Did you know
After returning to France, Lafayette became a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830 and continues to be celebrated as a hero in both France and the United States.
Notable Deaths on May 20
1834 — Gilbert du Motier
Marquis de Lafayette, French general (born 1757)
May 20 has 104 recorded notable deaths across history, from 685 to 2025. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
104 source records
685 – 2025
Today in history
Major events on May 20
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 1802 By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution. Source
- 1948 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing. Source
- 1902 Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country's first President. Source
- 1996 Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. Source
Did you know
Born in Tibet, he was the third most important person in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy as the 8th Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, below only the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, and therefore also known as the "Bogdo Lama".
Did you know
Bao Zheng's appointment from 1057 to 1058 as the prefect of Song's capital Kaifeng, where he initiated a number of changes to better hear the grievances of the people, made him a legendary figure.
Did you know
Among his best-known works is his only novel, Zuleika Dobson, published in 1911.
Did you know
In the early 1970s, he was considered one of the most promising and talented motorcycle road racers of his era until he was killed during the 1973 Nations Grand Prix in Italy.
More major people who died on May 20
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1924
Bogd Khan
Mongolian ruler (c. 1869)
Bogd Khan was the khan of the Bogd Khanate of Mongolia from 1911 to 1924, following the state's de facto independence from the Qing dynasty of China after the Xinhai Revolution.
1062
Bao Zheng
Chinese magistrate and mayor of Kaifeng (born 999)
Bao Zheng, commonly known as Bao Gong, was a Chinese politician during the reign of Emperor Renzong in China's Song Dynasty.
1956
Max Beerbohm
English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist (born 1872)
Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist.
1973
Jarno Saarinen
Finnish motorcycle racer (born 1945)
Jarno Karl Keimo Saarinen was a Finnish professional Motorcycle racer.
1942
Hector Guimard
French Architect (born 1867)
Hector Guimard was a French architect and designer prominent for his Art Nouveau style designs including Paris Métro entrances.
965
Gero the Great
Saxon ruler (born c. 900)
Gero I, sometimes called the Great, was a prominent German noble from the Duchy of Saxony in the East Francia, who held several offices during the reign of king and later emperor Otto I (936–973).
1732
Thomas Boston
Scottish author and educator (born 1676)
Thomas Boston was a Scottish Presbyterian church leader, theologian and philosopher. Boston was successively schoolmaster at Glencairn, and minister of Simprin in Berwickshire, and Ettrick in Selkirkshire.
1645
Shi Kefa
Chinese general and calligrapher (born 1601)
Shi Kefa, courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu and claimed ancestry from Daxing County, Shuntian Prefecture.
2013
Denys Roberts
English judge and politician (born 1923)
Sir Denys Tudor Emil Roberts was a British colonial official and judge. Joining the colonial civil service as a Crown Counsel in Nyasaland in 1953, he became Attorney General of Gibraltar in 1960.
2013
Flavio Costantini
Italian painter and illustrator (born 1926)
Flavio Costantini was an Italian painter and illustrator. Costantini created portraits of writers and artists for newspapers, and illustrated several novels.
2012
Leela Dube
Indian anthropologist and scholar (born 1923)
Leela Dube was a renowned anthropologist and feminist scholar, fondly called Leeladee by many. She had been married to the renowned anthropologist and sociologist Late Shyama Charan Dube.
1449
Infante Pedro
Duke of Coimbra (born 1392)
Dom Peter, Duke of Coimbra, KG was a Portuguese infante (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King Dom John I of Portugal and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt.
1793
Charles Bonnet
Swiss botanist and biologist (born 1720)
Charles Bonnet was a Genevan naturalist and philosophical writer. He is responsible for coining the term phyllotaxis to describe the arrangement of leaves on a plant.
1864
John Clare
English poet (born 1793)
John Clare was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and his sorrows at its disruption.
2005
Paul Ricœur
French philosopher and academic (born 1913)
Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics.
1989
John Hicks
English economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)
Sir John Richard Hicks was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century.
794
Æthelberht II
king of East Anglia
Æthelberht, also called Saint Ethelbert the King was an 8th-century saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.
2002
Stephen Jay Gould
American paleontologist, biologist, and academic (born 1941)
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, historian of science, and one of the most widely read authors of popular science of his generation.
2022
Susan Roces
Filipino actress (born 1941)
Jesusa Purificación Levy Sonora-Poe, known professionally as Susan Roces, was a Filipino actress. She rose to fame in mid-1950s and became the biggest box-office star of the 1960s.