20 December
Notable Births
Facundo Pellistri
b. 2001
Uruguayan footballer (born 2001)
Kylian Mbappé
b. 1998
French footballer (born 1998)
De'Aaron Fox
b. 1997
American basketball player (born 1997)
Suzuka Nakamoto
b. 1997
Japanese musician (born 1997)
Jarrod Bowen
b. 1996
English footballer (born 1996)
Anžejs Pasečņiks
b. 1995
Latvian basketball player (born 1995)
Calvin Ridley
b. 1994
American football player (born 1994)
Andrea Belotti
b. 1993
Italian footballer (born 1993)
Robeisy Ramírez
b. 1993
Cuban Boxer (born 1993)
Ksenia Makarova
b. 1992
Russian figure skater (born 1992)
Jorginho (footballer, born December 1991)
b. 1991
Brazilian-Italian footballer (born 1991)
Jillian Rose Reed
b. 1991
American actress (born 1991)
Fabian Schär
b. 1991
Swiss footballer (born 1991)
JoJo (singer)
b. 1990
American singer and songwriter (born 1990)
Malcolm Jenkins
b. 1987
American football player (born 1987)
Chay Genoway
b. 1986
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1986)
Bob Morley
b. 1984
Australian actor (born 1984)
Jonah Hill
b. 1983
American actor (born 1983)
Mohammad Asif (cricketer)
b. 1982
Pakistani former cricketer
David Cook (singer)
b. 1982
American rock singer-songwriter
Notable Deaths
Casey Chaos
d. 2024
American singer (1965–2024)
George Eastham
d. 2024
English footballer (1936–2024)
Rickey Henderson
d. 2024
American baseball player (1958–2024)
Franco Harris
d. 2022
American football player (1950–2022)
Fanny Waterman
d. 2020
English musician (1920–2020)
Ezra F. Vogel
d. 2020
American sociologist of East Asia (1930–2020)
Per-Ingvar Brånemark
d. 2014
Swedish anatomist (1929–2014)
John Freeman (British politician)
d. 2014
British politician and army officer (1915–2014)
Pyotr Bolotnikov
d. 2013
Soviet long-distance runner
Victor Merzhanov
d. 2012
Russian pianist (1919–2012)
Barry Reckord
d. 2011
Jamaican playwright and screenwriter (1926–2011)
K. P. Ratnam
d. 2010
Sri Lankan Tamil academic and politician
Brittany Murphy
d. 2009
American actress and singer (1977–2009)
Arnold Stang
d. 2009
American actor (1918–2009)
Robert Mulligan
d. 2008
American director, producer (1925–2008)
Igor Troubetzkoy
d. 2008
French aristocrat and athlete (1912–2008)
Raoul Bott
d. 2005
Hungarian-American mathematician (1923-2005)
Léopold Sédar Senghor
d. 2001
First president of Senegal, poet, and cultural theorist (1906–2001)
Riccardo Freda
d. 1999
Italian film director
Hank Snow
d. 1999
Canadian musician (1914–1999)
On This Day in History
All 45 ›
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.
2024 Magdeburg car attack
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.
Zagreb school stabbing
2022
A Vega C rocket carrying two Pléiades Neo satellites fails after liftoff.
Vega C
2019
The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.
United States Space Force
2016
Aerosucre Flight 157 crashes during takeoff from Germán Olano Airport in Puerto Carreño, Colombia, killing five people.
Aerosucre Flight 157
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.
Elizabeth II
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.
Portrait of Suzanne Bloch
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.
Northern Bank robbery
1999
Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
Macau
1995
American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia, killing 159 of the 163 people on board.
American Airlines Flight 965
1991
A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
Murder of Tina Isa
1989
The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.
United States invasion of Panama
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.
War on drugs
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).
MV Doña Paz
1985
Pope John Paul II announces the creation of World Youth Day.
Pope John Paul II
1984
The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.
Summit Tunnel fire
1984
Disappearance of Jonelle Matthews from Greeley, Colorado. Her remains were discovered on July 23, 2019, located about 24 km (15 mi) southeast of Jonelle's home. The cause of death "was a gunshot wound to the head."
Murder of Jonelle Matthews
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.
State Council of China
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.
Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco
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.
Koza riot