Did you know
At the time of his death he still held the records for most tournaments as yokozuna (63) and most bouts won as a yokozuna (670), but these records have now been surpassed
Notable Deaths on November 20
139 people
284 – 2024
November 20 has seen 139 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 284 – 2024. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
2015 — Kitanoumi Toshimitsu
Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (born 1953)
Did you know
Following his retirement in 1985 he established the Kitanoumi stable
Did you know
He was chairman of the Japan Sumo Association from 2002 until 2008, and again from 2012 until his death.
Did you know
He entered professional sumo at the age of 13 and set several youth-related records, including promotion to the highest rank of yokozuna at the age of 21
Did you know
Kitanoumi Toshimitsu , born Toshimitsu Obata , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sōbetsu, Hokkaido
284
High King of Ireland (born 743)
Domhnall Mac Murchada, called Domnall Midi, was High King of Ireland. He belonged to the Clann Cholmáin branch of the Uí Néill. Clann Cholmáin's pre-eminence among the southern Uí Néill, which would last until the rise…
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763
811
Byzantine courtier
Theoktistos or Theoctistus was a leading Byzantine official during the second quarter of the 9th century and the de facto head of the regency for the underage emperor Michael III from 842 until his dismissal and murder…
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855
English king (born 841)
Edmund the Martyr was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death.
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869
927
996
duke of Brittany (born 980)
Geoffrey I, also known as Geoffrey of Rennes and Geoffrey Berengar, was Duke of Brittany from 992 until his death, and also Count of Rennes by right of succession. The eldest son of Duke Conan I of Brittany, he assumed…
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1008
German bishop (born c. 960)
Bernward was the thirteenth Bishop of Hildesheim from 993 until his death in 1022.
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1022
1314
1316
margravine of Meissen
Elisabeth of Moravia was the second daughter and third issue of John Henry of Moravia, and his second wife Margaret of Opava. She became Margravine consort of Meissen by her marriage to William I, Margrave of Meissen…
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1400
Scottish princess (born 1433)
Eleanor of Scotland was an Archduchess of Austria by marriage to Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, a noted translator, and regent of Austria in 1455–58 and 1467. She was a daughter of James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort.
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1480
Belgian singer and composer (born 1452)
Pierre de la Rue was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de…
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1518
English noblewoman and claimant to the throne of England (born 1517)
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was an English noblewoman. She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She was the mother…
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1559
English academic and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1540)
Sir Christopher Hatton was an English politician, Lord Chancellor of England and a favourite of Elizabeth I of England. He was one of the judges who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason.
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1591
1593
1606
English courtier and author (born 1561)
Sir John Harington, of Kelston, Somerset, England, but born in London, was an English courtier, author and translator popularly known as the inventor of the flush toilet. He became prominent at Queen Elizabeth I's…
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1612
Polish nobleman (born 1595)
Mikołaj "Bearpaw" Potocki was a Polish nobleman, magnate and Field Crown Hetman of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1637 to 1646, Grand Hetman of the Crown from 1646 to 1651, governor of Bracław Voivodeship from…
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1651
Austrian duke and governor (born 1614)
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts.
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1662
Dutch Golden Age painter (born 1622)
Karel Dujardin was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Although he did a few portraits and a few history paintings of religious subjects, most of his work is small Italianate landscape scenes with animals and peasants, and…
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1678
governor of Spanish Florida (1646–48, and 1651–54) (born 1613)
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner y Catalán was a Spanish soldier who served as interim co-governor of Spanish Florida between 1646 and 1648, and as governor between 1651 and 1654. When governor Benito Ruíz de Salazar…
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1684
1695
French botanist and painter (born 1646)
Charles Plumier was a French botanist after whom the frangipani genus Plumeria is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time. He made three botanizing expeditions to…
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1704
queen of England and Ireland (born 1683)
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Electress of Hanover from 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until her death in 1737 as the wife of King George II.
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1737
French cardinal and poet (born 1661)
Melchior Cardinal de Polignac was a French diplomat, Cardinal and Neo-Latin poet.
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1742
Swedish violinist and composer (born 1694)
Johan Helmich Roman was a Swedish Baroque composer. He has been called "the father of Swedish music" or "the Swedish Handel." He was the leader of the Swedish Royal Orchestra during the first decades of Sweden's Age of…
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1758
Prussian mathematician and theorist (born 1690)
Christian Goldbach was a Prussian mathematician connected with some important research mainly in number theory; he also studied law and took an interest in and a role in the Russian court. After traveling around Europe…
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1764
English landowner and patron of the arts
Charles Jennens was an English landowner and art patron. As a friend of Handel, he helped author the libretti of several of his oratorios, most notably Messiah.
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1773
Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician (born 1726)
Francesco Cetti was an Italian Jesuit priest, zoologist and mathematician.
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1778
Swedish chemist (born 1757)
Carl Axel Arrhenius was a Swedish military officer, amateur geologist, and chemist. He is best known for his discovery of the mineral ytterbite in 1787.
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1824
Romanian-Hungarian mathematician and academic (born 1775)
Farkas Bolyai was a Hungarian mathematician, mainly known for his work in geometry.
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1856
American painter and illustrator (born 1809)
Albert Newsam was an American lithographer and painter. He was born deaf in Steubenville, Ohio, and orphaned as a small child. He displayed artistic talent at an early age, was brought to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and…
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1864
German botanist and pharmacist (born 1815)
Otto Karl Berg was a German botanist and pharmacist. The official abbreviation of his name, in botany, is O. Berg.
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1866
French painter (born 1794)
Léon Cogniet was a French history and portrait painter. He is probably best remembered as a teacher, with more than one hundred students, some of them notable.
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1880
American doctor and astronomer (born 1837)
Henry Draper was an American medical doctor and amateur astronomer. He is best known today as a pioneer of astrophotography.
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1882
American painter (born 1859)
William Bliss Baker was an American artist who began painting just as the Hudson River School was winding down. Baker began his studies in 1876 at the National Academy of Design, where he studied with Bierstadt and de…
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1886
Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic (born 1826)
Karl August Engelbrekt Ahlqvist, who wrote as A. Oksanen, was a Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the Finno-Ugric languages, author, and literary critic. He is best remembered as the sharpest critic of writer Aleksis…
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1889
Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1829)
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory.
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1894
1st Baronet, English engineer (born 1817)
Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet, KCMG, LLD, FRSE was an English civil engineer specialising in the construction of railways and railway infrastructure. In the 1850s and 1860s, he was engineer for the world's first…
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1898
French race car driver (born 1867)
Count Charles-François Gaston Louis Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat was a French aristocrat and race car driver.
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1903
1903
German painter (born 1876)
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German Expressionist painter and draftswoman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is noted for the many self-portraits, including nudes. She is considered one of the most important…
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1907
German composer and conductor (born 1829)
Albert Hermann Dietrich, was a German composer and conductor. In addition to his work, he is remembered for his friendship with Johannes Brahms.
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1908
Ukrainian mathematician and academic (born 1868)
Georgy Feodosevich Voronoy was an Imperial Russian mathematician of Ukrainian descent noted for defining the Voronoi diagram.
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1908
Russian author and playwright (born 1828)
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.
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1910
Swedish painter and illustrator (born 1882)
John Albert Bauer was a Swedish painter and illustrator. His work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och…
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1918
American actor and director
Allen J. Holubar was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter of the silent film era. He appeared in 38 films between 1913 and 1917. He also directed 33 films between 1916 and 1923.
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1923
died on hunger Strike 1923 Irish hunger strikes (born 1883)
Denis Barry was an Irish Republican who died during the 1923 Irish hunger strikes, shortly after the Irish Civil War.
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1923
English sportsman and the father of the Football Association and modern football (born 1831)
Ebenezer Cobb Morley was an English sportsman. He is regarded as one of the fathers of the Football Association (FA) and modern football.
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1924
Queen of the United Kingdom (born 1844)
Alexandra of Denmark was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King Edward VII.
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1925
American track and field athlete (born 1874)
William Joseph Holland was an American track and field athlete.
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1930
British politician (born 1815)
Augustine Birrell KC was a British Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property and for extending…
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1933
Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (born 1872)
Willem de Sitter was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He is known for the de Sitter universe, which is a cosmological model that was named after him.
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1934
Royal Navy officer and First Sea Lord (born 1859)
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916…
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1935
Spanish mechanic and activist (born 1896)
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist militant and a leading figure in Spanish anarchism before and during the Spanish Civil War. As a prominent member of the Confederación Nacional del…
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1936
Spanish lawyer and politician (born 1903)
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella GE, often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish national syndicalist politician who founded the Falange…
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1936
queen of Norway (born 1869)
Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway as the wife of King Haakon VII. The youngest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom and a sister of King George V, she was known as Princess Maud of Wales…
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1938
American physicist (born 1855)
Edwin Herbert Hall was an American physicist who discovered the Hall effect. He also conducted thermoelectric research and wrote numerous physics textbooks and laboratory manuals.
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1938
Chief of Police under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (born 1880)
Arturo Bocchini was an Italian civil servant, who was appointed Chief of the Police under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Bocchini held the office from September 1926 until his death in November 1940, becoming a…
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1940
English footballer (born 1881)
John George "Tim" Coleman MM was an English footballer who played as a forward for Kettering Town, Northampton Town, Woolwich Arsenal, Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Queen Park Rangers and Tunbridge…
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1940
Canadian soccer player (born 1882)
Robert George Lane was a Canadian amateur soccer player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was born in Galt, Ontario and died in Winnipeg. In 1904 he was a member of the Galt F.C. team, which won the gold…
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1940
Estonian linguist and author (born 1901)
Elmar Muuk was an Estonian linguist, lexicographer, and author of a number of dictionaries and textbooks of the Estonian language, and was, together with Johannes Voldemar Veski and Johannes Aavik, responsible for…
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1941
Italian actress (born 1892)
Maria Jacobini was an Italian film actress and writer. She was born in Rome. She was married to the film director Gennaro Righelli and appeared in many of his silent films for the Vesuvio Film Company. She and her…
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1944
English chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877)
Francis William Aston FRS was a British chemist and physicist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes in many non-radioactive elements and for his…
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1945
Indonesian officer (born 1917)
Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai was an Indonesian National Hero who commanded Indonesian forces in Bali against the Dutch during the Indonesian War of Independence. He was killed in the Battle of Margarana.
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1946
German author and playwright (born 1921)
Wolfgang Borchert was a German author and playwright whose work was strongly influenced by his experience of dictatorship and his service in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. His work is among the best-known…
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1947
Italian composer (born 1866)
Francesco Cilea was an Italian composer. Today he is particularly known for his operas L'arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur.
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1950
Italian philosopher and politician (born 1866)
Benedetto Croce,
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A political liberal in most regards, he…
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1952
American pilot and engineer, founded the Cessna Aircraft Corporation (born 1879)
Clyde Vernon Cessna was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 in Wichita, Kansas.
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1954
Russian-Lithuanian painter and illustrator (born 1875)
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky was a Russian-Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early 20th-century city.
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1957
1959
Israeli writer and translator (born 1881)
Ya'akov Cahan or Kahan was an Israeli poet, playwright, translator, writer and Hebrew linguist.
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1960
Italian writer and journalist (born 1910)
Ennio Flaiano was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist, and drama critic. Best known for his work with Federico Fellini, Flaiano co-wrote ten screenplays with the Italian director, including La…
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1972
American actor, comedian, and producer (born 1924)
Allan Sherman was an American musician, comedian, and television producer who became known as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962), became the fastest-selling record album…
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1973
Spanish general and dictator, Prime Minister of Spain (born 1892)
Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who was
the leader of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. He had led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil…
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1975
English Jesuit priest (born 1888)
Martin Cyril D'Arcy was an English Jesuit priest, philosopher of love, and a correspondent, friend, and adviser to a range of literary and artistic figures including Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy L. Sayers, W. H. Auden, Eric…
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1976
Ukrainian-Russian biologist and agronomist (born 1898)
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist. He rejected Mendelian genetics in favour of his own idiosyncratic, pseudoscientific ideas later termed Lysenkoism.
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1976
Greek-Italian painter and sculptor (born 1888)
Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico was a Greek-Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the…
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1978
Russian soldier and poet (born 1890)
Vasily Ivanovich Gnedov, better known by the pen name Vasilisk Gnedov, was one of the most radically experimental poets of Russian Futurism, though not as prolific as his peers.
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1978
Australian lawyer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1900)
Sir John McEwen was an Australian politician and farmer who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia from 1967 to 1968, in a caretaker capacity following the disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt. He was the…
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1980
Australian-British Catholic writer and apologist (born 1981)
Francis Joseph Sheed was an Australian-born lawyer, Catholic writer, publisher, speaker, and lay theologian. He and his wife Maisie Ward were the names behind the imprint Sheed & Ward and as forceful public lecturers in…
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1981
French actor and playwright (born 1900)
Marcel Dalio, sometimes credited mononymously as Dalio, was a French actor. He began his career in the 1930s as a leading man, notably starring in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game…
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1983
Chinese-American actor (born 1903)
Richard Loo was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982.
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1983
Italian actor, singer and comedian (born 1904)
Carlo Campanini was an Italian actor, singer and comedian. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1939 and 1969.
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1984
Faroese politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (born 1895)
Kristian Djurhuus was a Faroese politician. He was a member of the Union Party.
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1984
Pakistani journalist and poet (born 1911)
Chaudhry Faiz Ahmad Faiz was a Pakistani poet and author of Urdu and Punjabi literature. Faiz was one of the most celebrated, popular, and influential Urdu writers of his time, and his works and ideas remain widely…
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1984
1989
Estonian economist and chess player (born 1920)
Raul Renter was an Estonian economist and chess player, who twice won the Estonian Chess Championship.
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1992
Latvian basketball player (born 1930)
Jānis Krūmiņš was a Soviet-Latvian professional basketball player. Helped by his height, he was the first giant center that dominated under European baskets, for years. As a player of the senior Soviet Union national…
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1994
Russian figure skater (born 1967)
Sergei Mikhailovich Grinkov was a Soviet and Russian pair skater. Together with his wife Ekaterina Gordeeva, he was the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion and a four-time World Champion.
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1995
American editor, novelist and critic (born 1919)
Robie Mayhew Macauley was an American editor, novelist and critic whose literary career spanned more than 50 years.
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1995
American baseball player (born 1926)
Richard Bernard Littlefield was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, New…
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1997
American saxophonist, producer, and author (born 1945)
Robert Franklin Palmer Jr. was an American writer, musicologist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and blues producer. He is best known for his non-fictional writing on the field of music; his work as a music journalist for The…
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1997
Jamaican saxophonist (born 1931)
Roland Alphonso OD or Rolando Alphonso a.k.a. "The Chief Musician" was a Jamaican tenor saxophonist, and one of the founding members of the Skatalites.
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1998
Russian ethnographer and politician (born 1946)
Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova was a Soviet dissident, Russian politician and ethnographer known for her work to protect ethnic minorities and promote democratic reforms in Russia. She was murdered in 1998.
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1998
Italian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (born 1908)
Amintore Fanfani was an Italian politician and statesman who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War and a historical…
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1999
American computer programmer, created Ping (born 1958)
Michael John Muuss was the American author of the freeware network tool ping, as well as the first interactive ray tracing program.
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2000
Finnish author (born 1919)
Kaarlo Alvar Päätalo was a Finnish novelist, the most popular Finnish writer in the 20th century. His Iijoki series, comprising 26 novels, is one of the longest autobiographical works ever written.
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2000
Polish athlete (born 1936)
Barbara Sobotta-Janiszewska, née Barbara Lerczak, was a Polish athlete who mainly competed in the women's sprint events during her career.
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2000
Georgian footballer (born 1947)
Kakhi Asatiani was a Georgian association football player and manager.
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2002
English actor (born 1960 )
Robert Alastair Addie was an English film and theatre actor, who came to prominence playing the role of Sir Guy of Gisburne in the 1980s British television drama series Robin of Sherwood.
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2003
African educator and politician, 1st President of the Central African Republic (born 1930)
David Dacko was a Central African politician who served as the first President of the Central African Republic from 14 August 1960 to 31 December 1965 and as the third President of the Central African Republic from 21…
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2003
American businessman, co-founded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (born 1923)
Eugene Kleiner was an Austrian-American engineer and venture capitalist. He is considered a pioneer of Silicon Valley. He was one of the original founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, part of the Traitorous Eight, and…
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2003
American physiologist (born 1904)
Ancel Benjamin Keys was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduced cardiovascular diseases.…
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2004
Iranian journalist and poet (born 1931)
Manouchehr Atashi was a Persian poet, writer, and journalist of Kurdish descent.
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2005
American tenor (born 1925)
James King was an American operatic tenor who had an active international singing career in operas and concerts from the 1950s through 2000. Widely regarded as one of the finest American heldentenors of the post-war…
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2005
American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1960)
Christopher Becker Whitley was an American blues/rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Whitley's sound was drawn from the traditions of blues, jazz and rock and he recorded songs by artists from many genres. During his…
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2005
American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1925)
Robert Bernard Altman was an American filmmaker. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and satirical films with overlapping dialogue and ensemble casts. Over his…
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2006
Romanian mathematician and academic (born 1950)
Zoia Ceaușescu was a Romanian mathematician, the daughter of Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena and sister of Nicu Ceaușescu and Valentin Ceaușescu. She was also known as Tovarășa Zoia.
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2006
American author (born 1916)
Donald Bengtsson Hamilton was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime fiction and…
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2006
NASA manager (born 1919)
Kenneth Samuel Kleinknecht worked for the United States National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics as an engineer and continued at NASA to become a manager of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo CSM, Skylab, Shuttle, and…
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2007
Rhodesian lieutenant and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Rhodesia (born 1919)
Ian Douglas Smith was a Rhodesian and later Zimbabwean politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. He was the country's first leader to be born and raised in…
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2007
Italian mountaineer (born 1925)
Lino Lacedelli was an Italian mountaineer. Together with Achille Compagnoni, on 31 July 1954 he was the first to reach the summit of K2.
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2009
American author and scholar (born 1931)
Chalmers Ashby Johnson was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the…
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2010
Latvian ice hockey player (born 1975)
Kaspars Astašenko was a Latvian professional ice hockey player. Astašenko was born in Riga, Latvia. Astašenko was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1999 NHL entry draft, 127th overall. Astašenko played parts of…
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2012
Swedish pentathlete (born 1914)
William Oscar Guernsey Grut was a Swedish modern pentathlete. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where he won the gold medal in modern pentathlon. Grut was a multiple Swedish swimming champion and…
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2012
American jazz drummer (born 1938)
Pete "La Roca" Sims was an American jazz drummer and attorney. Born and raised in Harlem by a pianist mother and a stepfather who played trumpet, he was introduced to jazz by his uncle Kenneth Bright, a major…
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2012
2012
American author (born 1936)
Sylvia Celeste Browne was an American writer and self-proclaimed medium and psychic. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live, and hosted an hour-long…
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2013
Polish-German actor and screenwriter (born 1927)
Dieter Hildebrandt was a German Kabarett artist.
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2013
18th Duchess of Alba (born 1926)
María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba GE was a Spanish aristocrat.
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2014
Australian actor (born 1926)
Keith Joseph Michell was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King Henry VIII. He appeared extensively in Shakespeare and other…
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2015
2015
Costa Rican footballer (born 1984)
Gabriel Badilla Segura was a Costa Rican footballer who played as a defender.
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2016
American basketball player (born 1937)
Eugene Michael Guarilia was an American basketball player who played four seasons for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is historically the only NBA player with at least a three-year…
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2016
Greek statesman (born 1926)
Konstantinos "Kostis" Stephanopoulos was a Greek conservative politician who served two consecutive terms as the president of Greece from 1995 to 2005.
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2016
Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer (born 1928)
William Trevor Cox was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in…
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2016
German actor, film producer and writer (born 1934)
Peter Berling was a German actor, film producer, and writer. He has worked on several occasions with director Werner Herzog, among them his collaborations with actor Klaus Kinski like Aguirre, the Wrath of God;…
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2017
13th Librarian of Congress (born 1929)
James Hadley Billington was an American academic and author who taught history at Harvard and Princeton before serving for 42 years as CEO of four federal cultural institutions. He served as the 13th Librarian of…
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2018
Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926)
Sir Aaron Klug was a British biophysicist and chemist. He was a winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically…
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2018
American basketball player (born 1923)
Wataru Misaka was an American professional basketball player. A 5-foot-7-inch (1.70 m) point guard of Japanese descent, he broke a color barrier in professional basketball by being the first non-white player and the…
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2019
Welsh historian, author and travel writer (born 1926)
Catharine Jan Morris was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy (1968–1978), a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, including…
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2020
German Holocaust denier (born 1928)
Ursula Hedwig Meta Haverbeck-Wetzel was a German neo-Nazi activist. Between 2004 and her death in 2024, she had been the subject of multiple lawsuits and convictions for Holocaust denial, which is a criminal offense in…
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2024
American songwriter (born 1952)
Andrew Douglas Paley was an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and composer. During the 1970s, he performed around the Boston area with numerous bands and formed the Paley Brothers, a power pop…
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2024
British sailor and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1938)
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007.
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2024
2024
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Notable deaths
Who died on November 20?
Kitanoumi Toshimitsu — Japanese sumo wrestler (1953–2015)
FeaturedKitanoumi Toshimitsu
Death year2015
Known forHe entered professional sumo at the age of 13 and set several youth-related records, including promotion to the highest rank of yokozuna at the age of 21
Deaths on this date139 (284 – 2024)
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Also on November 20 in History
2022
The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar. This is the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East. Wikipedia →
2016
Jimmie Johnson wins his seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time. Wikipedia →
2015
See all events on November 20
Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali. Wikipedia →
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