History of Today in India – 20 April

Explore the history of today 20 April in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 20 April 2026, 04:22 AM

📜 Important Events on 20 April in World History

20 Apr 2023: SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time. It explodes four minutes into flight. Read more
20 Apr 2021: State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin: Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota. Read more
20 Apr 2020: For the first time in history, oil prices drop below zero, an effect of the 2020 Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war. Read more
20 Apr 2015: Ten people are killed in a bomb attack on a convoy carrying food supplies to a United Nations compound in Garowe in the Somali region of Puntland. Read more
20 Apr 2013: A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Lushan County, Ya'an, in China's Sichuan province, killing at least 193 people and injuring thousands. Read more
20 Apr 2012: One hundred twenty-seven people are killed when a plane crashes in a residential area near the Benazir Bhutto International Airport near Islamabad, Pakistan. Read more
20 Apr 2010: The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that lasted six months. Read more
20 Apr 2008: Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race. Read more
20 Apr 2007: Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips barricades himself with a handgun in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before killing a male hostage and himself. Read more
20 Apr 2004: The Nicoll Highway in Singapore collapses, killing four workers. Read more
20 Apr 1999: Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. Read more
20 Apr 1998: Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board. Read more
20 Apr 1985: University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid: Animal Liberation Front rescues 467 animals being tested in a lab at University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California, causing $700,000 in damages to the laboratory, in advocacy for animal rights. Read more
20 Apr 1972: Apollo program: The Apollo 16 Lunar Module Orion, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the Moon. Read more
20 Apr 1968: English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech. Read more
20 Apr 1968: South African Airways Flight 228 crashes near J.G. Strijdom Airport in South West Africa (now Hosea Kutako International Airport in Namibia), killing 123 people. Read more
20 Apr 1961: Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba. Read more
20 Apr 1949: Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War. Read more
20 Apr 1946: The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations. Read more
20 Apr 1945: World War II: U.S. troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union. Read more
20 Apr 1945: World War II: Führerbunker: On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth. Read more
20 Apr 1945: Twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme are killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school. Read more
20 Apr 1922: The Soviet government creates the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR. Read more
20 Apr 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day. Read more
20 Apr 1914: Nineteen men, women, and children participating in a strike are killed in the Ludlow Massacre during the Colorado Coalfield War. Read more
20 Apr 1908: Opening day of competition in the New South Wales Rugby League. Read more
20 Apr 1902: Pierre and Marie Curie refine radium chloride. Read more
20 Apr 1898: U.S. President William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War. Read more
20 Apr 1884: Pope Leo XIII publishes the encyclical Humanum genus, condemning Freemasonry. Read more
20 Apr 1876: The April Uprising begins. Its suppression shocks European opinion, and Bulgarian independence becomes a condition for ending the Russo-Turkish War. Read more
20 Apr 1865: Astronomer Angelo Secchi demonstrates the Secchi disk, which measures water clarity, aboard Pope Pius IX's yacht, the L'Immaculata Concezion. Read more
20 Apr 1862: Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation. Read more
20 Apr 1861: American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia. Read more
20 Apr 1861: Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, attempting to display the value of balloons, makes record journey, flying 900 miles from Cincinnati to South Carolina. Read more
20 Apr 1836: U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory. Read more
20 Apr 1828: René Caillié becomes the second non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu, following Major Gordon Laing. He would also be the first to return alive. Read more
20 Apr 1809: Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory. Read more
20 Apr 1800: The Septinsular Republic is established. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 20 April in World History

20 Apr 2005: Tallyn Da Silva, Australian rugby league player Tallyn Da Silva is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a hooker for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League. Read more
20 Apr 1997: Alexander Zverev, German tennis player Alexander "Sascha" Zverev is a German professional tennis player and the current world No. 3. He has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in June 2022. Zverev has won 24 ATP Tour–level titles in singles and three in doubles, and has been runner-up at three majors. His most notable achievements include a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and titles at the 2018 and the 2021 ATP Finals. Read more
20 Apr 1991: Luke Kuechly, American football player Luke August Kuechly is an American former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons with the Carolina Panthers. Kuechly played college football for the Boston College Eagles, twice earning consensus All-American honors. He was selected by the Panthers ninth overall in the 2012 NFL draft. Read more
20 Apr 1990: Kyle Higashioka, American baseball player Kyle Harris "Higgy" Higashioka is an American professional baseball catcher for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres. He also played for the United States national baseball team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Read more
20 Apr 1990: Jason Behrendorff, Australian cricketer Jason Paul Behrendorff is an Australian cricketer who played One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for Australia and first-class and List A cricket for Western Australia, but has now retired from those formats of cricket. He currently plays Twenty20 cricket in the Big Bash League for the Melbourne Renegades. Read more
20 Apr 1989: Vannesa Rosales, Venezuelan activist and teacher Vannesa Rosales-Gautier is a Venezuelan activist and teacher from Mérida state. Read more
20 Apr 1988: Brandon Belt, American baseball player Brandon Kyle Belt, nicknamed "Baby Giraffe", "Sparky", and "Captain", is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays. He was a member of the 2012 World Series and 2014 World Series championship teams with the Giants and an All Star in 2016. Read more
20 Apr 1987: Jorge Pinto, Portuguese politician Eduardo Jorge Costa Pinto is a Portuguese environmental engineer, politician and member of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. A member of the LIVRE party, he has represented Porto since March 2024. Read more
20 Apr 1984: Harris Wittels, American comedian (died 2015) Harris Lee Wittels was an American comedian. He was a writer for The Sarah Silverman Program, a writer and executive producer for Parks and Recreation, and a recurring guest on Comedy Bang! Bang!
He coined the word humblebrag in 2010. Read more
20 Apr 1983: Miranda Kerr, Australian model Miranda May Kerr is an Australian model. She rose to prominence in 2007 as one of the Victoria's Secret Angels. Kerr was the first Australian Victoria's Secret model and also represented the Australian department store chain David Jones. She has launched her own brand of organic skincare products, KORA Organics, and has written a self-help book. Read more
20 Apr 1980: Emma Husar, Australian politician Emma Husar is a former Australian Labor Party (ALP) member of the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Lindsay, which she represented from 2016 to 2019. During an internal investigation and media reports regarding staff complaints, Husar decided not to recontest her seat and was disendorsed by the ALP in due course. Read more
20 Apr 1978: Carl Greenidge, English cricketer Carl Gary Greenidge is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. He was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, the son of Gordon Greenidge. Read more
20 Apr 1975: Killer Mike, American rapper Michael Santiago Render, known professionally as Killer Mike, is an American rapper, singer, actor, and activist. He made his recording debut on Outkast's fourth album Stankonia (2000), and guest appeared on the duo's Grammy Award-winning single "The Whole World" from their greatest hits album Big Boi and Dre Present… Outkast (2001). He signed with Big Boi's Purple Ribbon Records and Columbia Records to release his debut studio album Monster (2003), which was met with critical acclaim and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200. He parted ways with the label and released two albums—I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind (2006) and I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II (2008)—before signing with T.I.'s Grand Hustle to release his fourth album, Pledge (2011), and later Williams Street to release his fifth album, R.A.P. Music (2012). His sixth album, Michael (2023), was met with continued acclaim and won three awards at 66th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album. Read more
20 Apr 1974: Randy Fine, American politician and former gambling industry executive Randall Adam Fine is an American politician and former gambling industry executive serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 6th congressional district since April 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Florida Senate from 2024 to 2025 and in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016 to 2024. His congressional district covers a six-county area that includes Daytona Beach. Read more
20 Apr 1973: Julie Powell, American food writer and memoirist (died 2022) Julie Anne Powell was an American author known for her 2005 book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen which was based on her blog, the Julie/Julia Project. A film adaptation based on her book called Julie & Julia was released in 2009. Read more
20 Apr 1972: Carmen Electra, American model and actress Carmen Electra is an American actress, model, media personality and singer. Often spotlighted for her looks, she has been considered a sex symbol and pop culture icon since the late 1990s. Read more
20 Apr 1972: Stephen Marley, Jamaican-American musician Stephen Robert Nesta Marley is a Jamaican-American musician. The son of Bob Marley, Marley is an eight-time Grammy Award winner, three times as a solo artist, twice as a producer of his younger paternal half-brother Damian Marley's Halfway Tree and Welcome to Jamrock albums, and a further three times as a member of his older brother Ziggy Marley's group Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers. Read more
20 Apr 1971: Allan Houston, American basketball player Allan Wade Houston Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1993 to 2005. A shooting guard, Houston played nine seasons for the New York Knicks; he was a member of the Knicks' 1999 NBA Finals team. Houston made the NBA All-Star Team twice and also won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. men's basketball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Read more
20 Apr 1970: Shemar Moore, American actor Shemar Franklin Moore is an American actor. His notable roles include Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless, Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds (2005–17), and the lead role of Sergeant Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson on S.W.A.T. (2017–25)—all on CBS. In film, he is known for playing G.U.N. Agent Randall Handel in the second and third films of the Sonic the Hedgehog film series. Moore was also the third permanent host of Soul Train from 1999 to 2003. Read more
20 Apr 1969: Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (died 2025) Felix Baumgartner was an Austrian skydiver, extreme sportsman, and BASE jumper. He was widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. By doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue. Although his name is still attached to the last two records, his exit altitude record was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet with a drogue. Read more
20 Apr 1969: Will Hodgman, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Tasmania William Edward Felix Hodgman is a former Australian politician and diplomat. He was the premier of Tasmania from 2014 to 2020 and state leader of the Liberal Party from 2006 to 2020. He later served as High Commissioner of Australia to Singapore from 2021 to 2023. Read more
20 Apr 1968: Julia Morris, Australian entertainer Julia Carolyn Margaret Morris is an Australian comedian, television presenter, and actress. She has worked extensively in Australian television and radio, touring the country with her solo comedy shows. She relocated to the United Kingdom in 2000, appearing on British television, then returned to Australia in 2007. She currently co-hosts Network 10's I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! Australia alongside Robert Irwin and also narrates Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly Australia. Read more
20 Apr 1967: Lara Jill Miller, American actress Lara Jill Miller is an American actress. She has played Samantha "Sam" Kanisky in the 1980s sitcom Gimme a Break! and Kathy on The Amanda Show. Read more
20 Apr 1967: Mike Portnoy, American drummer and songwriter Michael Stephen Portnoy is an American musician best known as the drummer, backing vocalist, and co-founder of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Read more
20 Apr 1966: David Chalmers, Australian philosopher and academic David John Chalmers is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist, specializing in philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University (NYU), as well as co-director of NYU's Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. In 2006, he was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2013, he was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Read more
20 Apr 1966: David Filo, American businessman, co-founded Yahoo! David Robert Filo is an American billionaire businessman and the co-founder of Yahoo! with classmate Jerry Yang. His Filo Server Program, written in the C programming language, was the server-side software used to dynamically serve variable web pages, called Filo Server Pages, on visits to early versions of the Yahoo! website. Read more
20 Apr 1965: Kostis Chatzidakis, Greek politician, Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism Konstantinos (Kostis) Hatzidakis is a Greek politician who currently serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State in the Second Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He also serves as Vice President of New Democracy, alongside Adonis Georgiadis. Read more
20 Apr 1965: Léa Fazer, Swiss film director, screenwriter and actress Léa Fazer is a Swiss film director, screenwriter and actress. She studied film at the University Paris Diderot. Her film Bienvenue en Suisse was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Read more
20 Apr 1965: Mark Mallia, Maltese painter and sculptor (died 2024) Mark Mallia was a Maltese self-taught outsider artist who worked with abstract and portrait paintings on a variety of mixed media and ceramic sculptures, who worked in Malta, Monaco, the United Kingdom and the United States. Read more
20 Apr 1964: John Carney, American football player John Michael Carney is an American former professional football player who was a kicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent in 1987. Read more
20 Apr 1964: Crispin Glover, American actor and filmmaker Crispin Hellion Glover is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and artist. He is known for portraying eccentric character roles on screen. His breakout role was as George McFly in Back to the Future (1985), which he followed by playing one of the leading roles in River's Edge (1986). Through the 1990s, Glover garnered attention for portraying smaller roles in films such as Wild at Heart (1990), The Doors (1991), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), and Dead Man (1995). Read more
20 Apr 1964: Andy Serkis, English actor and director Andrew Clement Serkis is an English actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his motion capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for computer-generated characters such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), King Kong in the eponymous 2005 film, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series (2011–2017), Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011), Baloo in his self-directed film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) and Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017). Read more
20 Apr 1964: Rosalynn Sumners, American figure skater Rosalynn Diane Sumners is an American former competitive figure skater. She was the World Junior champion in 1980, the U.S. National champion in 1982, 1983 and 1984, World champion in 1983, and won a silver medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics. Read more
20 Apr 1963: Rachel Whiteread, English sculptor Dame Rachel Whiteread is an English artist who primarily produces sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She was the first woman to win the annual Turner Prize in 1993. Read more
20 Apr 1962: Sanjaasürengiin Zorig, Mongolian Politician, (died 1998) Sanjaasürengiin Zorig was a Mongolian politician who played a prominent role in leading the country's 1990 democratic revolution. His supporters called him the "Golden Swallow of Democracy". After his assassination, his sister Oyuun entered politics and founded the Civic Will Party. Read more
20 Apr 1961: Don Mattingly, American baseball player, coach, and manager Donald Arthur Mattingly, nicknamed "Donnie Baseball" and "the Hit Man", is an American former first baseman, manager and coach who currently serves as the bench coach for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent his entire playing career in MLB with the New York Yankees from 1982 to 1995. A 6-time All-Star, he led the American League (AL) in doubles three consecutive years, and in hits and total bases twice each. After winning the AL batting title with a .343 mark in his first full season in 1984, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1985 after hitting .324 with 145 runs batted in (RBI), the highest total in the league in over 30 years. The following year, he was runner-up for the MVP award after batting .352, leading the AL in hits, doubles, slugging percentage and total bases; his 53 doubles and 388 total bases were the highest totals by any major league player in the 1980s, and his totals of doubles and 238 hits remain Yankees franchise records. In 1987 he tied a major league record by hitting home runs in eight consecutive games, and later that year set another record by hitting six grand slams in one season. Read more
20 Apr 1961: Konstantin Lavronenko, Russian actor Konstantin Nikolaevich Lavronenko is a Soviet and Russian actor known for his role as the mysterious father of two boys in 2003 film Vozvrashcheniye. Lavronenko won the Best Actor prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for The Banishment. Read more
20 Apr 1960: Debbie Flintoff-King, Australian hurdler and coach Debra ("Debbie") Lee Flintoff-King, (OAM), née Flintoff, is a retired Australian athlete, and winner of the women's 400 m hurdles event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Read more
20 Apr 1959: Perry Haddock, Australian rugby league player Perry Haddock is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s. Read more
20 Apr 1958: Viacheslav Fetisov, Russian ice hockey player and coach Viacheslav Alexandrovich "Slava" Fetisov MP is a Russian former professional ice hockey defenceman, coach, politician and sports official. He played for HC CSKA Moscow for 13 seasons before joining the National Hockey League (NHL), where he played with the New Jersey Devils and Detroit Red Wings. With the Wings, he won back-to-back Stanley Cups and was part of the team's Russian Five unit. After retiring from his playing career, he became the assistant coach for the New Jersey Devils. Having a very successful four years, he helped get the team to two Stanley Cup finals and one Stanley Cup victory. In addition to that, he won two Olympic gold medals and seven world championships. His Stanley Cup wins, Olympic gold medals, and World Championship wins make him a member of the sport's prestigious Triple Gold Club. Read more
20 Apr 1956: Beatrice Ask, Swedish politician, Swedish Minister for Justice Eva Carin Beatrice Ask is a Swedish politician and a member of the Moderate Party. She served as Governor of Södermanland County from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2025. Read more
20 Apr 1956: Peter Chelsom, English film director, writer, and actor Peter Chelsom is a British film director, writer, and actor. He has directed such films as Hector and the Search for Happiness, Serendipity, and Shall We Dance? Peter Chelsom is a member of the British Academy, the American Academy, The Directors Guild of America, and The Writers Guild of America. Read more
20 Apr 1956: Kakha Bendukidze, Georgian economist and politician (died 2014) Kakha Bendukidze was a Georgian statesman, businessman and philanthropist, founder of the Knowledge Foundation and head of the supervisory board of Agricultural and Free Universities. Read more
20 Apr 1955: Olivia Dahl (died 1962), daughter of Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal Olivia Twenty Dahl was the oldest child of the author Roald Dahl and the American actress Patricia Neal. She died at the age of seven from encephalitis caused by measles, before a vaccine against the disease had been developed. Roald Dahl's books James and the Giant Peach (1961) and The BFG (1982) were dedicated to Olivia. As a result of her death, her father Roald became an advocate for vaccination and wrote the pamphlet "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" in 1988. Read more
20 Apr 1955: Donald Pettit, American engineer and astronaut Donald Roy Pettit is an American astronaut and chemical engineer best known for his orbital astrophotography and in-space inventions such as the Space Cup, which received the first ever patent for an object invented in space. He is a veteran of three long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station, one Space Shuttle mission, and a six-week expedition to find meteorites in Antarctica. As of 2026, at age 71, he is NASA's oldest active astronaut and the third oldest person to reach orbit, behind John Glenn and Larry Connor. He has accumulated 590 days in space. Read more
20 Apr 1955: Svante Pääbo, Swedish geneticist and Nobel Laureate Svante Pääbo is a Swedish geneticist and Nobel Laureate who specialises in the field of evolutionary genetics. As one of the founders of paleogenetics, he has worked extensively on the Neanderthal genome. In 1997, he became founding director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Since 1999, he has been an honorary professor at Leipzig University; he currently teaches molecular evolutionary biology at the university. He is also an adjunct professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. Read more
20 Apr 1953: Sebastian Faulks, English journalist and author Sebastian Charles Faulks is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is most notable for his historical novels set in France – The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. Read more
20 Apr 1953: James Chance, American musician (died 2024) James Chance, also known as James White, was an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer. Read more
20 Apr 1952: Louka Katseli, Greek economist and politician Louka Katseli is a Greek politician and economist. She is Professor Emerita at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She served as chair of the National Bank of Greece from 2015 to 2016, as Minister for Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping from 2009 to 2010 and as Minister of Labour and Social Security from 2010 to 2011.
In January 2025 she was proposed as a candidate for the Greek Presidency in the 2025 Greek presidential election with the support of Syriza. Read more
20 Apr 1951: Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2005) Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer. Over his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA-certified platinum albums and sold over 25 million records worldwide. Vandross was recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the 200 greatest singers of all time (2023) and was named one of the greatest R&B artists by Billboard. NPR also included him among its 50 Great Voices. He won eight Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year in 2004 for "Dance with My Father". He has been inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Read more
20 Apr 1950: Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician (died 2002) Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed was a Soviet and Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Forces before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed third behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 14% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yeltsin administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position, until his death following an Mi-8 helicopter crash. Read more
20 Apr 1950: N. Chandrababu Naidu, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu Naidu, commonly known as CBN, is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh since 2024. He holds the record of longest-serving Chief Minister in the political history of Telugu states. He is the national president of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Read more
20 Apr 1949: Veronica Cartwright, English-American actress Veronica Cartwright is an English actress based in Los Angeles, California. She appeared in science fiction and horror films, and has three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Her younger sister is actress Angela Cartwright. Read more
20 Apr 1949: Toller Cranston, Canadian-Mexican figure skater and painter (died 2015) Toller Shalitoe Montague Cranston was a Canadian figure skater and painter. He won the 1971–1976 Canadian national championships, the 1974 World bronze medal and the 1976 Olympic bronze medal. Despite never winning at the World Figure Skating Championships due to his poor compulsory figures, he won the small medal for free skating at the 1972 and 1974 championships. Cranston is credited by many with having brought a new level of artistry to men's figure skating. Read more
20 Apr 1949: Massimo D'Alema, Italian journalist and politician, 76th Prime Minister of Italy Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also served for a time as national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). Earlier in his career, D'Alema was a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and was the first former Communist party member to become prime minister of a NATO country and the only former PCI prime minister of Italy. Due to his first name and for his dominant position in the left-wing coalitions during the Second Republic, he is referred to as Leader Maximo. He is also the author of several books. Read more
20 Apr 1949: Jessica Lange, American actress Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress and photographer. With a career spanning over five decades, she is known for her roles on stage and screen. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Laurence Olivier Award. Lange is one of few performers to achieve Triple Crown of Acting status. Read more
20 Apr 1948: Matthias Kuhle, German geographer and academic (died 2015) Matthias Kuhle was a German geographer and professor at the University of Göttingen. He edited the book series Geography International published by Shaker Verlag. Read more
20 Apr 1947: Rita Dionne-Marsolais, Canadian economist and politician Rita Dionne-Marsolais is a former Quebec politician and economist. She was the Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Rosemont in the Montreal region and represented the Parti Québécois from 1994 to 2008. Read more
20 Apr 1947: Viktor Suvorov, Russian intelligence officer, historian, and author Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov, is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World War II, the GRU and the Soviet Army, as well as fictional books about the same and related subjects. Read more
20 Apr 1947: Niko Lekishvili, Georgian politician (died 2025) Nikoloz "Niko" Lekishvili was a Georgian politician who was a state minister, Mayor of Tbilisi, and a member of the Parliament of Georgia. Read more
20 Apr 1946: Sandro Chia, Italian painter and sculptor Sandro Chia is an Italian painter and sculptor. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was, with Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria, and Mimmo Paladino, a principal member of the Italian Neo-Expressionist movement which was baptised Transavanguardia by Achille Bonito Oliva. Read more
20 Apr 1945: Michael Brandon, American actor and director Michael Brandon is an American actor. He is known for his role as James Dempsey on the British drama series Dempsey and Makepeace (1985–86) and narrating the American dub of the children's television series Thomas & Friends (2004–12). His theatre credits include the original Broadway production of Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (1969), and Jerry Springer in the West End production of Jerry Springer: The Opera (2003–2004). Read more
20 Apr 1945: Olga Karlatos, Greek actress and Bermudian lawyer Olga Karlatos is a retired Greek actress and Bermudian lawyer, known primarily for performing in Italian horror cinema. Read more
20 Apr 1945: Thein Sein, Burmese general and politician, 8th President of Burma Thein Sein is a Burmese politician and retired army general who served as the eighth president of Myanmar from 2011 to 2016. He previously served as 11th prime minister from 2007 to 2010, and was considered by many in and outside Myanmar as a reformist leader in the post-junta government. Read more
20 Apr 1945: Naftali Temu, Kenyan runner (died 2003) Nabiba Naftali Temu was a Kenyan long-distance runner. He became Kenya's first gold medalist when he won the 10,000 metres race at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Read more
20 Apr 1945: Steve Spurrier, American football player and coach Stephen Orr Spurrier is an American retired football coach and player, who is also commonly referred to by his nicknames, the Head Ball Coach or the ol' Ball Coach. Spurrier was a college football quarterback with the Florida Gators, where he won the 1966 Heisman Trophy. The San Francisco 49ers selected him in the first round of the 1967 NFL draft, and he spent a decade playing in the National Football League (NFL) mainly as a backup quarterback and punter. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986. Read more
20 Apr 1944: Toivo Aare, Estonian journalist and author (died 1999) Toivo Aare was an Estonian journalist. Read more
20 Apr 1943: Alan Beith, English academic and politician Alan James Beith, Baron Beith, is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented Berwick-upon-Tweed as its Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2015. Read more
20 Apr 1943: John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor and director Sir John Eliot Gardiner is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, performing Bach's church cantatas in liturgical order in churches all over Europe, and New York City, with the Monteverdi Choir, and recording them at the locations. Read more
20 Apr 1941: Ryan O'Neal, American actor (died 2023) Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal was an American actor. Born in Los Angeles, he trained as an amateur boxer before beginning a career in acting in 1960. Read more
20 Apr 1940: James Gammon, American actor (died 2010) James Richard Gammon was an American actor, known for playing grizzled "good ol' boy" types in numerous films and television series.
Gammon portrayed Lou Brown, the manager of fictionalized versions of the Cleveland Indians in the movies Major League and Major League II. He was also known for his role as the retired longshoreman Nick Bridges on the CBS television crime drama Nash Bridges. Read more
20 Apr 1939: Peter S. Beagle, American author and screenwriter Peter Soyer Beagle is an American novelist and screenwriter, especially of fantasy fiction. His best-known work is The Last Unicorn (1968) which Locus subscribers voted the number five "All-Time Best Fantasy Novel" in 1987. During the last 25 years he has won several literary awards, including a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2011. He was named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by SFWA in 2018. Read more
20 Apr 1939: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norwegian physician and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Norway– Gro Harlem Brundtland is a Norwegian former physician and politician of the Labour Party, who served three terms as the prime minister of Norway, as the leader of her party from 1981 to 1992, and as the director-general of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003. She is also known for having chaired the Brundtland Commission which presented the Brundtland Report on sustainable development. Read more
20 Apr 1938: Betty Cuthbert, Australian sprinter (died 2017) Elizabeth Alyse Cuthbert, was an Australian athlete and a four-time Olympic champion. She was nicknamed Australia's "Golden Girl". During her career, she set world records for 60 metres, 100 yards, 200 metres, 220 yards and 440 yards. Cuthbert also contributed to Australian relay teams completing a win in the 4 × 100 metres, 4 × 110 yards, 4 × 200 metres and 4 × 220 yards. Cuthbert had a distinctive running style, with a high knee lift and mouth wide open. She was named in 1998 an Australian National Treasure and was inducted as a Legend in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2000. Read more
20 Apr 1938: Manfred Kinder, German runner Manfred Kinder is a West German former sprinter. He won a silver and a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1960 and 1968 Summer Olympics, respectively, and finished in fifth place in 1964. Individually, he competed in the 400 m and 800 m, with the best result of fifth place in the 400 m in 1960. Read more
20 Apr 1938: Eszter Tamási, Hungarian actress (died 1991) Eszter Tamási was a Hungarian actress and TV announcer. Read more
20 Apr 1938: Johnny Tillotson, American singer-songwriter (died 2025) Johnny Tillotson was an American singer-songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary Billboard charts, including "Poetry in Motion", the self-penned "It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin'", "Talk Back Trembling Lips" and "Without You". Read more
20 Apr 1937: Jiří Dienstbier, Czech journalist and politician, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 2011) Jiří Dienstbier was a Czech politician and journalist. Read more
20 Apr 1937: Harvey Quaytman, American painter and educator (died 2002) Harvey Quaytman was a geometric abstraction painter best known for large modernist canvases with powerful monochromatic tones, in layered compositions, often with hard edges – inspired by Malevich and Mondrian. He had more than 60 solo exhibitions in his career, and his works are held in the collections of many top public museums. Read more
20 Apr 1937: George Takei, American actor George Takei is an American actor, author, and activist. He is known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise. Read more
20 Apr 1936: Pauli Ellefsen, Faroese technician, surveyor, and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (died 2012) Joen Pauli Højgaard Ellefsen was a Faroese politician and member of the Union Party. He was Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands from 1981 to 1985. Read more
20 Apr 1936: Pat Roberts, American captain, journalist, and politician Charles Patrick Roberts is a retired American politician and journalist who served as a United States senator from Kansas from 1997 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Roberts served 8 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1981 to 1997, before his election to the Senate. Read more
20 Apr 1932: Myriam Bru, French actress Myriam Bru is a French retired actress and the wife of German actor Horst Buchholz, to whom she was married from 1958 until his death in 2003. She appeared in 16 films between 1952 and her marriage in 1958, when she retired from acting to raise her two children, one of whom is German actor Christopher Buchholz. Read more
20 Apr 1931: Michael Allenby, 3rd Viscount Allenby, English lieutenant and politician (died 2014) Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Jaffray Hynman Allenby, 3rd Viscount Allenby was a British politician, hereditary peer, and horse welfare advocate. Read more
20 Apr 1931: John Eccles, 2nd Viscount Eccles, English businessman and politician John Dawson Eccles, 2nd Viscount Eccles,, is a British Conservative peer and businessman. He is one of the ninety-two hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. Read more
20 Apr 1930: Dwight Gustafson, American composer and conductor (died 2014) Dwight Leonard Gustafson was an American composer, conductor, and dean of the School of Fine Arts at Bob Jones University. Read more
20 Apr 1930: Antony Jay, English director and screenwriter (died 2016) Sir Antony Rupert Jay was an English writer and broadcaster. With Jonathan Lynn, he co-wrote the British political-satirical comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980–88). He also wrote The Householder's Guide to Community Defence Against Bureaucratic Aggression (1972). Read more
20 Apr 1928: Robert Byrne, American chess player and author (died 2013) Robert Eugene Byrne was an American chess player and chess author who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He won the U.S. Championship in 1972, and was a World Chess Championship Candidate in 1974. Byrne represented the United States nine times in Chess Olympiads from 1952 to 1976 and won seven medals. He was the chess columnist from 1972 to 2006 for The New York Times, which ran his final column on November 12, 2006. Byrne worked as a university professor for many years, before becoming a chess professional in the early 1970s. Read more
20 Apr 1928: Johnny Gavin, Irish international footballer (died 2007) John Thomas Gavin was an Irish footballer who spent most of his career in England. He played for Janesboro United, Limerick, Ireland, Norwich City, Watford, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace, Cambridge City, Newmarket Town and Fulbourn. Read more
20 Apr 1927: Bud Cullen, Canadian judge and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Employment and Immigration (died 2005) Jack Sydney George "Bud" Cullen, was a Canadian Federal Court judge and politician. Read more
20 Apr 1927: Phil Hill, American race car driver (died 2008) Philip Toll Hill Jr. was an American racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1958 to 1966. Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1961 with Ferrari, and won three Grands Prix across eight seasons. In endurance racing, Hill was a three-time winner of both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring, all with Ferrari. Upon winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1964 with NART, Hill became the first driver to complete the Triple Crown of endurance racing. Read more
20 Apr 1927: K. Alex Müller, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023) Karl Alexander Müller was a Swiss physicist and Nobel laureate. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987 with Georg Bednorz for their work in superconductivity in ceramic materials. Read more
20 Apr 1925: Ernie Stautner, German-American football player and coach (died 2006) Ernest Alfred Stautner was a German-American professional football player and coach. He played as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He also served as a coach for the Steelers, Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Boston College Eagles. Stautner was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969. Read more
20 Apr 1925: Elena Verdugo, American actress (died 2017) Elena Angela Verdugo was an American actress, who began in films at the age of five in Cavalier of the West (1931). Her career in radio, television, and film spanned six decades. Read more
20 Apr 1924: Nina Foch, Dutch-American actress (died 2008) Nina Foch was an American actress who later became a drama instructor. Her career spanned 6 decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television credits. She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Foch established herself as a dramatic actress in the late 1940s, often playing cool, aloof sophisticates. Read more
20 Apr 1924: Leslie Phillips, English actor and producer (died 2022) Leslie Samuel Phillips was an English actor. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. He appeared in the Carry On and Doctor in the House film series as well as the long-running BBC radio comedy series The Navy Lark. On the stage, Phillips was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1977. In his later career, Phillips took on dramatic parts including a BAFTA-nominated role alongside Peter O'Toole in Venus (2006). He provided the voice of the Sorting Hat in three of the Harry Potter films. Read more
20 Apr 1924: Guy Rocher, Canadian sociologist and academic (died 2025) Guy Arthur Auguste Rocher was a Canadian academic and sociologist. Read more
20 Apr 1923: Mother Angelica, American nun and broadcaster, founded Eternal Word Television Network (died 2016) Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, commonly referred to as "Mother Angelica", was an American Catholic nun of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. Read more
20 Apr 1923: Irene Lieblich, Polish-American painter and illustrator (died 2008) Irene Lieblich was a Polish-born artist and Holocaust survivor noted for illustrating the books of Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer and for her paintings highlighting Jewish life and culture. She is also a distant cousin of noted Yiddish language author and playwright Isaac Leib Peretz. Read more
20 Apr 1923: Tito Puente, American drummer and producer (died 2000) Ernest Anthony Puente Jr., commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, vibraphonist and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also known as “El Rey de los Timbales,” or “The King of the Timbales.” Read more
20 Apr 1921: Katarína Kolníková, Slovak actress (died 2006) Katarína Kolníková was a Slovak stage actress. Read more
20 Apr 1920: Frances Ames, South African neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist (died 2002) Frances Rix Ames was a South African neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist, best known for leading the medical ethics inquiry into the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died from medical neglect after being tortured in police custody. When the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) declined to discipline the chief district surgeon and his assistant who treated Biko, Ames and a group of five academics and physicians raised funds and fought an eight-year legal battle against the medical establishment. Ames risked her personal safety and academic career in her pursuit of justice, taking the dispute to the South African Supreme Court, where she eventually won the case in 1985. Read more
20 Apr 1920: Clement Isong, Nigerian banker and politician, Governor of Cross River State (died 2000) Clement Nyong Isong ; 20 April 1920 – 29 May 2000) was a Nigerian banker and politician who was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1967 to 1975 during the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon. He was later elected governor of Cross River State (1979–1983) in the Nigerian Second Republic. Read more
20 Apr 1920: John Paul Stevens, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 2019) John Paul Stevens was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. He was the second-oldest and third-longest-serving justice in U.S. Supreme Court history. At the time of his death in 2019 at age 99, he was the longest-lived Supreme Court justice ever. His long tenure saw him write for the Court on most issues of American law, including civil liberties, the death penalty, government action, and intellectual property. Despite being a registered Republican who throughout his life identified as a conservative, Stevens was considered to have been on the liberal side of the Court at the time of his retirement. Read more
20 Apr 1919: Richard Hillary, Australian lieutenant and pilot (died 1943) Flight Lieutenant Richard Hope Hillary was an Anglo-Australian Royal Air Force fighter pilot during the Second World War. He wrote the book The Last Enemy about his experiences during the Battle of Britain. Read more
20 Apr 1918: Kai Siegbahn, Swedish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2007) Kai Manne Börje Siegbahn was a Swedish physicist who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics. Read more
20 Apr 1916: Yoko Matsuoka, Japanese writer (died 1979) Yoko Matsuoka was a Japanese writer, literary agent, translator, and anti-war and women's rights activist. She was born in Tokyo and was educated in Japan and Korea before being sent to study in the United States in 1931, as a protest to the Asian Exclusion Act. She graduated from Shaker Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1935 and earned a degree in political science from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania in 1939. During her schooling, she became interested in international relations and was active in organizations which promoted peace and friendship. In the interwar era, she was active in the Pan-Pacific Women's Association and attended several youth conferences aimed at developing international cooperation. On her way home to Japan when World War II began, she began to examine the criticism leveled at Japan's militaristic policies. Read more
20 Apr 1916: Nasiba Zeynalova, Azerbaijani actress (died 2004) Nasiba Jahangir gizi Zeynalova was a Soviet and Azerbaijani actress. People's Artist of Azerbaijan SSR (1967). Read more
20 Apr 1915: Joseph Wolpe, South African psychotherapist and physician (died 1997) Joseph Wolpe was a South African psychiatrist and one of the most influential figures in behavior therapy. Read more
20 Apr 1914: Betty Lou Gerson, American actress (died 1999) Betty Lou Gerson was an American actress, predominantly active in radio but also in film and television and as a voice actress. She is best known as the voice of Cruella de Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) for which she was named a Disney Legend in 1996. Read more
20 Apr 1913: Mimis Fotopoulos, Greek actor and poet (died 1986) Dimitris "Mimis" Fotopoulos was a Greek actor, writer, poet, and artist. Read more
20 Apr 1913: Willi Hennig, German biologist and entomologist (died 1976) Emil Hans Willi Hennig was a German biologist and zoologist who is considered the founder of phylogenetic systematics, otherwise known as cladistics. In 1945 as a prisoner of war, Hennig began work on his theory of cladistics, which he published in German in 1950, with a substantially revised English translation published in 1966. With his works on evolution and systematics he revolutionised the view of the natural order of beings. As a taxonomist, he specialised in dipterans. Read more
20 Apr 1910: Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, Turkish diplomat and politician (died 1961) Fatin Rüştü Zorlu was a Turkish diplomat and politician. He was executed by hanging after the coup d'état in 1960 along with two other politicians. Read more
20 Apr 1908: Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player, pianist, bandleader, and actor (died 2002) Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996. Read more
20 Apr 1907: Miran Bakhsh, Pakistani cricketer (died 1991) Malik Miran Bakhsh, also known as Miran Bux, was a Pakistani international cricketer who played in two Test matches in 1955. Read more
20 Apr 1907: Augoustinos Kantiotes, Greek bishop (died 2010) Metropolitan Augoustinos Kantiotes of Florina was a bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church. He was born in Paros in village of Piso Livadi. Read more
20 Apr 1904: Bruce Cabot, American actor (died 1972) Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933) and for his roles in films such as The Last of the Mohicans (1936), Fritz Lang's Fury (1936), and the Western Dodge City (1939). He was also known as one of "Wayne's Regulars", appearing in a number of John Wayne films beginning with Angel and the Badman (1947), and concluding with Big Jake (1971). Read more
20 Apr 1899: Alan Arnett McLeod, Canadian lieutenant, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1918) Alan Arnett McLeod, VC was a Canadian soldier, aviator, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. McLeod served as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force during the First World War. Read more
20 Apr 1895: Henry de Montherlant, French essayist, novelist, and dramatist (died 1972) Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant was a French essayist, novelist, and dramatist. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. Read more
20 Apr 1893: Harold Lloyd, American actor, comedian, and producer (died 1971) Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films. Read more
20 Apr 1893: Joan Miró, Spanish painter and sculptor (died 1983) Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramist from Spain. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona in 1975, and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, was established in his adoptive city of Palma, Mallorca in 1981.
Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism but with a personal style, sometimes also veering into Fauvism and Expressionism. He was notable for his interest in the unconscious or the subconscious mind, reflected in his re-creation of the childlike. His difficult-to-classify works also had a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting. Read more
20 Apr 1891: Dave Bancroft, American baseball player and manager (died 1972) David James Bancroft was an American professional baseball player and manager. A shortstop, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants, Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Robins between 1915 and 1930. Read more
20 Apr 1890: Maurice Duplessis, Canadian lawyer and politician, 16th Premier of Quebec (died 1959) Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis,, popularly known as "Le Chef", was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A conservative, nationalist, populist, anti-communist, anti-unionist and fervent Catholic, Duplessis and his party, the Union Nationale, dominated provincial politics from the 1920s to the 1950s. With a total of 18 years and 82 days in office, he remains the longest-serving premier in Quebec history. Read more
20 Apr 1890: Adolf Schärf, Austrian soldier and politician, 6th President of Austria (died 1965) Adolf Schärf was an Austrian politician of the Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ). He served as the vice-chancellor from 1945 to 1957 and as the president of Austria from 1957 until his death. Read more
20 Apr 1889: Albert Jean Amateau, Turkish rabbi, lawyer, and activist (died 1996) Albert Jean Amateau was a Turkish rabbi, businessman, lawyer, social activist, and denier of the Armenian genocide. Read more
20 Apr 1889: Prince Erik, Duke of Västmanland (died 1918) Prince Erik, Duke of Västmanland was a Swedish and Norwegian prince. He was the third and youngest son of King Gustav V of Sweden and Victoria of Baden and was known to be disabled. Read more
20 Apr 1889: Marie-Antoinette de Geuser, French mystic (died 1918) Marie-Antoinette de Geuser was a French nun. Being in close contact with the Carmelites, her state of health and the events of World War I did not allow her to take her vows. Read more
20 Apr 1889: Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born German politician, Führer of Nazi Germany (died 1945) Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Read more
20 Apr 1889: Tonny Kessler, Dutch footballer (died 1960) Hermann Anton Joseph "Tonny" Kessler was a Dutch footballer. Kessler, along with brother Dé and cousins Boeli and Dolf, played club football for amateur side HVV Den Haag. Kessler won three caps for the Netherlands national side between 1907 and 1913, scoring one goal. After playing alongside each other in a match against England in March 1913, the Kessler brothers became the first brothers to represent the Netherlands together in an international match. Read more
20 Apr 1884: Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (died 1966) Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a member of the British royal family, a male-line granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She later married into the Spanish royal family, and was the wife of Prince Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain, a first cousin of Alfonso XIII of Spain. Read more
20 Apr 1884: Oliver Kirk, American boxer (died 1960) Oliver Leonard Kirk was an American bantamweight and featherweight professional boxer who won two gold medals in Boxing at the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was born in Beatrice, Nebraska and died in St. Louis, Missouri. Read more
20 Apr 1884: Daniel Varoujan, Armenian poet and educator (died 1915) Daniel Varoujan was an Armenian poet of the early 20th century. At the age of 31, when he was reaching international stature, he was deported and murdered by the Young Turk government, as part of the officially planned and executed Armenian genocide. Read more
20 Apr 1882: Holland Smith, American general (died 1967) Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, KCB was a general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare. His nickname, "Howlin' Mad" Smith, had been given to him by his troops in the Dominican Republic in 1916. Read more
20 Apr 1879: Paul Poiret, French fashion designer (died 1944) Alexandre Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer, a master couturier during the first two decades of the 20th century. He was the founder of his namesake haute couture house. Read more
20 Apr 1875: Vladimir Vidrić, Croatian poet and lawyer (died 1909) Vladimir Vidrić was a Croatian poet, and is considered one of the major figures of Croatian secessionist poetry. Read more
20 Apr 1873: James Harcourt, English character actor (died 1951) James Harcourt was an English character actor. Read more
20 Apr 1871: Sydney Chapman, English economist and civil servant (died 1951) Sir Sydney John Chapman KCB CBE was an English economist and civil servant. He was Chief Economic Adviser to HM Government from 1927 to 1932. Read more
20 Apr 1860: Justinien de Clary, French target shooter (died 1933) Count Clary was a French sport shooter who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century in trap shooting. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the bronze medal in the trap competition. Fellow Frenchmen Roger de Barbarin and Rene Guyot won gold and silver respectively. He was born and died in Paris. Read more
20 Apr 1851: Alexander Dianin, Russian chemist (died 1918) Aleksandr Pavlovich Dianin was a Russian chemist from Saint Petersburg. He carried out studies on phenols and discovered a phenol derivative now known as bisphenol A and the accordingly named Dianin's compound. He was married to the adopted daughter of fellow chemist Alexander Borodin. In 1887, Dianin succeeded his father-in-law as chair of the Chemistry Department at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Read more
20 Apr 1851: Siegmund Lubin, Polish-American businessman, founded the Lubin Manufacturing Company (died 1923) Siegmund Lubin was an American motion picture pioneer who founded the Lubin Manufacturing Company (1902–1917) of Philadelphia. Read more
20 Apr 1850: Daniel Chester French, American sculptor, designed the Lincoln statue (died 1931) Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works include The Minute Man, an 1874 statue in Concord, Massachusetts, and his 1920 monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Read more
20 Apr 1840: Odilon Redon, French painter and illustrator (died 1916) Odilon Redon was a French Symbolist draftsman, printmaker, and painter. Read more
20 Apr 1839: Carol I of Romania, King of Romania (died 1914) Carol I or Charles I of Romania, nicknamed the King of Independence ; was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (Domnitor) from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He was elected Prince of the Romanian United Principalities on 20 April 1866 after the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup d'état. In May 1877, Romania was proclaimed an independent and sovereign nation. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire (1878) in the Russo-Turkish War secured Romanian independence, and he was proclaimed King on 26 March [O.S. 14 March] 1881. He was the first ruler of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty, which ruled the country until the proclamation of a socialist republic in 1947. Read more
20 Apr 1826: Dinah Craik, English author and poet (died 1887) Dinah Maria Craik was an English novelist and poet. She wrote the novel, John Halifax, Gentleman, which presents the mid-Victorian ideals of English middle-class life. Read more
20 Apr 1818: Heinrich Göbel, German-American mechanic and engineer (died 1893) Heinrich Göbel was a German-born American precision mechanic and inventor also known by his anglicized name Henry Goebel. In 1848 he immigrated to New York City, where he resided until his death. He received American citizenship in 1865. Read more
20 Apr 1816: Bogoslav Šulek, Croatian philologist, historian, and lexicographer (died 1895) Bogoslav Šulek was a Croatian philologist, historian and lexicographer. He was very influential in creating Croatian terminology in the areas of social and natural sciences, technology and civilization. Read more
20 Apr 1808: Napoleon III, French politician, 1st President of France, Emperor of French Second Empire (died 1873) Napoleon III was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last monarch of France. He created the Second French Empire in 1852, and this period saw rapid industrialization in France, rapid expansion of infrastructure and rise of French influence in world politics after several decades of instability. He was the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland and the nephew of Napoleon, Emperor of the French. As head of state of France for 22 years, he was the longest-reigning French head of state since the end of the ancien régime. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 20 April in World History

20 Apr 2025: Hugo Gatti, Argentine footballer (born 1944) Hugo Orlando Gatti was an Argentine football goalkeeper who played in the Argentine Primera División for 26 seasons and set a record of 765 league and 52 international appearances, totaling 817 games played. Gatti is the player with the most appearances in the Argentine league ever. Read more
20 Apr 2024: Antonio Cantafora, Italian film and television actor (born 1944) Antonio Cantafora, also known professionally as Michael Coby, was an Italian film and television actor. Read more
20 Apr 2024: Andrew Davis, English conductor (born 1944) Sir Andrew Frank Davis was an English conductor. He was the long-time chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He was music director at the Glyndebourne Festival from 1988 to 2000, and especially known for conducting the traditional Last Night of The Proms, including Last Night speeches. He was music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 2000 to the 2020/21 season. Read more
20 Apr 2024: Roman Gabriel, Filipino-American NFL American footballer Roman Ildonzo Gabriel Jr. was an American professional football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the NC State Wolfpack, earning first-team All-American honors twice. Gabriel was the second overall pick in the 1962 NFL draft and played 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, followed by five seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was notable for being the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL and the first and only Asian American to win the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, which he received in 1969. Read more
20 Apr 2024: Lourdes Portillo, Mexican film director, producer, and writer (born 1943) Lourdes Portillo was a Mexican film director, producer, and writer. The political perspectives of Portillo's films have been described as "nuanced" and versed with a point of view balanced by her experience as a lesbian and Chicana woman. Portillo films have been widely studied and analyzed, particularly by scholars in the field of Chicano studies. Read more
20 Apr 2022: Gavin Millar, Scottish film director (born 1938) Gavin Millar was a Scottish film director, critic and television presenter. Read more
20 Apr 2021: Idriss Déby, Chadian politician and military officer (born 1952) Idriss Déby Itno was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the sixth president of Chad from 1991 until his death in 2021 during the Northern Chad offensive. His term of 30 years makes him Chad's longest-serving president. Read more
20 Apr 2021: Monte Hellman, American film director (born 1929) Monte Hellman was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the horror film Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother. Read more
20 Apr 2021: Les McKeown, Scottish pop singer (born 1955) Leslie Richard McKeown was a Scottish singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Bay City Rollers during their most successful period in the 1970s. The band's original lead singer, Gordon "Nobby" Clark, decided to leave the band in 1972 after fulfilling his touring obligations and McKeown joined the band as their lead vocalist by 1973 and began to re-record his vocals on tracks including "Remember (Sha-La-La-La)" and "Saturday Night", which then became a US number 1 hit. Read more
20 Apr 2018: Avicii, Swedish DJ and musician (born 1989) Tim Bergling, known professionally as Avicii, was a Swedish DJ, remixer, and record producer. His musical style was primarily pop-oriented house music, and he is an influence on many artists. Several music publications have credited Avicii as one of the DJs who took electronic music to Top 40 radio in the early 2010s. He is considered one of the most popular and successful electronic dance music (EDM) genre artists of all time. Read more
20 Apr 2016: Victoria Wood, British comedian, actress and writer (born 1953) Victoria Wood was an English comedian, actress, musician, screenwriter, and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades, and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life and included references to activities, attitudes and products that are considered to exemplify Britain. She was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class. Read more
20 Apr 2014: Neville Wran, Australian politician, 35th Premier of New South Wales (born 1926) Neville Kenneth Wran was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) from 1986 to 1991. Read more
20 Apr 2012: Bert Weedon, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1920) Herbert Maurice William Weedon was an English guitarist whose style of playing was popular and influential during the 1950s and 1960s. He was the first British guitarist to have a hit record in the UK singles chart, in 1959, and his best-selling tutorial, Play in a Day, was a major influence on many leading British musicians, such as Eric Clapton, Brian May and Paul McCartney. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to music. Read more
20 Apr 2011: Tim Hetherington, English photographer and journalist (born 1970) Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington was a British photojournalist. He produced books, films and other work that "ranged from multi-screen installations, to fly-poster exhibitions, to handheld device downloads" and was a regular contributor to Vanity Fair. Read more
20 Apr 2010: Dorothy Height, American educator and activist (born 1912) Dorothy Irene Height was an African-American civil rights and women's rights activist. She focused on the issues of Foundational Black American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness. Height is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and Foundational Black Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. Height's role in the "Big Six" civil rights movement was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism. In 1974, she was named to the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published the Belmont Report, a bioethics report in response to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Read more
20 Apr 2008: Monica Lovinescu, Romanian journalist and author (born 1923) Monica Lovinescu was a Romanian essayist, short story writer, literary critic, translator, and journalist, noted for her activities as an opponent of the Romanian Communist regime. She published several works under the pseudonyms Monique Saint-Come and Claude Pascal. She is the daughter of literary figure Eugen Lovinescu. She was married to the literary critic Virgil Ierunca. Read more
20 Apr 2007: Andrew Hill, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1931) Andrew Hill was an American jazz pianist and composer. Read more
20 Apr 2007: Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese bishop (born 1931) Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of Beijing was a top leader of the Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA). Read more
20 Apr 2005: Fumio Niwa, Japanese journalist and author (born 1904) Fumio Niwa was a Japanese novelist with a long list of works, the most famous in the West being his novel The Buddha Tree. Read more
20 Apr 2004: Lizzy Mercier Descloux, French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter (born 1956) Martine-Elisabeth Mercier Descloux was a French musician, singer-songwriter, and composer associated with New York City's late 1970s no wave music scene. She recorded several albums on ZE Records beginning with her 1979 debut Press Color. Read more
20 Apr 2003: Bernard Katz, German-English biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911) Sir Bernard Katz, FRS was a German-born British physician and biophysicist, noted for his work on nerve physiology; specifically, for his work on synaptic transmission at the nerve-muscle junction. He shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1970 with Julius Axelrod and Ulf von Euler. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1969. Read more
20 Apr 2002: Alan Dale, American singer (born 1925) Alan Dale was an American singer of traditional popular and rock and roll music. Read more
20 Apr 2001: Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer (born 1946) Giuseppe Sinopoli was an Italian conductor and composer. Read more
20 Apr 1999: Rick Rude, American professional wrestler (born 1958) Richard Erwin Rood, better known by his ring name "Ravishing" Rick Rude, was an American professional wrestler who performed for various promotions, including the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Read more
20 Apr 1999: Rachel Scott, American victim of Columbine High School massacre (born 1981) Rachel Joy Scott was an American student who was the first victim of the Columbine High School massacre, in which twelve other students and a teacher were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who then committed suicide. Read more
20 Apr 1999: Cassie Bernall, American victim of Columbine High School massacre (born 1981) Cassie René Bernall was an American student who was killed in the Columbine High School massacre, where 12 more students and a teacher were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who then committed suicide. It was reported that Bernall had been asked whether or not she believed in God, and she said "Yes", before being shot during the massacre. However, investigators concluded the person who was asked about her belief in God was not Cassie Bernall, but actually Valeen Schnurr, who survived the shooting. Read more
20 Apr 1996: Trần Văn Trà, Vietnamese general and politician (born 1918) Nguyễn Chấn, known as Trần Văn Trà was a colonel-general in the People's Army of Vietnam. He was Commander of B2 Front during 1963 – 1967, Deputy Commander of Liberation Army of South Vietnam during 1968 – 1972; member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Vietnam from 1960 to 1982 and second chairman of Saigon administration after Fall of Saigon. Read more
20 Apr 1995: Milovan Đilas, Yugoslav communist, politician, theorist and author (born 1911) Milovan Djilas was a Yugoslav communist politician, theorist and author. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as well as in the post-war government. A self-identified democratic socialist, Djilas became one of the best-known and most prominent dissidents in Yugoslavia and all of Eastern Europe. Read more
20 Apr 1993: Cantinflas, Mexican actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1911) Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes, known by the stage name Cantinflas, was a Mexican comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He is considered to have been the most widely accomplished Mexican comedian and is well known throughout Latin America and Spain. Read more
20 Apr 1992: Marjorie Gestring, American springboard diver (born 1922) Marjorie Gestring was a competitive springboard diver from the United States. At the age of 13 years and 268 days, she won the gold medal in 3-meter springboard diving at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, making her at the time the youngest person ever to win an Olympic gold medal. She remains the second-youngest Olympic gold medalist, as of 2026. A multi-time national diving champion in the United States, she was given a second Olympic gold medal by the United States Olympic Committee after the 1940 Summer Olympics were called off due to the advent of World War II. Gestring attempted to return to the Olympics at the 1948 Games, but failed to qualify for the US team. She has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. Read more
20 Apr 1992: Benny Hill, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (born 1924) Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill was an English comedian, actor and scriptwriter. He is best remembered for his television programme, The Benny Hill Show, a comedy-variety show that merged slapstick, burlesque, double entendre and innuendo in live and filmed segments with Hill in almost every one. Read more
20 Apr 1991: Steve Marriott, English singer-songwriter and producer (born 1947) Stephen Peter Marriott was an English musician, guitarist, singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and appeared in the West End, before taking a role in music. He co-founded and played in the rock bands Small Faces and Humble Pie, in a career spanning over 20 years. Marriott was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 as a member of Small Faces. Read more
20 Apr 1991: Don Siegel, American director and producer (born 1912) Donald Siegel was an American film and television director, producer, and editor. He was described by The New York Times as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut plots centered on individualistic loners". Read more
20 Apr 1986: Sibte Hassan, Pakistani journalist, scholar, and activist (born 1916) Syed Sibt-e-Hasan was an eminent scholar, journalist and political activist of Pakistan. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Socialism and Marxism in Pakistan, as well as the moving spirit behind the Progressive Writers Association. Read more
20 Apr 1982: Archibald MacLeish, American poet, playwright, and lawyer (born 1892) Archibald MacLeish was an American poet and writer, who was associated with the modernist school of poetry. MacLeish studied English at Yale University and law at Harvard University. He enlisted in and saw action during the First World War and lived in Paris in the 1920s. On returning to the United States, he contributed to Henry Luce's magazine Fortune from 1929 to 1938. For five years, MacLeish was the ninth Librarian of Congress, a post he accepted at the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. From 1949 to 1962, he was Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. He was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes for his work. Read more
20 Apr 1980: M. Canagaratnam, Sri Lankan politician (born 1924) Mylvaganam Canagaratnam was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and Member of Parliament. Read more
20 Apr 1978: Lord Richard Cecil, British soldier and journalist in the Rhodesian Bush War Lord Richard Valentine Gascoyne-Cecil was a British soldier, Conservative politician and freelance journalist who was killed in Rhodesia whilst covering the country's Bush War. The second son of the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, Cecil was in Rhodesia with a freelance film-maker, Nick Downie, recording material for a television documentary about the war. Carrying a rifle and wearing a Rhodesian Army uniform, he was shot dead at close range by a member of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army. The Rhodesian government reported that Cecil had been "killed in action"; his body was returned to the United Kingdom for burial. Read more
20 Apr 1969: Vjekoslav Luburić, Croatian Ustaše official and concentration camp administrator (born 1914) Vjekoslav Luburić was a Croatian Ustaša official who headed the system of concentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during much of World War II. Luburić also personally oversaw and spearheaded the contemporaneous genocides of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the NDH. Read more
20 Apr 1968: Rudolph Dirks, German-American illustrator (born 1877) Rudolph Dirks was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for The Katzenjammer Kids. Read more
20 Apr 1967: Léo-Paul Desrosiers, Canadian journalist and author (born 1896) Léo-Paul Desrosiers was a Quebec writer and journalist well known for his historical novels. He was influenced by the nationalism of Henri Bourassa and Lionel-Adolphe Groulx. Read more
20 Apr 1951: Ivanoe Bonomi, Italian politician, 25th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1873) Ivanoe Bonomi was an Italian politician and journalist who served as Prime Minister of Italy from 1921 to 1922 and again from 1944 to 1945. Read more
20 Apr 1947: Christian X of Denmark (born 1870) Christian X was King of Denmark from 1912 until his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, holding the title as a result of the personal union between Denmark and independent Iceland between 1918 and 1944. Read more
20 Apr 1946: Mae Busch, Australian actress (born 1891) Mae Busch was an Australian-born actress who worked in both silent and sound films in early Hollywood. In the latter part of her career she appeared in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, frequently playing Hardy's shrewish wife. Read more
20 Apr 1945: Erwin Bumke, Polish-German jurist and politician (born 1874) Erwin Konrad Eduard Bumke was the last president of the Reichsgericht, the supreme civil and criminal court of the German Reich, serving from 1929 to 1945. As such, according to the Weimar Constitution, he should have become acting President of Germany upon the death of Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934, and thus the acting Head of State of Nazi Germany. The Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich, passed by the Hitler cabinet, unconstitutionally prevented that by combining the presidency with the chancellorship, making Adolf Hitler the undisputed ruler of Germany. Following the Nazi takeover, Bumke extensively cooperated with the Party in establishing a Verbrecherstaat. Read more
20 Apr 1944: Elmer Gedeon, American baseball player and pilot (born 1917) Elmer John Gedeon was an American professional baseball player, appearing in several games for the Washington Senators in 1939. Gedeon and Harry O'Neill were the only two Major League Baseball players killed during World War II. Gedeon flew several missions in the European Theater of Operations as an officer of the United States Army Air Forces before being shot down over France. Read more
20 Apr 1942: Jüri Jaakson, Estonian businessman and politician, 6th State Elder of Estonia (born 1870) Jüri Jaakson was an Estonian lawyer and statesman. Read more
20 Apr 1935: John Cameron, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1872) John Cameron was a Scottish footballer and manager. He played as a forward for Queen's Park, Everton and Scotland and was noted as an effective goal-maker and goalscorer. In 1899 he became player-manager at Tottenham Hotspur and guided them to victory in the 1901 FA Cup. As a result, they became the only club outside the English Football League to win the competition. In 1898 he became the first secretary of the Association Footballers' Union, which was the ill-fated fore-runner of the Professional Footballers' Association. He later coached Dresdner SC and during the First World War he was interned at Ruhleben, a civilian detention camp in Germany. After the war he coached Ayr United for one season and then became a football journalist, author and publisher. He had previously worked as a columnist for various newspapers before the war. Read more
20 Apr 1935: Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer (born 1863) Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile. Read more
20 Apr 1932: Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician and philosopher (born 1858) Giuseppe Peano was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation, for instance, notations of set operations. The standard axiomatization of the natural numbers is named the Peano axioms in his honor. As part of this effort, he made key contributions to the modern rigorous and systematic treatment of the method of mathematical induction. He spent most of his career teaching mathematics at the University of Turin. He also created an international auxiliary language, Latino sine flexione, which is a simplified version of Classical Latin. Most of his books and papers are in Latino sine flexione, while others are in Italian. Read more
20 Apr 1931: Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet, Scottish-English fencer and businessman (born 1862) Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet, DL was a prominent British aristocrat and sportsman who owned land in Scotland, best known for the controversy surrounding his escape from the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Read more
20 Apr 1929: Prince Henry of Prussia (born 1862) Prince Heinrich of Prussia was a younger brother of German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II and a Prince of Prussia. Through his mother, he was also a grandson of Queen Victoria. A career naval officer, he held various commands in the Imperial German Navy and eventually rose to the rank of Grand Admiral and the office of Inspector General of the Navy. Read more
20 Apr 1927: Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter and educator (born 1866) Enrique Simonet Lombardo was a Spanish painter. Read more
20 Apr 1918: Jussi Merinen, Finnish politician (born 1873) Juho Rikard Merinen was a Finnish trade unionist, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature of Finland. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Turku Province North between May 1907 and July 1908. He was executed by the White Guard during the Finnish Civil War. Read more
20 Apr 1918: Karl Ferdinand Braun, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1850) Karl Ferdinand Braun was a German applied physicist who shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi for their contributions to the development of radio. With his two circuit system, long range radio transmissions and modern telecommunications were made possible. His invention of the phased array antenna in 1905 led to the development of radar, smart antennas, and MIMO. Braun built the first cathode-ray tube in 1897, which led to the development of television, and the first semiconductor diode in 1874, which co-started the development of electronics and electronic engineering. Read more
20 Apr 1912: Bram Stoker, Anglo-Irish novelist and critic, created Count Dracula (born 1847) Abraham Stoker was an Irish writer, barrister, and theatre manager. He was the author of Dracula (1897) and the creator of the fictional character Count Dracula. The novel and its antagonist are milestones in the fields of Gothic and vampire literature. Read more
20 Apr 1902: Joaquim de Sousa Andrade, Brazilian poet and educator (born 1833) Joaquim de Sousa Andrade, better known by his pseudonym Sousândrade, was a Brazilian poet, adept of the "Condorist" movement. His poetry, exceedingly innovative for the time it was published, is now considered an early example of Symbolism and Modernism in Brazil. Read more
20 Apr 1899: Joseph Wolf, German ornithologist and illustrator (born 1820) Joseph Wolf was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates. Wolf depicted animals accurately in lifelike postures and is considered one of the great pioneers of wildlife art. Sir Edwin Landseer thought him "…without exception, the best all-round animal artist who ever lived". Read more
20 Apr 1887: Muhammad Sharif Pasha, Greek-Egyptian politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Egypt (born 1826) Mohamed Sherif Pasha GCSI was an Egyptian statesman. He served as Prime Minister of Egypt three times during his career. His first term was between 7 April 1879 and 18 August 1879. His second term was served from 14 September 1881 to 4 February 1882. His final term was served between 21 August 1882 and 7 January 1884. Read more
20 Apr 1886: Charles-François-Frédéric, marquis de Montholon-Sémonville, French general and diplomat, French ambassador to the United States (born 1814) Charles François Frédéric de Montholon-Sémonville was a French senator, diplomat, and French ambassador to the United States from 1864 to 1866. Read more
20 Apr 1881: William Burges, English architect and designer (born 1827) William Burges was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoclassical architectural style and re-establish the architectural and social values of a utopian medieval England. Burges stands within the tradition of the Gothic Revival, his works echoing those of the Pre-Raphaelites and heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement. Read more
20 Apr 1874: Alexander H. Bailey, American lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1817) Alexander Hamilton Bailey was an American politician, a United States representative and judge from New York. Read more
20 Apr 1873: William Tite, English architect, designed the Royal Exchange (born 1798) Sir William Tite was an English architect who twice served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was particularly associated with various London buildings, with railway stations and cemetery projects. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath from 1855 until his death. Read more
20 Apr 1831: John Abernethy, English surgeon and anatomist (born 1764) John Abernethy was an English surgeon. He is popularly remembered for having given his name to the Abernethy biscuit, a coarse-meal baked good meant to aid digestion. Read more

Why is 20 April Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 20 April, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 20 April in World history?

On 20 April, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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