On this day: December 20

Events on December 20

• 69 Antonius Primus enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor for Nero's former general Vespasian. Wikipedia
• 1803 The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans. Wikipedia
• 1832 HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands. 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
• 1924 Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers", in Kunming, China. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India. Wikipedia
• 1946 It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews. Wikipedia
• 1955 Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom. 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
• 1970 Koza 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 Okinawa. 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
• 1977 With 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. Wikipedia
• 1985 Pope John Paul II announces the creation of World Youth Day. Wikipedia
• 1987 In 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). Wikipedia
• 1988 War 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. Wikipedia
• 1995 Mandated by the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led Implementation Force (troops pictured) began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wikipedia
• 1999 Macau is handed over to China by Portugal. Wikipedia
• 1999 Portugal transferred the sovereignty over Macau, which it had administered since the mid–16th century, to China. Wikipedia
• 2004 A 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. 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 The 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 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
• 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. 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
• 1874 Mary Ann Bevan, English nurse who, after developing acromegaly, toured the circus sideshow circuit as "the ugliest woman in the world" (died 1933) 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
• 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

• 69 Titus Flavius Sabinus, a Roman politician and soldier Wikipedia
• 217 Zephyrinus, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1552 Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther (born 1499) Wikipedia
• 1722 Kangxi, emperor of the Qing Dynasty (born 1654) 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
• 1971 Roy O. Disney, American banker and businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 1982 Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-American pianist and composer (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1994 Dean Rusk, American lawyer, and politician, 54th United States Secretary of State (born 1909) 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

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 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.