Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining. Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 See Also Events 1803 - Louisiana Purchase completed 1860 - South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States 1915 - Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli 1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashs and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed 1989 - United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega 1995 - NATO begins peacekeping in Bosnia 1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160 1999 - Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader. Births 1579 (baptized) - John Fletcher, playwright (d. 1625) 1629 - Pieter de Hooch, painter (d. 1684) 1792 - Nicolas Charlet, painter (d. 1845) 1805 - Thomas Graham, Father of colloid chemistry (d. 1869) 1833 - Samuel Mudd, physician, possible conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1883) 1856 - Ferdinand Avenarius, author (d. 1923) 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904) 1868 - Harvey Firestone, automobile pioneer (d. 1938) 1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965) 1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis star (d. 1974) 1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, actress 1893 - Charlotte Bühler, psychologist 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, Australian politician (d. 1978) 1898 - Irene Dunne, actress (d. 1990) 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, physicist, inventor (d. 1967) 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942) 1902 - Max Lerner, American educator (d. 1992) 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989) 1922 - George Roy Hill, film director 1923 - James Leasor, writer, mystery 1924 - Friederike Mayröcker, author 1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), UK politician 1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, politician 1930 - Noel Ferrier, producer and actress 1942 - Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002) 1946 - Uri Geller, illusionist 1952 - Jenny Agutter, actress 1955 - Lonesome Bob, singer, songwriter 1957 - Billy Bragg, singer, songwriter 1957 - Mike Watt, bassist 1959 - Tracey Ullman, actress, comedienne Deaths 1939 - Nazi Captain Hans Langsdorff (suicide) 1954 - James Hilton, author 1961 - Moss Hart, author 1968 - John Steinbeck, writer 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish prime minister (assassination) 1973 - Bobby Darin, singer 1976 - Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago, Illinois 1982 - Artur Rubinstein, musician 1994 - Dean Rusk, former United States Secretary of State 1996 - Carl Sagan, astronomer, writer 1999 - Hank Snow, country music singer See Also December 19 - December 21 - November 20 - January 20 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December\n This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.