Friday 20th of July 0356bc

Alexander the Great is born in Pella, Macedonia, Greece.

Wednesday 20th of July 0985

Antipope Bonifatius VII dies of unknown causes in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

It is possible that Bonifatius was murdered but it cannot be confirmed by any known sources. It is clear that there was certainly a sense from the public of disgust at his reign as his body was dragged through the streets, stripped naked until it was left beneath Marcus Aurelius's statue in front of the Lateran Palace.

Sunday 20th of July 1304

Poet Francesco Petrarca aka The Father of Humanism is born in Arezzo, Toscana, Italy.

Sunday 20th of July 1519

230th Pope Innocentius IX is born as Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Saturday 20th of July 1822

Biologist and Augustinian friar Gregor Johann Mendel is born in Heinzendorf bei Odrau, Moravskoslezský Kraj, Czechoslovakia.

Saturday 20th of July 1895

Artist László Moholy-Nagy is born as László Weisz in Bácsborsód, Dél-Alföld, Hungary.

Monday 20th of July 1903

256th Pope Leo XIII dies of natural causes at the age of 93 in Palazzo Apostolico, Rome, Vatican City, Lazio, Italy.

Leo XIII was the longest-lived pope ever.

Sunday 20th of July 1919

Mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist Edmund Percival Hillary is born in Auckland, North Island, New Zealand.

Friday 20th of July 1923

Revolutionary general Pancho Villa is shot to pieces in a fusillade at the age of 45 in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.

While driving back through the city in his black 1919 Dodge roadster Villa passed by a school and a pumpkinseed vendor ran toward Villa's car and shouted "Viva Villa!" – a signal for a group of seven riflemen who then appeared in the middle of the road and fired more than 40 shots into the automobile. In the fusillade of shots, nine Dumdum bullets, normally used for hunting big game hit Villa in the head and upper chest, killing him instantly.

Monday 20th of July 1925

Revolutionary philosopher and psychiatrist Frantz Omar Fanon is born in Fort-de-France, Martinique, France.

Wednesday 20th of July 1932

Video artist Nam June Paik is born in Seoul, Seoul National Capital Area, South Korea.

Friday 20th of July 1934

Murderer Alfred William Bayly is executed by hanging at the age of 28 in Mount Eden Prison, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand.

He killed his neighbours, Samuel and Christobel Lakey in Ruwaro on 16 October 1933.

Tuesday 20th of July 1937

Inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi known for inventing radio dies of a heart attack at the age of 63 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Wednesday 20th of July 1938

Actress Diana Enid Elizabeth Rigg known for playing Emma Peel in the 1960s TV series The Avengers is born in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 20th of July 1938

Actress Natalie Wood aka Natasha Gurdin is born as Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco, California, United States.

Thursday 20th of July 1944

Under the codename ‘Operation Walkure’, 37-year-old Would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler Claus Philipp Maria Schenk von Stauffenberg places a bomb in the Fuhrer’s headquarters in an attempt to assassinate him in Wolfsschanze, Rastenburg, Ostpreußen, Germany.

Hitler survived the bomb attack with minor injuries. His trousers were singed and tattered and he suffered from a perforated eardrum.

Thursday 20th of July 1944

Triple murderer Allen Lee Davis aka Tiny is born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States.

Friday 20th of July 1945

Poet and philosopher Paul Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry dies of unknown causes at the age of 74 in 40 rue de Villejust, Paris, XVIe, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 20th of July 1946

Serial killer Leonard Thomas Lake aka The Eye of Evil is born in San Francisco, California, United States.

Monday 20th of July 1964

43-year-old Artist and pedagogue Joseph Heinrich Beuys is punched in the face by Uwe Schilling during his performance 'Kukei, akopee-Nein!' on the Festival Der Neuen Kunst in Audimax der Technischen Hochschule, Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Local students were so upset by the onslaught of absurdity unleashed by the performers that they stormed the stage and started a fight.

Monday 20th of July 1970

Start of the trial against 23-year-old Serial killer John Norman Collins aka The Ypsilanti Killer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.

Friday 20th of July 1973

Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee dies of an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer meprobamate at the age of 33 in Flat A3 - 2/F, Beacon Hill Road 67, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.

Lee had been suffering from headaches and cerebral edema before. According to autopsy reports Lee's brain had swollen considerably 13% from 1400 to 1575 grams.

Friday 20th of July 1973

Land Art artist Robert Irving Smithson dies in a plane crash while surveying sites for his work 'Amarillo Ramp' at the age of 35 in Amarillo Ramp, Amarillo, Tevocas Lake, Texas, United States.

Smithson's 'Amarillo Ramp' was finished by Richard Serra, Nancy Holt and Tony Shafrazi.

Saturday 20th of July 1974

37-year-old Mass murderess Shirley Marie Curry kills all her children, their father, her former sister-in-law and injures her former brother-in-law in Springdale, Arkansas, United States.

Curry killed her 43-year-old ex-husband Jimmy Lee Curry, her daughters 17-year-old Sabrina Marie and 11-year-old Jessie Lee, her 14-year-old son Richard Allen and 31-year-old Jo Ann Brophy. 46-year-old James Robert Dotson was shot and critically wounded.

Tuesday 20th of July 1976

26-year-old Bennie Jenkins Bushnell is shot dead by double murderer Gary Gilmore aka The Executioner’s Song in Provo, Utah, United States.

Wednesday 20th of July 1977

Members of die Rote Armee Fraktion aka Baader-Meinhof Gruppe Karl-Heinz Dellwo, Hanna Krabbe, Bernd Rössner and Lutz Taufer are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Occupation of the West German Embassy in Stockholm in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Friday 20th of July 1984

29-year-old Spree killer Alton Coleman and his accomplice Debra Brown are arrested in Mason Park, Evanston, Illinois, United States.

Saturday 20th of July 1985

69-year-old Maxson Carl Kneiding and his 66-year-old wife Lela Ellen is stabbed and shot dead by serial killer Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker in Stanley Avenue, Glendale, California, United States.

Saturday 20th of July 1985

33-year-old Chainarong Khovananth is shot dead by serial killer Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker in 13037 Schoenborn Street, Glendale, California, United States.

Ramirez then tied up and beat Khovananth's wife Somkid and his 8-year-old son. Both survived.

Thursday 20th of July 2006

Child killer Robert James Anderson is executed by lethal injection at the age of 40 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 20th of July 2011

Double murderer Mark Anthony Stroman aka The 9/11 Revenge Killer is executed by lethal injection at the age of 42 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Stroman's last meal request was for chicken fried steak with gravy, a ham-and-cheese omelet with onions and tomatoes, bacon, fried potatoes, fried squash and okra, pork chops with eggs sunny-side up, Dr. Pepper and a pint of vanilla Blue Bell ice cream. Stroman's last words were "It's been a great honor. I feel it; I am going to sleep now. Goodnight. One, two, there it goes."

Saturday 20th of July 2024

An abandoned shed along the Plassendale-Nieuwpoort canal in Leffinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Saturday 20th of July 2024

A view from down under the church in Snaaskerke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.