On this day: September 20

Events on September 20

• 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
• 1260 The second of two major uprisings by the Old Prussians, a Baltic tribe, began against the Teutonic Knights. Wikipedia
• 1498 A tsunami caused by the Meiō earthquake washed away the building housing the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Japan; the statue has since stood in the open air. 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 first of a series of treaties comprising the Peace of Ryswick was signed between France and the Grand Alliance, ending the Nine Years' War. Wikipedia
• 1792 The French Army achieved its first major victory of the War of the First Coalition at the Battle of Valmy. Wikipedia
• 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company. 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
• 1906 The ocean liner RMS Mauretania, the largest and fastest ship in the world at the time, was launched in Tyneside, England. Wikipedia
• 1920 Irish War of Independence: British auxiliary police officers known as Black and Tans went on a rampage in Balbriggan, burning more than fifty homes and businesses and killing two people. 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
• 1967 Sweden, Norway, and Denmark submit the Greek case alleging human rights violations by the Greek junta. 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 moved into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic, making it the first actively tracked tropical cyclone to do so. Wikipedia
• 1973 Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, in an internationally televised tennis match dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes". Wikipedia
• 1977 A series of celestial phenomena of disputed nature was observed in the western Soviet Union, Finland and Denmark. Wikipedia
• 1984 The Cosby Show, which became one of three U.S. television shows to have the highest ratings five years in a row, premiered with its pilot episode. 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
• 1997 Hurricane Erika, the strongest and longest-lasting hurricane of the 1997 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated after causing flooding and power outages throughout Puerto Rico. Wikipedia
• 2000 The Real Irish Republican Army carried out a rocket-launcher attack on the MI6 headquarters in London, with no casualties and minimal damage recorded. Wikipedia
• 2001 In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "war on terror". Wikipedia
• 2008 An explosive-laden truck detonated in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 54 people and injuring 266 others. Wikipedia
• 2011 The United States military ended its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, consequently allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly. 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
• 1872 Maurice Gamelin, French general (died 1958) 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
• 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
• 1949 Mahesh Bhatt, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter 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

Died on September 20

• 1328 Ibn Taymiyyah, Syrian theologian and scholar (born 1263) 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
• 1942 Kārlis Ulmanis, Latvian prime minister and president (born 1877) 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
• 1993 Erich Hartmann, German soldier and pilot (born 1922) 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “September 20” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/September 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 “September 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 September 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.