Tuesday 20th of December 1803

Philosopher, poet and murderer Pierre François Lacenaire is born in 62 Rue Pas Étroit, Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Wednesday 20th of December 1876

Murderess Hannah Ocuish is executed by hanging at the age of 12 in New London, Connecticut, United States.

Ocuish was hanged for the murder of 6-year-old daughter of a wealthy farmer Eunice Bolles after quarreling with her over some strawberries. She became the youngest person legally executed in America.

Friday 20th of December 1901

Victim of Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf Hermann Bock is born in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Wednesday 20th of December 1911

Murderer Wade Mack Hood is executed by hanging at the age of 44 in Lancaster, Waxhaws, South Carolina, United States.

Saturday 20th of December 1924

35-year-old Führer and Reichskanzler of Germany Adolf Hitler is released from prison after serving 9 months for his attempt at a coup d’état a year earlier in Kriegsverbrechergefängnis, Landsberg am Lech, Oberbayern, Germany.

While in prison, Hitler wrote 'Mein Kampf'.

Tuesday 20th of December 1927

33-year-old Nazi leader and Stellvertreter des Führers Rudolf Walter Richard Hess marries 27-year-old Ilse Pröhl in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 20th of December 1946

Illusionist, magician, television personality and self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller is born in Tel Aviv, Gush Dan, Israel.

Monday 20th of December 1948

Musician and audio engineer Alan Parsons is born in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 20th of December 1952

24-year-old Film director Roger Vadim marries 18-year-old Brigitte Bardot in Eglise de Notre-Dame- de-Grâce, Paris, XVIe, Île-de-France, France.

Vadim and Bardot divorced on 6 December 1957.

Tuesday 20th of December 1955

31-year-old Serial killer Leslie 'Joe Goebbels' Irvin aka The Mad Dog Killer is sentenced to death for the Wesley Kerr murder in Evansville, Indiana, United States.

Tuesday 20th of December 1960

49-year-old SS Sturmbannführer and commander of Auschwitz KZ Richard Baer is arrested as Karl Egon Neumann in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Friday 20th of December 1963

Start of the second 'Auschwitz Trial' against 22 defendants in Bürgerhaus Gallus, Frankenallee 111, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany.

Defendants ranged from members of the SS to kapos and privileged prisoners responsible for low-level control of camp internees.

Friday 20th of December 1968

Writer John Ernst Steinbeck dies of heart disease and congestive heart failure at the age of 66 in New York City, New York, United States.

Friday 20th of December 1968

17-year-old David Arthur Faraday and his 16-year-old girlfriend Betty Lou Jensen is shot dead by unidentified serial killer the Zodiac Killer in Lake Herman Road, Benicia, California, United States.

The Zodiac apparently exited the car and walked toward Faraday's Rambler, possibly ordering the couple out of the Rambler. Jensen exited the car first, when Faraday was halfway out he was shot in the head. Fleeing from the killer Jensen was gunned down twenty-eight feet from the car with five shots through her back. Faraday and Jensen were the Zodiac's first two victims.

Saturday 20th of December 1969

Unidentified serial killer the Zodiac Killer sends a ‘Happy Christmas’ postcard to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and adds a scrap of eight victim Paul Stine’s bloody shirt in San Francisco, California, United States.

Dear Melvin - This is the Zodiac speaking I wish you a happy Christmass. The one thing I ask of you is this, please help me. I cannot reach out for help because of this thing in me won't let me. I am finding it extreamly dificult to hold it in check I am afraid I will loose control again and take my nineth & posibly tenth victom. Please help me I am drownding. At the moment the children are safe from the bomb because it is so massive to dig in & the triger mech requires much work to get it adjusted just right. But if I hold back too long from no nine I will loose complet all controol of my self & set the bomb up. Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer.

Thursday 20th of December 1973

1st Duke of Carrero Blanco and Grandee of Spain Luis Carrero Blanco is blown up by Basque nationalist and separatist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna aka ETA at the age of 69 in Calle Claudio Coello 104, Madrid, Área metropolitana de Madrid, Spain.

Over five months, the ETA commando unit using the code name Txikia dug a tunnel under the street, telling the landlord that they were student sculptors to hide their true purpose. The tunnel was packed with 80 kg of explosives that had been stolen from a Government depot. Blanco's bodyguard and driver were also killed in the operation.

Thursday 20th of December 1973

Singer-songwriter Bobby Darin aka The Dream Lover dies while recovering from initially succesful open-heart surgery to repair two artificial heart valves without regaining consciousness at the age of 37 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States.

There were no funeral arrangements; Darin's last wish in his will was that his body be donated to science for medical research.

Friday 20th of December 1974

Composer André Jolivet dies of unknown causes at the age of 69 in 59 Rue de Varenne, Paris, VIIe, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 20th of December 1975

24-year-old Susan Lynn Bickrest is raped, beaten and strangled by serial killer Gerald Stano aka Blind Fury in Spruce Creek, Port Orange, Florida, United States.

Monday 20th of December 1976

41-year-old Serial killer Fritz Friedrich Paul Honka aka Der Frauen-Schlächter von St. Pauli is convicted to 15 years imprisonment and sent to a mental asylum for life in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Honka was released from prison in 1993 and spent his last years under the name of Peter Jensen in a nursing home.

Thursday 20th of December 1979

20-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Perfectone' in Zaal Cercle, Recolettenlei, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

During a concert by the band ‘Perfectone’, I was hanging upside-down and reading an instructive manual on Braun flash-devices. In the meanwhile several photographers made flashlight-pictures from the audience.

Monday 20th of December 1982

Pianist Arthur Rubinstein dies of natural causes at the age of 95 in Genève, Romandie, Switzerland.

Tuesday 20th of December 1983

82-year-old Hedda Bükow is strangled by serial killer Waldemar Stepinski aka The Doorbell Killer in Berlin, Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 20th of December 1985

90-year-old Estelle Donjoux is tortured and suffocated under her mattress by serial killer Thierry Paulin aka Le Tueur de la Pleine Lune in 14 Rue Lacaze, Paris, XIVe, Île-de-France, France.

Sunday 20th of December 1987

4375 die in MV Doña Paz ferry and MT Vector oil tanker collision and fire in Dumali Point, Marinduque, Tablas Strait, Philippines.

The collision resulted in the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history.

Monday 20th of December 1993

39-year-old Serial killer Colin Ireland aka The Gay Slayer is sentenced to 5 terms of life-imprisonment in Old Bailey Criminal Court, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 20th of December 1995

159 die in American Airlines Boeing 757-223 Flight 965 crash in El Deluvio, Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia.

Five passengers, Gonzalo Dussan Monroy, Michelle Dussan, Mercedes Ramirez, Mauricio Reyes and Gonzalo 'Gonzalito' Dussan, Jr survived although Gonzalito died in surgery. Crews found a small brown dog alive inside a carrier in the cargo hold. They renamed him Milagro, which is Spanish for 'miracle.

Friday 20th of December 1996

Astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and futurologist Carl Edward Sagan dies of pneumonia at the age of 62 in Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States.

Monday 20th of December 1999

Posters showing the way to my studio in Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand.

Saturday 20th of December 2003

44-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Trop = Teveel' outside the entrance in M_hka, Leuvenstraat 32, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

‘Once Upon a Time..., a look at art in Belgium in the Nineties’, was an exhibition of the collection of contemporary Belgian art which the Cera Foundation was able to put together during 5 years of patronage. - I pulled a bag over my head and tied up my feet and hands. I fell forward and lay on the ground. - Cera Holding is a financial group. The contemporary art collection was predominantly bought by Paul Tanghe, Luk Lambrecht and Bart De Baere, current director of the M_hka. - After half an hour I was untied by Mauro Pawlowski.