On this day in history

November 20

27 births · 14 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Convention on the Rights of the Child

36 years ago

Born this day

1942

Joe Biden

Turns 83

Photo (modified): Adam Schultz · Public domain

Oldest record

709th

John I of France

death anniversary

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Famous births27

1602 · 423 yrs

Otto von Guericke

Otto von Guericke (UK: GAIR-ik-ə, US: G(W)AIR-ik-ə, -⁠ee; German:; spelled Gericke until 1666; 30 November 1602 – 21 May 1686) was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician, and physicist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Anselm van Hulle, 1601-1674 · Public domain

1751 · 274 yrs

Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan (Urdu:, Kannada:, Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore (Tiger of Mysore), was the Sultan of Mysore from 1782 until his death in 1799. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 47

View profile Photo (modified): Anonymous artist from Mysore, India. · Public domain

1761 · 264 yrs

Pius VIII

Pope Pius VIII (Italian: Pio VIII; born Francesco Saverio Maria Felice Castiglioni; 20 November 1761 – 30 November 1830) was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 31 March 1829 to his death in November 1830.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 69

View profile Photo (modified): Clemente Alberi · Public domain

1858 · 167 yrs

Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (US also, Swedish:; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1886 · 139 yrs

Karl von Frisch

Karl Ritter von Frisch (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was a German-Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 139

View profile Photo (modified): Stefanie Ludwig · Public domain

1889 · 136 yrs

Edwin Hubble

Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 136

View profile Photo (modified): Johan Hagemeyer · Public domain

1897 · 128 yrs

Ivan Bagramyan

Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan, born Hovhannes Baghramyan (2 December 1897 – 21 September 1982), was a Soviet military commander of Armenian origin who held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 128

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1912 · 113 yrs

Otto von Habsburg

Otto von Habsburg (20 November 1912 – 4 July 2011) was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until its dissolution in November 1918.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 113

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1917 · 108 yrs

Robert Byrd

Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia from 1959 until his death in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd had also been the U.S.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 108

View profile Photo (modified): United States Senate · Public domain

1923 · 102 yrs

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer (20 November 1923 – 13 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognised as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has...

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 102

View profile Photo (modified): Boberger . Photo: Bengt Oberger · CC BY 3.0

1924 · 101 yrs

Benoit Mandelbrot

Benoit B. Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of roughness" of physical phenomena and "the uncontrolled element in life".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 101

View profile Photo (modified): Rama · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr

1925 · 100 yrs

Maya Plisetskaya

Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya (Russian: Майя Михайловна Плисецкая; 20 November 1925 – 2 May 2015) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress. In post-Soviet times, she held both Lithuanian and Spanish citizenship.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 100

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Showing 12 of 27

Famous deaths14

1316 · 709 yrs

John I of France

John I (15 November 1316 – 19 November 1316), called the Posthumous (French: Jean I le Posthume, Occitan: Joan I lo Postume), was the King of France and Navarre, as the posthumous son and successor of Louis X, for the four days he lived in 1316.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 0

View profile Photo (modified): Phidelorme · CC BY-SA 4.0

1794 · 231 yrs

Cesare Beccaria

Cesare Beccaria Bonesana, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (Italian:; 15 March 1738 – 28 November 1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, economist, and politician.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Eliseo Sala · Public domain

1910 · 115 yrs

Leo Tolstoy

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой, IPA:; 9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 82

View profile Photo (modified): Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii · Public domain

1925 · 100 yrs

Alexandra of Denmark

Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King Edward VII.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): W. & D. Downey · Public domain

1936 · 89 yrs

Buenaventura Durruti

José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (Spanish:; 14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist militant and a leading figure in Spanish anarchism before and during the Spanish Civil War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1936 · 89 yrs

José Antonio Primo de Rivera

José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella GE (24 April 1903 – 20 November 1936), often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish national syndicalist politician who founded the Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"), later Falange Española de las JONS.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 123

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC0

1938 · 87 yrs

Maud of Wales

Maud of Wales (Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria; 26 November 1869 – 20 November 1938) was Queen of Norway from 18 November 1905 until her death in 1938 as the wife of King Haakon VII.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): Mittet & Co. · Public domain

1945 · 80 yrs

Francis William Aston

Francis William Aston FRS (1 September 1877 – 20 November 1945) was a British chemist and physicist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes in many non-radioactive elements and for his enunciation of the whole number rule.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1952 · 73 yrs

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce, ( KROH-chay; Italian:; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 86

View profile Photo (modified): Mario Nunes Vais · Public domain

1975 · 50 yrs

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish military general and politician who was the leader of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. He led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 133

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC0

1999 · 26 yrs

Amintore Fanfani

Amintore Fanfani (Italian pronunciation:; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): Rob Croes for Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

2006 · 19 yrs

Robert Altman

Robert Bernard Altman ( AWLT-mən; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American filmmaker. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 101

View profile Photo (modified): Associate Press Newsfeatures (see first upload of this image) · Public domain

Showing 12 of 14

Events5

1910 · 115 yrs

Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Revolución mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1917 · 108 yrs

Battle of Cambrai

The Battle of Cambrai (Battle of Cambrai, 1917, First Battle of Cambrai and Schlacht von Cambrai) was a British attack in the First World War, followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1945 · 80 yrs

Nuremberg trials

The Nuremberg trials were international criminal trials held by France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States against leaders of defeated Nazi Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of several countries across Europe and committing atrocities against their citizens in the Second World…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1989 · 36 yrs

Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health, and cultural rights of children.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1999 · 26 yrs

Transgender Day of Remembrance

The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed annually from its inception on November 20, 1999, to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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