December 20

December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 See Also

Events

1803 - Louisiana Purchase completed
1860 - South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States
1915 - Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli
1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded
1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashs and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87
1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed
1989 - United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega
1995 - NATO begins peacekeping in Bosnia
1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160
1999 - Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples
2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.

1579 (baptized) - John Fletcher, playwright (d. 1625)
1629 - Pieter de Hooch, painter (d. 1684)
1792 - Nicolas Charlet, painter (d. 1845)
1805 - Thomas Graham, Father of colloid chemistry (d. 1869)
1833 - Samuel Mudd, physician, possible conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1883)
1856 - Ferdinand Avenarius, author (d. 1923)
1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
1868 - Harvey Firestone, automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis star (d. 1974)
1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, actress
1893 - Charlotte B�hler, psychologist
1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, Australian politician (d. 1978)
1898 - Irene Dunne, actress (d. 1990)
1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, physicist, inventor (d. 1967)
1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
1902 - Max Lerner, American educator (d. 1992)
1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
1922 - George Roy Hill, film director
1923 - James Leasor, writer, mystery
1924 - Friederike Mayr�cker, author
1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), UK politician
1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, politician
1930 - Noel Ferrier, producer and actress
1942 - Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002)
1946 - Uri Geller, illusionist
1952 - Jenny Agutter, actress
1955 - Lonesome Bob, singer, songwriter
1957 - Billy Bragg, singer, songwriter
1957 - Mike Watt, bassist
1959 - Tracey Ullman, actress, comedienne