Wednesday, 20th May 2026 in Stockholm

20th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Today, the zodiac sign Taurus celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on 20 May blend Taurus steadiness with Mercurial intellect, creating thoughtful communicators grounded in practicality. They navigate life with deliberation, appreciating both sensory pleasures and mental stimulation. This combination generates quiet confidence and genuine interest in others.

Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths include patience, clear thinking, and natural charm from Venus influence. Weaknesses involve occasional stubbornness, overthinking through Mercury, and resistance to change. Finding balance between analytical mind and intuitive body requires awareness.

Love These natives seek sensual, lasting partnerships with genuine conversation. They value both physical intimacy and intellectual engagement equally. Loyalty is non-negotiable—they expect commitment and offer unwavering dedication in return.

Caree & Finance Professionally, they excel where communication meets patience: teaching, negotiation, craftsmanship, writing. Financially shrewd and methodical, they steadily build security. Analytical nature prevents impulsive decisions but may cause missed opportunities.

Health Moderate, consistent movement suits their bodies best. Mental peace matters as much as physical exercise—overthinking disrupts nervous system balance. Enjoying food mindfully, combined with gentle routine, sustains long-term wellbeing.

That night, the moon was in its waning gibbous phase.

Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 20th May

Name Days in Your Language: Bernadette, Bernardina, Bernardine, Bernetta, Bernita

Someone born on this day would be just 11 days old today — roughly 281 hours, 16,907 minutes, or 1,014,430 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 140. day of the year. In 2026, 20th May falls on a Wednesday.

There are 225 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 21 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 20th May

On this day, 211 notable people were born on 20th May — spanning from 1315 to 2012. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

20/05/2012

Doug the Pug, American celebrity dog

Doug the Pug is a celebrity pug living in Nashville, Tennessee, who has gained a large internet and social media following.

20/05/1998

Jamie Chadwick, English race car driver

Jamie Laura Chadwick is a British racing driver who competes for IDEC Sport in the European Le Mans Series, and previously raced for Andretti Global in Indy NXT. She won the inaugural W Series season in 2019, before retaining her title in 2021 and 2022. She has also competed in the Race of Champions for Great Britain alongside David Coulthard, and raced in Extreme E. She is a Williams Racing ambassador and also a Williams Driver Academy adviser for F1 Academy. She also is a test driver for the Jaguar Formula E team.

Nam Nguyen, Canadian figure skater

Nam Nguyen is a Canadian retired competitive figure skater. He is the 2014 World Junior champion, 2019 Skate Canada silver medallist, and two-time Canadian national champion. He has placed as high as fifth at the World Championships, in 2015.

20/05/1997

Kaoru Mitoma, Japanese footballer

Kaoru Mitoma is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion and the Japan national team. He is best known for his dribbling ability and pace.

20/05/1996

Brian Kelly, Australian rugby league player

Brian Kelly is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a centre for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League (NRL).

20/05/1993

Ramy Rabia, Egyptian footballer

Ramy Hisham Abdel Aziz Mostafa Rabia is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for UAE Pro League club Al Ain and the Egypt national team.

Caroline Zhang, American figure skater

Caroline Zhao Zhang is an American figure skater. She is a two-time Four Continents bronze medalist, the 2007 World Junior Champion, the 2006 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and a three-time U.S. national medalist.

20/05/1992

Cate Campbell, Malawian-Australian swimmer

Cate Natalie Campbell, is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She is the current world record holder in the short course 100 m freestyle. She is also a former world record holder in the long course 100 m freestyle, breaking Britta Steffen's supersuit WR by 0.01.

Jack Gleeson, Irish actor

Jack Gleeson is an Irish actor. He is best known for portraying Joffrey Baratheon in the HBO television series Game of Thrones (2011–2014). Following this role, Gleeson took a six-year hiatus from screen acting. He returned to the screen in 2020 and has since appeared in the Irish film In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2023) and the series The Sandman (2025) and House of Guinness (2025).

Enes Kanter, Turkish basketball player

Enes Kanter Freedom is a Turkish and American human rights activist, New York Times bestselling author, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and former professional basketball player who played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in Switzerland to Kurdish parents, he was raised in Turkey and moved to the United States as a teenager. Freedom was selected as the third overall pick of the 2011 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz, and primarily played the center position. He is known for his "freedom shoes" and outspoken criticism of human rights abuses in China, particularly the treatment of Uyghurs and the use of forced labor. He has become a prominent voice for the oppressed in various countries, including Turkey, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and throughout the Middle East. He also appeared briefly in WWE and is a former WWE 24/7 Champion.

Fanny Smith, Swiss freestyle skier

Fanny Smith is a Swiss freestyle skier. She represented Switzerland at the 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 Winter Olympics. As of January 2023, she has 29 victories and 67 podiums on the World Cup circuit. She won gold at the World Championships in Voss in 2013. Smith won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

20/05/1991

Bastian Baker, Swiss singer, songwriter, and performer

Bastien Kaltenbacher, better known as Bastian Baker, is a Swiss singer-songwriter.

Emre Çolak, Turkish footballer

Emre Çolak is a Turkish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or a winger.

20/05/1990

Josh O'Connor, British actor

Joshua Mathias O'Connor is an English actor. From 2016 to 2019 he had a major role portraying Larry Durrell in ITV's The Durrells. He had his breakthrough playing the lead role of a closeted sheep farmer in Francis Lee's romantic drama God's Own Country (2017), for which he won the BIFA Award for Best Actor.

20/05/1989

Siosia Vave, Australian-Tongan rugby league player

Siosaia Vave is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who plays as a prop for the St Mary's Saints in the Ron Massey Cup. He previously played for the Parramatta Eels, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Melbourne Storm in the NRL.

20/05/1988

Joel Moon, Australian rugby league player

Joel Moon is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a centre and five-eighth in the 2000s and 2010s. He last played for the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League.

20/05/1987

Mike Havenaar, Japanese footballer

Mike Havenaar is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Julian Wright, American basketball player

Julian Emil-Jamaal Wright is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks. In 2014–15, he was the top rebounder in the Israel Basketball Premier League.

20/05/1986

Dexter Blackstock, English footballer

Dexter Anthony Titus Blackstock is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played most notably for Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest.

Stéphane Mbia, Cameroonian footballer

Stéphane Mbia Etoundi is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder or defender.

Jiřina Svobodová, Czech pole vaulter

Jiřina Kudličková is a Czech former pole vaulter. She won the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki and the 2014 World Indoor Championships.

20/05/1985

Chris Froome, Kenyan-English cyclist

Christopher Clive Froome is a British professional road racing cyclist who most recently rode for UCI ProTeam Israel-Premier Tech. He has won seven Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de France, one Giro d'Italia (2018) and the Vuelta a España twice. He has also won several other stage races, and the Vélo d'Or three times. Froome has also won two Olympic bronze medals in road time trials, in 2012 and 2016, and took bronze in the 2017 World Championships.

Brendon Goddard, Australian footballer

Brendon James Goddard is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda and Essendon in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the St Kilda Football Club from 2003 to 2012, then with Essendon from 2013 to 2018.

20/05/1984

Mauro Rafael da Silva, Brazilian footballer

Mauro Rafael da Silva is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a forward.

Patrick Ewing Jr., American basketball player

Patrick Aloysius Ewing Jr. is a Jamaican-American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Brisbane Bullets of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) and head coach of the South West Metro Pirates of NBL1 North. He is the eldest son of Hall of Fame basketball player and New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing.

Keith Grennan, American football player

Keith Grennan is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2007. He played college football for the Eastern Washington Eagles.

20/05/1983

N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Indian Film Actor

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, popularly known as NTR Jr, is an Indian actor, producer, and television presenter who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema and has been featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list since 2012. Referred to in the media as the Man of Masses, he has starred in over 30 films. He is a recipient of several accolades including, three Filmfare Awards South, three CineMAA Awards, a SIIMA Award, a IIFA Award and two Nandi Awards.

Óscar Cardozo, Paraguayan footballer

Óscar René Cardozo Marín, best known as Tacuara, is a retired Paraguayan professional footballer who played as a striker.

Matt Langridge, English rower

Matthew Langridge MBE is a British rower. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London he was part of the British crew that won the bronze medal in the men's eight. He was the 2015 European Champion in the men's pair, along with James Foad. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro he was part of the British crew that won the gold medal in the men's eight.

20/05/1982

Petr Čech, Czech footballer

Petr Čech is a Czech former professional football goalkeeper and current ice hockey goaltender who plays for the Haringey Huskies of the NIHL Division 2 South. He has been described as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and as the greatest goalkeeper, alongside Peter Schmeichel, in Premier League history.

Imran Farhat, Pakistani cricketer

Imran Farhat is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2001 and 2013. He usually opened the batting in most of his international innings. In January 2021, he retired from cricket, following the group stage of the 2020–21 Pakistan Cup.

Jessica Raine, English actress

Jessica Raine is an English actress. She rose to prominence as Nurse Jennifer Lee in Call the Midwife (2012–2014) and is also best known as Verity Lambert in An Adventure in Space and Time (2013).

Daniel Ribeiro, Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter

Daniel Ribeiro is a Brazilian film director known for his works You, Me and Him and I Don't Want To Go Back Alone, was later made into the full-length feature The Way He Looks in 2014.

20/05/1981

Iker Casillas, Spanish footballer

Iker Casillas Fernández is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and currently works as a football commentator. Dubbed "San Iker", he is considered to be one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is known for his athleticism, quick reactions and outstanding shot-stopping ability. Having spent the majority of his career at Real Madrid, Casillas is one of the few players to achieve over 1,000 professional career matches, and also holds the record for the most clean sheets for the Spain national team. Currently, he works for RTVE, Movistar Plus+ and Azteca Deportes.

Rachel Platten, American singer and songwriter

Rachel Ashley Platten is an American singer-songwriter and author. After releasing two albums independently in 2003 and 2011, she signed with Columbia Records in 2015. Platten is best known for her Diamond certified single "Fight Song", which peaked at number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100, topped charts in the UK, and peaked within the top ten of multiple charts worldwide. Platten won a Daytime Emmy Award for a live performance of the song on Good Morning America. Her major-label debut studio album, Wildfire (2016), was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and featured the follow-up singles "Stand by You" and "Better Place". Her second major-label album, Waves (2017), came out a year later.

Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player

Lindsay Corine Taylor is an American former professional basketball player. She played in the WNBA, KBSL, LFB, WKBL, Polish Women's League, WCBA, and Angola Women's Basketball League, usually playing the center position. An experienced player, Taylor has played professionally overseas in Europe, Asia, and Africa in 13 basketball seasons between 2005 and 2015.

Mark Winterbottom, Australian race car driver

Mark James "Frosty" Winterbottom is an Australian semi-retired professional racing driver. He currently drives the No. 6 Ford Mustang S650 with Cameron Waters as an endurance co-driver in the Repco Supercars Championship. His career highlights included winning the 2013 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, twice winning the Sandown 500 and receiving the Mike Kable Young Gun Award in 2003. Winterbottom has also won his maiden championship title in the 2015 International V8 Supercars Championship, making it the first title for Ford in five years.

20/05/1980

Austin Kearns, American baseball player

Austin Ryan Kearns is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2002 through 2013 for the Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Miami Marlins.

Kassim Osgood, American football player

Kassim Alexandre Osgood is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver and special teamer in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for San Diego State University and Cal Poly, and was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2003. He also played for the San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions, and San Francisco 49ers.

20/05/1979

Andrew Scheer, Canadian politician, 28th Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

Andrew James Scheer is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Regina—Qu'Appelle since 2004. Scheer was the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada from 2017 to 2020. He served as the leader of the Official Opposition from 2017 to 2020 and briefly in 2025. He was the 35th speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015.

Jayson Werth, American baseball player

Jayson Richard Gowan Werth is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2002 to 2017. His 15-season career was split among the Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, and the Washington Nationals.

20/05/1978

Hristos Banikas, Greek chess player

Hristodoulos Banikas is a Greek chess grandmaster from Thessaloniki.

Pavla Hamáčková-Rybová, Czech pole vaulter

Pavla Rybová is a Czech pole vaulter.

Nils Schumann, German runner

Nils Schumann is a former German athlete, winner of the 800 m at the 2000 Summer Olympics, who retired in 2009. For most of the five years before his retirement he had featured sparingly at an international level due to injuries.

20/05/1977

Matt Czuchry, American actor

Matthew Charles Czuchry is an American actor known for playing Logan Huntzberger in Gilmore Girls (2005–2007), Cary Agos on The Good Wife (2009–2015) and Conrad Hawkins on The Resident (2018–2023).

Leo Franco, Argentinian footballer

Leonardo "Leo" Neoren Franco is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Angela Goethals, American actress

Angela Bethany Goethals is an American film, television and stage actress. Goethals made her acting debut as a child actor in the 1987 Broadway production of Coastal Disturbances, and was 14-years-old when she won the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress, for her portrayal of Edna Arkins in the 1991 Off-Broadway production of The Good Times Are Killing Me. She played the sister of Macaulay Culkin's character in Home Alone (1990), and went on to star in several independent films and television shows, including the title role on the short-lived sitcom Phenom (1993), as well as a small role in Jerry Maguire (1996).

Stirling Mortlock, Australian rugby player

Stirling Austin Mortlock is an Australian former professional rugby union player. He has scored more than 1,000 points in Super Rugby, and nearly 500 test points for the Wallabies. Mortlock is a former Wallaby, Melbourne Rebels and Brumbies captain.

Vesa Toskala, Finnish ice hockey player

Vesa Tapani Toskala is a Finnish former professional ice hockey goaltender.

20/05/1976

Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan-American baseball player

Ramón José Hernández Marin is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher and current major league staff assistant for the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB with the Oakland Athletics (1999–2003), San Diego Padres (2004–2005), Baltimore Orioles (2006–2008), Cincinnati Reds (2009–2011), Colorado Rockies (2012) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2013).

Tomoya Satozaki, Japanese baseball player

Tomoya Satozaki is a former Japanese professional baseball player. He played his entire career with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He played for Japan in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, and made the 2006 All-World Baseball Classic team.

20/05/1975

Juan Minujín, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter

Juan Gervasio Minujín is an Argentine actor and film director. He is the nephew of plastic artist Marta Minujín.

20/05/1974

Allison Amend, American novelist and short story writer

Allison Amend is an American novelist and short story writer.

Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Indian film director, writer and actor

Shiboprosad Mukherjee is an Indian film director, writer and actor. With Nandita Roy as his co-director, he made his directorial debut with the film Icche, which garnered critical acclaim and commercial success. The director duo is known for making socially relevant films. They have also directed new age Bengali films like Praktan, Bela Seshe, Muktodhara, Accident, Alik Sukh and Ramdhanu, Haami, Konntho, Gotro which were critically acclaimed and enjoyed commercial success. He also serves as a partner at Windows Production. His film Praktan, bagged multiple National Awards and Alik Sukh was premiered at the Marche du Film section in Cannes Film Festival in 2013. His film Konttho was selected as the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards but did not final Submission from India.

20/05/1973

Nathan Long, Australian rugby league player

Nathan Long is an Australian former rugby league footballer. He played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Northern Eagles, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the St. George Illawarra Dragons as a second-row forward.

20/05/1972

Michael Diamond, Australian shooter

Michael Constantine Diamond, OAM is a professional target shooter from Australia.

Christophe Dominici, French rugby player (died 2020)

Christophe Dominici was a French rugby union player. In a career spanning seventeen years between 1991 and 2008, he played wing for Stade Français and France, scoring a total of 25 tries in 67 international caps, emerging as one of the giants of French rugby. He also served as a member of the coaching staff at Stade Français between 2008 and 2009. He had represented French clubs RC La Valette and RC Toulonnais earlier in his career.

Busta Rhymes, American rapper, producer, and actor

Trevor George Smith Jr., known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He has received 12 Grammy Award nominations, making him one of the most-nominated artists without a win. Billboard and Vibe ranked him among the 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, while Forbes listed him among the greatest rappers on their list of the "50 Top Rappers of All Time". Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes.

20/05/1971

Šárka Kašpárková, Czech triple jumper and coach

Šárka Kašpárková is a Czech former track and field athlete who specialised in the triple jump.

Hanne Stenvaag, Norwegian politician

Hanne Beate Stenvaag is a Norwegian politician and member of the Storting. A member of the Red Party, she was elected to represent Troms at the 2025 parliamentary election.

Tony Stewart, American race car driver

Anthony Wayne Stewart, nicknamed "Smoke", is an American professional auto racing driver, and former NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart–Haas Racing. He competes in the NHRA Top Fuel class for Elite Motorsports, and part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 25 Ram 1500 for Kaulig Racing. He is a four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, winning two as a driver, one as owner/driver (2011), and one as an owner (2014).

20/05/1970

Terrell Brandon, American basketball player

Thomas Terrell Brandon is an American former professional basketball player. He played for three teams during his 11-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A two-time All-Star, Brandon was a key starter on three NBA franchises before a series of injuries ultimately forced him to play his last game at 31 years old.

Louis Theroux, Singaporean-English journalist and producer

Louis Sebastian Theroux is a British-American journalist, broadcaster and author. He has received three British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award.

20/05/1969

Road Dogg, American wrestler, producer, and soldier

Brian Girard James is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE under a Legends contract. James was best known for his initial tenure with World Wrestling Federation as The Roadie from 1994 to 1995 and as "Road Dogg" Jesse James from 1996 to 2001. He is also known for his appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as B.G. James from 2002 to 2009, and has also made appearances for several other promotions.

20/05/1968

Timothy Olyphant, American actor and producer

Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor. He made his acting debut in an off-Broadway theater in 1995 in The Monogamist, winning the Theatre World Award for his performance. Olyphant then originated David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries in 1996. He then branched out to film. In the early years of his career, he was often cast in supporting villainous roles, most notably in Scream 2 (1997), Go (1999), Gone in 60 Seconds and The Broken Hearts Club (2000), A Man Apart (2003), and The Girl Next Door (2004).

20/05/1967

Graham Brady, English politician

Graham Stuart Brady, Baron Brady of Altrincham,, is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Altrincham and Sale West from 1997 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the chairman of the 1922 Committee from 2010 to 2024, except for a brief period during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.

Gabriele Muccino, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter

Gabriele Muccino is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He has worked his way from making short films only aired on Italian television to become a well-known and successful American filmmaker. He is the elder brother of actor Silvio Muccino, who often appears in his brother's films. Muccino has directed 12 films and is best known for his first American film The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith. Muccino has been nominated for and won several awards including the David di Donatello Award for Best Director in 2001 for his film The Last Kiss.

20/05/1966

Dan Abrams, American journalist and author

Daniel Abrams is an American media entrepreneur, television host, and author. He is currently the host of On Patrol: Live on Reelz, and The Dan Abrams Show: Where Politics Meets The Law on SiriusXM's P.O.T.U.S. channel. He is also the Chief Legal Analyst of ABC News. In 2021, he became the host of the primetime show Dan Abrams Live on NewsNation, which had its last episode in February 2025.

20/05/1965

Ted Allen, American television host and author

Edward Reese Allen is an American author and television personality. He was the food and wine connoisseur on the Bravo network's television program Queer Eye, and has been the host of the TV cooking competition series Chopped since its launch in 2009, as well as Chopped Junior, which began in mid-2015. On April 13, 2014, he became the host of another Food Network show, originally called America's Best Cook. A retooled version of that show, retitled All-Star Academy, debuted on March 1, 2015. In early 2015, he also hosted a four-part special, Best. Ever., which scoured America for its best burgers, pizza, breakfast, and barbecue. He is a longtime contributing writer to Esquire magazine, an author of two cookbooks, and regularly appears on the Food Network show Beat Bobby Flay and other television cooking shows.

Stu Grimson, Canadian ice hockey player, sportscaster, and lawyer

Stuart Grimson is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Grimson played in the National Hockey League from 1989 to 2002. During this time, he played for the Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes, Los Angeles Kings, and Nashville Predators. Grimson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, but grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia.

20/05/1964

Kōichirō Genba, Japanese politician, 80th Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs

Kōichirō Genba is a Japanese politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2012. He is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet, and was a member to the Democratic Party of Japan and its successor Democratic Party until its merger in 2018. He left the party briefly before the merger, and joined the Group of Independents House of Representatives caucus of other former Democrats a few days later. A native of Tamura, Fukushima and graduate of Sophia University, he was later accepted into the prestigious Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, an institution founded by Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita which grooms future civic leaders of Japan. Genba was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993 after serving in the assembly of Fukushima Prefecture for one term. In September 2011 he was chosen as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Edin Osmanović, Slovenian footballer, coach, and manager

Edin Osmanović is a Slovenian football manager and former player. He began his career in Rudar Trbovlje and later coached many clubs in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the highest level in Slovenian football, including Celje, Gorica, Rudar Velenje, Korotan Prevalje, Dravograd, Aluminij, and Mura 05.

Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, English journalist and author

Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer, author, journalist, and broadcaster. He is the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the maternal uncle of William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

20/05/1963

David Wells, American baseball player and sportscaster

David Lee Wells is an American former baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Boomer", Wells was considered one of the league's top left-handed pitchers during his career and made three All-Star appearances. In 1998, he pitched the 15th perfect game in baseball history. Wells also appeared in the postseason as a member of six teams, tied for the most with Kenny Lofton, and won two World Series titles. Following his 2007 retirement, Wells served as a broadcaster for MLB on TBS and was the host of The Cheap Seats on FOXSports.com.

20/05/1961

Clive Allen, English international footballer and manager

Clive Darren Allen is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward for seven different London clubs. Allen was a prolific striker throughout his career.

Nick Heyward, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Nicholas Heyward is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He came to international attention in the early 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter for Haircut One Hundred. He and the band parted ways after their first album, after which he continued as a solo artist.

20/05/1960

Tony Goldwyn, American actor and director

Anthony Howard Goldwyn is an American actor and director. He made his debut appearing as Darren in the slasher film Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) and had his breakthrough starring as Carl Bruner in the fantasy thriller film Ghost (1990), which earned him a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to star as Harold Nixon in the biographical film Nixon (1995), earning him a SAG Award nomination, and as Neil Armstrong in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998).

20/05/1959

Susan Cowsill, American singer-songwriter

Susan Claire Cowsill is a musician, vocalist and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the family band The Cowsills. After touring with Dwight Twilley for quite some time in the 1980s, she co-formed the band Continental Drifters. Since 1990, she has been with the Cowsills, along with brothers Bob and Paul.

20/05/1958

Ron Reagan, American journalist and radio host

Ronald Prescott Reagan is an American political commentator and broadcaster. He is a former radio host and political analyst for KIRO and Air America Radio, with which he hosted his own daily three-hour show. He has also been a contributor to MS NOW.

Jane Wiedlin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress

Jane Wiedlin is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actress, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and backing vocalist of the new wave band the Go-Go's. She voices Dusk, the drummer and backup vocalist of the fictional rock band the Hex Girls. She also had a successful solo career.

20/05/1957

Yoshihiko Noda, Japanese lawyer and politician, 62nd Prime Minister of Japan

Yoshihiko Noda is a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 2011 to 2012. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2000.

20/05/1956

Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian-German author and critic (died 2025)

Ingvar Even Ambjørnsen-Haefs was a Norwegian writer. He is best known for his "Elling" tetralogy: Utsikt til paradiset (1993), Fugledansen (1995), Brødre i blodet (1996), and Elsk meg i morgen (1999).

Gerry Peyton, English born Irish international footballer and coach

Gerald Joseph Peyton is a football coach and former footballer who is the interim coach of Indian Super League club Odisha FC. A goalkeeper, Peyton had lengthy spells with Fulham and AFC Bournemouth. Following his retirement, he went into coaching and acted as goalkeeping coach for several teams, including Arsenal from 2003 to 2018.

Douglas Preston, American journalist and author

Douglas Jerome Preston is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child, he has also written six solo novels, including the Wyman Ford series and a novel entitled Jennie, which was made into a movie by Disney called The Jennie Project. Preston has authored a half-dozen nonfiction books on science and exploration and writes occasionally for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and other magazines.

20/05/1955

Steve George, American keyboard player and songwriter

Steve George is an American keyboard player, saxophone player and singer who is perhaps best known as the keyboardist and background vocalist for the 1980s band, Mr. Mister. He co-wrote all of the Mr. Mister songs, together with his childhood friend, Mr. Mister frontman Richard Page, with whom he also played in Pages prior to forming Mr. Mister.

Zbigniew Preisner, Polish composer and producer

Zbigniew Preisner is a Polish film score composer, best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. He is the recipient of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis as well as the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He is a member of the French Film Academy.

20/05/1954

David Paterson, American lawyer and politician, 55th Governor of New York

David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer, who resigned, and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and the first African-American governor of New York.

Colin Sutherland, Lord Carloway, Scottish lawyer and judge

Colin John MacLean Sutherland, Lord Carloway is a Scottish advocate and judge who served as the Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General from 2015 until his retirement in February 2025. He was previously Lord Justice Clerk from 2012 to 2015 and was a Senator of the College of Justice from February 2000 until his retirement. On 4 June 2024, Lord Carloway announced his intention to retire from judicial office in early 2025.

20/05/1953

Robert Doyle, Australian educator and politician, 103rd Lord Mayor of Melbourne

Robert Keith Bennett Doyle is an Australian politician who was the 103rd Lord Mayor of Melbourne, elected on 30 November 2008 until he resigned on 4 February 2018 amidst allegations of sexual harassment. He was previously Member for Malvern in the Legislative Assembly of Victoria from 1992 to 2006 and Leader of the Victorian Opposition from 2002 to 2006, representing the Liberal Party.

20/05/1952

Roger Milla, Cameroonian footballer and manager

Albert Roger Miller, known as Roger Milla, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage. He played in three World Cups for the Cameroon national team.

Michael Wills, English politician, British Minister of Justice

Michael David Wills, Baron Wills is a British politician and life peer who served as Minister of State for Justice from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Swindon North from 1997 to 2010.

20/05/1951

Thomas Akers, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut

Thomas Dale Akers is a former American astronaut in NASA's Space Shuttle program.

Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster (died 2020)

Christie Marie Blatchford was a Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster. She published four non-fiction books.

Mike Crapo, American lawyer and politician

Michael Dean Crapo is an American lawyer and politician serving as the United States senator from Idaho, a seat he has held since 1999. A member of the Republican Party, Crapo served from 1993 to 1999 as the U.S. representative for Idaho's 2nd congressional district.

20/05/1950

Andy Johns, English-American engineer and producer (died 2013)

Jeremy Andrew Johns was a British sound engineer and record producer who worked on several well-known rock albums, including the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St. (1972), Television's Marquee Moon (1977), and a series of albums by Led Zeppelin during the 1970s.

Reinaldo Merlo, Argentinian footballer and coach

Reinaldo Carlos Merlo, better known as Mostaza, is an Argentine former football coach and former player, who played as a midfielder for Club Atlético River Plate throughout his entire career, while he is also idol as a coach for Racing Club.

Jane Parker-Smith, English organist (died 2020)

Jane Caroline Rebecca Parker-Smith was a British classical organist. Her obituary in The Guardian said she had "a stellar international career, popular with audiences for her wide-ranging sympathies and jaw-dropping virtuosity".

20/05/1949

Robert Morin, Canadian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter

Robert Morin is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. In 2009, he received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Michèle Roberts, English author and poet

Michèle Brigitte Roberts FRSL is a British writer, novelist and poet. She is the daughter of a French Catholic teacher mother and English Protestant father, and has dual UK–France nationality.

Dave Thomas, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

David William Thomas is a Canadian actor, comedian and television writer, known for being one half of the duo Bob and Doug McKenzie with Rick Moranis. He appeared as Doug McKenzie on SCTV, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award out of two nominations, and in the film Strange Brew (1983), which he also co-directed. As a duo, they made two albums, The Great White North and Strange Brew, the former gaining them a Grammy Award nomination and a Juno Award.

20/05/1947

Steve Currie, English bass player (died 1981)

T. Rex, originally Tyrannosaurus Rex, were an English rock band formed in London in 1967 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan, who was their leader, frontman and only consistent member. Originally an acoustic psychedelic folk band, Bolan began to change the band's style towards electric rock with their fourth album, 1970's A Beard of Stars, and shortened their name to T. Rex by the time their self-titled fifth album was released later that same year. This development culminated with their first significant hit single "Ride a White Swan", and the group soon became pioneers of the glam rock movement.

Greg Dyke, English journalist and academic

Gregory Dyke is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing "tabloid" television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am. In the 1990s, he held chief executive positions at LWT Group, Pearson Television, and Channel 5.

20/05/1946

Cher, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Cher is an American singer and actress. Dubbed the "Goddess of Pop", she is known for her androgynous, contralto voice, bold fashion, elaborate stagecraft and multifaceted career. Her screen roles often reflect her public image as a strong-willed, outspoken woman. An influential figure in popular culture, Cher has sustained a career spanning more than six decades through continual reinvention.

Bobby Murcer, American baseball player, coach, manager, and sportscaster (died 2008)

Bobby Ray Murcer was an American professional baseball outfielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1965 and 1983. He played the majority of his career for the New York Yankees, whom he later rejoined as a longtime broadcaster. A Gold Glove winner and five-time All-Star, and was voted to the Associated Press's American League 1970s All-Decade team. Murcer led the American League in on-base percentage in 1971, and in runs and total bases in 1972.

20/05/1945

Vladimiro Montesinos, Peruvian intelligence officer

Vladimiro Lenin Ilich Montesinos Torres is a Peruvian former intelligence officer and lawyer, most notorious for his role as the head of Peru's National Intelligence Service (SIN) during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori. Montesinos was widely regarded as the power behind the throne, often regarded as the true authority in the government, supported by the Peruvian Armed Forces.

20/05/1944

Joe Cocker, English singer-songwriter (died 2014)

John Robert "Joe" Cocker was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were interpretations of songs written by others, such as "Feelin' Alright" and "Unchain My Heart", though Cocker composed original songs for most of his albums as well, often in conjunction with songwriting partner Chris Stainton.

Boudewijn de Groot, Indonesian-Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist

Frank Boudewijn de Groot is a Dutch singer-songwriter, known for "Welterusten mijnheer de president" (1966).

Keith Fletcher, English cricketer and manager

Keith William Robert Fletcher is an English former first-class cricketer who played for Essex and England. He later became England's team manager. His nickname was "The Gnome of Essex", so christened by his Essex teammate, Ray East, because Fletcher's winklepickers had begun to curl up at the toes due to wear.

Dietrich Mateschitz, Austrian businessman, co-founder of Red Bull GmbH (died 2022)

Dietrich Markwart Eberhart Mateschitz was an Austrian entrepreneur. He was the co-founder and 49% owner of Red Bull GmbH. In April 2022, Mateschitz's net worth was estimated at US$27.4 billion.

Pekka Siitoin, Finnish neo-Nazi and Satanist (d. 2003)

Timo Pekka Olavi Siitoin was a Finnish neo-Nazi, Satanist, and occultist.

20/05/1943

Albano Carrisi, Italian singer, actor, and winemaker

Albano Antonio Carrisi, better known as Al Bano, is an Italian singer and actor. Having sold over 25 million records globally and career spanning seven decades, he is one of the most recognisable Italian singers in the world. He has gained worldwide notability due to his four and a half octave vocal range as well as his personal and professional association with Romina Power, daughter of Hollywood actor Tyrone Power, lasting until the 1990s. Carrisi is acclaimed for singing with operatic affinity in pop, rock and italo disco repertoires with extensive head voice and minimal usage of falsetto vocal register. As of 2023, he has participated in 15 editions of the Sanremo Music Festival, tying the record for most participations with Anna Oxa, Milva, Peppino di Capri and Toto Cutugno; this includes a victory in 1984 duetting with Power. He additionally took part in the Sanremo Giovani selection in 1965.

Deryck Murray, Trinidadian cricketer

Deryck Lance Murray is a former West Indies cricketer. A wicketkeeper and right-handed batsman, Murray kept wicket to the West Indian fast bowling attacks of the 1970s ; his glovework effected 189 Test dismissals and greatly enhanced the potency of the bowling attack.

20/05/1942

Raymond Chrétien, Canadian lawyer and diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States

Raymond A. J. Chrétien is a Canadian lawyer and diplomat. He served as ambassador to the United States from 1994–2000. His uncle, Jean Chrétien, was the 20th prime minister from 1993 to 2003.

Lynn Davies, Welsh sprinter and long jumper

Lynn Davies CBE is a Welsh former track and field athlete who specialised in the long jump. He was the 1964 Olympic champion in the event.

Carlos Hathcock, American sergeant and sniper (died 1999)

Carlos Norman Hathcock II was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills. His record and the extraordinary details of the missions he undertook made him a legend in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was honored by having a rifle named after him: a variant of the M21 dubbed the Springfield Armory M25 White Feather, for the nickname "White Feather" given to Hathcock by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN).

Frew McMillan, South African tennis player

Frew Donald McMillan is a former professional tennis player from South Africa who won five grand slam doubles titles including three Wimbledons with Bob Hewitt. All together, he won 63 doubles titles, surpassed only by the Bryan brothers, Daniel Nestor, Mark Woodforde, Todd Woodbridge, John McEnroe and Tom Okker. He was also ranked No.1 in Doubles on the ATP Computer for a significant period from 1977 to 1979 when he was aged 37.

20/05/1941

Goh Chok Tong, Singaporean politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Singapore

Goh Chok Tong, also known by his initials GCT, is a Singaporean retired politician who served as the second prime minister of Singapore from 1990 to 2004 and as a senior minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2011. He served as the secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP) from 1992 to 2004 and was the member of Parliament (MP) for Marine Parade Single Member Constituency from 1976 to 1988, and Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency from 1988 to 2020.

John Strasberg, American actor and teacher

John Strasberg is the son of Lee and Paula Strasberg of the Actors Studio, and brother of actress Susan Strasberg.

20/05/1940

Shorty Long, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 1969)

Frederick Earl "Shorty" Long was an American soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer for Motown's Soul Records imprint. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980.

Stan Mikita, Slovak-Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster (died 2018)

Stanley Mikita was a Slovak-born Canadian ice hockey player for the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League, generally regarded as the best centre of the 1960s. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. In 1961, he became the first Slovak-born player to win the Stanley Cup.

Sadaharu Oh, Japanese-Taiwanese baseball player and manager

Sadaharu Oh, also known as Wang Chen-chih, is a Chinese-Japanese former professional baseball player and manager who is currently the chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Oh's playing career spanned across four decades, during which he played for only the Yomiuri Giants. He holds the world career home run record at 868, over 100 more than MLB record holder Barry Bonds.

20/05/1939

Balu Mahendra, Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (died 2014)

Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a Sri Lankan Tamil cinematographer, director, screenwriter, actor and film editor who worked in various Indian film industries, primarily in Tamil and Malayalam cinema. Born in Sri Lanka, Mahendran developed a passion for photography and literature at a young age, after witnessing the shoot of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) during a school trip in Sri Lanka, he was drawn towards filmmaking. After graduation he joined as an Aerial photographer in the Sri Lankan Government. In 1966, he moved to India and gained admission to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to pursue a course in motion picture photography. Upon completion of his diploma, he started working in Malayalam cinema as a cinematographer in the early 1970s.

20/05/1937

Dave Hill, American golfer (died 2011)

James David Hill was an American professional golfer. He was the brother of Mike Hill who was also a professional golfer.

Derek Lampe, English footballer

Derek Lampe is an English former professional footballer who played for Fulham and represented England Youth, playing in the position of centre half.

20/05/1936

Anthony Zerbe, American actor

Anthony Jared Zerbe is an American actor. After pursuing an interest in theater in his early years, including a stint at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City, he enlisted in the Air Force and later embarked upon a career in television and film.

20/05/1935

José Mujica, Uruguayan guerrilla leader and politician, 40th President of Uruguay (died 2025)

José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica Cordano was a Uruguayan politician, revolutionary and farmer who served as the 40th president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. A former guerrilla with the Tupamaros, he was tortured and imprisoned for 14 years during the military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. A member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, Mujica was the minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and a senator afterwards. As the candidate of the Broad Front, he won the 2009 presidential election and took office as president on 1 March 2010.

20/05/1933

Constance Towers, American actress and singer

Constance Mary Towers is an American film, stage, and television actress. She gained prominence for her appearances in several mainstream 1950s films before transitioning to theater, starring in numerous Broadway productions through the 1970s. Her accolades include two Emmy Award nominations.

20/05/1931

Ken Boyer, American baseball player and manager (died 1982)

Kenton Lloyd Boyer was an American professional baseball third baseman and manager. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1969.

Louis Smith, American trumpeter (died 2016)

Edward Louis Smith was an American jazz trumpeter from Memphis, Tennessee.

20/05/1930

Sam Etcheverry, American football player and coach (died 2009)

Samuel Etcheverry, nicknamed "the Rifle", was a professional American and Canadian football player and head coach. Etcheverry played the quarterback position, most famously with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, and was named Canadian football's Most Outstanding Player in 1954. Etcheverry's jersey #92 is one of seven retired by the Alouettes.

20/05/1929

Pedro Trebbau, German-born Venezuelan zoologist (died 2021)

Pedro Trebbau was a German-born Venezuelan zoologist. His career was characterized by the promotion and preservation of Venezuelan wildlife and nature. His research and collaboration with the herpetologist Peter Pritchard produced the still-extant reference book on The Turtles of Venezuela, the 2018 re-edition of which, alongside the biography done on him entitled Trebbau: Maestro por naturaleza by Albor Rodríguez, sparked the series Colección La Fauna, which aimed to collect Trebbau's work on the fauna of Venezuela.

Gilles Loiselle, Canadian politician and diplomat, 33rd Canadian Minister of Finance (died 2022)

Gilles Loiselle was a Canadian politician.

20/05/1927

Bud Grant, American football player and coach (died 2023)

Harry Peter "Bud" Grant Jr. was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). Grant was head coach of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings for 18 seasons; he was the team's second (1967–1983) and fourth (1985) head coach, leading them to four Super Bowl appearances, 11 division titles, one league championship and three National Football Conference championships. Before coaching the Vikings, he was the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for 10 seasons, winning the Grey Cup four times.

David Hedison, American actor (died 2019)

Albert David Hedison Jr. was an American film, television, and stage actor. He was known for his roles as the title character in The Fly (1958), Captain Lee Crane in the television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964–1968), and CIA agent Felix Leiter in two James Bond films, Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989).

Franciszek Macharski, Polish cardinal (died 2016)

Franciszek Macharski was a Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed Archbishop of Kraków from 1978, named by Pope John Paul II to succeed him in that role. Macharski was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979, and resigned as archbishop in 2005.

20/05/1926

Bob Sweikert, American race car driver (died 1956)

Robert Charles Sweikert was an American racing driver, best known as the winner of the 1955 Indianapolis 500 and the 1955 National Championship, as well as the 1955 Midwest Sprint car championship – the only driver in history to sweep all three during a single racing season.

20/05/1925

Alexei Tupolev, Russian engineer, designed the Tupolev Tu-144 (died 2001)

Aleksey Andreevich Tupolev was a Soviet and Russian aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the long-range heavy bomber Tu-2000, both of which were suspended for lack of funding.

20/05/1924

David Chavchavadze, English-American CIA officer and author (died 2014)

David Chavchavadze was a British-born American author and a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer of Georgian-Russian origin.

Zelmar Michelini, Uruguayan journalist and politician (died 1976)

Zelmar Raúl Michelini Guarch was a Uruguayan reporter and politician, assassinated in Buenos Aires in 1976 as part of Operation Condor.

20/05/1923

Edith Fellows, American actress (died 2011)

Edith Marilyn Fellows was an American actress who became a child star in the 1930s. Best known for playing orphans and street urchins, Fellows was an expressive actress with a good singing voice. She made her screen debut at the age of five in Charley Chase's film short Movie Night (1929). Her first credited role in a feature film was The Rider of Death Valley (1932). By 1935, she had appeared in over twenty films. Her performance opposite Claudette Colbert and Melvyn Douglas in She Married Her Boss (1935) won her a seven-year contract with Columbia Pictures, the first such contract offered to a child.

Sam Selvon, Trinidad-born writer (died 1994)

Samuel Dickson Selvon was a Trinidad-born writer, who moved to London, England, in 1950. His 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners is groundbreaking in its use of creolised English, or "nation language", for narrative as well as dialogue.

20/05/1922

Ted Hinton, Northern Irish international footballer (died 1988)

Edward Hinton was a Northern Irish international footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Football League. He was famed for keeping his false teeth in the back of his net when he played.

20/05/1921

Wolfgang Borchert, German author and playwright (died 1947)

Wolfgang Borchert was a German author and playwright whose work was strongly influenced by his experience of dictatorship and his service in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. His work is among the best-known examples of the Trümmerliteratur movement in post-World War II Germany. His most famous work is the drama Draußen vor der Tür (The Man Outside), which he wrote soon after the end of World War II. His works are uncompromising on the issues of humanity and humanism. He is one of the most popular authors of the German postwar period; his work continues to be studied in German schools.

Hal Newhouser, American baseball player and scout (died 1998)

Harold Newhouser, nicknamed "Prince Hal" and "Hurricane Hal," was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher from 1939 to 1955, most notably for the Detroit Tigers, where he was selected for seven straight All-Star Games from 1942 to 1948. He became the first pitcher to win the Most Valuable Player Award twice in consecutive years, winning in 1944 and 1945. Newhouser was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1992 and his number 16 was retired by the Detroit Tigers in 1997.

Hao Wang, Chinese-American logician, philosopher, and mathematician (died 1995)

Hao Wang was a Chinese-American logician, philosopher, mathematician, and commentator on Kurt Gödel.

20/05/1920

John Cruickshank, Scottish lieutenant and banker, Victoria Cross recipient (died 2025)

John Alexander Cruickshank, was a Scottish banker, Royal Air Force officer, and a Second World War recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Cruickshank was awarded the VC for sinking a German U-boat and then, despite serious injuries, safely landing his aircraft. Before his death, he was the last living recipient to have been awarded the VC during the Second World War.

20/05/1919

George Gobel, American comedian (died 1991)

George Leslie Goebel was an American humorist, actor, and comedian. He was best known as the star of his own weekly comedy variety television series, The George Gobel Show, on NBC from 1954 to 1959 and on CBS from 1959 to 1960. He was also a familiar panelist on the NBC game show Hollywood Squares.

20/05/1918

Alexandra Boyko, Russian tank commander (died 1996)

Aleksandra Leontievna Boiko was a tank commander in the Soviet Army active in the Eastern Front of the Second World War.

Edward B. Lewis, American biologist, geneticist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004)

Edward Butts Lewis was an American geneticist, a corecipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He helped to found the field of evolutionary developmental biology.

20/05/1917

Tony Cliff, Israeli-English author and activist (died 2000)

Tony Cliff was a Trotskyist activist. Born to a Jewish family in Ottoman Palestine, he moved to Britain in 1947 and by the end of the 1950s had assumed the pen name of Tony Cliff. A founding member of the Socialist Review Group, which became the International Socialists and then the Socialist Workers Party, in 1977. Cliff was effectively the leader of all three.

Guy Favreau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 28th Canadian Minister of Justice (died 1967)

Guy Favreau was a Canadian lawyer, politician and judge.

20/05/1916

Owen Chadwick, English rugby player, historian, and academic (died 2015)

William Owen Chadwick was a British Anglican priest, academic, rugby international, writer and prominent historian of Christianity. As a leading academic, Chadwick became Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1958, serving until 1968, and from 1968 to 1983 was Regius Professor of History. Chadwick was elected master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and served from 1956 to 1983.

Alexey Maresyev, Russian soldier and pilot (died 2001)

Aleksey Petrovich Maresyev was a Soviet and Russian military pilot who became a Soviet fighter ace during World War II despite becoming a double amputee.

Ondina Valla, Italian sprinter and hurdler (died 2006)

Trebisonda "Ondina" Valla was an Italian female athlete, and the first Italian woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal. She won it in the 80 m hurdles event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, after establishing the new world record during the semi-final.

20/05/1915

Peter Copley, English actor (died 2008)

Peter Copley was an English television, film and stage actor.

Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and politician, 5th Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 1981)

Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) during the 1956 Sinai War, and as Defense Minister during the Six-Day War in 1967, he became a worldwide fighting symbol of the new state of Israel.

Joff Ellen, Australian comedian and actor (died 1999)

Joff Ellen, was an Australian entertainer, TV pioneer, actor and comedian.

20/05/1913

Teodoro Fernández, Peruvian footballer (died 1996)

Teodoro "Lolo" Fernández Meyzán was a Peruvian professional footballer who played as forward. All his football work was carried out as a player of the Universitario de Deportes of the Peruvian First Division. He was champion, best player and top scorer in the 1939 Copa América. He is the top idol of Universitario de Deportes and Peruvian First Division.

William Redington Hewlett, American engineer, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (died 2001)

William Redington Hewlett was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP).

Carlos J. Gradin, Argentine Archaeologist (died 2002)

Carlos Joaquín Gradin, also known as Carlos Gradín, was an Argentine surveyor and archaeologist. He carried out numerous studies in the Patagonian region, and is known for his extensive studies of Cueva de las Manos. He was a member of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET).

20/05/1911

Gardner Fox, American author (died 1986)

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics. Fox was also a science fiction author and wrote many novels and short stories.

Annie M. G. Schmidt, Dutch author and playwright (died 1995)

Anna Maria Geertruida "Annie" Schmidt was a Dutch writer. She is called the mother of the Dutch theatrical song, and the queen of Dutch children's literature, praised for her "delicious Dutch idiom," and considered one of the greatest Dutch writers. An ultimate honour was extended to her posthumously, in 2007, when a group of Dutch historians compiled the "Canon of the Netherlands" and included Schmidt, alongside national icons such as Vincent van Gogh and Anne Frank.

20/05/1908

Henry Bolte, Australian politician, 38th Premier of Victoria (died 1990)

Sir Henry Edward Bolte was an Australian politician who served as the 38th premier of Victoria from 1955 to 1972. He held office as the leader of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the division of Hampden from 1947 to 1972. He is the longest-serving premier in Victorian state history, having been in office for over 17 consecutive years.

Louis Daquin, French actor and director (died 1980)

Louis Daquin was a French film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 14 films between 1938 and 1963. He also appeared in 11 films between 1937 and 1979.

Francis Raymond Fosberg, American botanist and author (died 1993)

Francis Raymond Fosberg was an American botanist. A prolific collector and author, he played a significant role in the development of coral reef and island studies.

James Stewart, American actor (died 1997)

James Maitland Stewart was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart appeared in 80 films from 1935 to 1991. His films are considered among the greatest of all time. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors; he received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980, the Kennedy Center Honor in 1983, as well as the Academy Honorary Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985.

20/05/1907

Carl Mydans, American photographer and journalist (died 2004)

Carl Mydans was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration and Life magazine.

20/05/1906

Giuseppe Siri, Italian cardinal (died 1989)

Giuseppe Siri was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Genoa from 1946 to 1987, and was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1953. A protégé of Pope Pius XII, he took part in the Second Vatican Council and was considered a papabile for 20 years, during the conclaves of 1958, 1963, August 1978 and October 1978.

20/05/1904

Margery Allingham, English author of detective fiction (died 1966)

Margery Louise Allingham was an English novelist from the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", and considered one of its four "Queens of Crime", alongside Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh.

20/05/1901

Max Euwe, Dutch chess player, mathematician, and author (died 1981)

Machgielis "Max" Euwe was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978.

Doris Fleeson, American journalist (died 1970)

Doris Fleeson was an American journalist and columnist and was the first woman in the United States to have a nationally syndicated political column.

20/05/1900

Sumitranandan Pant, Indian poet and author (died 1977)

Sumitranandan Pant was an Indian poet. He was one of the most celebrated 20th century poets of the Hindi language and was known for romanticism in his poems which were inspired by nature, people and beauty within.

20/05/1899

Aleksandr Deyneka, Russian painter and sculptor (died 1969)

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Deyneka was a Soviet painter, graphic artist and sculptor, regarded as one of the most important Russian modernist figurative painters of the first half of the 20th century. His Collective Farmer on a Bicycle (1935) has been described as exemplifying the socialist realist style.

John Marshall Harlan II, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (died 1971)

John Marshall Harlan was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan is usually called John Marshall Harlan II to distinguish him from his grandfather, John Marshall Harlan, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911.

20/05/1898

Eduard Ole, Estonian painter (died 1995)

Eduard Ole was an Estonian painter. Some of his most representative works are on permanent exhibition at the Kumu Art Museum of Estonia.

20/05/1897

Diego Abad de Santillán, Spanish economist and author (died 1983)

Sinesio Baudillo García Fernández, commonly known by his pseudonym Diego Abad de Santillán, was a Spanish Argentine anarcho-syndicalist economist. Born in León, his family moved to Argentina while he was young. He returned to Spain for his higher education and became involved in the Spanish anarchist movement. After his studies, he went back to Argentina and became involved with the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), co-founding the International Workers' Association (IWA). Following the 1930 Argentine coup d'état and the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, he again went to Spain, becoming involved in the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). During the Spanish Civil War, he served in the Catalan government as Minister of Economy. After the war, he returned to Argentina and largely ceased political activities, going back to Spain only after the Spanish transition to democracy.

Malcolm Nokes, English hammer and discus thrower (died 1986)

Malcolm Cuthbert Nokes MC MA BSc was a British schoolteacher, soldier, research scientist and Olympic athlete, who competed in the hammer throw and discus throw.

20/05/1895

R. J. Mitchell, English engineer, designed the Supermarine Spitfire and Supermarine S.6B (died 1937)

Reginald Joseph Mitchell was a British aircraft designer who worked for the Southampton aviation company Supermarine from 1916 until 1936. He is best known for designing racing seaplanes, such as the Supermarine S.6B, and for leading the team that designed the Supermarine Spitfire.

20/05/1894

Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian guru and scholar (died 1994)

Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Shankaracharya Mahaswamigal also known as the Sage of Kanchi or Mahaperiyava was the 68th Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Moolamnaya Saravjna Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. Mahaperiyava's discourses have been recorded in a Tamil book titled "Deivathin Kural".

20/05/1886

Ali Sami Yen, Turkish footballer and manager, founded the Galatasaray Sports Club (died 1951)

Ali Sami Yen, born Ali Sami Frashëri was a Turkish Albanian sports official best known as the founder of the Galatasaray Sports Club.

20/05/1883

Faisal I of Iraq (died 1933)

Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi was a Hejazi statesman who served as the King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 until his death in 1933. A member of the Hashemite family, he was a leader of the Great Arab Revolt during the First World War, and ruled as the unrecognized King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria from March to July 1920 when he was expelled by the French.

20/05/1882

Sigrid Undset, Danish-Norwegian novelist, essayist, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1949)

Sigrid Undset was a Danish-born Norwegian novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.

20/05/1879

Hans Meerwein, German chemist (died 1965)

Hans Meerwein was a German chemist. Several reactions and reagents bear his name, most notably the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley reduction, the Wagner–Meerwein rearrangement, the Meerwein arylation reaction, and Meerwein's salt.

20/05/1877

Pat Leahy, Irish-American Olympic jumper (died 1927)

Patrick Joseph Leahy was an Irish athlete who won Olympic medals in the high jump and long jump at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

20/05/1875

Hendrik Offerhaus, Dutch Olympic rower and head of the Dutch Red Cross (died 1953)

Hendrik Karel Offerhaus was a Dutch medical doctor and rower who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was part of the Dutch boat Minerva Amsterdam, which finished third in the eight event.

20/05/1860

Eduard Buchner, German chemist, zymologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1917)

Eduard Buchner was a German chemist and expert on fermentation, awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on fermentation.

20/05/1856

Henri-Edmond Cross, French Neo-Impressionist painter (died 1910)

Henri-Edmond Cross, born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix, was a French painter and printmaker. He is most acclaimed as a master of Neo-Impressionism and he played an important role in shaping the second phase of that movement. He was a significant influence on Henri Matisse and many other artists. His work was instrumental in the development of Fauvism.

20/05/1854

George Prendergast, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Victoria (died 1937)

George Michael "Mick" Prendergast was an Australian politician who served as the 28th Premier of Victoria. He was born to Irish emigrant parents in Adelaide, but he grew up in Stawell, Victoria. He was apprenticed as a printer, and worked as a compositor in Ballarat, Sydney and Narrandera before settling in Melbourne in 1887. A member of the Typographical Association, he represented that union at the Melbourne Trades Hall, of which he was President in 1893.

20/05/1851

Emile Berliner, German-American inventor, invented the Gramophone record (died 1929)

Emile Berliner was a German-American inventor and businessman who invented the lateral-cut flat disc record, also known as a "gramophone record," used with a gramophone. He founded the United States Gramophone Company in 1894.

20/05/1838

Jules Méline, French lawyer and politician, 65th Prime Minister of France (died 1925)

Félix Jules Méline was a French statesman, Prime Minister of France from 1896 to 1898.

20/05/1830

Hector Malot, French author (died 1907)

Hector-Henri Malot was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for Lloyd Francais and as a literary critic for L'Opinion Nationale.

20/05/1825

Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the U.S. (died 1921)

Antoinette Louisa Brown, later Antoinette Brown Blackwell, was the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the United States. She was a well-versed public speaker on the paramount issues of her time and distinguished herself from her contemporaries with her use of religious faith in her efforts to expand women's rights. She was also known for her science based refutation of Darwin's gender bias in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex with her book The Sexes Throughout Nature.

20/05/1824

Cadmus M. Wilcox, Confederate States Army general (died 1890)

Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican–American War and also was a Confederate general during the American Civil War.

20/05/1822

Frédéric Passy, French economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1912)

Frédéric Passy was a French economist and pacifist who was a founding member of several peace societies and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He was also an author and politician, sitting in the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 until 1889. He was a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his work in the European peace movement.

20/05/1818

William Fargo, American businessman and politician, co-founded Wells Fargo and American Express (died 1881)

William George Fargo was an American businessman and politician who founded Wells Fargo and Company, originally shipping, mail delivery, a stagecoach line, and banking, now Wells Fargo banking corporation, and American Express company.

20/05/1811

Alfred Domett, English-New Zealand poet and politician, 4th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1887)

Alfred Domett was the fourth premier of New Zealand, a close friend of the poet Robert Browning and author of the epic poem Ranolf and Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream. Born in England, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1842 and remained there for a further thirty years, holding many significant political posts.

20/05/1806

John Stuart Mill, English economist, civil servant, and philosopher (died 1873)

John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Dubbed "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control. He advocated political and social reforms such as proportional representation, the emancipation of women, and the development of labour organisations and farm cooperatives.

20/05/1799

Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (died 1850)

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, described as a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.

20/05/1795

Pedro María de Anaya, Mexican soldier. President (1847–1848) (died 1854)

Pedro Bernardino María de Anaya y Álvarez was a Mexican soldier who served twice as interim president of Mexico during the Mexican-American War. Inbetween presidencies, he directly participated in the fighting as an officer, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Churubusco.

20/05/1776

Simon Fraser, American-Canadian fur trader and explorer (died 1862)

Simon Fraser was a Canadian explorer and fur trader who charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. He also built the first European settlement in British Columbia.

20/05/1772

Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet, English inventor and politician, developed Congreve rockets (died 1828)

Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet KCH FRS was a British Army officer, Tory politician, publisher and inventor. A pioneer in the field of rocket artillery, he was renowned for his development and use of Congreve rockets during the Napoleonic Wars. His adaptation of Mysorean rocket technology from the Kingdom of Mysore represented a crucial development in the history of military rocketry, bridging Eastern innovation with Western industrial production and establishing rocket artillery as a practical weapon system that would influence military technology into the space age.

20/05/1769

Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (died 1835)

Andreas Vokos, better known by his nickname Miaoulis, was a Greek revolutionary, admiral, and politician who commanded Greek naval forces during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829).

20/05/1759

William Thornton, Virgin Islander-American architect, designed the United States Capitol (died 1828)

William Thornton was an American physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol. He also served as the first Architect of the Capitol and first Superintendent of the United States Patent Office.

20/05/1726

Francis Cotes, English painter and academic (died 1770)

Francis Cotes was an English painter who was one of the pioneers of English pastel painting and co-founded the Royal Academy in 1768.

20/05/1664

Andreas Schlüter, German sculptor and architect (died 1714)

Andreas Schlüter was a German baroque sculptor and architect, active in the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russia.

20/05/1575

Robert Heath, English judge and politician (died 1649)

Sir Robert Heath was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1625.

20/05/1537

Hieronymus Fabricius, Italian anatomist (died 1619)

Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente, also known as Girolamo Fabrizio or Hieronymus Fabricius, was a pioneering anatomist and surgeon known in medical science as "The Father of Embryology".

20/05/1531

Thado Minsaw of Ava, Viceroy of Ava (died 1584)

Thado Minsaw was viceroy of Ava (Inwa) from 1555 to 1584 during the reigns of kings Bayinnaung and Nanda of Toungoo Dynasty of Burma (Myanmar). He fought alongside his brothers Bayinnaung, Minye Sithu, Thado Dhamma Yaza II and Minkhaung II, and his nephew Nanda in nearly every campaign from the 1550s to 1570s that rebuilt, expanded and defended the Toungoo Empire. Two years after Bayinnaung's death, he raised the first serious rebellion against the rule of Nanda. Although his rebellion was defeated in April 1584, it had set in motion more rebellions elsewhere that ultimately led to the collapse of the empire in the next 15 years.

20/05/1505

Levinus Lemnius, Dutch writer (died 1568)

Levinus Lemnius was a Dutch physician and author.

20/05/1470

Pietro Bembo, Italian cardinal, poet, and scholar (died 1547)

Pietro Bembo, O.S.I.H. was a Venetian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the Italian Renaissance, Pietro Bembo greatly influenced the development of the Tuscan dialect as a literary language for poetry and prose, which, by later codification into a standard language, became the modern Italian language. In the 16th century, Bembo's poetry, essays and books proved basic to reviving interest in the literary works of Petrarch. In the field of music, Bembo's literary writing techniques helped composers develop the techniques of musical composition that made the madrigal the most important secular music of 16th-century Italy.

20/05/1315

Bonne of Luxembourg, first wife of John II of France (died 1349)

Bonne of Luxemburg or Jutta of Luxemburg, was born Jutta (Judith), the second daughter of King John of Bohemia, and his first wife, Elisabeth of Bohemia. She was the first wife of King John II of France; however, as she died a year prior to his accession, she was never a French queen. Jutta was referred to in French historiography as Bonne de Luxembourg, since she was a member of the House of Luxembourg. Among her children were Charles V of France, Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, and Joan, Queen of Navarre.

Lives Remembered on 20th May

On 20th May, 104 remarkable people passed away — from 685 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

20/05/2025

George Wendt, American actor and comedian (born 1948)

George Robert Wendt Jr. was an American actor. Wendt played Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom Cheers from 1982 to 1993, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. After Cheers ended, he starred in his own short-lived CBS sitcom, The George Wendt Show (1995).

20/05/2024

Ivan Boesky, American stock trader (born 1937)

Ivan Frederick Boesky was a convicted criminal and an American stock trader who was infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal in the mid-1980s. After getting caught he became a government informant and then pleaded guilty, and was fined a record $100 million, and served twenty months in prison.

20/05/2022

Roger Angell, American sportswriter and author (born 1920)

Roger Angell was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. He was a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He wrote numerous works of fiction, non-fiction, and criticism, and for many years wrote an annual Christmas poem for The New Yorker. Sportswriter Jane Leavy called him "the Babe Ruth of baseball writers."

Susan Roces, Filipino actress (born 1941)

Susan Roces was a Filipino actress. She rose to fame in mid-1950s and became the biggest box-office star of the 1960s. Known for playing wholesome and sweet characters in romantic comedies and musicals during her youth, she dabbled into horror and drama in the succeeding decades. She was dubbed the "Queen of Philippine Movies" and appeared in more than 130 films throughout her career that spanned over six decades.

20/05/2021

Gary Wilson, American anti-pornography activist (born 1956)

Gary Bruce Wilson was an American writer and anti-pornography campaigner.

20/05/2019

Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver (born 1949)

Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda was an Austrian racing driver, motorsport executive, and aviation entrepreneur, who competed in Formula One from 1971 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1985. Lauda won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and—at the time of his retirement—held the record for most podium finishes (54); he won 25 Grands Prix across 13 seasons, and remains the only driver to have won a World Drivers' Championship with both Ferrari and McLaren.

20/05/2016

Kho Jabing, Malaysian convicted murderer who was executed by hanging in Singapore (born 1984)

Kho Jabing, later in life Muhammad Kho Abdullah, was a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and Iban descent from Sarawak, Malaysia, who partnered with a friend to rob and murder a Chinese construction worker named Cao Ruyin in Singapore on 17 February 2008. While his accomplice was eventually jailed and caned for robbery, Kho Jabing was convicted of murder and sentenced to death on 30 July 2010, and lost his appeal on 24 May 2011.

20/05/2015

Bob Belden, American saxophonist, composer, and producer (born 1956)

James Robert Belden was an American saxophonist, arranger, composer, bandleader, and producer. As a producer, he was mostly associated with the remastering of recordings by trumpeter Miles Davis for Columbia Records.

Femi Robinson, Nigerian actor and playwright (born 1940)

Femi Robinson was a Nigerian film and television actor, famous for his lead role in The Village Headmaster, where his stage name, "Ife Araba, The Village Headmaster", was coined. Chief Eddie Ugbomah, former Chairman of the Nigerian Film Corporation, called him "an icon of the industry".

20/05/2014

Sandra Bem, American psychologist and academic (born 1944)

Sandra Ruth Lipsitz Bem was an American psychologist known for her works in androgyny and gender studies. Her pioneering work on gender roles, gender polarization and gender stereotypes led directly to more equal employment opportunities for women in the United States.

Ross Brown, New Zealand rugby player (born 1934)

Ross Handley Brown was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played 16 test matches, most frequently in the first-five back position, for New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, from 1955 until 1962.

Robyn Denny, English-French painter (born 1930)

Edward Maurice FitzGerald "Robyn" Denny was one of a group of young artists who transformed British art in the late 1950s, leading it into the international mainstream. Reacting against the mainstream St Ives School of landscape-based painting and inspired by Abstract Expressionism, American films, popular culture and urban modernity, they saw abstract painting as their only conceivable route.

Arthur Gelb, American journalist, author, and critic (born 1924)

Arthur Gelb was an American editor, author and executive and was the managing editor of The New York Times from 1986 to 1989.

Prince Rupert Loewenstein, Spanish-English businessman (born 1933)

Rupert, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Löwenstein-Scharffeneck was a Spanish-born Bavarian aristocrat and the longtime financial manager of the rock band the Rolling Stones.

Barbara Murray, English actress (born 1929)

Barbara Ann Murray was an English actress.

20/05/2013

Flavio Costantini, Italian painter and illustrator (born 1926)

Flavio Costantini was an Italian painter and illustrator. Costantini created portraits of writers and artists for newspapers, and illustrated several novels. His early works were inspired by the novelist Franz Kafka, and by literary, utopian, and anarchist ideals. His later work presented a pessimistic view of civilization. He created series of paintings exploring historical themes: anarchy, the wreck of the Titanic, alchemy, Mozart, the French Revolution and its victims, Yekaterinburg, and the murder of Nicholas II and his family. His last series offered a dark reading of Pinocchio, which he considered one of the three or four greatest Italian novels.

Billie Dawe, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (born 1924)

Billie Dawe was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player. He was a member of the 1950 World Champion team, the Edmonton Mercurys, and captained that team to a gold medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics.

Anders Eliasson, Swedish composer (born 1947)

Anders Erik Birger Eliasson was a Swedish composer.

Miloslav Kříž, Czech basketball player and coach (born 1924)

Miloslav Kříž was a Czech professional basketball player, coach and executive. As a player, he played first for Uncas Praha, and later for Sparta Praha, but he was better known as a head coach and trainer, especially as the head coach of the senior Czechoslovak women's national team. He was awarded the FIBA Order of Merit, for his services to basketball, in 2002.

Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (born 1939)

Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. was an American keyboardist, vocalist, and music producer. He is best known as a member of the rock band the Doors, co-founding the group in 1965 with fellow UCLA Film School graduate Jim Morrison. Manzarek is credited for his innovative playing and abilities on organ-style keyboard instruments.

Denys Roberts, English judge and politician (born 1923)

Sir Denys Tudor Emil Roberts was a British colonial official and judge. Joining the colonial civil service as a Crown Counsel in Nyasaland in 1953, he became Attorney General of Gibraltar in 1960. In 1962, he was posted to Hong Kong as Solicitor-General, and was successively promoted to Attorney-General in 1966, Colonial Secretary/Chief Secretary in 1973 and Chief Justice in 1979. He was the first and only Attorney-General to become both Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong. Never having been a judge before, he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1979 and was the first and only Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong to receive such appointment.

Zach Sobiech, American singer-songwriter (born 1995)

Zachary David Sobiech was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his single "Clouds", which gained extensive media attention on YouTube, prior to Sobiech's death from cancer in May 2013. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually becoming a hit also in the UK, Canada and France.

20/05/2012

Leela Dube, Indian anthropologist and scholar (born 1923)

Leela Dube was a renowned anthropologist and feminist scholar, fondly called Leeladee by many. She had been married to the renowned anthropologist and sociologist Late Shyama Charan Dube. Leela Dube was the younger sister of the late classical singer Sumati Mutatkar. Her elder son Late Mukul Dube was an avid photographer. She is survived by her younger son, Saurabh Dube. Known for her work on kinship and in women's studies, she wrote several books including Matriliny and Islam: religion and society in the Laccadives and Women and kinship: comparative perspectives on gender in South and South‑east Asia.

Robin Gibb, Manx-English singer-songwriter and producer (born 1949)

Robin Hugh Gibb was a British singer and songwriter. He gained global fame as a member of the Bee Gees with elder brother Barry and twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his own successful solo career.

David Littman, English-Swiss historian, author, and academic (born 1933)

David Gerald Littman was a British political activist. He is known for organising the illegal transportation of Jewish Moroccan children from Morocco to Israel when he was 28.

Ken Lyons, American bass guitarist (born 1953)

Kenneth Leo Lyons was a bass guitarist and founding member of the southern rock band 38 Special. He was born to mother Joyce Lavelle Godwin Lyons and father Clynn Leo Lyons in Jacksonville, Florida. He founded 38 Special with Don Barnes, Donnie Van Zant, Jack Grondin, Steve Brookins, and Jeff Carlisi in 1974. He was a member of 38 special from 1974 to 1977. He only played on their self-titled debut album. He left 38 Special in 1977, before their first album was released. Lyons was replaced by Larry Junstrom, who continued to play in 38 Special until his retirement in 2014. Lyons died on May 20, 2012, at the age of 59 at the Wake Forest Baptist Health Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Eugene Polley, American engineer, invented the remote control (born 1915)

Eugene Joseph Polley was an electrical engineer and engineering manager for Zenith Electronics who invented the first wireless remote control for television.

Andrew B. Steinberg, American lawyer (born 1958)

Andrew Bart Steinberg was a leading aviation regulatory lawyer, who held several key posts in the public and private sectors in the United States. He served until 2008 as the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs within the United States Department of Transportation, after being confirmed to the position by the U.S. Senate on September 29, 2006, following appointment by President George W. Bush. Prior to that post, he had been appointed by the president in May 2003, as the chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration, where he served as the top legal advisor to FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey. Steinberg was a partner in the Washington D.C. office of the international law firm of Jones Day, where he led the firm's aviation regulatory practice, a post once held by aviation pioneer L. Welch Pogue.

20/05/2011

Randy Savage, American wrestler and actor (born 1952)

Randy Mario Poffo, better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler, rapper, and professional baseball player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

20/05/2009

Arthur Erickson, Canadian architect and urban planner, designed Roy Thomson Hall (born 1924)

Arthur Charles Erickson was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied at the University of British Columbia and, in 1950, received his B.Arch. (Honours) from McGill University. He is known as one of Canada's most influential architects and was the only Canadian architect to win the American Institute of Architects AIA Gold Medal. When told of Erickson's award, Philip Johnson said, "Arthur Erickson is by far the greatest architect in Canada, and he may be the greatest on this continent."

Lucy Gordon, American actress and model (born 1980)

Lucy Imogen Gordon was an English actress and model. She became a face of CoverGirl in 1997 before starting an acting career. Her first film was Perfume in 2001 before going on to have small roles in Spider-Man 3, Serendipity, and The Four Feathers. Gordon had played the actress and singer Jane Birkin in the film Gainsbourg, a biopic of singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Before the film was released, she hanged herself in her flat in Paris on 20 May 2009.

Pierre Gamarra, French author, poet, and critic (born 1919)

Pierre Gamarra was a French poet, novelist and literary critic, a long-time chief editor and director of the literary magazine Europe.Gamarra is best known for his poems and novels for the youth and for narrative and poetical works deeply rooted in his native region of Midi-Pyrénées.

20/05/2008

Hamilton Jordan, American politician, 8th White House Chief of Staff (born 1944)

William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan was an American politician who served as Chief of Staff to President of the United States Jimmy Carter.

20/05/2007

Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer (born 1914)

Norman Guy Von Nida was an Australian professional golfer.

20/05/2005

Paul Ricœur, French philosopher and academic (born 1913)

Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneutic phenomenologists, such as Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Gabriel Marcel. In 2000, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for having "revolutionized the methods of hermeneutic phenomenology, expanding the study of textual interpretation to include the broad yet concrete domains of mythology, biblical exegesis, psychoanalysis, theory of metaphor, and narrative theory."

William Seawell, American general (born 1918)

William Thomas Seawell was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force and former head of Pan Am.

20/05/2002

Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist, biologist, and academic (born 1941)

Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, historian of science, and one of the most widely read authors of popular science of his generation. He is considered by many to be one of the most influential figures in evolutionary biology. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1996, Gould was hired as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University, after which he divided his time teaching between there and Harvard.

20/05/2001

Renato Carosone, Italian singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1920)

Renato Carosone was an Italian musician.

20/05/2000

Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flute player (born 1922)

Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist and conductor. Rampal popularised the flute in the post–World War II years, recovering flute compositions from the Baroque era, and spurring contemporary composers, such as Francis Poulenc, to create new works that have become modern standards in the flautist's repertoire.

Malik Sealy, American basketball player and actor (born 1970)

Malik Sealy was an American professional basketball player, active from 1992 until his death in an automobile accident at the age of 30. Posthumously inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, Sealy played eight seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves.

Yevgeny Khrunov, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1933)

Yevgeny Vasilyevich Khrunov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 5/Soyuz 4 mission.

20/05/1998

Robert Normann, Norwegian guitarist (born 1916)

Robert Uno Normann was a Norwegian guitarist and considered a jazz guitar pioneer.

20/05/1996

Jon Pertwee, English actor, portrayed the Third Doctor (born 1919)

John Devon Roland Pertwee, known professionally as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he became known as a comedy actor, playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in the BBC Radio sitcom The Navy Lark (1959–1977) and appearing in four films in the Carry On series (1964–1992).

20/05/1995

Les Cowie, Australian rugby league player (born 1925)

Leslie Gordon Cowie was an Australian rugby league footballer, a fine lock for the champion South Sydney Rabbitohs teams of the 1950s and an Australia national representative. In 1994 he received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to Rugby League football.

20/05/1989

John Hicks, English economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)

Sir John Richard Hicks was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economics were his statement of consumer demand theory in microeconomics, and the IS–LM model (1937), which summarised a Keynesian view of macroeconomics. His book Value and Capital (1939) significantly extended general-equilibrium and value theory. The compensated demand function is named the Hicksian demand function in memory of him.

Gilda Radner, American actress and comedian (born 1946)

Gilda Susan Radner was an American actress and comedian.

20/05/1976

Syd Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1911)

Sydney Harris Howe was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Howe played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Quakers, Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Eagles and Detroit Red Wings.

Zelmar Michelini, Uruguayan journalist and politician (born 1924)

Zelmar Raúl Michelini Guarch was a Uruguayan reporter and politician, assassinated in Buenos Aires in 1976 as part of Operation Condor.

Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz, Uruguayan politician (born 1934)

Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz was a former President of the Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay who was assassinated in Operation Condor.

20/05/1975

Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor and lithographer (born 1903)

Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during the Second World War.

20/05/1973

Renzo Pasolini, Italian motorcycle racer (born 1938)

Renzo Pasolini, nicknamed "Paso", was an Italian professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1964 to 1972.

Jarno Saarinen, Finnish motorcycle racer (born 1945)

Jarno Karl Keimo Saarinen was a Finnish professional Motorcycle racer. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1968 to 1971 as Yamaha privateer, before receiving the Yamaha factory's full support in 1972 and 1973. In the early 1970s, he was considered one of the most promising and talented motorcycle road racers of his era until he was killed during the 1973 Nations Grand Prix in Italy. Saarinen's death led to increased demands for better safety conditions for motorcycle racers competing in the world championships. He remains the only Finn to have won a solo motorcycle road racing world championship. Saarinen was inducted into the F.I.M. MotoGP Hall of Fame in 2009.

20/05/1971

Waldo Williams, Welsh poet and academic (born 1904)

Waldo Goronwy Williams was one of the leading Welsh-language poets of the 20th century. He was also a notable Christian pacifist, anti-war campaigner, and Welsh nationalist. He is often referred to by his first name only.

20/05/1964

Rudy Lewis, American singer (born 1936)

Rudy Lewis was an American rhythm and blues singer known for his work with the Drifters. In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

20/05/1962

Timothy (Szretter), a Polish Orthodox clergyman, the third Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland (born 1901)

Timothy, secular name Jerzy Szretter was a Polish Orthodox clergyman, the third Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland.

20/05/1961

Josef Priller, German colonel and pilot (born 1915)

Josef "Pips" Priller was a German military aviator and wing commander in the Luftwaffe during World War II. As a fighter ace, he was credited with 101 enemy aircraft shot down in 307 combat missions. All of his victories were claimed over the Western Front, including 11 four-engine bombers and at least 68 Supermarine Spitfire fighters.

20/05/1956

Max Beerbohm, English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist (born 1872)

Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the Saturday Review from 1898 until 1910, when he relocated to Rapallo, Italy. In his later years he was popular for his occasional radio broadcasts. Among his best-known works is his only novel, Zuleika Dobson, published in 1911. His caricatures, drawn usually in pen or pencil with muted watercolour tinting, are in many public collections.

Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian swimmer and trainer (born 1881)

Zoltán Imre Ödön Halmay de Erdőtelek was a Hungarian Olympic swimmer. He competed in four Olympics, winning the following medals:1900: silver, bronze 1904: gold 1906: gold, silver 1908: silver

20/05/1949

Damaskinos of Athens, Greek archbishop and politician, 137th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1891)

Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, born Dimitrios Papandreou, was the archbishop of Athens and All Greece from 1941 until his death in 1949. He was also the regent of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King George II to Greece in 1946. His rule was between the liberation of Greece from the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II and the Greek Civil War.

20/05/1947

Philipp Lenard, Slovak-German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)

Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard was a Hungarian–German experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 for his work on cathode rays. This work led to his experimental realization of the photoelectric effect, discovering that the energy (speed) of the electrons ejected from a cathode depends only on the frequency and not the intensity of light.

Georgios Siantos, Greek sergeant and politician (born 1890)

Georgios Siantos was a Greek politician and prominent figure of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) who served as acting general secretary of the party, and as a leader of the National Liberation Front (EAM)/Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) Resistance movement during the German occupation of Greece in World War II.

20/05/1946

Jacob Ellehammer, Danish pilot and engineer (born 1871)

Jacob Christian Hansen-Ellehammer was a Danish inventor and aviation pioneer. He obtained a total of 59 Danish patents and worked with many different things, including amusement machines, Tivoli boats, egg openers, cleavers for pig slaughterhouses, engines in countless shades, motorcycles, cars, alternative energy and fire-fighting equipment. He was also among the first in Europe to fly an airplane.

20/05/1942

Hector Guimard, French Architect (born 1867)

Hector Guimard was a French architect and designer prominent for his Art Nouveau style designs including Paris Métro entrances. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Béranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building in Paris, which was selected in an 1899 competition as one of the best new building facades in the city. He is best known for the glass and iron edicules or canopies, with ornamental Art Nouveau curves, which he designed to cover the entrances of the first stations of the Paris Métro.

20/05/1940

Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)

Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam was a Swedish poet, novelist and laureate of the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1912. His poems and prose work are filled with a great joy of life, sometimes imbued with a love of Swedish history and scenery, particularly its physical aspects.

20/05/1931

Ernest Noel, Scottish businessman and politician (born 1831)

Ernest Noel, FGS was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Scottish seat of Dumfries Burghs from 1874 to 1886. He was chairman of the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company from 1880, during the construction of a new suburb for the working classes in Wood Green which was named "Noel Park" in his honour.

20/05/1925

Joseph Howard, Maltese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Malta (born 1862)

Joseph Howard OBE was the first Prime Minister of Malta, holding this office from 1921 to 1923.

20/05/1924

Bogd Khan, Mongolian ruler (c. 1869)

Bogd Khan was the khan of the Bogd Khanate of Mongolia from 1911 to 1924, following the state's de facto independence from the Qing dynasty of China after the Xinhai Revolution. Born in Tibet, he was the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy as the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, below only the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, and therefore also known as the "Bogdo Lama". He was the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism in the Bogd Khaganate. His wife Tsendiin Dondogdulam, the Ekh Dagina, was believed to be a manifestation of White Tara.

20/05/1917

Valentine Fleming, Scottish soldier and politician (born 1887)

Major Valentine Fleming, was a Scottish Conservative Member of Parliament who was killed in the First World War. He was the father of the authors Peter Fleming and Ian Fleming, the latter of whom created the James Bond character.

Philipp von Ferrary, Italian stamp collector (born 1850)

Philip Ferrari de La Renotière was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare stamps were the unique Treskilling Yellow of Sweden and the 1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana.

20/05/1909

Ernest Hogan, American actor and composer (born 1859)

Ernest Hogan was the first Black American entertainer to produce and star in a Broadway show, The Oyster Man in 1907, and helped to popularize the musical genre of ragtime.

20/05/1896

Clara Schumann, German pianist and composer (born 1819)

Clara Josephine Schumann was a German virtuoso pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital by lessening the importance of purely virtuosic works. She also composed solo piano pieces, a piano concerto, chamber music, choral pieces, and songs.

20/05/1880

Ana Néri, Brazilian nurse and philanthropist (born 1814)

Ana Justina Ferreira Néri was a Brazilian nurse, considered the first in her country. She is best known for her volunteer work with the Triple Alliance during the Paraguayan War.

20/05/1873

George-Étienne Cartier, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, 9th Premier of East Canada (born 1814)

Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet was a Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation. The English spelling of the name—George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling—is explained by his having been named in honour of King George III.

20/05/1864

John Clare, English poet (born 1793)

John Clare was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and his sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th century; he is now often seen as a major 19th-century poet. His biographer Jonathan Bate called Clare "the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self."

20/05/1841

Joseph Blanco White, Spanish poet and theologian (born 1775)

Joseph Blanco White, born José María Blanco y Crespo, was an Anglo-Spanish political thinker, theologian, and poet.

20/05/1834

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French general (born 1757)

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, known in the United States as Lafayette, was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by General George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War. Lafayette commanded Continental Army troops in the decisive siege of Yorktown in 1781, the Revolutionary War's final major battle, which secured American independence. After returning to France, Lafayette became a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830 and continues to be celebrated as a hero in both France and the United States.

20/05/1812

Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, Austrian archbishop (born 1732)

Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Graf Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz was Prince-Bishop of Gurk from 1761 to 1772 and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1772 until 1803, when the prince-archbishopric was secularized. After secularization, Colloredo fled to Vienna and remained the non-resident archbishop of Salzburg, bereft of temporal power, until his death in 1812. He is most famously known as a patron and employer for Mozart.

20/05/1793

Charles Bonnet, Swiss botanist and biologist (born 1720)

Charles Bonnet was a Genevan naturalist and philosophical writer. He is responsible for coining the term phyllotaxis to describe the arrangement of leaves on a plant. He was among the first to notice parthenogenetic reproduction in aphids and established that insects respired through their spiracles. He was among the first to use the term "evolution" in a biological context. Deaf from an early age, he also suffered from failing eyesight and had to make use of assistants in later life to help in his research.

20/05/1782

William Emerson, English mathematician and academic (born 1701)

William Emerson was an English mathematician. He was born in Hurworth, near Darlington, where his father, Dudley Emerson, also a mathematician, taught a school.

20/05/1732

Thomas Boston, Scottish author and educator (born 1676)

Thomas Boston was a Scottish Presbyterian church leader, theologian and philosopher. Boston was successively schoolmaster at Glencairn, and minister of Simprin in Berwickshire, and Ettrick in Selkirkshire. In addition to his best-known work, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, one of the religious classics of Scotland, he wrote an original little book, The Crook in the Lot, and a learned treatise on the Hebrew points. He also took a leading part in the Courts of the Church in what was known as the "Marrow Controversy," regarding the merits of an English work, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, which he defended against the attacks of the "Moderate" party in the Church. Boston, if unduly introspective, was a man of singular piety and amiability. His autobiography is an interesting record of Scottish life, full of sincerity and tenderness, and not devoid of humorous touches, intentional and otherwise.

20/05/1722

Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist and mycologist (born 1669)

Sébastien Vaillant was a French botanist who was born at Vigny in present-day Val d'Oise.

20/05/1717

John Trevor, Welsh lawyer and politician, 102nd Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1637)

Sir John Trevor was a Welsh lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of the English House of Commons from 1685 to 1687 and from 1689 to 1695. Trevor also served as Master of the Rolls from 1685 to 1689 and from 1693 to 1717. His second term as Speaker came to an end due to a bribery allegation; he was expelled from the House of Commons shortly thereafter.

20/05/1713

Thomas Sprat, English bishop (born 1635)

Thomas Sprat, FRS was an English churchman and writer, Bishop of Rochester from 1684.

20/05/1677

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, Spanish-English politician, English Secretary of State (born 1612)

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol was an English politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641, when he was raised to the House of Lords by a writ of acceleration. He supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, but his ambition and instability of character caused serious problems to himself and both Kings he served.

20/05/1648

Władysław IV Vasa, Polish son of Sigismund III Vasa (born 1595)

Władysław IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and claimant of the thrones of Sweden and Russia. Born into the House of Vasa as a prince of Poland and of Sweden, Władysław IV was the eldest son of Sigismund III Vasa and his first wife, Anna of Austria.

20/05/1645

Shi Kefa, Chinese general and calligrapher (born 1601)

Shi Kefa, courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu and claimed ancestry from Daxing County, Shuntian Prefecture. He was mentored by Zuo Guangdou (左光斗). He served as the Minister of War in Nanjing during the early part of his career. He is best remembered for his defence of Yangzhou from the Qing dynasty and was killed when Yangzhou fell to Qing forces in April 1645. After his death, the Southern Ming granted him the posthumous name "Zhongjing". Nearly a century later, the Qianlong Emperor of Qing granted Shi Kefa another posthumous name, "Zhongzheng" His descendants collected his works and compiled them into a book titled Lord Shi Zhongzheng's Collections (史忠正公集).

20/05/1622

Osman II, Ottoman sultan (born 1604)

Osman II, also known as Osman the Young, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 26 February 1618 until his regicide on 20 May 1622.

20/05/1579

Isabella Markham, English courtier (born 1527)

Isabella Markham, was an English courtier, a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber of Queen Elizabeth I of England and a personal favourite of the queen. Isabella Markham was muse to the court official and poet John Harington, who wrote sonnets and poems addressed to her, before and after they married. Thomas Palfreyman dedicated his Divine Meditations to her in 1572.

20/05/1550

Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shōgun (born 1510)

Ashikaga Yoshiharu was the twelfth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate from 1521 through 1546 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the son of the eleventh shōgun Ashikaga Yoshizumi.

20/05/1506

Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer, early European explorer of the Americas (born 1451)

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish transatlantic voyages in the name of the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

20/05/1503

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, Italian banker and politician (born 1463)

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, nicknamed the Popolano, was an Italian banker and politician, the brother of Giovanni il Popolano. He belonged to the junior branch of the House of Medici of Florence.

20/05/1501

Columba of Rieti, Italian Dominican tertiary Religious Sister (born 1467)

Columba of Rieti was an Italian religious sister of the Third Order of St. Dominic who was noted as a mystic. She was renowned for her spiritual counsel, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and fantastic miracles were attributed to her. She was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1625.

20/05/1476

Isabel Ingoldisthorpe, English noblewoman (born 1441)

Isabel Ingoldisthorpe was an English noblewoman and heiress, who by her marriage to John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu was Countess of Northumberland and Marchioness of Montague.

20/05/1449

Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches

Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches was a Portuguese knight and nobleman, with a long and illustrious career abroad in England. He was invested by the English king, Henry VI as the 1st Count of Avranches and made a Knight of the Garter.

Infante Pedro, Duke of Coimbra (born 1392)

Dom Peter, Duke of Coimbra, KG was a Portuguese infante (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King Dom John I of Portugal and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt. In Portugal, he is known as Infante Dom Pedro das Sete Partidas [do Mundo], "of the Seven Parts [of the World]" because of his travels. Possibly the best-travelled prince of his time, he was regent between 1439 and 1448. He was also 1st Lord of Montemor-o-Velho, Aveiro, Tentúgal, Cernache, Pereira, Condeixa and Lousã.

20/05/1444

Bernardino of Siena, Italian-Spanish missionary and saint (born 1380)

Bernardino of Siena, OFM, was an Italian Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in the Republic of Siena. He was a systematizer of scholastic economics.

20/05/1366

Maria of Calabria, Empress of Constantinople (born 1329)

Maria of Calabria, Countess of Alba, was a Neapolitan princess of the Capetian House of Anjou whose descendants inherited the crown of Naples following the death of her older sister, Queen Joanna I.

20/05/1291

Sufi Saint Sayyid Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari

Sayyid Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Naqvi Al Bukhari (Persian: سید جلال الدین سرخ پوش بخاری, c. 595-690 AH, 1190 – 1295 CE was a saint from the Indian subcontinent. He belonged to the Jalali Sufi order and was descended from the 10th Shia Imam, Ali al-Hadi.

20/05/1285

John I of Cyprus (born 1259)

John I was King of Cyprus and, in contention with Charles I of Anjou, of Jerusalem from 1284 to 1285.

20/05/1277

Pope John XXI (born 1215)

Pope John XXI, born Pedro Julião, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 September 1276 to his death in May 1277. He is the only Portuguese pope in history. He is sometimes identified with the logician and herbalist Peter of Spain, which would make him the only pope to have been a physician.

20/05/1062

Bao Zheng, Chinese magistrate and mayor of Kaifeng (born 999)

Bao Zheng, commonly known as Bao Gong, was a Chinese politician during the reign of Emperor Renzong in China's Song Dynasty. During his twenty-five years in civil service, Bao was known for his honesty and uprightness, with actions such as impeaching an uncle of Emperor Renzong's favourite concubine and punishing powerful families. His appointment from 1057 to 1058 as the prefect of Song's capital Kaifeng, where he initiated a number of changes to better hear the grievances of the people, made him a legendary figure. During his years in office, he gained the honorific title Justice Bao due to his ability to defend peasants and commoners against corruption or injustice. Bao Zheng is depicted as the incarnation of the Astral God of Civil Arts, while famous Northern Song warrior Di Qing is depicted as the Astral God of Military Arts.

20/05/0965

Gero the Great, Saxon ruler (bornc. 900)

Gero I, sometimes called the Great, was a prominent German noble from the Duchy of Saxony in the East Francia, who held several offices during the reign of king and later emperor Otto I (936–973). As one of the most notable counts in northern regions of Otto's realm, Gero was appointed as king's representative (legate) in the Saxon duchy. He was also appointed as margrave, thus ranking above other counts. The nature and scope of his jurisdiction as margrave was indicated in several sources, such as the Thietmar's Chronicle from the beginning of the 11th century, that mentions Gero as Margrave of the East. Since various sources provide data on Gero's continuous and frequent involvement in German expansion towards the lands of Polabian Slavs, that lied to the east of Saxon and Thuringian lands, traditional historiography regarded Gero as margrave over the subdued Slavic regions, thus coining the term March of Gero. Newer scholarly analyses have shown that some charters that contain data on Gero's march should be considered as later forgeries, thus leading modern researchers to question or reject various traditional views regarding the nature and effective scope of such a frontier province in the middle of the 10th century.

20/05/0794

Æthelberht II, king of East Anglia

Æthelberht, also called Saint Ethelbert the King was an 8th-century saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Little is known of his reign, which may have begun in 779, according to later sources, and very few of the coins he issued have been discovered. It is known from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that he was killed on the orders of Offa of Mercia in 794.

20/05/0685

Ecgfrith of Northumbria (born 645)

Ecgfrith was the King of Northumbria from 670 until his death on 20 May 685. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Nechtansmere against the Picts of Fortriu in which he lost his life.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 20th May

Christian feast day: Abercius and Helena

Abercius and Helena are saints of the Catholic church. They are said to have been the children of Alphaeus the Apostle, although this has been challenged by some parties. Both of them are known to have been martyrs: Abercius by being exposed naked to bees, and Helena by stoning. They are commemorated with a feast day on May 20.

Christian feast day: Alcuin of York

Alcuin of York, also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was an Anglo-Latin scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. Before that, he was also a court chancellor in Aachen. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, he is considered among the most important intellectual architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

Christian feast day: Aurea of Ostia

Aurea of Ostia is venerated as the patron saint of Ostia.

Christian feast day: Austregisilus

Saint Austregisilus was a Frankish bishop and bishop of Bourges from 612 until his death in 624. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, with his feast day is 20 May.

Christian feast day: Baudilus

Saint Baudilus is venerated as a martyr by the Catholic Church. His cult is closely associated with the city of Nîmes but also spread into Spain.

Christian feast day: Bernardino of Siena

Bernardino of Siena, OFM, was an Italian Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in the Republic of Siena. He was a systematizer of scholastic economics.

Christian feast day: Columba of Rieti

Columba of Rieti was an Italian religious sister of the Third Order of St. Dominic who was noted as a mystic. She was renowned for her spiritual counsel, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and fantastic miracles were attributed to her. She was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1625.

Christian feast day: Lydia of Thyatira

Lydia of Thyatira is a woman mentioned in the New Testament who is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe. Several Christian denominations have designated her a saint.

Christian feast day: Lucifer of Cagliari

St. Lucifer of Cagliari was a bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia known for his passionate opposition to Arianism. He is venerated as a Saint in Sardinia.

Christian feast day: Sanctan

Sanctain or Sanctan was a 6th-century bishop from Northern Britain, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Church of England.

Christian feast day: May 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

May 19 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 21

Day of Remembrance (Cambodia)

The National Day of Remembrance, formerly called the National Day of Hatred, which falls on 20 May, is an annual event in Cambodia. It commemorates the Cambodian genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled the country between 1975 and 1979. It became a national holiday in 2018.

Emancipation Day (Florida)

Emancipation Day is observed in many former European colonies in the West Indies and parts of the United States on various dates to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent.

European Maritime Day (European Council)

European Maritime Day (EMD), celebrated on 20 May each year, seeks to raise European citizens' awareness of the seas and their importance. Several events take place during that day, including an annual stakeholder conference co-organised by the European Commission. European Maritime Day was established jointly by the European Council, European Parliament and European Commission in 2008 as part of the EU maritime policy.

Independence Restoration Day, celebrates the independence of East Timor from Indonesia in 2002.

Timor-Leste's Independence Day or Day of Restoration of Independence is a national holiday in Timor-Leste on 20 May held to celebrate independence of the country from Indonesian occupation and United Nations administration in 2002.

Josephine Baker Day (NAACP)

Freda Josephine Baker, also spelled Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

National Awakening Day (Indonesia), and its related observances: Indonesian Doctor Day (Indonesia)

The following table indicates declared Indonesian government national holidays. Cultural variants also provide opportunity for holidays tied to local events. Beside official holidays, there are the so-called "libur bersama" or "cuti bersama", or joint leave(s) declared nationwide by the government. In total there are 20 public holidays every year.

National Day (Cameroon)

The National Day of Cameroon, also known as Unitary State Day, is celebrated annually on 20 May. In a national referendum on 20 May 1972, Cameroonians voted for a unitary state as opposed to the existing federal state. The United Nations Trust Territory known as French Cameroun achieved independence from France on 1 January 1960, and British Southern Cameroons a Trusteeship under British administration achieved independence by joining French Cameroun on 1st October 1961 federated to form The Federal Republic of Cameroon. The government chose 20 May as Cameroon's National Day to commemorate President Ahmadou Ahidjo's abolishment of the federal system of government in favor of a unitary country in 1972.

World Bee Day

World Bee Day is celebrated on 20 May. On this day Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was baptized in 1734.

World Metrology Day

World Metrology Day is an event occurring on 20 May celebrating the International System of Units. The date is the anniversary of the signing of the Metre Convention in 1875. Metrology is the study of measurement.

Doug the Pug Day (Nashville, Tennessee)

Doug the Pug is a celebrity pug living in Nashville, Tennessee, who has gained a large internet and social media following.

What Happened on 20th May?

64 significant events took place on Saturday, 20th May — stretching from 325 to 2022. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

20/05/2022

Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege.

The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. It then supported Russian separatist armed groups who started a war in the eastern Donbas region against Ukraine's military. In 2018, Ukraine declared the region to be occupied by Russia. The first eight years of conflict also involved naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country, starting the current phase of the war, the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

20/05/2019

The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete.

The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. It is the only system of measurement with official status in nearly every country in the world, employed in science, technology, industry, and everyday commerce. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures coordinates the SI.

20/05/2016

The government of Singapore authorised the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite the international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations.

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. Its territory comprises a main island, over 60 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. The country is about one degree of latitude north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south along with the Riau Islands in Indonesia, the South China Sea to the east and the Straits of Johor along with the State of Johor in Malaysia to the north.

20/05/2013

An EF5 tornado strikes the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.

The Enhanced Fujita scale is a scale that rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage a tornado causes. It is used in the United States, Brazil and France, among other countries. The EF scale is also unofficially used in other countries, including China. The rating of a tornado is determined by conducting a tornado damage survey.

20/05/2012

At least 27 people are killed and 50 others injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy.

In May 2012, two major earthquakes struck Northern Italy, causing 27 deaths and widespread damage. The events are known in Italy as the 2012 Emilia earthquakes, because they mainly affected the Emilia region.

20/05/2011

Mamata Banerjee is sworn in as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the first woman to hold this post.

Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 8th chief minister of West Bengal from 2011 to 2026. She was the first woman to hold the office. Being the founder and president of the All India Trinamool Congress, she previously served as a Union Cabinet Minister.

20/05/2009

An Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100 Hercules crashes in Magetan Regency, killing 99.

The Indonesian Air Force is the aerial branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. The Indonesian Air Force is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is headed by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Its order of battle is split into three Air Operations Commands. Most of its airbases are located on the island of Java. The Indonesian Air Force also has its ground force unit, called Air Force Quick Reaction Force Command (Kopasgat). The corps is also known as the "Orange Berets" due to the distinctive color of their service headgear.

20/05/2002

The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).

Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and the islands of Atauro and Jaco, for a total land area of 14,950 square kilometres (5,770 sq mi). Timor-Leste shares a land border with Indonesia to the west; Australia is the country's southern neighbour, across the Timor Sea. Dili, on the north coast of Timor, is its capital and largest city.

20/05/1996

Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in the United States have developed over time, with public opinion and jurisprudence changing significantly since the late 1980s. Lesbian, gay and bisexual rights are considered advanced, but rights of transgender people have faced significant erosion since the beginning of Donald Trump's second presidency.

20/05/1990

The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

Communism is a political and economic ideology whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products in society based on need. A communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state. Communism is a part of the broader socialist movement.

20/05/1989

The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Democracy is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitive elections while more expansive or maximalist definitions link democracy to guarantees of civil liberties and human rights in addition to competitive elections.

20/05/1985

Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.

Radio y Televisión Martí is an international broadcaster based in Miami, Florida, financed by the federal government of the United States through the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It transmits its programs in Spanish to Cuba and its broadcasts can also be heard and viewed worldwide through their website and on shortwave radio frequencies.

20/05/1983

First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier.

Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIVs) are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Without treatment, the average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.

Church Street bombing: A car bomb planted by UMkhonto we Sizwe explodes on Church Street in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, killing 19 people and injuring 217 others.

The Church Street bombing was a terrorist car bombing on 20 May 1983 in the South African capital Pretoria by uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC). The bombing killed 19 people, including the two perpetrators, and wounded 217.

20/05/1980

In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, with 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada.

The 1980 Quebec independence referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on the place of Quebec within Canada and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois (PQ) government, which advocated secession from Canada.

20/05/1971

In the Chuknagar massacre, Pakistani forces massacre thousands, mostly Bengali Hindus.

Chuknagar massacre was a massacre of Bengali Hindus committed by the Pakistan Army and local collaborators during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. The massacre took place on 20 May 1971 at Dumuria in Khulna and it was one of the largest massacres during the war.

20/05/1969

The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.

The Battle of Hamburger Hill was fought by United States Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces against People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces during Operation Apache Snow of the Vietnam War. Though the heavily fortified Hill 937, a ridge of the mountain Dong Ap Bia in central Vietnam near its western border with Laos, had little strategic value, US command ordered its capture by a frontal assault, only to abandon it soon thereafter. The action caused a controversy among both the US armed services and the public back home, and marked a turning point in the US involvement.

20/05/1967

The Popular Movement of the Revolution political party is established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Popular Movement of the Revolution was the ruling political party in Zaire. For most of its existence, it was the only legally permitted party in the country. It was founded by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu on 20 May 1967.

20/05/1965

One hundred twenty-one people are killed when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 crashes at Cairo International Airport.

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705 (PK705) was a Boeing 720 airliner that crashed while descending to land at Cairo International Airport on 20 May 1965. Of the 127 passengers and crew on board, all but 6 were killed.

20/05/1964

Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias.

The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology. In 1964, American physicist Arno Allan Penzias and radio-astronomer Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB), estimating its temperature as 3.5 K, as they experimented with the Holmdel Horn Antenna. The new measurements were accepted as important evidence for a hot early Universe and as evidence against the rival steady state theory as theoretical work around 1950 showed the need for a CMB for consistency with the simplest relativistic universe models. In 1978, Penzias and Wilson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint measurement. There had been a prior measurement of the cosmic background radiation (CMB) by Andrew McKellar in 1941 at an effective temperature of 2.3 K using CN stellar absorption lines observed by W. S. Adams. Although no reference to the CMB is made by McKellar, it was not until much later after the Penzias and Wilson measurements, that the significance of this earlier measurement was understood.

20/05/1958

Capital Airlines Flight 300 collides in mid-air with a United States Air Force Lockheed T-33 over Brunswick, Maryland, killing 12.

On May 20, 1958 a Vickers Viscount airliner operating Capital Airlines Flight 300 was involved in a mid-air collision with a United States Air Force Lockheed T-33 jet trainer on a proficiency flight in the skies above Brunswick, Maryland. All 11 people on board the Viscount and one of the two crew in the T-33 were killed in the accident.

20/05/1956

In Operation Redwing, the first United States airborne hydrogen bomb is dropped over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

Operation Redwing was a United States series of 17 nuclear test detonations from May to July 1956. They were conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF7). The entire operation followed Project 56 and preceded Project 57. The primary intention was to test new, second-generation thermonuclear weapons. Also tested were fission devices intended to be used as primaries for thermonuclear weapons, and small tactical weapons for air defense. Redwing demonstrated the first United States airdrop of a deliverable hydrogen bomb during test Cherokee. Because the yields for many tests at Operation Castle in 1954 were dramatically higher than predictions, Redwing was conducted using an "energy budget": There were limits to the total amount of energy released, and the amount of fission yield was also strictly controlled. Fission, primarily "fast" fission of the natural uranium tamper surrounding the fusion capsule, greatly increases the yield of thermonuclear devices, and constitutes the great majority of the fallout, as nuclear fusion is a relatively clean reaction.

20/05/1949

In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for global intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees.

20/05/1948

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing.

Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese military commander, revolutionary, and statesman who was President of the Republic of China from 1948 to 1975 and head of the Nationalist government from 1925 to 1948. As the de facto leader of the Republic of China (ROC), he ruled the country through World War II and oversaw the relocation of its government to Taiwan following its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

20/05/1943

The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period (radiocarbon-dated c. 3928–3651 BC), was discovered near Luttra, Sweden.

The Luttra Woman is a skeletonised bog body discovered in a peat bog in Falbygden near Luttra, Sweden. The remains were found on 20 May 1943 by a peat cutter. The skull was well-preserved, but some bones of the skeleton, particularly many between the skull and the pelvis, were missing. Osteological assessment identified the remains as those of a young female. The presence of raspberry seeds in her stomach contents, together with an estimated age of early to mid-twenties at death, led to her being nicknamed Hallonflickan. Radiocarbon-dated to 3928–3651 BC, she was, as of 2015, the earliest known Neolithic individual from Western Sweden. In a study, her estimated height of 145 cm was deemed short for a Stone Age woman of the region.

20/05/1941

World War II: Battle of Crete: German paratroops invade Crete.

The Battle of Crete, codenamed Operation Mercury, was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, with multiple German airborne landings on Crete. Greek and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island. After only one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered heavy casualties and the Allied troops were confident that they would defeat the invasion. The next day, through communication failures, Allied tactical hesitation, and German offensive operations, Maleme Airfield in western Crete fell, enabling the Germans to land reinforcements and overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast. More than half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance. The defence of Crete evolved into a costly naval engagement; by the end of the campaign the Royal Navy's eastern Mediterranean strength had been reduced to only two battleships and three cruisers.

20/05/1940

The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were committed primarily through mass shootings across Eastern Europe and poison gas chambers in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chełmno and Majdanek death camps in occupied Poland. Concurrent Nazi persecutions killed millions of other non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to include the murder and persecution of non-Jewish groups, such as the Romani and Soviet POWs.

20/05/1932

Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviator and aviation pioneer who became one of the most celebrated figures of early flight.

20/05/1927

Treaty of Jeddah: The United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The 1927 Treaty of Jeddah, formally the Treaty between His Majesty and His Majesty the King of the Hejaz and of Nejd and Its Dependencies was signed between the United Kingdom and Ibn Saud.

Charles Lindbergh takes off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing 33+1⁄2 hours later.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), setting a new flight distance world record. The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.

20/05/1902

Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President.

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean. It comprises the eponymous main island as well as 4,195 islands, islets, and cays. Situated at the convergence of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean, Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula, south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola, and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America.

20/05/1891

History of cinema: The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope.

The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century.

20/05/1883

Krakatoa begins to erupt; the volcano explodes three months later, killing more than 36,000 people.

Krakatoa, also transcribed Krakatau, is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group comprising four islands. Two of them are known as Lang and Verlaten; another, Rakata, is the only remnant of an island, also called Krakatoa, mostly destroyed by an eruption in 1883 which created the caldera.

20/05/1882

The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed.

The Triple Alliance was a defensive military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It was formed on 20 May 1882 and renewed periodically until it expired in 1915 during World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. Italy was looking for support against France shortly after it lost North African ambitions to the French. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by any other great power. The treaty provided that Germany and Austria-Hungary were to assist Italy if it was attacked by France without provocation. In turn, Italy would assist Germany if attacked by France without provocation. In the event of a war between Austria-Hungary and Russia, Italy promised to remain neutral. After the Austro-Hungarian empire and Germany declared war without first being attacked by other nations, Italy did not take part in World War I on the side of the Central Powers and later joined on the side of the Allied Powers.

20/05/1875

Signing of the Metre Convention by 17 nations leading to the establishment of the International System of Units.

The Metre Convention, also known as the Treaty of the Metre, is an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations: Argentina, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Ottoman Empire, United States of America, and Venezuela.

20/05/1873

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.

Levi Strauss was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.

20/05/1864

American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church: In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.

The Battle of Ware Bottom Church was fought on May 20, 1864, between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The Union troops were led by Benjamin Butler, while the Confederates were led by P.G.T. Beauregard. The Confederates were victorious, and Butler's forces remained in their Bermuda Hundred defenses. Following the battle, the Confederates began digging a critical set of defensive earthworks that became known as the Howlett Line.

20/05/1862

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening eighty-four million acres (340,000 km2) of public land to settlers.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.

20/05/1861

American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

American Civil War: The State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

20/05/1813

Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.

In the Battle of Bautzen, a combined Prusso-Russian army, retreating after their defeat at Lützen and massively outnumbered, was pushed back by Napoleon but escaped destruction. Some sources claim that Marshal Michel Ney failed to block their retreat. The Prussians were led by General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, and the Russians by General Peter Wittgenstein.

20/05/1802

By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.

The Law of 20 May 1802 was a decree passed by First Consul Napoleon of the French First Republic on 20 May 1802 that reinstated slavery. It decreed the reinstatement and continuation of slavery in French colonies reversing the Law of 4 February 1794, which had abolished the institution in all of France's overseas possessions but was only implemented in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe and Cayenne.

20/05/1775

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is allegedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a text published in 1819 with the now disputed claim that it was the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Concord. If true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year.

20/05/1741

The Battle of Cartagena de Indias ends in a Spanish victory and the British begin withdrawal towards Jamaica with substantial losses.

The Battle of Cartagena de Indias took place during the 1739 to 1748 War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and Great Britain. The result of long-standing commercial tensions, the war was primarily fought in the Caribbean; the British tried to capture key Spanish ports in the region, including Porto Bello and Chagres in Panama, Havana, and Cartagena de Indias in present-day Colombia.

20/05/1714

Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata for Pentecost, Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172, at the chapel of Schloss Weimar.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.

20/05/1645

Yangzhou massacre: The ten day massacre of the residents of the city of Yangzhou, part of the Transition from Ming to Qing.

The Yangzhou Massacre refers to the mass killing of people in Yangzhou, China, in May, 1645. Commanded by the Manchu prince Dodo, following the collapse of the Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty forces carried out the attack on the port city and its inhabitants, defended by remaining southern Ming forces. The massacre itself lasted a total of six days, which afterwards the burning of bodies continued. The Yangzhou Massacre served as a reminder to Ming loyalists of the threat to resisting Qing authority, and signals part of the transition from the Ming to the Qing.

20/05/1631

The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War.

Magdeburg is the capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river.

20/05/1609

Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

William Shakespeare wrote sonnets on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609. However, there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost. There is also a partial sonnet found in the play Edward III.

20/05/1570

Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.

Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.

20/05/1521

Ignatius of Loyola is seriously wounded in the Battle of Pampeluna.

Ignatius of Loyola, venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, who, with six companions, founded the religious order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and became its first Superior General, in Paris in 1541.

20/05/1520

Hernan Cortés defeats Pánfilo de Narváez, sent by Spain to punish him for insubordination.

Hernán Cortés, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador, military commander, explorer, captain general, and writer who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

20/05/1498

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.

Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese mariner, explorer and nobleman. His discovery of the first direct maritime route between Europe and India via the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean from Malindi in Kenya to Kozhikode was to open up European exploration of, and commerce with, India, and is considered a landmark event and a turning point in world history.

20/05/1497

John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).

John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII, King of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments declared Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed.

20/05/1449

The Battle of Alfarrobeira is fought, establishing the House of Braganza as a principal royal family of Portugal.

The Battle of Alfarrobeira took place on 20 May 1449. It was a confrontation between the forces commanded by King Afonso V of Portugal and his uncle Afonso, Duke of Braganza, against the army of the rebellious Peter, Duke of Coimbra. The place was Vialonga, near Lisbon, at the margins of the creek of Alfarrobeira. The result was the clear defeat and death of the Duke of Coimbra and the establishment of the Braganzas as the most powerful House of Portugal.

20/05/1426

King Mohnyin Thado formally ascends to the throne of Ava.

Mohnyin Thado was king of Ava from 1426 to 1439. He is also known in Burmese history as Mohnyin Min Taya after his longtime tenure as the sawbwa of Mohnyin, a Shan-speaking frontier state. He founded the royal house of Mohnyin that would rule the kingdom until 1527.

20/05/1293

King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Estudio de Escuelas de Generales in Alcalá de Henares.

Sancho IV of Castile called the Brave, was the king of Castile, León and Galicia from 1284 to his death. Following his brother Ferdinand's death, he gained the support of nobles who declared him king instead of Ferdinand's son Alfonso. Faced with revolts throughout his reign, before he died he made his wife regent for his son, who became Ferdinand IV.

20/05/1217

The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

The Second Battle of Lincoln occurred at Lincoln Castle on Saturday 20 May 1217, during the First Barons' War, between the forces of the future Louis VIII of France and those of King Henry III of England. Louis's forces were attacked by a relief force under the command of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Thomas, Count of Perche, commanding the French troops, was killed and Louis was expelled from his base in the southeast of England. The looting that took place afterwards is known as the "Lincoln Fair". The citizens of Lincoln were loyal to Louis so Henry's forces sacked the city.

20/05/1202

A major earthquake hits Syria, widely felt between Sicily and Iraq.

The 1202 Syria earthquake struck at about dawn on 20 May 1202 with an epicenter in southwestern Syria. The earthquake is estimated to have killed around 30,000 people. It was felt over an extensive area, from Sicily to Mesopotamia and Anatolia to upper Egypt, mostly affecting the Ayyubid Sultanate and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The cities of Tyre, Acre and Nablus were heavily damaged. A magnitude of Ms 7.6 has been estimated with damage up to XI on the Mercalli intensity scale.

20/05/0942

A Magyar raiding army defeats forces of the Muslim frontier state of Fraxinetum.

A Hungarian raid in Spain took place in July 942. This was the furthest west the Hungarians raided during the period of their migration into central Europe; although, in a great raid of 924–25, the Hungarians sacked Nîmes and may have got as far as the Pyrenees.

20/05/0921

Christopher Lekapenos is crowned Byzantine co-emperor by his father, emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, on the feast of Whitsun.

Christopher Lekapenos or Lecapenus was the eldest son of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 921 until his death in 931. Christopher was given the position of megas hetaireiarches in spring 919, after Romanos assumed guardianship of the underage Emperor Constantine VII. Romanos, who made himself co-emperor in 920, raised Christopher to co-emperor on 21 May 921 to give his family precedence over Constantine VII's Macedonian line. In 928 Christopher's father-in-law, Niketas, unsuccessfully attempted to incite Christopher to usurp his father, resulting in Niketas being banished. Christopher died in August 931, succeeded by his father and two brothers, Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos, and Constantine VII. In December 944 his brothers overthrew and exiled their father, but they themselves were exiled in January 945 after attempting to oust Constantine VII.

20/05/0794

While visiting the royal Mercian court at Sutton Walls with a view to marrying princess Ælfthryth, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia is taken captive and beheaded.

Mercia was an early medieval English kingdom, one of the seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon period. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England.

20/05/0685

The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.

The Battle of Dun Nechtain or Battle of Nechtansmere was fought between the Picts, led by King Bridei Mac Bili, and the Northumbrians, led by King Ecgfrith, on 20 May 685.

20/05/0491

Empress Ariadne marries Anastasius I. The widowed Augusta is able to choose her successor for the Byzantine throne, after Zeno (late emperor) dies of dysentery.

Aelia Ariadne was Eastern Roman empress as the wife of Zeno and Anastasius I. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with her feast day falling on August 22.

20/05/0325

The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.

The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I, also known as the First Ecumenical Council. It met from May until the end of July 325.

On this day

World Bee Day

World Metrology Day

What the Weather Had in Store for Stockholm on 20th May 2026

20th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 20th May

Famous Birthdays on 20th May

Doug the Pug, American celebrity dog

Jamie Chadwick, English race car driver

Nam Nguyen, Canadian figure skater

Kaoru Mitoma, Japanese footballer

Brian Kelly, Australian rugby league player

Ramy Rabia, Egyptian footballer

Caroline Zhang, American figure skater

Cate Campbell, Malawian-Australian swimmer

Jack Gleeson, Irish actor

Enes Kanter, Turkish basketball player

Fanny Smith, Swiss freestyle skier

Bastian Baker, Swiss singer, songwriter, and performer

Emre Çolak, Turkish footballer

Josh O'Connor, British actor

Siosia Vave, Australian-Tongan rugby league player

Joel Moon, Australian rugby league player

Mike Havenaar, Japanese footballer

Julian Wright, American basketball player

Dexter Blackstock, English footballer

Stéphane Mbia, Cameroonian footballer

Jiřina Svobodová, Czech pole vaulter

Chris Froome, Kenyan-English cyclist

Brendon Goddard, Australian footballer

Mauro Rafael da Silva, Brazilian footballer

Patrick Ewing Jr., American basketball player

Keith Grennan, American football player

N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Indian Film Actor

Óscar Cardozo, Paraguayan footballer

Matt Langridge, English rower

Petr Čech, Czech footballer

Imran Farhat, Pakistani cricketer

Jessica Raine, English actress

Daniel Ribeiro, Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter

Iker Casillas, Spanish footballer

Rachel Platten, American singer and songwriter

Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player

Mark Winterbottom, Australian race car driver

Austin Kearns, American baseball player

Kassim Osgood, American football player

Andrew Scheer, Canadian politician, 28th Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

Jayson Werth, American baseball player

Hristos Banikas, Greek chess player

Pavla Hamáčková-Rybová, Czech pole vaulter

Nils Schumann, German runner

Matt Czuchry, American actor

Leo Franco, Argentinian footballer

Angela Goethals, American actress

Stirling Mortlock, Australian rugby player

Vesa Toskala, Finnish ice hockey player

Ramón Hernández, Venezuelan-American baseball player

Tomoya Satozaki, Japanese baseball player

Juan Minujín, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter

Allison Amend, American novelist and short story writer

Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Indian film director, writer and actor

Nathan Long, Australian rugby league player

Michael Diamond, Australian shooter

Christophe Dominici, French rugby player (died 2020)

Busta Rhymes, American rapper, producer, and actor

Šárka Kašpárková, Czech triple jumper and coach

Hanne Stenvaag, Norwegian politician

Tony Stewart, American race car driver

Terrell Brandon, American basketball player

Louis Theroux, Singaporean-English journalist and producer

Road Dogg, American wrestler, producer, and soldier

Timothy Olyphant, American actor and producer

Graham Brady, English politician

Gabriele Muccino, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter

Dan Abrams, American journalist and author

Ted Allen, American television host and author

Stu Grimson, Canadian ice hockey player, sportscaster, and lawyer

Kōichirō Genba, Japanese politician, 80th Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs

Edin Osmanović, Slovenian footballer, coach, and manager