Died on Friday, 20th March – Famous Deaths
On 20th March, 104 remarkable people passed away — from 687 to 2026. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
Friday, 20th March 2026 marks a date of notable remembrance across multiple domains. Among those commemorated are Mary Warnock, the English philosopher and writer whose contributions to ethics and education shaped intellectual discourse throughout her life, and Anker Jørgensen, the Danish politician who served as Prime Minister of Denmark and left his mark on European political history during a formative period.
The day also recalls significant historical moments, including the execution of Giuseppe Zangara in 1933, an Italian-American whose assassination attempt on political figures became a notable event in criminal history, and the death of Ferdinand Foch in 1929, the French field marshal whose military strategy proved instrumental during the First World War. These historical figures represent different aspects of human achievement and consequence across the twentieth century.
Beyond these commemorations, the date encompasses a vast range of individuals whose deaths span centuries of recorded history. From entertainers and athletes to scientists, politicians, and artists, the records demonstrate the breadth of human endeavour and contribution across generations. DayAtlas provides comprehensive information about deaths, births, and historical events for any date and location, making such historical information readily accessible to users exploring the past.
See who passed away today 1st April.
20/03/2026
Nicholas Brendon, American actor, (born 1971)
Nicholas Brendon Schultz was an American actor, artist, and writer. He is best known for playing Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and Kevin Lynch in Criminal Minds (2007–2014).
Robert Mueller, American attorney, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (born 1944)
Robert Swan Mueller III was an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.
20/03/2025
Eddie Jordan, Irish businessman, television personality and motorsport team owner (born 1948)
Edmund Patrick Jordan was an Irish motorsport executive, broadcaster, racing driver and businessman. From 1991 to 2005, Jordan served as founder and team principal of Jordan in Formula One.
20/03/2023
John Sattler, Australian rugby league player (born 1942)
John William Sattler was an Australian professional rugby league footballer played as a prop in the 1960s and 1970s. He captained South Sydney to four premiership victories from 1967 to 1971 and who played four Tests for Australia – three as national captain. Known as "Satts", he was one of the hardmen of Australian rugby league and was regarded as an aggressive on field player but a softly spoken gentleman off the field – hence his other nickname "Gentleman John". His son Scott Sattler also played professionally, winning a premiership with the Penrith Panthers in 2003.
Kyle White, Australian rugby league player (born 1970)
Kyle White was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs Magpies and the Illawarra Steelers in the NSWRL and ARL competitions. White also played for Widnes and Workington Town in England.
20/03/2020
Amadeo Carrizo, Argentine footballer (born 1926)
Amadeo Raúl Carrizo Larretape, popularly known by his first name "Amadeo", was an Argentine football goalkeeper and manager. Carrizo is considered a pioneer of the position, helping to innovate techniques and strategies for goalkeepers. The IFFHS ranked Carrizo as the best South American keeper of the 20th century in 1999.
Kenny Rogers, American singer (born 1938)
Kenneth Ray Rogers was an American singer-songwriter. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences, but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned multiple genres—jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
20/03/2019
Mary Warnock, English philosopher and writer (born 1924)
Helen Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, was an English philosopher of morality, education, and mind, and a writer on existentialism. She is best known for chairing an inquiry whose report formed the basis of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. She served as Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge from 1984 to 1991.
20/03/2018
C. K. Mann, Ghanaian Highlife musician and producer (born 1936)
Charles Kofi Amankwaa Mann, known as C. K. Mann, was a Ghanaian highlife musician and producer. His music career spanned over four decades; he won multiple awards for his songs. He was awarded the Grand Medal of Ghana by John Agyekum Kufour in 2006.
20/03/2017
David Rockefeller, American billionaire and philanthropist (born 1915)
David Rockefeller was an American economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the Rockefeller family from 2004 until his death in 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller.
20/03/2016
Anker Jørgensen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark (born 1922)
Anker Henrik Jørgensen was a Danish politician who served at various times as prime minister and foreign minister of Denmark. Between 1972 and 1982 he led five cabinets as prime minister. Jørgensen was president of the Nordic Council in 1986 and 1991.
20/03/2015
Eva Burrows, Australian 13th General of The Salvation Army (born 1929)
Eva Evelyn Burrows AC OF was an Australian Salvation Army Officer who was the 13th General of the Salvation Army, serving from 1986 to 1993. She served as an Officer of the Salvation Army from 1951 until her retirement in 1993. In 1993, Henry Gariepy released her biography, General of God's Army: the Authorized Biography of General Eva Burrows.
Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (born 1930)
John Malcolm Fraser was an Australian farmer and politician who was the 22nd prime minister of Australia, serving from 1975 to 1983. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and is the fourth longest-serving prime minister in Australian history.
20/03/2014
Hennie Aucamp, South African poet, author, and academic (born 1934)
Hennie Aucamp was a South African Afrikaans poet, short story writer, cabaretist and academic. He grew up on a farm in the Stormberg highlands and matriculated at Jamestown, Eastern Cape before continuing his higher education at the University of Stellenbosch. He died in Cape Town at age 80 on 20 March 2014 after suffering a stroke.
Hilderaldo Bellini, Brazilian footballer (born 1930)
Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini was a Brazilian footballer of Italian origin who played as a defender and was known in Brazil as one of the nation's greatest central defenders ever.
Tonie Nathan, American politician (born 1923)
Theodora Nathalia "Tonie" Nathan was an American radio producer, television producer, and political activist. She was the first woman to receive an electoral vote in a United States presidential election. She was the 1972 vice presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party and running mate of John Hospers, when Roger MacBride, a Republican elector from Virginia, cast the historic vote as a faithless elector.
Khushwant Singh, Indian journalist and author (born 1915)
Khushwant Singh FKC was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write Train to Pakistan in 1956, which became his most well-known novel.
20/03/2013
James Herbert, English author (born 1943)
James John Herbert, OBE was an English horror writer. A full-time writer, he also designed his own book covers and publicity. His books have sold 54 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 34 languages, including Chinese and Russian.
George Lowe, New Zealand-English mountaineer and explorer (born 1924)
Wallace George Lowe, known as George Lowe, was a New Zealand-born mountaineer, explorer, film director and educator. He was the last surviving member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition, during which his friend Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first known people to summit the world's highest peak.
Zillur Rahman, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician, 19th President of Bangladesh (born 1929)
Mohammed Zillur Rahman was a Bangladeshi politician who served as President of Bangladesh from 2009 until his death in 2013. He was also a senior presidium member of the Awami League. He is the third president of Bangladesh to die in office and the first to die of natural causes, as both Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman were assassinated.
20/03/2012
Lincoln Hall, Australian mountaineer and author (born 1955)
Lincoln Ross Hall OAM was a veteran Australian mountaineer, adventurer and author. Lincoln was part of the first Australian expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1984, which successfully forged a new route. He reached the summit of Mount Everest on his second attempt in 2006, miraculously surviving the night at 8,700 m (28,543 ft) on descent, after his family had been told he had died.
Noboru Ishiguro, Japanese animator and director (born 1938)
Noboru Ishiguro was a Japanese anime director, anime producer, and animator. He was the founder and chairman of the animation studio Artland.
Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, Polish-Israeli rabbi and author (born 1910)
Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg was a Polish-born, American-raised, Israeli Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva who, from 1965, made his home in the Kiryat Mattersdorf neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel. He was the rosh yeshiva of the Torah Ore yeshiva in Kiryat Mattersdorf and Yeshivas Derech Chaim in Brooklyn. He was a posek, Gadol HaDor, and one of the last living Torah scholars to have been educated in the yeshivas of prewar Europe. He was often consulted on a range of communal and personal halachic issues. He was one of the rabbinic leaders of Kiryat Mattersdorf, together with Rabbi Yisroel Gans and Rabbi Yitzchok Yechiel Ehrenfeld. He was also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Israel.
Jim Stynes, Irish-Australian footballer (born 1966)
James Peter Stynes was an Irish footballer who converted from Gaelic football to Australian rules football and the first international player to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2003. Playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), he was one of the game's most prominent figures, setting the record for most consecutive games of VFL/AFL football with 244 and winning the sport's highest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal, in 1991. Off the field, he was a notable AFL administrator, philanthropist, charity worker and writer.
20/03/2011
Johnny Pearson, English pianist, conductor, and composer (born 1925)
John Valmore Pearson was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.
20/03/2010
Ai, American poet and academic (born 1947)
Florence Ai Ogawa was an American poet and educator who won the 1999 National Book Award for Poetry for Vice: New and Selected Poems. Ai is known for her mastery of the dramatic monologue as a poetic form, as well as for taking on dark, controversial topics in her work. About writing in the dramatic monologue form, she's said: "I want to take the narrative 'persona' poem as far as I can, and I've never been one to do things in halves. All the way or nothing. I won't abandon that desire."
Girija Prasad Koirala, Indian-Nepalese politician, 30th Prime Minister of Nepal (born 1924)
Nepal Ratna Girija Prasad Koirala, affectionately known as Girija Babu, was a Nepalese politician. He headed the Nepali Congress and served as the Prime Minister of Nepal on four occasions: from 1991 to 1994, 1998 to 1999, 2000 to 2001, and 2006 to 2008. He was the Acting Head of State of Nepal between January 2007 and July 2008 as the country transitioned from a monarchy to a republic.
Stewart Udall, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 37th United States Secretary of the Interior (born 1920)
Stewart Lee Udall was an American politician and environmentalist who belonged to the Democratic Party. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. A staunch liberal, he is best known for enthusiastically promoting environmentalism while in the cabinet, with success primarily under President Johnson.
20/03/2007
Raynald Fréchette, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1933)
Raynald Fréchette was a Quebec lawyer, judge and political figure.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraqi politician, Vice President of Iraq (born 1938)
Taha Yassin Ramadan al-Jazrawi was an Iraqi military officer and politician who served as the vice president of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 and the commander of the Popular Army.
Hawa Yakubu, Ghanaian politician (born 1948)
Hawa Yakubu Ogede was a Ghanaian politician. She was a Member of Parliament in the Fourth Republic of Ghana and also served as Minister for Tourism.
20/03/2005
Armand Lohikoski, American-Finnish director and screenwriter (born 1912)
Armand Uolevi Lohikoski was a Finnish movie director and writer. He is best known as a director of a number of Pekka ja Pätkä movies.
20/03/2004
Juliana of the Netherlands (born 1909)
Juliana was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980.
Pierre Sévigny, Canadian colonel and politician (born 1917)
Joseph Pierre Albert Sévigny was a Canadian soldier, author, politician, and academic. He is best known for his involvement in the Munsinger Affair.
20/03/2001
Luis Alvarado, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (born 1949)
Luis César Alvarado Martínez was a Puerto Rican infielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). From 1968 through 1977, he played for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets and Detroit Tigers. Alvarado batted and threw right-handed.
20/03/2000
Gene Eugene, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1961)
Gene Andrusco, better known as Gene Eugene, was a Canadian-born actor, record producer, engineer, composer, and musician. Eugene was best known as the leader of the alternative rock band Adam Again, a member of the Swirling Eddies, and as a founding member of the supergroup Lost Dogs.
20/03/1999
Patrick Heron, British painter (born 1920)
Patrick Heron was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall.
20/03/1997
V. S. Pritchett, English short story writer, essayist, and critic (born 1900)
Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett was a British writer and literary critic.
20/03/1994
Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist (born 1946)
Lewis McDonald Grizzard Jr. was an American writer and humorist, known for his Southern demeanor and commentary on the American South. Although he spent his early career as a newspaper sports writer and editor, becoming the sports editor of the Atlanta Journal at age 23, he is much better known for his humorous newspaper columns in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a popular stand-up comedian and lecturer.
20/03/1993
Polykarp Kusch, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911)
Polykarp Kusch was a German-American physicist who shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Willis Eugene Lamb for his accurate determination that the electron magnetic moment was greater than its theoretical value, thus leading to reconsideration of and innovations in quantum electrodynamics.
20/03/1992
Georges Delerue, French composer (born 1925)
Georges Delerue was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for A Little Romance (1979), three César Awards, two ASCAP Awards, and one Gemini Award for Sword of Gideon (1986). He was also nominated for four additional Academy Awards for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), The Day of the Dolphin (1973), Julia (1977), and Agnes of God (1985), four additional César Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Genie Award for Black Robe (1991).
20/03/1990
Maurice Cloche, French director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1907)
Maurice Cloche was a French film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. Best known for his Oscar-winning film Monsieur Vincent (1947) he won a 1948 Special Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (born 1929)
Lev Ivanovich Yashin was a Soviet professional footballer widely considered as the best goalkeeper in the history of the sport. He is the only goalkeeper to ever win a Ballon d'Or. He was known for his athleticism, positioning, imposing presence in goal, and acrobatic reflex saves. He was also deputy chairman of the Football Federation of the Soviet Union.
20/03/1983
Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1891)
Ivan Matveevich Vinogradov was a Soviet mathematician, who was one of the creators of modern analytic number theory, and also a dominant figure in mathematics in the USSR. He was born in the Velikiye Luki district, Pskov Oblast. He graduated from the University of St. Petersburg, where in 1920 he became a Professor. From 1934 he was a Director of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, a position he held for the rest of his life, except for the five-year period (1941–1946) when the institute was directed by Academician Sergei Sobolev. In 1941 he was awarded the Stalin Prize. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1942. In 1951 he became a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters in Kraków.
20/03/1981
Gerry Bertier, American football player (born 1953)
Gerry Bertier was a high school American football player and Paralympian. He became known for his participation on the 1971 Virginia State Champion football T. C. Williams High School team, and their portrayal in the Disney film Remember the Titans. Bertier was also the nephew of Howie Livingston. After the conclusion of the 1971 season, Bertier was involved in an automobile crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down. Despite this injury, Bertier attended Northern Virginia Community College and remained an active athlete, participating in the Paralympics. In 2006, Bertier's family started the "Bertier #42 Foundation", dedicated to raising money for research on spinal cord injuries. There is also a gymnasium at Alexandria City High School that bears his name.
20/03/1978
Jacques Brugnon, French tennis player (born 1895)
Jacques Marie Stanislas Jean Brugnon, nicknamed "Toto", was a French tennis player, one of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was born in and died in Paris.
20/03/1977
Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, English politician, 9th Governor-General of New Zealand (born 1909)
Charles John Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham was the ninth Governor-General of New Zealand and an English cricketer from the Lyttelton family.
Terukuni Manzō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 38th Yokozuna (born 1919)
Terukuni Manzō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ogachi, Akita. He was the sport's 38th yokozuna. He was promoted to yokozuna without any top division tournament titles to his name, although he later attained two.
20/03/1974
Chet Huntley, American journalist (born 1911)
Chester Robert Huntley was an American television newscaster, best known for co-anchoring NBC's evening news program, The Huntley–Brinkley Report, for 14 years beginning in 1956.
20/03/1972
Marilyn Maxwell, American actress (born 1921)
Marvel Marilyn Maxwell was an American actress and singer.
20/03/1971
Falih Rıfkı Atay, Turkish journalist and politician (born 1894)
Falih Rıfkı Atay was a Turkish journalist, writer and politician between 1923 and 1950.
20/03/1969
Henri Longchambon, French politician (born 1896)
Marie François Henri Longchambon was a French scientist and politician known for his work in geology, particularly on clay minerals, and his role in the French Resistance during World War II. He was awarded the Prix Raulin in 1936 for his scientific contributions.
20/03/1968
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish director and screenwriter (born 1889)
Carl Theodor Dreyer, commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers in history, his movies are noted for emotional austerity and slow, stately pacing, frequent themes of social intolerance, the inseparability of fate and death, and the power of evil in earthly life.
20/03/1966
Demetrios Galanis, Greek artist (born 1879)
Demetrios Galanis was an early twentieth-century Greek artist and friend of Picasso. In 1920, the year he completed his Seated Nude, he exhibited alongside such major figures of modern art as Matisse and Braque, while from 1921 on he also exhibited alongside Juan Gris, Dufy, Chagall, and Picasso.
Johnny Morrison, American baseball player (born 1895)
John Dewey Morrison, nicknamed "Jughandle Johnny", was an American professional baseball player. He was a right-handed pitcher over parts of ten seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn Robins. For his career, he compiled a 103–80 record in 297 appearances, with a 3.65 earned run average and 546 strikeouts. May was a member of the 1925 World Series champion Pirates, pitching three times during their seven-game defeat of the Washington Senators. In World Series play, he recorded no decisions in 3 appearances, with a 2.89 earned run average and 7 strikeouts.
20/03/1965
Daniel Frank, American long jumper (born 1882)
Daniel Gordon Frank was an American athlete who competed mainly in the long jump. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and was Jewish.
20/03/1964
Brendan Behan, Irish republican and playwright (born 1923)
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. His widely acknowledged alcohol dependence, despite attempts to treat it, impacted his creative capacities and contributed to health and social problems which curtailed his artistic output and finally his life.
20/03/1958
Adegoke Adelabu, Nigerian merchant, journalist, and politician (born 1915)
Gbadamosi Adegoke Adelabu, popularly known as Adelabu Adegoke Penkelemesi, was a prominent personality in the politics of Ibadan city and subsequently that of the Western Region of Nigeria right before the country's independence in 1960. He was Nigeria's Minister of Natural Resources and Social Services from January 1955 to January 1956 and was later the opposition leader in the Western Regional Assembly until his death in 1958. He was a self-made man born into a humble family but became an influential figure in Nigerian politics. He attended Government College, Ibadan and eventually became a businessman. His successful political career was cut short when he was killed in a car crash, not long before Nigeria gained independence from Britain.
20/03/1952
Hjalmar Väre, Finnish cyclist (born 1892)
Frans Albert Hjalmar Väre was a Finnish road racing cyclist who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born in Vihti and died in Turku.
20/03/1947
Sigurd Wallén, Swedish actor and director (born 1884)
Sigurd Richard Engelbrekt Wallén was a Swedish actor, film director, and singer.
20/03/1946
Amadeus William Grabau, American-Chinese geologist, paleontologist, and academic (born 1870)
Amadeus William Grabau was an American geologist, teacher, stratigrapher, paleontologist, and author who worked in the United States and China.
20/03/1945
Dorothy Campbell, Scottish-American golfer (born 1883)
Dorothy Lee Campbell was a Scottish amateur golfer. Campbell was the first woman to win the American, British and Canadian Women's Amateurs.
Maria Lacerda de Moura, Brazilian teacher and anarcha-feminist (born 1887)
Maria Lacerda de Moura was a Brazilian teacher, writer and anarcha-feminist. The daughter of spiritist and anti-clerical parents, she grew up in the city of Barbacena, in the interior of Minas Gerais, where she graduated as a teacher at the Escola Normal Municipal de Barbacena and participated in official efforts to tackle social inequality through national literacy campaigns and educational reforms.
20/03/1941
Oskar Baum, Bohemian writer (born 1883)
Oskar Baum was a Czech music educator and writer in the German language.
20/03/1940
Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (born 1860)
Alfred Ploetz was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.
20/03/1933
Giuseppe Zangara, Italian-American assassin of Anton Cermak (born 1900; executed)
Giuseppe Zangara was an Italian-born American who attempted to assassinate the President-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on February 15, 1933, 17 days before Roosevelt's inauguration. During a night speech by Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, Zangara fired five shots with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He missed his target and instead killed Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago, and injured four bystanders.
20/03/1931
Hermann Müller, German journalist and politician, 12th Chancellor of Germany (born 1876)
Hermann Müller was a German Social Democratic politician who served as foreign minister (1919–1920) and was twice chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
20/03/1930
Arthur F. Andrews, American cyclist (born 1876)
Arthur Fleming Andrews was an American cyclist who competed in the early twentieth century.
20/03/1929
Ferdinand Foch, French field marshal (born 1851)
Ferdinand Foch was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front during the First World War in 1918.
20/03/1925
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, English politician, 35th Governor-General of India (born 1859)
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, known as Lord Curzon, was a British statesman, Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905 and Foreign Secretary from 1919 to 1924.
20/03/1918
Lewis A. Grant, American general and lawyer (born 1828)
Lewis Addison Grant was a teacher, lawyer, soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and later United States Assistant Secretary of War. He was among the leading officers from the state of Vermont, and received the Medal of Honor for "personal gallantry and intrepidity."
20/03/1909
Friedrich Amelung, Estonian historian and businessman (born 1842)
Friedrich Ludwig Balthasar Amelung was a Baltic German cultural historian, businessman and chess endgame composer.
20/03/1899
Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist and author (born 1822)
Franz Ritter von Hauer, or Franz von Hauer was an Austrian geologist.
20/03/1897
Apollon Maykov, Russian poet and playwright (born 1821)
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov was a Russian poet, best known for his lyric verse showcasing images of Russian villages, nature, and history. His love for ancient Greece and Rome, which he studied for much of his life, is also reflected in his works. Maykov spent four years translating the epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign (1870) into modern Russian. He translated the folklore of Belarus, Greece, Serbia and Spain, as well as works by Heine, Adam Mickiewicz and Goethe, among others. Several of Maykov's poems were set to music by Russian composers, among them Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.
20/03/1894
Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian lawyer, journalist and politician (born 1802)
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman, revolutionist and governor-president of the Hungarian State during the war of independence of 1848–1849.
20/03/1878
Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (born 1814)
Julius Robert von Mayer was a German physician, chemist, and physicist and one of the founders of thermodynamics. He is best known for enunciating in 1841 one of the original statements of the conservation of energy or what is now known as one of the first versions of the first law of thermodynamics, namely that "energy can be neither created nor destroyed". In 1842, Mayer described the vital chemical process now referred to as oxidation as the primary source of energy for any living creature. He also proposed that plants convert light into chemical energy.
20/03/1874
Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer and conductor (born 1810)
Hans Christian Lumbye was a Danish composer of waltzes, polkas, mazurkas and galops, among other things.
20/03/1865
Yamanami Keisuke, Japanese samurai (born 1833)
Yamanami Keisuke was a Japanese samurai. He was the General Commander of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late Edo period.
20/03/1855
Joseph Aspdin, English businessman (born 1788)
Joseph Aspdin was an English bricklayer, businessman, inventor, and stonemason who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824.
20/03/1849
James Justinian Morier, Turkish-English author and diplomat (born 1780)
James Justinian Morier was a British diplomat and author noted for his novels about the Qajar dynasty in Iran, most famously for the Hajji Baba series.
20/03/1835
Louis Léopold Robert, French painter (born 1794)
Louis Léopold Robert was a Swiss painter.
20/03/1793
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (born 1705)
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield,, was a British judge, politician, lawyer, and peer best known for his reforms to English law. Born in Scone Palace, Perthshire, to a family of Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth before moving to London at the age of 13 to study at Westminster School. Accepted into Christ Church, Oxford, in May 1723, Mansfield graduated four years later and returned to London, where he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in November 1730 and quickly gained a reputation as an excellent barrister.
20/03/1780
Benjamin Truman, English brewer and businessman (born 1699)
Sir Benjamin Truman was an English entrepreneur and brewer during the 18th century, responsible for the expansion of the Truman Brewery in the Brick Lane area of east London.
20/03/1746
Nicolas de Largillière, French painter and academic (born 1656)
Nicolas de Largillière was a French painter and draughtsman.
20/03/1730
Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (born 1692)
Adrienne Lecouvreur was a French actress, considered by many as the greatest of her time. Born in Damery, Champagne, she first appeared professionally on the stage in Lille. After her Paris debut at the Comédie-Française in 1717, she was immensely popular with the public. Together with Michel Baron, she was credited for having developed a more natural, less stylized, type of acting.
20/03/1688
Maria of Orange-Nassau, Dutch princess (born 1642)
Maria of Nassau or Maria of Orange-Nassau was a Dutch princess of the house of Orange and by marriage pfalzgräfin or countess of Simmern-Kaiserslautern.
20/03/1673
Augustyn Kordecki, Polish monk (born 1603)
Abbot Augustyn Kordecki was a prior of the Jasna Góra Monastery, Poland.
20/03/1619
Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1557)
Matthias was Holy Roman Emperor from 1612 to 1619, Archduke of Austria from 1608 to 1619, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1608 to 1618 and King of Bohemia from 1611 to 1617. His personal motto was Concordia lumine maior.
20/03/1568
Albert, Duke of Prussia (born 1490)
Albert of Prussia was a German prince who was the 37th grand master of the Teutonic Knights and, after converting to Lutheranism, became the first ruler of the Duchy of Prussia, the secularized state that emerged from the former Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. Albert was the first European ruler to establish Lutheranism, and thus Protestantism, as the official state religion of his lands. He proved instrumental in the political spread of Protestantism in its early stage, ruling the Prussian lands for nearly six decades (1510–1568).
20/03/1549
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, English general and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (born 1508)
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, KG, PC was a brother of Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII. With his brother, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England, he vied for control of their nephew, the young King Edward VI. In 1547, Seymour married Catherine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII. During his marriage to Catherine, Seymour involved the future Queen Elizabeth I, who resided in his household, in flirtatious and possibly sexual behaviour.
20/03/1475
Georges Chastellain, Burgundian chronicler and poet
Georges Chastellain, Burgundian chronicler and poet, was a native of Aalst in Flanders. Chastellain's historical works are valuable for the accurate information they contain. As a poet he was famous among his contemporaries. He was the great master of the school of grands rhétoriqueurs, whose principal characteristics were fondness for the most artificial forms and a profusion of Latinisms and graecisms.
20/03/1440
Sigismund I of Lithuania
Sigismund Kęstutaitis was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1432 to 1440. Sigismund was his baptismal name, while his pagan Lithuanian birth name is unknown. He was the son of Grand Duke Kęstutis and his wife Birutė.
20/03/1413
Henry IV of England (born 1367)
Henry IV, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413, Lord of Ireland and duke of Aquitaine. Henry was the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and a grandson of King Edward III.
20/03/1390
Alexios III Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (born 1338)
Alexios III Megas Komnenos, or Alexius III, was Emperor of Trebizond from December 1349 until his death. He is perhaps the best-documented ruler of that country, and his reign is distinguished by a number of religious grants and literary creations.
20/03/1351
Muhammad bin Tughluq, Sultan of Delhi
Muhammad bin Tughluq, or Muhammad II, also known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, and The Mad Sultan, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in March 1351. Muhammad was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the young Muhammad was sent by his father to the Deccan Plateau to fight a military campaign against the Kakatiya dynasty. In 1323, the future sultan successfully laid siege upon the Kakatiya capital in Warangal. This victory over King Prataparudra ended the Kakatiya dynasty.
20/03/1336
Maurice Csák, Hungarian Dominican friar (born 1270)
Maurice Csák was a Hungarian Dominican friar. He was beatified by Pope Alexander VI in 1494.
20/03/1302
Ralph Walpole, Bishop of Norwich
Ralph Walpole was a medieval Bishop of Norwich and Bishop of Ely.
20/03/1239
Hermann von Salza, German knight and diplomat (born 1179)
Hermann von Salza was the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239. A skilled diplomat with ties to the Frederick II and the Pope, Hermann oversaw the expansion of the military order into Prussia.
20/03/1191
Pope Clement III (born 1130)
Pope Clement III, born Paolo Scolari, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 December 1187 to his death in 1191. He ended the conflict between the Papacy and the city of Rome, by allowing the election of magistrates, which reinstalled the Papacy back in the city after a six-year exile. Clement, faced with a deplete college of cardinals, created thirty-one cardinals over three years, the most since Adrian IV. He died 20 March 1191 and was quickly replaced by Celestine III.
20/03/1181
Taira no Kiyomori, Japanese general (born 1118)
Taira no Kiyomori was a Japanese military leader and kugyō of the late Heian period, who was Daijō-daijin and the de facto ruler of Japan from 1167 until his death. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan.
20/03/0851
Ebbo, archbishop of Reims
Ebbo, Ebo or Epo was the Archbishop of Rheims from 816 until 835 and again from 840 to 841. He was born a German serf on the royal demesne of Charlemagne. He was educated at his court and became the librarian and councillor of Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, son of Charlemagne. When Louis became emperor, he appointed Ebbo to the see of Rheims, then vacant after the death of Wulfaire.
20/03/0842
Alfonso II, king of Asturias (Spain) (born 759)
Alfonso II of Asturias, nicknamed the Chaste, was the king of Asturias during two different periods: first in the year 783 and later from 791 until his death in 842. Upon his death, Nepotian, a family member of undetermined relation, attempted to usurp the crown in place of the future Ramiro I.
20/03/0703
Wulfram, archbishop of Sens
Wulfram of Sens or Wulfram of Fontenelle was the Archbishop of Sens. His life was recorded eleven years after he died by the monk Jonas of Fontenelle. However, there seems to be little consensus about the precise dates of most events whether during his life or post mortem.
20/03/0687
Cuthbert, Northumbrian (English) monk, bishop, and saint (born 634)
Cuthbert was a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Northumbria, today in north-eastern England and south-eastern Scotland. Both during his life and after his death, he became a popular medieval saint of Northern England, with a cult centred on his tomb at Durham Cathedral. Cuthbert is regarded as the patron saint of Northumbria. His feast days are 20 March and 4 September.