December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining until the end of the year.
Up to 1900
- 1537 – King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
- 1579 - John Fletcher, English dramatist (d. 1625)
- 1629 – Pieter de Hooch, painter (d. 1684)
- 1633 - Abbas II of Persia (d. 1666)
- 1648 - Tommaso Ceva, Italian poet and mathematician (d. 1736)
- 1717 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French politician and diplomat (d. 1787)
- 1740 - Arthur Lee, American diplomat (d. 1792)
- 1786 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (d. 1853)
- 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)
- 1838 – Edwin Abbott Abbott, schoolmaster/theologian/writer of Flatland (d. 1926)
- 1841 – Ferdinand Buisson, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1927 (d. 1932)
- 1856 – Ferdinand Avenarius, writer (d. 1923)
- 1858 - Kuno Meyer, German scholar (d. 1919)
- 1860 – Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
- 1861 – Ivana Kobilca, Slovene painter (d. 1926)
- 1865 – Elsie De Wolfe, aka Lady Mendl, actress & interior decorator (d. 1950)
- 1868 - Arturo Alessandri, President of Chile (d. 1950)
- 1868 – Harvey Firestone, automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
- 1873 - Mahmet Akif Ersoy, Turkish poet, writer, academic and politician (d. 1936)
- 1876 - Walter Sydney Adams, American astronomer (d. 1956)
- 1881 – Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
- 1886 – Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis star (d. 1974)
- 1890 – Yvonne Arnaud, French actress (d. 1958)
- 1890 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1967)
- 1891 - Erik Almlöf, Swedish triple jumper (d. 1971)
- 1893 – Charlotte Bühler, psychologist
- 1894 – Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1898 - Konstantinos Dovas, Greek general and politician (d. 1973)
- 1899 - Martin Lloyd-Jones, Welsh preacher and physician (d. 1981)
1901 – 1950
- 1901 – Robert Van de Graaff, physicist, inventor (d. 1967)
- 1902 – Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
- 1902 – Max Lerner, American educator (d. 1992)
- 1902 – George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
- 1904 - Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (d. 1977)
- 1908 - Dennis Morgan, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1914 – Harry F. Byrd, Jr., American politician (d. 2013)
- 1916 - Gonzalo Rojas, Chilean poet (d. 2011)
- 1917 - David Bohm, American-born philosopher, physicist and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)
- 1918 - Audrey Totter, American actress (d. 2013)
- 1918 - Jean Marchand, Canadian trade union leader and politician (d. 1988)
- 1922 – George Roy Hill, American movie director (d. 2002)
- 1923 – James Leasor, mystery writer
- 1924 - Judy LaMarsh, Canadian soldier, lawyer and politician (d. 1980)
- 1924 – Friederike Mayröcker, writer
- 1924 - Charlie Callas, American comedian (d. 2011)
- 1925 - Benito Lorenzo, Italian footballer (d. 2007)
- 1926 – Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), British politician (d. 2015)
- 1926 – Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician (d. 2009)
- 1927 – Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea (d. 2015)
- 1927 - Jim Simpson, American sportscaster (d. 2016)
- 1927 - Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark (d. 2016)
- 1930 – Noel Ferrier, producer and actress
- 1932 - John Hillerman, American actor (d. 2017)
- 1933 – Jean Carnahan, US Senator
- 1934 - Julius Darmaatmadja, Indonesian cardinal
- 1939 - Kathryn Joosten, American actress (d. 2012)
- 1942 - Jean-Claude Trichet, French economist and banker
- 1942 – Bob Hayes, track and field star, American football star (d. 2002)
- 1944 - Bobby Colomby, American drummer and producer
- 1945 - Peter Criss, American musician
- 1945 - Tom Tancredo, American politician
- 1945 - Pierre Bürcher, Swiss bishop
- 1946 – Dick Wolf, American TV drama series creator
- 1946 – Uri Geller, Israeli-British psychic TV presenter
- 1946 - Sonny Perdue, American politician, former Governor of Georgia and 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture
- 1946 - John Spencer, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1947 - Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer
1951 – 1975
- 1951 - Kate Atkinson, English writer
- 1951 - Lynne Featherstone, English politician
- 1951 - Peter May, Scottish author and screenwriter
- 1951 - Christopher Le Brun, English painter and sculptor
- 1952 – Jenny Agutter, English actress
- 1952 - Sky Gilbert, Canadian drag queen performer, actor and producer
- 1954 – Michael Badalucco, actor
- 1954 - Sandra Cisneros, American writer
- 1955 – Lonesome Bob, singer, songwriter
- 1955 - Binali Yildirim, Prime Minister of Turkey
- 1955 - Martin Schulz, German politician, President of the European Parliament
- 1956 - Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania
- 1957 – Anna Vissi, Greek singer
- 1957 – Billy Bragg, English singer, songwriter
- 1957 – Mike Watt, bassist
- 1958 - Jürgen Raab, German footballer
- 1959 - Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, former Prime Minister of Poland
- 1960 – Nalo Hopkinson, science fiction writer
- 1963 - Infanta Elena of Spain
- 1963 - Mats Gren, Swedish footballer
- 1965 – Rich Gannon, American football quarterback
- 1970 – Nicole DeBoer, actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Dead Zone)
- 1972 - Anders Odden, Norwegian musician
- 1975 - Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer
From 1976
- 1976 - Aubrey Hoff, American baseball player
- 1976 - Nenad Vuckovic, Croatian footballer
- 1977 - Sonja Aldén, Swedish singer
- 1978 - Andrei Markov, Russian-Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 - Bouabdellah Tahri, French runner
- 1979 - George Lamb, English television presenter
- 1980 - Ashley Cole, English footballer
- 1980 - Martin Demichelis, Argentine footballer
- 1981 - Julien Benneteau, French tennis player
- 1982 - David Cook, American singer
- 1982 - David Wright, American baseball player
- 1982 - Keny Arkana, French singer and rapper
- 1982 - Mohammed Asif, Pakistani cricketer
- 1983 - Lara Stone, Dutch model
- 1983 - Jonah Hill, American actor
- 1983 - Lucy Pinder, English model and actress
- 1983 - Mapei, Swedish-American singer
- 1987 - Michihiro Yasuda, Japanese footballer
- 1990 – Joanna Levesque, AKA JoJo, American singer
- 1990 - Marta Xargay, Spanish basketball player
- 1991 - Hunter Gomez, American actor
- 1992 - Ksenia Makarova, Russian-American figure skater
- 1995 - Feliks Zembegs, Australian speed cuber
- 1997 - Suzuka Nakamoto, Japanese singer and model
- 1998 - Kylian Mbappé, French footballer
Up to 1900
- 69 - Vitellius, Roman Emperor
- 217 - Pope Zephyrinus
- 860 - Ethelbald of Wessex (b. 834)
- 910 - King Alfonso III of Leon (b. 848)
- 1022 - Elvira Mendes, Queen of Castile (b. 996)
- 1295 - Margaret of Provence (b. 1221)
- 1355 - Stefan Dusan, Emperor of Serbia (b. 1308)
- 1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardi, Italian poet (b. 1434)
- 1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician (b. 1460)
- 1539 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. 1506)
- 1552 - Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther (b. 1499)
- 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
- 1765 - Louis, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XV of France (b. 1729)
- 1768 - Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, Italian poet and academic (b. 1692)
- 1783 - Antonio Soler, Spanish composer (b. 1729)
- 1812 - Sacagawea, Native American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition (b. 1788)
- 1856 - Francesco Bentivegna, Italian revolutionary (b. 1820)
1901 – 2000
- 1915 - Upendrakishore Ray, Indian writer, painter and composer (b. 1863)
- 1917 - Lucien Petit-Breton, French racing cyclist (b. 1882)
- 1927 - Frederick Semple, American golfer and tennis player (b. 1872)
- 1929 - Emile Loubet, French statesman (b. 1838)
- 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
- 1941 - Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
- 1944 - Abbas II of Egypt (b. 1874)
- 1950 - Enrico Mizzi, 6th Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1885)
- 1961 - Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
- 1961 - Moss Hart, American dramatist (b. 1904)
- 1968 - Max Brod, Austrian-Israeli writer and composer (b. 1884)
- 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer (b. 1902)
- 1971 - Roy O. Disney, American entertainment industry executive (b. 1893)
- 1971 - Shigeyoshi Suzuki, Japanese footballer (b. 1902)
- 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1936)
- 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish politician (b. 1904)
- 1976 - Richard J. Daley, American politician (b. 1902)
- 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish pianist (b. 1887)
- 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
- 1994 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (b. 1934)
- 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
- 1998 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist (b. 1916)
- 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Bangladeshi statesman and philanthropist (b. 1920)
From 2001
- 2001 - Leopold Sedar Senghor, 1st President of Senegal (b. 1906)
- 2009 - Brittany Murphy, American actress (b. 1977)
- 2010 - Brian Hanrahan, British journalist (b. 1949)
- 2011 - Hana Andronikova, Czech writer (b. 1967)
- 2012 - Jimmy McCracklin, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1921)
- 2013 - Nelly Omar, Argentine actress and singer (b. 1911)
- 2014 - John Freeman, English politician, diplomat and broadcaster (b. 1915)
- 2014 - Bob Lanier, American businessman and politician, Mayor of Houston (b. 1925)
- 2015 - Ray Mathews, American football player (b. 1929)
- 2015 - Patricia Elliott, American actress (b. 1938)
- 2016 - Michèle Morgan, French actress (b. 1920)
- 2017 - William Agee, American business executive (b. 1938)
- 2017 - Florence Bjelke-Petersen, Australian politician (b. 1920)
- 2017 - Henryk Cioch, Polish lawyer and politician (b. 1951)
- 2017 - Annie Goetzinger, French comic artist (b. 1951)
- 2017 - Bernard Francis Law, American cardinal (b. 1931)
- 2017 - Red Murrell, American basketball player (b. 1933)
- 2017 - Stan Pilecki, Polish-born Australian rugby player (b. 1947)
- 2017 - Randolph Quirk, British linguist and life peer (b. 1920)
- 2018 - F. W. Bernstein, German poet and cartoonist (b. 1938)
- 2018 - Klaus Hagerup, Norwegian author (b. 1946)
- 2018 - Donald Moffat, English-American actor (b. 1930)
- 2019 - Fazle Hasan Abed, Bangladeshi philanthropist (b. 1936)
- 2019 - Matti Ahde, Finnish politician (b. 1945)
- 2019 - Zilda Cardoso, Brazilian actress (b. 1936)
- 2019 - Thomas Chandy, Indian politician (b. 1947)
- 2019 - Junior Johnson, American racing driver (b. 1931)
- 2019 - Eduard Krieger, Austrian footballer (b. 1946)
- 2019 - Roland Matthes, German swimmer (b. 1950)
- 2019 - Yuri Pshenichnikov, Uzbek-Russian handball player (b. 1940)
- 2019 - Daniel Selvaraj, Indian writer (b. 1938)
- 2020 - Nicette Bruno, Brazilian actress (b. 1933)
- 2020 - Doug Anthony, Australian politician (b. 1929)
- 2020 - Fanny Waterman, British pianist (b. 1920)
- 2020 - Ezra Vogel, American sociologist (b. 1930)