Did you know
Among his best-known works is his only novel, Zuleika Dobson, published in 1911
Notable Deaths on May 20
104 people
685 – 2025
May 20 has seen 104 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 685 – 2025. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1956 — Max Beerbohm
English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist (born 1872)
Did you know
He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist
Did you know
He was the drama critic for the Saturday Review from 1898 until 1910, when he relocated to Rapallo, Italy
Did you know
Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max
Did you know
In his later years he was popular for his occasional radio broadcasts
Ecgfrith was the King of Northumbria from 670 until his death on 20 May 685. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Nechtansmere…
Read More
685
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. Little is known of his…
Read More
794
Saxon ruler (bornc. 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). As one of the most…
Read More
965
1062
Pope John XXI, born Pedro Julião, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 September 1276 to his death in May 1277. He is the only Portuguese pope in history. He is sometimes identified with…
Read More
1277
John I was King of Cyprus and, in contention with Charles I of Anjou, of Jerusalem from 1284 to 1285.
Read More
1285
Sayyid Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Naqvi Al Bukhari (Persian: سید جلال الدین سرخ پوش بخاری, c. 595-690 AH, 1190 – 1295 CE was a saint from the Indian subcontinent. He belonged to the Jalali Sufi order and was descended from…
Read More
1291
Empress of Constantinople (born 1329)
Maria of Calabria, Countess of Alba, was a Neapolitan princess of the Capetian House of Anjou whose descendants inherited the crown of Naples following the death of her older sister, Queen Joanna I.
Read More
1366
Italian-Spanish missionary and saint (born 1380)
Bernardino of Siena, OFM, was an Italian Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in the Republic of Siena. He was a systematizer of scholastic economics.
Read More
1444
1st Count of Avranches
Álvaro Vaz de Almada, 1st Count of Avranches was a Portuguese knight and nobleman, with a long and illustrious career abroad in England. He was invested by the English king, Henry VI as the 1st Count of Avranches and…
Read More
1449
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. In Portugal, he is known as…
Read More
1449
English noblewoman (born 1441)
Isabel Ingoldisthorpe was an English noblewoman and heiress, who by her marriage to John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu was Countess of Northumberland and Marchioness of Montague.
Read More
1476
Italian Dominican tertiary Religious Sister (born 1467)
Columba of Rieti was an Italian religious sister of the Third Order of St. Dominic who was noted as a mystic. She was renowned for her spiritual counsel, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and fantastic miracles were…
Read More
1501
Italian banker and politician (born 1463)
Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, nicknamed the Popolano, was an Italian banker and politician, the brother of Giovanni il Popolano. He belonged to the junior branch of the House of Medici of Florence.
Read More
1503
Italian explorer, early European explorer of the Americas (born 1451)
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish transatlantic voyages in the name of the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European…
Read More
1506
Japanese shōgun (born 1510)
Ashikaga Yoshiharu was the twelfth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate from 1521 through 1546 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the son of the eleventh shōgun Ashikaga Yoshizumi.
Read More
1550
English courtier (born 1527)
Isabella Markham, was an English courtier, a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber of Queen Elizabeth I of England and a personal favourite of the queen. Isabella Markham was muse to the court official and poet John…
Read More
1579
1622
1645
Polish son of Sigismund III Vasa (born 1595)
Władysław IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and claimant of the thrones of Sweden and Russia. Born into the House of Vasa as a prince of Poland and of Sweden, Władysław IV was the…
Read More
1648
2nd Earl of Bristol, Spanish-English politician, English Secretary of State (born 1612)
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol was an English politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641, when he was raised to the House of Lords by a writ of acceleration. He supported the Royalists…
Read More
1677
English bishop (born 1635)
Thomas Sprat, FRS was an English churchman and writer, Bishop of Rochester from 1684.
Read More
1713
Welsh lawyer and politician, 102nd Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1637)
Sir John Trevor was a Welsh lawyer and politician. He was Speaker of the English House of Commons from 1685 to 1687 and from 1689 to 1695. Trevor also served as Master of the Rolls from 1685 to 1689 and from 1693 to…
Read More
1717
French botanist and mycologist (born 1669)
Sébastien Vaillant was a French botanist who was born at Vigny in present-day Val d'Oise.
Read More
1722
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. In addition…
Read More
1732
English mathematician and academic (born 1701)
William Emerson was an English mathematician. He was born in Hurworth, near Darlington, where his father, Dudley Emerson, also a mathematician, taught a school.
Read More
1782
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. He was among the first to notice parthenogenetic…
Read More
1793
Austrian archbishop (born 1732)
Hieronymus Joseph Franz de Paula Graf Colloredo von Wallsee und Melz was Prince-Bishop of Gurk from 1761 to 1772 and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1772 until 1803, when the prince-archbishopric was secularized.…
Read More
1812
Marquis de Lafayette, French general (born 1757)
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, known in the United States as Lafayette, was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Continental Army, led by General…
Read More
1834
Spanish poet and theologian (born 1775)
Joseph Blanco White, born José María Blanco y Crespo, was an Anglo-Spanish political thinker, theologian, and poet.
Read More
1841
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. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th…
Read More
1864
Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, 9th Premier of East Canada (born 1814)
Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation.
The English spelling of the name—George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling—is explained by his having been named…
Read More
1873
1880
German pianist and composer (born 1819)
Clara Josephine Schumann was a German virtuoso pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert…
Read More
1896
American actor and composer (born 1859)
Ernest Hogan was the first Black American entertainer to produce and star in a Broadway show, The Oyster Man in 1907, and helped to popularize the musical genre of ragtime.
Read More
1909
Scottish soldier and politician (born 1887)
Major Valentine Fleming, was a Scottish Conservative Member of Parliament who was killed in the First World War. He was the father of the authors Peter Fleming and Ian Fleming, the latter of whom created the James Bond…
Read More
1917
Italian stamp collector (born 1850)
Philip Ferrari de La Renotière was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare stamps…
Read More
1917
1924
Maltese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Malta (born 1862)
Joseph Howard OBE was the first Prime Minister of Malta, holding this office from 1921 to 1923.
Read More
1925
Scottish businessman and politician (born 1831)
Ernest Noel, FGS was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Scottish seat of Dumfries Burghs from 1874 to 1886. He was chairman of the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company from 1880, during the construction of a…
Read More
1931
Swedish author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)
Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam was a Swedish poet, novelist and laureate of the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1912. His poems and prose work are filled with a great joy…
Read More
1940
French Architect (born 1867)
Hector Guimard was a French architect and designer prominent for his Art Nouveau style designs including Paris Métro entrances. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Béranger, the first Art Nouveau…
Read More
1942
Danish pilot and engineer (born 1871)
Jacob Christian Hansen-Ellehammer was a Danish inventor and aviation pioneer. He obtained a total of 59 Danish patents and worked with many different things, including amusement machines, Tivoli boats, egg openers,…
Read More
1946
Slovak-German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard was a Hungarian–German experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 for his work on cathode rays. This work led to his experimental realization of the…
Read More
1947
Greek sergeant and politician (born 1890)
Georgios Siantos was a Greek politician and prominent figure of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) who served as acting general secretary of the party, and as a leader of the National Liberation Front (EAM)/Greek…
Read More
1947
Greek archbishop and politician, 137th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1891)
Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, born Dimitrios Papandreou, was the archbishop of Athens and All Greece from 1941 until his death in 1949. He was also the regent of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation…
Read More
1949
Hungarian swimmer and trainer (born 1881)
Zoltán Imre Ödön Halmay de Erdőtelek was a Hungarian Olympic swimmer. He competed in four Olympics, winning the following medals:1900: silver, bronze
1904: gold
1906: gold, silver
1908: silver
Read More
1956
German colonel and pilot (born 1915)
Josef "Pips" Priller was a German military aviator and wing commander in the Luftwaffe during World War II. As a fighter ace, he was credited with 101 enemy aircraft shot down in 307 combat missions. All of his…
Read More
1961
a Polish Orthodox clergyman, the third Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland (born 1901)
Timothy, secular name Jerzy Szretter was a Polish Orthodox clergyman, the third Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland.
Read More
1962
American singer (born 1936)
Rudy Lewis was an American rhythm and blues singer known for his work with the Drifters. In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Read More
1964
Welsh poet and academic (born 1904)
Waldo Goronwy Williams was one of the leading Welsh-language poets of the 20th century. He was also a notable Christian pacifist, anti-war campaigner, and Welsh nationalist. He is often referred to by his first name…
Read More
1971
Italian motorcycle racer (born 1938)
Renzo Pasolini, nicknamed "Paso", was an Italian professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1964 to 1972.
Read More
1973
Finnish motorcycle racer (born 1945)
Jarno Karl Keimo Saarinen was a Finnish professional Motorcycle racer. He competed in the FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1968 to 1971 as Yamaha privateer, before receiving the Yamaha factory's…
Read More
1973
English sculptor and lithographer (born 1903)
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the…
Read More
1975
1976
Uruguayan journalist and politician (born 1924)
Zelmar Raúl Michelini Guarch was a Uruguayan reporter and politician, assassinated in Buenos Aires in 1976 as part of Operation Condor.
Read More
1976
Uruguayan politician (born 1934)
Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz was a former President of the Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay who was assassinated in Operation Condor.
Read More
1976
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. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economics were…
Read More
1989
American actress and comedian (born 1946)
Gilda Susan Radner was an American actress and comedian.
Read More
1989
1995
English actor, portrayed the Third Doctor (born 1919)
John Devon Roland Pertwee, known professionally as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. He made many appearances on television, film and in the theatre throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but is best known for playing the…
Read More
1996
Norwegian guitarist (born 1916)
Robert Uno Normann was a Norwegian guitarist and considered a jazz guitar pioneer.
Read More
1998
French flute player (born 1922)
Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist and conductor. Rampal popularised the flute in the post–World War II years, recovering flute compositions from the Baroque era, and spurring contemporary composers, such as…
Read More
2000
American basketball player and actor (born 1970)
Malik Sealy was an American professional basketball player, active from 1992 until his death in an automobile accident at the age of 30. Posthumously inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, Sealy played…
Read More
2000
Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1933)
Yevgeny Vasilyevich Khrunov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 5/Soyuz 4 mission.
Read More
2000
Italian singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1920)
Renato Carosone was an Italian musician.
Read More
2001
American paleontologist, biologist, and academic (born 1941)
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, historian of science, and one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his…
Read More
2002
French philosopher and academic (born 1913)
Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneutic phenomenologists,…
Read More
2005
American general (born 1918)
William Thomas Seawell was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force and former head of Pan Am.
Read More
2005
2007
American politician, 8th White House Chief of Staff (born 1944)
William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan was an American politician who served as Chief of Staff to President of the United States Jimmy Carter.
Read More
2008
Canadian architect and urban planner, designed Roy Thomson Hall (born 1924)
Arthur Charles Erickson was a Canadian architect and urban planner. He studied at the University of British Columbia and, in 1950, received his B.Arch. (Honours) from McGill University. He is known as one of Canada's…
Read More
2009
American actress and model (born 1980)
Lucy Imogen Gordon was an English actress and model. She became a face of CoverGirl in 1997 before starting an acting career. Her first film was Perfume in 2001 before going on to have small roles in Spider-Man 3,…
Read More
2009
French author, poet, and critic (born 1919)
Pierre Gamarra was a French poet, novelist and literary critic, a long-time chief editor and director of the literary magazine Europe.Gamarra is best known for his poems and novels for the youth and for narrative and…
Read More
2009
American wrestler and actor (born 1952)
Randy Mario Poffo, better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler, rapper, and professional baseball player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers…
Read More
2011
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. Leela Dube was the younger…
Read More
2012
Manx-English singer-songwriter and producer (born 1949)
Robin Hugh Gibb was a British singer and songwriter. He gained global fame as a members of the Bee Gees with elder brother Barry and twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his own successful solo career.
Read More
2012
English-Swiss historian, author, and academic (born 1933)
David Gerald Littman was a British political activist. He is known for organising the illegal transportation of Jewish Moroccan children from Morocco to Israel when he was 28.
Read More
2012
2012
American engineer, invented the remote control (born 1915)
Eugene Joseph Polley was an electrical engineer and engineering manager for Zenith Electronics who invented the first wireless remote control for television.
Read More
2012
American lawyer (born 1958)
Andrew Bart Steinberg was a leading aviation regulatory lawyer, who held several key posts in the public and private sectors in the United States. He served until 2008 as the Assistant Secretary for Aviation and…
Read More
2012
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. His early works were inspired by the novelist Franz Kafka,…
Read More
2013
Canadian ice hockey player and manager (born 1924)
Billie Dawe was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player. He was a member of the 1950 World Champion team, the Edmonton Mercurys, and captained that team to a gold medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics.
Read More
2013
2013
Czech basketball player and coach (born 1924)
Miloslav Kříž was a Czech professional basketball player, coach and executive. As a player, he played first for Uncas Praha, and later for Sparta Praha, but he was better known as a head coach and trainer, especially as…
Read More
2013
American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (born 1939)
Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. was an American keyboardist, vocalist, and music producer. He is best known as a member of the rock band the Doors, co-founding the group in 1965 with fellow UCLA Film School graduate Jim…
Read More
2013
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. In 1962, he was posted…
Read More
2013
American singer-songwriter (born 1995)
Zachary David Sobiech was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his single "Clouds", which gained extensive media attention on YouTube, prior to Sobiech's death from cancer in May 2013. It charted…
Read More
2013
American psychologist and academic (born 1944)
Sandra Ruth Lipsitz Bem was an American psychologist known for her works in androgyny and gender studies. Her pioneering work on gender roles, gender polarization and gender stereotypes led directly to more equal…
Read More
2014
New Zealand rugby player (born 1934)
Ross Handley Brown was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played 16 test matches, most frequently in the first-five back position, for New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, from 1955 until 1962.
Read More
2014
English-French painter (born 1930)
Edward Maurice FitzGerald "Robyn" Denny was one of a group of young artists who transformed British art in the late 1950s, leading it into the international mainstream. Reacting against the mainstream St Ives School of…
Read More
2014
American journalist, author, and critic (born 1924)
Arthur Gelb was an American editor, author and executive and was the managing editor of The New York Times from 1986 to 1989.
Read More
2014
Spanish-English businessman (born 1933)
Rupert, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Löwenstein-Scharffeneck was a Spanish-born Bavarian aristocrat and the longtime financial manager of the rock band the Rolling Stones.
Read More
2014
2014
American saxophonist, composer, and producer (born 1956)
James Robert Belden was an American saxophonist, arranger, composer, bandleader, and producer.
As a producer, he was mostly associated with the remastering of recordings by trumpeter Miles Davis for Columbia Records.
Read More
2015
Nigerian actor and playwright (born 1940)
Femi Robinson was a Nigerian film and television actor, famous for his lead role in The Village Headmaster, where his stage name, "Ife Araba, The Village Headmaster", was coined. Chief Eddie Ugbomah, former Chairman of…
Read More
2015
Malaysian convicted murderer who was executed by hanging in Singapore (born 1984)
Kho Jabing, later in life Muhammad Kho Abdullah, was a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and Iban descent from Sarawak, Malaysia, who partnered with a friend to rob and murder a Chinese construction worker named Cao Ruyin in…
Read More
2016
Austrian race car driver (born 1949)
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda was an Austrian racing driver, motorsport executive, and aviation entrepreneur, who competed in Formula One from 1971 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1985. Lauda won three Formula One World…
Read More
2019
American anti-pornography activist (born 1956)
Gary Bruce Wilson was an American writer and anti-pornography campaigner.
Read More
2021
American sportswriter and author (born 1920)
Roger Angell was an American essayist known for his writing on sports, especially baseball. He was a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years. He wrote numerous works of…
Read More
2022
Filipino actress (born 1941)
Susan Roces was a Filipino actress. She rose to fame in mid-1950s and became the biggest box-office star of the 1960s. Known for playing wholesome and sweet characters in romantic comedies and musicals during her youth,…
Read More
2022
American stock trader (born 1937)
Ivan Frederick Boesky was a convicted criminal and an American stock trader who was infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal in the mid-1980s. After getting caught he became a government informant…
Read More
2024
American actor and comedian (born 1948)
George Robert Wendt Jr. was an American actor. Wendt played Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom Cheers from 1982 to 1993, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting…
Read More
2025
Advertisement
Notable deaths
Who died on May 20?
Max Beerbohm — English writer and caricaturist (1872–1956)
FeaturedMax Beerbohm
Death year1956
Known forHe first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist
Deaths on this date104 (685 – 2025)
Explore May 20
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on May 20 in History
2022
Russo-Ukrainian war: Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege. Wikipedia →
2019
The International System of Units (SI): The base units are redefined, making the international prototype of the kilogram obsolete. Wikipedia →
2016
See all events on May 20
The government of Singapore authorised the controversial execution of convicted murderer Kho Jabing for the murder of a Chinese construction worker despite the international pleas for clemency, notably from Amnesty International and the United Nations. Wikipedia →
Advertisement