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

Events

• 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
• 1803 - Louisiana Purchase completed
• 1860 - South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States
• 1915 - Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli
• 1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded
• 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87
• 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed
• 1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines
• 1989 - Operation Just Cause: United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega
• 1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia
• 1995 - An American Airlines Flight 965 Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160
• 1999 - Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples
• 1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
• 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.

Births

• 1537 - King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
• 1579 - (baptized) John Fletcher, playwright (d. 1625)
• 1629 - Pieter de Hooch, painter (d. 1684)
• 1792 - Nicolas Charlet, painter (d. 1845)
• 1805 - Thomas Graham, Father of colloid chemistry (d. 1869)
• 1833 - Samuel Mudd, physician, possible conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1883)
• 1838 - Edwin Abbott Abbott, schoolmaster/theologian/author of Flatland (d. 1926)
• 1841 - Ferdinand Buisson, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1927 (d. 1932)
• 1856 - Ferdinand Avenarius , author (d. 1923)
• 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
• 1861 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovene painter (d. 1926)
• 1865 - Elsie De Wolfe , aka Lady Mendl, actress & interior decorator (. 1950)
• 1868 - Harvey Firestone, automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
• 1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
• 1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman , American tennis star (d. 1974)
• 1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, actress
• 1890 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry (d.1967)
• 1893 - Charlotte Bühler , psychologist
• 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
• 1898 - Irene Dunne, actress (d. 1990)
• 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, physicist, inventor (d. 1967)
• 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
• 1902 - Max Lerner , American educator (d. 1992)
• 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
• 1922 - George Roy Hill, film director (d. 2002)
• 1923 - James Leasor , writer, mystery
• 1924 - Friederike Mayröcker , author
• 1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), UK politician
• 1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff , politician
• 1927 - Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea
• 1930 - Noel Ferrier , producer and actress
• 1933 - Jean Carnahan, US Senator
• 1942 - Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002)
• 1946 - Dick Wolf, American TV drama series creator
• 1946 - Uri Geller, psychic TV presenter
• 1952 - Jenny Agutter, actress
• 1954 - Michael Badalucco, actor
• 1955 - Lonesome Bob , singer, songwriter
• 1957 - Anna Vissi, Greek singer
• 1957 - Billy Bragg, singer, songwriter
• 1957 - Mike Watt, bassist
• 1960 - Nalo Hopkinson, science fiction author
• 1965 - Rich Gannon, American football quarterback
• 1970 - Nicole DeBoer, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Dead Zone)
• 1990 - Joanna Levesque, AKA JoJo, singer

Deaths

• 217 - Pope Zephyrinus
• 860 - Æthelbald, King of Wessex
• 910 - Alfonso III of Leon
• 1524 - Thomas Linacre, scholar and physician
• 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
• 1812 - Sacagawea, guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition
• 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general in World War I (b. 1865)
• 1954 - James Hilton, American author (b. 1900)
• 1961 - Moss Hart, author (b. 1904)
• 1961 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
• 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer (b. 1902)
• 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish prime minister (assassination) (b. 1903)
• 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer (b. 1936)
• 1976 - Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
• 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, musician (b. 1887)
• 1984 - Gonzalo Márquez, Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)
• 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
• 1994 - Dean Rusk, former United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
• 1996 - Carl Sagan, astronomer, writer (b. 1934)
• 1997 - Denise Levertov, poet
• 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
• 1998 - Irene Hervey, actress (b. 1910)
• 1999 - Hank Snow, country music singer (b. 1914)
• 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Bengali statesman, politician, and philanthropist. (b. 1920)
• 2001 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)
• 2001 - Léopold Sédar Senghor, first president of Senegal

December 19 - December 21 - November 20 - January 20 -- listing of all days