What are the important events that happened on December 20? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
December 20: Facts & Myths About This Day
December 20 is the 355th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is December 7, 2024 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,910,880 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘trihectapentacontapentagon’ day.
Sagittarius is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Turquoise is the modern birthstone for this month. Onyx is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 40 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,382 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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December 20 Historical Events
1860 –
South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
1915 –
World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 –
Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.
1941 –
World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers” in Kunming, China.
1952 –
United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1977 –
Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
1987 –
History’s worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
1995 –
NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1999 –
Macau is handed over to the People’s Republic of China by Portugal.
2007 –
The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
Who were born on December 20?
1833 –
Dr Samuel A. Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)
1902 –
Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
1944 –
Jean Fergusson, English actress
1946 –
Lesley Judd, English TV presenter and dancer
1948 –
Stevie Wright, English-born Australian musician and songwriter
1957 –
Anna Vissi, Greek-Cypriot singer
1966 –
Myrra Malmberg, Swedish singer
1976 –
Ramon Stoppelenburg, Dutch author
1979 –
George Lamb, English radio and TV presenter
1982 –
David Tavaré, Spanish singer
Who died on December 20?
860 –
King Ethelbald of Wessex (b. 834)
1768 –
Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)
1783 –
Antonio Soler, Spanish composer (b. 1729)
1927 –
Roshan Singh, Indian nationalist (date of birth unknown)
1971 –
Roy O. Disney, American entertainment industry executive (b. 1893)
1973 –
Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (b. 1904)
1989 –
Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
1997 –
Denise Levertov, English-born American poet (b. 1923)
1997 –
Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
1999 –
Hank Snow, Canadian singer (b. 1914)
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