1951 Experimental Breeder Reactor I near Arco, Idaho, U.S., became the world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it became able to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs. Wikipedia
• 1957 The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight. Wikipedia
• 1960 Vietnam 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. Wikipedia
• 1968 The 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. Wikipedia
• 1973 Assassination 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. Wikipedia
• 1980 NBC aired the American football match between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins without announcers. Wikipedia
• 1984 Twelve-year-old Jonelle Matthews disappeared from her home in Greeley, Colorado; her body was not discovered until 2019. Wikipedia
• 1987 The deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history occurred when the MV Doña Paz sank after colliding with an oil tanker in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, resulting in an estimated 4,385 deaths. Wikipedia
• 1989 The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega. Wikipedia
• 1995 Mandated by the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led Implementation Force began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wikipedia
• 1995 American Airlines Flight 965 crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia, killing 159 of the 163 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1999 Portugal transferred the sovereignty over Macau, which it had administered since the mid–16th century, to China. Wikipedia
• 2007 Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art before being recovered about three weeks later. Wikipedia
• 2007 Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years and 243 days. Wikipedia
• 2019 The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947. Wikipedia
• 2024 Six 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. Wikipedia

Born on December 20

• 1537 John III, king of Sweden (died 1592) Wikipedia
• 1841 Ferdinand Buisson, French academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1932) Wikipedia
• 1890 Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1894 Robert Menzies, Australian lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1898 Irene Dunne, American actress and singer (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1915 Aziz Nesin, Turkish author and poet (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1917 David Bohm, American-English physicist, neuropsychologist, and philosopher (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1927 Kim Young-sam, South Korean soldier and politician, 7th President of South Korea (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1947 Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1948 Alan Parsons, English keyboard player and producer Wikipedia
• 1955 Binali Yıldırım, Turkish lawyer and politician, Turkish Minister of Transport Wikipedia
• 1955 Martin Schulz, German politician Wikipedia
• 1956 Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritanian general and politician, President of Mauritania Wikipedia
• 1960 Kim Ki-duk, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1980 Ashley Cole, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1980 Martín Demichelis, Argentine footballer Wikipedia
• 1983 Jonah Hill, American actor, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1990 JoJo, American singer and actress Wikipedia
• 1991 Jorginho, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1991 Fabian Schär, Swiss footballer Wikipedia
• 1993 Andrea Belotti, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1998 Kylian Mbappé, French footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 20

• 217 Zephyrinus, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1590 Ambroise Paré, French physician and surgeon (born 1510) Wikipedia
• 1722 Kangxi, emperor of the Qing Dynasty (born 1654) Wikipedia
• 1812 Sacagawea, American explorer (born 1788) Wikipedia
• 1929 Émile Loubet, French lawyer and politician, 8th President of France (born 1838) Wikipedia
• 1937 Erich Ludendorff, German general (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1968 John Steinbeck, American novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1982 Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-American pianist and composer (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1984 Dmitry Ustinov, Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union (1976–84) (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1984 Stanley Milgram, American psychologist and academic (born 1933) Wikipedia
• 1996 Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 1998 Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, English physiologist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2001 Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegalese poet and politician, 1st President of Senegal (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 2009 Brittany Murphy, American actress and singer (born 1977) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Abolition of Slavery Day, also known as Fête des Cafres (Réunion, French Guiana) Wikipedia
• Bo Aung Kyaw Day (Myanmar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Dominic of Silos Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Michał Piaszczyński Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: O Clavis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philogonius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Katharina von Bora (Lutheran) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Earliest date for Winter solstice's eve (Northern Hemisphere), and its related observances: Yaldā (Iran) Wikipedia
• International Human Solidarity Day (International) Wikipedia
• Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (Macau) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 20” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 20” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 20” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 20 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.