Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
On 20, Sunday December 1868, Arturo Alessandri born, Chilean statesman, 3-Time President of Chile (d. 1950)
On 20, Wednesday December 1893, Evergreen Park, Illinois, is incorporated.
On 20, Wednesday December 1893, George C. Magoun died, American railroad executive (b. 1840)
On 20, Friday December 1918, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk returns to the Czechoslovak Republic.
On 20, Friday December 1918, Joseph Payne Brennan born, American poet, author (d. 1990)
On 20, Friday December 1918, Sultan Ali bin Hamud of Zanzibar died(b. 1884)
On 20, Monday December 1943, Roger Woodward born, pianist
On 20, Monday December 1943, A military coup is staged in Bolivia.
On 20, Monday December 1943, Jacqueline Pearce born, English screen actress (d. 2018)
On 20, Monday December 1943, Edward L. Beach Sr. died, American naval officer and author (b. 1867)
On 20, Friday December 1968, John Jennings (born 1878) died, politician
On 20, Friday December 1968, The Zodiac Killer is believed to have shot Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on Lake Herman Road, Benicia, San Francisco Bay, California.
On 20, Friday December 1968, Van Nest Polglase died, American art director and head of the design department at RKO Pictures (b. 1898)
On 20, Friday December 1968, John Steinbeck died, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
On 20, Wednesday December 1978, Geremi born, Cameroon footballer
On 20, Wednesday December 1978, Jacqueline Saburido born, Venezuelan-American social activist
On 20, Tuesday December 1988, The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
On 20, Tuesday December 1988, Cheyenne Tozzi born, Australian singer and model
On 20, Tuesday December 1988, Max Robinson died, American broadcast journalist, and ABC News World News Tonight co-anchor (b. 1939)
On 20, Monday December 1993, Isabel Durant born, actress
On 20, Monday December 1993, The United Nations General Assembly votes unanimously to appoint a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
On 20, Monday December 1993, The first corrected images from the Hubble Telescope are taken.
On 20, Monday December 1993, Andrea Belotti born, Italian footballer
On 20, Monday December 1993, Isabel Durant born, Australian actress
On 20, Monday December 1993, Iichirō Hatoyama died, Japanese politician and diplomat (b. 1918)
On 20, Sunday December 1998, Christopher Skase is rushed to a Majorca hospital just days after a Spanish court lifts an order preventing his deportation.
On 20, Sunday December 1998, Ivett Tóth born, Hungarian figure skater
On 20, Sunday December 1998, Kylian Mbappé born, French football player
On 20, Sunday December 1998, Irene Hervey died, American actress (b. 1909)
On 20, Sunday December 1998, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin died, British scientist (b. 1914)
On 20, Saturday December 2008, Joseph Conombo, 3rd Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (b. 1917), died.
On 20, Saturday December 2008, Olga Lepeshinskaya, Russian ballerina (b. 1916), died.
On 20, Saturday December 2008, Robert Mulligan, American director (b. 1925), died.
On 20, Friday December 2013, A two-hour siege took place outside Sydney’s Parliament House when a man in his car threatened to set himself alight.
Other On This Day days in history
Neville Buch