On this day: September 20

Events on September 20

• 1058 Agnes of Poitou and Andrew I of Hungary meet to negotiate about the border territory of Burgenland. Wikipedia
• 1066 Harald III of Norway and his English ally Tostig Godwinson defeated the northern earls Edwin and Morcar at the Battle of Fulford near York. Wikipedia
• 1187 Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem. Wikipedia
• 1260 The second of two major uprisings by the Old Prussians, a Baltic tribe, began against the Teutonic Knights. Wikipedia
• 1519 Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men on his expedition which ultimately culminates in the first circumnavigation of the globe. Wikipedia
• 1643 First English Civil War: The First Battle of Newbury was fought in Berkshire; Parliamentarian forces were allowed to pass Royalist troops to retreat the next morning. Wikipedia
• 1697 The Treaty of Ryswick is signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, ending the Nine Years' War. Wikipedia
• 1835 The decade-long Ragamuffin War starts when rebels capture Porto Alegre in Brazil. Wikipedia
• 1854 Crimean War: British and French troops defeat Russians at the Battle of Alma. Wikipedia
• 1860 The future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom begins the first visit to North America by a Prince of Wales. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: The Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, ends in a Confederate victory. Wikipedia
• 1870 The Bersaglieri entered Rome through the Porta Pia, ending the temporal power of the Pope and completing the unification of Italy. Wikipedia
• 1881 U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in upon the death of James A. Garfield the previous day. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Australian troops led by Gordon Grimsley King defeated Imperial Japanese forces at the Battle of Kaiapit in New Guinea. Wikipedia
• 1944 Second World War: Allied forces captured San Marino from the German Army. Wikipedia
• 1946 The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed for seven years due to World War II. Wikipedia
• 1954 The Moomin comics, created by Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson, is published internationally in the London newspaper The Evening News. Wikipedia
• 1967 L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, announced the story of Xenu in a taped lecture sent to all Scientologists. Wikipedia
• 1971 Hurricane Irene (satellite image pictured) moved into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic, making it the first actively tracked tropical cyclone to do so. Wikipedia
• 1977 Vietnam is admitted to the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1988 British prime minister Margaret Thatcher gave a landmark speech at the Belfry of Bruges, Belgium, against federalism in the European Economic Community. Wikipedia
• 1988 Margaret Thatcher delivers the Bruges speech, in which she articulates her opposition to further European integration. Wikipedia
• 1990 South Ossetia declares its independence from Georgia. Wikipedia
• 2008 An explosive-laden truck detonated in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 54 people and injuring 266 others. Wikipedia
• 2018 At least 161 people die after a ferry capsizes close to the pier on Ukara Island in Lake Victoria, Tanzania. Wikipedia
• 2019 Roughly four million people, mostly students, demonstrate across the world to address climate change. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden leads the demonstration in New York City. Wikipedia

Born on September 20

• 1486 Arthur, Prince of Wales (died 1502) Wikipedia
• 1758 Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian emperor (died 1806) Wikipedia
• 1778 Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian admiral, cartographer, and explorer (died 1852) Wikipedia
• 1833 Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian soldier and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1918) Wikipedia
• 1842 James Dewar, Scottish-English chemist and physicist (died 1923) Wikipedia
• 1853 Chulalongkorn, Siamese king (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1878 Upton Sinclair, American novelist, critic, and essayist (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1899 Leo Strauss, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1924 Hartini, wife of President Sukarno of Indonesia (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1925 Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Thailand (died 1946) Wikipedia
• 1934 Sophia Loren, Italian actress Wikipedia
• 1940 Tarō Asō, Japanese target shooter and politician, 92nd Prime Minister of Japan Wikipedia
• 1948 George R. R. Martin, American novelist and short story writer Wikipedia
• 1969 Richard Witschge, Dutch footballer and coach Wikipedia
• 1971 Henrik Larsson, Swedish footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1972 Victor Ponta, Romanian jurist and politician, 63rd Prime Minister of Romania Wikipedia
• 1975 Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian race car driver Wikipedia
• 1975 Asia Argento, Italian actress Wikipedia
• 1976 Jon Bernthal, American actor Wikipedia
• 1988 Khabib Nurmagomedov, Russian mixed martial artist Wikipedia
• 1993 Julian Draxler, German footballer Wikipedia
• 2003 Thomas Matthew Crooks, American attempted assassin of Donald Trump (died 2024) Wikipedia

Died on September 20

• 1328 Ibn Taymiyyah, Syrian theologian and scholar (born 1263) Wikipedia
• 1501 Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, stepson of Edward IV of England (born 1457) Wikipedia
• 1863 Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist (born 1785) Wikipedia
• 1898 Theodor Fontane, German author and poet (born 1819) Wikipedia
• 1933 Annie Besant, English theosophist and activist (born 1847) Wikipedia
• 1945 Augusto Tasso Fragoso, Brazilian politician, President of Brazil (born 1869) Wikipedia
• 1957 Jean Sibelius, Finnish violinist and composer (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1971 Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1900) Wikipedia
• 1975 Saint-John Perse, French poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1979 Ludvík Svoboda, Czech general and politician, 8th President of Czechoslovakia (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 1996 Paul Erdős, Hungarian-Polish mathematician and academic (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2000 Gherman Titov, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (born 1935) Wikipedia
• 2005 Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian human rights activist, Holocaust survivor (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 2011 Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghan academic and politician, 10th President of Afghanistan (born 1940) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Eustace (Western Christianity) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Evilasius Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fausta of Cyzicus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Glycerius of Milan Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Jean-Charles Cornay (one of Vietnamese Martyrs) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Coleridge Patteson (commemoration, Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: José Maria de Yermo y Parres Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Korean Martyrs, including Andrew Kim Taegon and Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Theodore, Philippa and companions Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Thomas Johnson Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vincent Madelgarius (Maelceadar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Nepal) Wikipedia
• Independence Day of South Ossetia (not fully recognized) Wikipedia
• National Youth Day (Thailand) Wikipedia
• Oil Workers' Day (Azerbaijan) Wikipedia
• Universal Children's Day (Germany) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “September 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.