Anniversaries 20 May

Birth

Elijah Fenton5

British poet 1683–1730

Toussaint Louverture6

Leader of the Haitian Revolution 1743–1803

Richard Arden, 1st Baron Alvanley8

British judge and politician 1744–1804

Honoré de Balzac157

French writer 1799–1850

John Stuart Mill179

British philosopher and political economist 1806–1873

Alfred Domett1

Prime Minister of New Zealand 1811–1887

Antoinette Brown Blackwell13

American minister 1825–1921

Henry H. Goodell1

1839–1905

Henry Gantt10

American engineer 1861–1919

Wladyslaw Sikorski4

Polish military and political leader 1881–1943

Sigrid Undset5

Norwegian writer 1882–1949

Faisal I of Iraq1

King of Syria 1883–1933

Earl Browder1

American political activist (1891-1973) 1891–1973

Harry J. Anslinger4

1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics 1892–1975

Joseph Murphy10

American writer 1898–1981

John Marshall Harlan II9

American judge and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (… 1899–1971

Max Euwe3

Dutch chess Grandmaster, mathematician, and author 1901–1981

Margery Allingham15

English writer of detective fiction 1904–1966

Franz Jägerstätter1

martyr, conscientious objector 1907–1943

Jimmy Stewart11

American film and stage actor 1908–1997

Bernard Brodie10

American nuclear strategist 1910–1978

Moses I. Finley17

American historian 1912–1986

Moshe Dayan16

Israeli military leader and politician 1915–1981

David C. McClelland16

American psychological theorist 1917–1998

Charles A. Reich55

American lawyer 1928–2019

Leonard Hayflick1

American anatomist 1928

Adnan al-Dulaimi1

Iraqi politician 1932–2017

William Joseph Dendinger1

Catholic bishop 1939

Goh Chok Tong1

Singaporean politician 1941

Anton Zeilinger1

Austrian quantum physicist 1945

Cher9

American singer and actress 1946

Mary Pope Osborne4

American children's writer 1949

Joe Higgins16

Irish socialist politician 1949

Wei Jingsheng5

Chinese democracy activist and dissident 1950

Walter Isaacson23

American writer and biographer 1952

Robert Doyle3

Australian politician 1953

Jill Ciment1

Canadian writer 1955

Douglas Preston5

American author 1956

Ron Reagan4

talk radio host and political analyst 1958

Marianne Curley2

Australian writer 1959

Larry Solov2

American attorney and media executive 1968

James Max1

British journalist 1970

Busta Rhymes1

American rapper, actor, record producer and record executiv… 1972

Andrew Sega52

musician from America 1975

Andrew Scheer6

35th Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons and MP for Re… 1979

Enes Kanter1

Turkish basketball player 1992

Jack Gleeson6

Irish actor 1992

Death

Cristoforo Colombo29

Explorer, navigator, and colonizer 1451–1506

Thomas Boston3

Scottish church leader, theologian and philosopher 1676–1732

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette7

French general and politician 1757–1834

John Clare21

English poet 1793–1864

Frederick Locker-Lampson5

British poet 1821–1895

Gilbert Murray7

Anglo-Australian scholar 1866–1957

Max Beerbohm36

English writer 1872–1956

Nannie Helen Burroughs1

American activist 1879–1961

John Gould Fletcher6

American writer 1886–1950

Herbert Mason1

British film director and producer 1891–1960

Barbara Hepworth40

English sculptor 1903–1975

John Hicks14

British economist 1904–1989

Paul Ricoeur2

French philosopher 1913–2005

Bob Pike (surfer)6

Australian surfer 1940–1999

Stephen Jay Gould274

American evolutionary biologist 1941–2002

Gilda Radner11

American comedian 1946–1989

Paul deParrie3

American activist 1949–2006

Niki Lauda24

Austrian former Formula 1 racing driver 1949–2019