Died on Friday, 20th February – Famous Deaths

20/02/2025

David Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma (born 1941)

David Lyle Boren was an American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and three terms in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1994. A conservative Democrat, to date, he is the last in his party to have served as U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. He was the 13th and second-longest serving president of the University of Oklahoma from 1994 to 2018. He was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. On September 20, 2017, Boren officially announced his retirement as president of the University of Oklahoma, effective June 30, 2018.

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Jerry Butler, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1939)

Jerry Butler Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. After leaving the group in 1960, Butler achieved over 55 Billboard Pop and R&B Chart hits as a solo artist including "He Will Break Your Heart," "Let It Be Me," and "Only the Strong Survive." He was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.

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Peter Jason, American actor (born 1944)

Peter Edward Ostling, better known as Peter Jason, was an American character actor. He often played military personnel, law enforcement agents, and authority figures in both films and television series.

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20/02/2024

Andreas Brehme, German footballer (born 1960)

Andreas "Andi" Brehme was a German professional football player and coach. At international level, he is best known for scoring the winning goal for Germany in the 1990 FIFA World Cup final against Argentina from an 85th-minute penalty kick. At club level, Brehme played for several teams in Germany and also had spells in Italy and Spain.

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Yoko Yamamoto, Japanese actress (born 1942)

Yoko Yamamoto was a Japanese actress represented by Kabushikigaisha Sanyō Kikaku. Yamamoto was born on March 17, 1942, and died on February 20, 2024, at the age of 81.

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20/02/2021

Nurul Haque Miah, Bangladeshi professor and writer (born 1944)

Muhammad Nurul Haque Miah was a professor at Dhaka College and the head of its Department of Chemistry. He is renowned for writing high school and degree textbooks.

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Mauro Bellugi, Italian footballer (born 1950)

Mauro Bellugi was an Italian footballer who played as a defender.

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20/02/2020

Joaquim Pina Moura, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP (born 1952)

Joaquim Pina Moura was a Portuguese politician and economist. He was a member of the Socialist Party.

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20/02/2017

Vitaly Churkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (born 1952)

Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was a Russian diplomat. He served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 until his death in 2017. Previously he was Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (2003–2006), Ambassador to Canada (1998–2003), Ambassador to Belgium and Liaison Ambassador to NATO and WEU (1994–1998), Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the talks on Former Yugoslavia (1992–1994), Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR/Russian Federation (1990–1992).

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Mildred Dresselhaus, American physicist (born 1930)

Mildred Spiewak Dresselhaus, known as the "Queen of Carbon Science", was an American physicist, materials scientist, and nanotechnologist. She was an Institute Professor and professor of both physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also served as the president of the American Physical Society, the chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as the director of science in the US Department of Energy under the Bill Clinton Government. Dresselhaus won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the Enrico Fermi Award, the Kavli Prize and the Vannevar Bush Award.

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Steve Hewlett, British journalist (born 1958)

Stephen Edward Hewlett was a British print, radio and TV journalist, and visiting professor of Journalism and Broadcast Policy at the University of Salford.

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20/02/2016

Fernando Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest and politician (born 1934)

Fernando Cardenal Martínez was a Nicaraguan Jesuit and liberation theologian.

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20/02/2015

Govind Pansare, Indian author and activist (born 1933)

Govind Pansare was a left-wing Indian politician of the Communist Party Of India (CPI). He authored the Marathi language biography of 17th century ruler Shivaji, Shivaji Kon Hota. He and his wife were attacked on 16 February 2015 by gun-wielding assailants in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. He died from his wounds on 20 February 2015.

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Henry Segerstrom, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1923)

Henry Thomas Segerstrom was an American philanthropist, entrepreneur, cultural leader, and patron of the arts. Managing Partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, he was the founding chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, now known as the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

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John C. Willke, American physician, author, and activist (born 1925)

John Charles Willke was an American author, physician, and anti-abortion activist. He served as president of National Right to Life and, along with his wife Barbara, authored a number of books on abortion and human sexuality. Willke was a leading promoter of the false claim that women's bodies resist pregnancy from forcible rape, an idea which continues to be promoted by some anti-abortion politicians.

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20/02/2014

Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (born 1923)

Rafael Addiego Bruno was a Uruguayan jurist and political figure.

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Walter D. Ehlers, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1921)

Walter David Ehlers was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the US armed forces' highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.

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Garrick Utley, American journalist (born 1939)

Clifton Garrick Utley was an American television journalist. He established his career reporting about the Vietnam War and has the distinction of being the first full-time television correspondent covering the war on-site.

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20/02/2013

Kenji Eno, Japanese game designer and composer (born 1970)

Kenji Eno was a Japanese musician and video game designer. He gained a reputation as a maverick during the mid-1990s for creating unorthodox games like Real Sound and is perhaps best remembered today for his rebellious marketing techniques. Outside of his homeland he was best known for his survival horror video games, D and Enemy Zero. Apart from creating video games, Eno was also a well-regarded electronic musician and he created the scores for several of his games. Eno founded the video game development companies EIM, Warp, and From Yellow to Orange. He also worked in a variety of fields apart from video games and music including the automotive, cellphone, tobacco, and hotel industries.

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David S. McKay, American biochemist and geologist (born 1936)

David Stewart McKay was the chief scientist for Astrobiology at the Johnson Space Center. During the Apollo program, McKay provided geology training to the first men to walk on the Moon in the late 1960s. McKay was the first author of a scientific paper postulating past life on Mars based on evidence in Martian meteorite ALH 84001, which had been found in Antarctica. Despite there being no convincing evidence of Martian life, the initial paper caused enormous scientific and public attention. The NASA Astrobiology Institute was founded partially due to community interest in this paper and related topics. He was a native of Titusville, Pennsylvania.

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Antonio Roma, Argentinian footballer (born 1932)

Antonio Roma was an Argentine footballer who played as a goalkeeper, notably for Boca Juniors.

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20/02/2012

Knut Torbjørn Eggen, Norwegian footballer and manager (born 1960)

Knut Torbjørn Eggen was a Norwegian football coach and player, famous for his time in Rosenborg as a player, and Moss and Fredrikstad as a coach. He was the son of Norway's most successful football coach, Nils Arne Eggen.

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Katie Hall, American educator and politician (born 1938)

Katie Beatrice Hall was an American educator in Gary, Indiana, and a politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1982 to 1985. When Hall was sworn into federal office on November 2, 1982, she became the first black woman from Indiana to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hall represented Indiana's 1st Congressional District in the final months of the 97th Congress and an entire two-year term in the 98th Congress from 1983 to 1985. She is best known for sponsoring legislation and leading efforts on the floor of the U.S. House in 1983 to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday after previous efforts had failed. H.R. 3706 to establish the third Monday in January as a federal holiday in King's honor was introduced in July 1983 and passed in the House on August 2, 1983. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983.

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20/02/2010

Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (born 1924)

Alexander Meigs Haig Jr. was an American politician who served as the 59th United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and previously as White House chief of staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, as well as United States Deputy National Security Advisor under President Nixon. A member of the Republican Party, he was a general in the U.S. Army prior to and in between these cabinet-level position, serving first as the vice chief of staff of the Army and then as Supreme Allied Commander Europe. In 1973, Haig became the youngest four-star general in the U.S. Army's history.

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20/02/2009

Larry H. Miller, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1944)

Larry H. Miller was an American businessman. He owned the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team. Miller and his companies, now known as the Larry H. Miller Company, also owned more than 60 automotive dealerships throughout the western United States, and a variety of other ventures, including Prestige Financial Services, Jordan Commons, Megaplex Theatres, KJZZ-TV, Miller Motorsports Park, the advertising agency Saxton Horne, and the Delta Center. The Fanzz chain of sports apparel stores was also owned by LHM Group until its sale to Ames Watson Capital in 2018.

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20/02/2008

Emily Perry, English actress and dancer (born 1907)

Patricia Emily Perry was an English actress and dancer. Born in Torquay, Devon, she was best known for her recurring role as Madge Allsop, Dame Edna Everage's long-suffering, silent "bridesmaid" from Palmerston North, New Zealand.

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20/02/2006

Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (born 1919)

Curtis Edward Gowdy was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s. He coined the nickname "The Granddaddy of Them All" for the Rose Bowl Game, taking the moniker from Cheyenne Frontier Days in his native Wyoming.

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Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist and author (born 1920)

Lucjan Wilhelm Wolanowski, pseudonyms: Wilk; Waldemar Mruczkowski; W. Lucjański; (L.W.); lu; Lu; (lw); WOL., was a Polish journalist, writer and traveller.

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20/02/2005

Sandra Dee, American actress (born 1942)

Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise's Until They Sail (1957). She became a teenage star for her performances in Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place, which made her a household name.

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Josef Holeček, Czech canoeist (born 1921)

Josef Holeček was a Czech sprint canoeist who competed for Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won gold medals in the C-1 1000 m event in both 1948 and 1952.

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John Raitt, American actor and singer (born 1917)

John Emmet Raitt was an American actor and singer best known for his performances in musical theatre. His most notable role was Billy Bigelow in the original Broadway cast of Carousel.

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Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (born 1937)

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prominence with the book Hell's Angels (1967), for which he lived a year among the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences. In 1970, he wrote an unconventional article titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which further raised his profile as a countercultural figure. It also set him on the path to establish the subgenre of New Journalism that he called "Gonzo", a style in which the writer becomes central to, and participant in the narrative.

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20/02/2003

Mushaf Ali Mir, Pakistani air marshal (born 1947)

Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir was an influential statesman and a four-star rank air officer who served as the ninth Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), appointed on 20 November 2000 until his accidental death in a plane crash on 20 February 2003.

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Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and author (born 1907)

Maurice Blanchot was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on post-structuralist philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy.

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Orville Freeman, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 29th Governor of Minnesota (born 1918)

Orville Lothrop Freeman was an American politician who served as the 29th governor of Minnesota from 1955 to 1961, and as the U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was one of the founding members of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party and influential in the merger of the Minnesota Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties. Freeman nominated Kennedy for president at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

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20/02/2001

Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (born 1910)

Rosemary Shirley DeCamp was an American radio, film, and television actress.

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Donella Meadows, American environmentalist, author, and academic (born 1941)

Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows was an American environmental scientist, educator, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the books The Limits to Growth and Thinking In Systems: A Primer.

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20/02/1999

Sarah Kane, English playwright (born 1971)

Sarah Kane was an English playwright. She is known for her plays that deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture—both physical and psychological—and death. They are characterised by a poetic intensity, pared-down language, exploration of theatrical form and, in her earlier work, the use of extreme and violent stage action.

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Gene Siskel, American journalist and critic (born 1946)

Eugene Kal Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert.

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20/02/1996

Solomon Asch, American psychologist and academic (born 1907)

Solomon Eliot Asch (September 14, 1907 – February 20, 1996) was a Polish-American Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology. He conducted seminal research on impression formation, prestige suggestion, conformity, and many other topics. His work reflects a common theme of Gestalt psychology that the whole is not only different from the sum of its parts, but the nature of the whole fundamentally alters the understanding of the parts. Asch stated: "Most social acts have to be understood in their setting, and lose meaning if isolated. No error in thinking about social facts is more serious than the failure to see their place and function". Asch is most well known for his conformity experiments, in which he demonstrated the influence of group pressure on opinions. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Asch as the 41st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

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Audrey Munson, American model (born 1891)

Audrey Marie Munson was an American artist's model and film actress, considered to be "America's first supermodel." In her time, she was variously known as "Miss Manhattan", the "Panama–Pacific Girl", the "Exposition Girl" and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than twelve statues in New York City, and many others elsewhere. Munson appeared in four silent films, including unclothed in Inspiration (1915). She was one of the first American actresses to appear nude in a non-pornographic film.

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Toru Takemitsu, Japanese pianist, guitarist, and composer (born 1930)

Tōru Takemitsu was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu was admired for his subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He is known for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy and for fusing sound with silence and tradition with innovation.

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20/02/1993

Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, founded Lamborghini (born 1916)

Ferruccio Lamborghini was an Italian automobile designer and industrialist who created Lamborghini Trattori in 1948 and Automobili Lamborghini in 1963, a maker of high-end sports cars in Sant'Agata Bolognese.

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Ernest L. Massad, American general (born 1908)

Ernest Louis "Iron Mike" Massad was a college football star, major general of the U.S. Army, and successful oilman.

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20/02/1992

A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (born 1898)

Alfred Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.

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Barbara Lüdemann, German politician (born 1922)

Barbara Lüdemann was a German teacher and politician who served in the Bundestag from 1973 until 1976. A member of the Free Democratic Party from Hesse, she became a prominent figure in German family policy, especially with regards to foster care.

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Dick York, American actor (born 1928)

Richard Allen York was an American actor. He was the first actor to play Darrin Stephens on the ABC fantasy sitcom Bewitched. He played teacher Bertram Cates in the film Inherit the Wind (1960).

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20/02/1987

Wayne Boring, American illustrator (born 1905)

Wayne Boring was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonym Jack Harmon.

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20/02/1981

Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-American banker and publisher (born 1904)

Nicolas Louis Alexandre de Gunzburg, also known as Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, was a French-born magazine editor and socialite. He became an editor at several American publications, including Town & Country, Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1971.

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20/02/1976

René Cassin, French lawyer and judge, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887)

René Samuel Cassin was a French jurist known for co-authoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Kathryn Kuhlman, healing evangelist, known for belief in Holy Spirit (born 1907)

Kathryn Kuhlman was an American Christian evangelist, preacher and minister who was referred to by the press as a faith healer.

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20/02/1972

Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1906)

Maria Goeppert-Mayer was a German–American theoretical physicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner. One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Goeppert-Mayer and Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure". She was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, the first being Marie Curie in 1903. In 1986, the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award for early-career women physicists was established in her honor.

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Walter Winchell, American journalist and actor (born 1897)

Walter Winchell was an American syndicated newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler said that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment".

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20/02/1969

Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (born 1883)

Ernest Alexandre Ansermet was a Swiss conductor.

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20/02/1968

Anthony Asquith, English director and screenwriter (born 1902)

Anthony Asquith was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Browning Version (1951), among other adaptations. His other notable films include Pygmalion (1938), French Without Tears (1940), The Way to the Stars (1945) and a 1952 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

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20/02/1966

Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (born 1885)

Chester William Nimitz was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.

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20/02/1965

Michał Waszyński, Polish film director and producer (born 1904)

Michał Waszyński was first a film director in Poland, then in Italy, and later a producer of major American films, mainly in Spain. Known for his elegance and impeccable manners, he was known by his acquaintances as "the prince".

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20/02/1963

Jacob Gade, Danish violinist and composer (born 1879)

Jacob Thune Hansen Gade was a Danish violinist and composer, mostly of orchestral popular music. He is remembered today for a single tune, Jalousie.

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20/02/1961

Percy Grainger, Australian-American pianist and composer (born 1882)

Percy Aldridge Grainger was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens".

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20/02/1957

Sadri Maksudi Arsal, Turkish scholar and politician (born 1878)

Sadri Maksudi Arsal was one of the leading figures in the national awakening of Tatars in Russia during the early 1900s. He worked as a writer, lawyer, politician, professor, lecturer, researcher of Turkic languages and a delegate of the League of Nations. He was the president of the short-lived Idel-Ural State.

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20/02/1947

Viktor Gutić, Croatian fascist official (born 1901)

Viktor Gutić was the Ustaše commissioner for Banja Luka and the Grand Prefect of Pokuplje in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state during World War II. He was responsible for the persecution of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Bosanska Krajina region between 1941 and 1942.

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20/02/1936

Max Schreck, German actor (born 1879)

Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film Nosferatu (1922).

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20/02/1933

Takiji Kobayashi, Japanese writer (born 1903)

Takiji Kobayashi was a Japanese writer of proletarian literature. He is best known for his short novel Kani Kōsen, or Crab Cannery Ship, published in 1929. It tells the story of the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen and seamen on board a cannery ship and the beginning of their revolt against the company and its managers. Kobayashi died due to violent torture after being arrested by the Special Higher Police two years later, at the age of 29.

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20/02/1920

Jacinta Marto, Portuguese saint (born 1910)

Francisco de Jesus Marto and Jacinta de Jesus Marto were siblings from Aljustrel, a small hamlet near Fátima, Portugal, who, with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos (1907–2005), reportedly witnessed three apparitions of the Angel of Peace in 1916, and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Cova da Iria in 1917. The title Our Lady of Fátima was given to the Virgin Mary as a result, and the Sanctuary of Fátima became a major centre of global Catholic pilgrimage.

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Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (born 1856)

Robert Edwin Peary was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being the discoverer of the geographic North Pole in April 1909, having led the first expedition to have claimed this achievement, although it is now considered unlikely that he actually reached the Pole.

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20/02/1916

Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1844)

Klas Pontus Arnoldson was a Swedish author, journalist, politician, and committed pacifist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 with Fredrik Bajer. He was a founding member of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society and a Member of Parliament in the second Chamber of 1882–1887.

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20/02/1907

Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)

Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan was a French chemist and pharmacist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds. Among his other contributions, Moissan discovered moissanite and contributed to the development of the electric arc furnace. Moissan was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee.

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20/02/1900

Washakie, American tribal leader (born 1798)

Washakie was a prominent leader of the Shoshone people during the mid-19th century. He was first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging of trapper Jim Bridger, Washakie led a band of Shoshones to the council meetings of the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Essentially from that time until his death, he was considered the head of the Eastern Shoshones by the representatives of the United States government. In 1979, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

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20/02/1895

Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (born c. 1818)

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century.

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20/02/1893

P. G. T. Beauregard, American general (born 1818)

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard was an American military officer known for being the Confederate general who started the American Civil War at the battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Today, he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used his first name as an adult. He signed correspondence as G. T. Beauregard.

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20/02/1871

Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter (born 1810)

Paul Kane was an Irish-born Canadian painter whose paintings and especially field sketches were known as one of the first visual documents of Western indigenous life.

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20/02/1862

William Wallace Lincoln, American son of Abraham Lincoln (born 1850)

William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln was the third son of U.S. President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. Willie was named after Mary's brother-in-law, Dr. William Smith Wallace. He died of typhoid fever at the White House, during his father's presidency, age 11.

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20/02/1850

Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician. 14th President (1843–1844) (born 1794)

José Valentín Raimundo Canalizo Bocadillo, was a Mexican general and statesman who served twice as interim president during the Centralist Republic of Mexico and was later made Minister of War during the Mexican American War.

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20/02/1810

Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean rebel leader (born 1767)

Andreas Hofer was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover who became the leader of the 1809 Tyrolean Rebellion during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Hofer, besides that, led troops in the battles of Bergisel during the rebellion. He was subsequently captured and executed.

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20/02/1806

Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American general and politician (born 1725)

Lachlan McIntosh was a Scottish American military and political leader during the American Revolution and the early United States. In a 1777 duel, he fatally shot Button Gwinnett, who had signed the Declaration of Independence ten months earlier.

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20/02/1790

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1741)

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Leopold II, Maria Carolina of Austria, and Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.

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20/02/1778

Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar (born 1711)

Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti was an Italian physicist and academic. Recognized and depicted as "Minerva", she was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university, by the end of her life Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21.

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20/02/1773

Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (born 1701)

Charles Emmanuel III was Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from his father's abdication on 3 September 1730 until his death in 1773. He was the paternal grandfather of the last three mainline kings of Sardinia. In the War of the Polish Succession, he initially gained Lombardy but later ceded it for smaller territorial gains. During the War of the Austrian Succession, he defended Piedmont against a Franco-Spanish army, winning the Battle of Assietta. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored lost lands and expanded his territory. He strengthened ties with Spain through marriage alliances. He chose not to get involved in the Seven Years War and instead focused on administrative reforms and maintaining a well-disciplined army.

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20/02/1771

Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist and astronomer (born 1678)

Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan was a French natural philosopher (physicist), born in the town of Béziers on 26 November 1678. De Mairan lost his father, François d'Ortous, at age four and his mother twelve years later at age sixteen. Over the course of his life, de Mairan was elected into numerous scientific societies and made key discoveries in a variety of fields including ancient texts and astronomy. His observations and experiments also inspired the beginning of what is now known as the study of biological circadian rhythms. At the age of 92, de Mairan died of pneumonia in Paris on 20 February 1771.

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20/02/1762

Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (born 1723)

Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.

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20/02/1626

John Dowland, English lute player and composer (born 1563)

John Dowland was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe", "Now o now I needs must part", and "In darkness let me dwell". His instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century's early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists.

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20/02/1618

Philip William, Prince of Orange (born 1554)

Philip William, Prince of Orange was the eldest son of William the Silent by his first wife Anna van Egmont. He became Prince of Orange in 1584 and Knight of the Golden Fleece in 1599.

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20/02/1579

Nicholas Bacon, English politician (born 1509)

Sir Nicholas Bacon was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the first half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon.

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20/02/1524

Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler (born 1500)

Tecun Uman was one of the last rulers of the K'iche' Maya people, in the Highlands of what is now Guatemala. According to the Kaqchikel annals, he was slain by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado while waging battle against the Spanish and their allies on the approach to Quetzaltenango on 12 February 1524.

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20/02/1513

King John of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (born 1455)

Hans, or sometimes called John was a Scandinavian monarch who ruled under the Kalmar Union. He was King of Denmark from 1482 to 1513, King of Norway from 1483 to 1513, and King of Sweden from 1497 to 1501. Additionally, from 1482 to 1513, he held the titles of Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, which he governed jointly with his brother, Frederick.

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20/02/1458

Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia

Lazar Branković was Despot of Serbia from 1456 to 1458. He was the third son of Despot Đurađ Branković and his wife, Eirene Kantakouzene. He died without sons, and was succeeded by his elder brother, Despot Stefan Branković.

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20/02/1431

Pope Martin V (born 1368)

Pope Martin V, born Oddone Colonna, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 November 1417 to his death in February 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism of 1378–1417. As of 2026, he remains the last pope to have taken the pontifical name "Martin".

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20/02/1408

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English politician, Earl Marshal of England (born 1341)

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, titular King of Mann, KG, Lord Marshal, was an English statesman and a leading political figure during the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. One of the most powerful noblemen in northern England, he played a decisive role in the deposition of Richard II and the accession of Henry IV.

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20/02/1258

Al-Musta'sim, Iraqi caliph (born 1213)

Abu Ahmad Abdallah ibn al-Mustansir bi'llah, better known by his regnal title Al-Mustaʿṣim bi-llāh, was the 37th and last caliph from the Abbasid dynasty ruling from Baghdad. He held the title from 1242 until his death in 1258.

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20/02/1194

Tancred, King of Sicily (born 1138)

Tancred was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce, an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce. He inherited the title "Count of Lecce" from his grandfather and is consequently often referred to as Tancred of Lecce. Due to his short stature and unhandsome visage, he was mocked by his critics as "The Monkey King".

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20/02/1171

Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (born 1138)

Conan IV, called the Young, was the Duke of Brittany from 1156 to 1166. He was the son of Bertha, Duchess of Brittany, and her first husband, Alan, Earl of Richmond. Conan IV was his father's heir as Earl of Richmond and his mother's heir as Duke of Brittany. Conan and his daughter Constance would be the only representatives of the House of Penthièvre to rule Brittany.

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20/02/1154

Saint Wulfric of Haselbury (born c. 1080)

Wulfric of Haselbury was an anchorite and miracle worker in Wiltshire and Somerset, England, frequently visited by King Stephen. His feast day is 20 February.

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20/02/1054

Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kyiv (born 978)

Yaroslav I Vladimirovich, better known as Yaroslav the Wise, was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 until his death in 1054. He was also earlier Prince of Novgorod from 1010 to 1034 and Prince of Rostov from 987 to 1010, uniting the principalities for a time. Yaroslav's baptismal name was George after Saint George.

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20/02/0922

Theodora, Byzantine empress

Theodora was a humble Greek woman who became Byzantine empress consort by marriage to Romanos I Lekapenos.

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20/02/0789

Leo of Catania, saint and bishop of Catania (born 709)

Saint Leo of Catania, also known as the Thaumaturgus, or St Leo the Wonderworker in Sicily, was the fifteenth bishop of Catania, famed also for his love and care toward the poor. His feast day occurs on 20 February, the day of his death, when he is venerated as a saint by both Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Church. He lived in the hiatus between the reigns of the Emperors Justinian II and Constantine VI.

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