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This Day On History
| Date | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 20th of January 0250 | EVENT | Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred. |
| 20th of January 1265 | EVENT | In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster, now also known colloquially as the "Houses of Parliament". |
| 20th of January 1320 | EVENT | Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland. |
| 20th of January 1356 | EVENT | Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland. |
| 20th of January 1502 | EVENT | The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored. |
| 20th of January 1523 | EVENT | Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway. |
| 20th of January 1576 | EVENT | The Mexican city of Leon is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martin Enriquez de Almanza. |
| 20th of January 1649 | EVENT | Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes". |
| 20th of January 1783 | EVENT | The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence). |
| 20th of January 1788 | EVENT | The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Botany Bay is unsuitable for the location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson. |
| 20th of January 1801 | EVENT | John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States. |
| 20th of January 1839 | EVENT | In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia. |
| 20th of January 1841 | EVENT | Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British. |
| 20th of January 1885 | EVENT | L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster. |
| 20th of January 1887 | EVENT | The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base. |
| 20th of January 1920 | EVENT | The American Civil Liberties Union is founded. |
| 20th of January 1921 | EVENT | The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty. |
| 20th of January 1929 | EVENT | In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, is released. |
| 20th of January 1934 | EVENT | Fujifilm, the photographic and electronics company, is founded in Tokyo, Japan. |
| 20th of January 1936 | EVENT | Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom. |
| 20th of January 1941 | EVENT | A Nazi officer is murdered in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers. |
| 20th of January 1942 | EVENT | World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". |
| 20th of January 1945 | EVENT | World War II: Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies. |
| 20th of January 1945 | EVENT | World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months. |
| 20th of January 1949 | EVENT | Point Four Program a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President. |
| 20th of January 1954 | EVENT | The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations. |
| 20th of January 1959 | EVENT | The first flight of the Vickers Vanguard. |
| 20th of January 1960 | EVENT | Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic. |
| 20th of January 1969 | EVENT | East Pakistani police kill student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman. The resulting outrage is in part responsible for the Bangladesh Liberation War. |
| 20th of January 1972 | EVENT | Pakistan launched its Nuclear detterent program few weeks after its defeat in Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. |
| 20th of January 1981 | EVENT | Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated, at age 69 the oldest man ever to be inaugurated as U.S. President, Iran releases 52 American hostages. |
| 20th of January 1986 | EVENT | Martin Luther King, Jr. day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time. |
| 20th of January 1987 | EVENT | Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon. |
| 20th of January 1990 | EVENT | Tragedy at Baku : The Red Army killed Azerbaijani people in Baku. |
| 20th of January 1991 | EVENT | Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south. |
| 20th of January 1992 | EVENT | Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 82 passengers and 5 crew. |
| 20th of January 1999 | EVENT | The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes. |
| 20th of January 2001 | EVENT | Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. |
| 20th of January 2006 | EVENT | Witnesses report sightings of a Bottlenose whale swimming in the River Thames, the first time the species had been seen in the River Thames since records began in 1913. |
| 20th of January 2007 | EVENT | A three-man team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance. |
| 20th of January 0225 | BIRTHDAY | Gordian III, Roman Emperor (d. 244) |
| 20th of January 1292 | BIRTHDAY | Elisabeth of Bohemia (1292 : 1330) (d. 1330) |
| 20th of January 1358 | BIRTHDAY | Eleanor of Aragon, wife of John I of Castile (d. 1382) |
| 20th of January 1435 | BIRTHDAY | Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shogun (d. 1490) |
| 20th of January 1554 | BIRTHDAY | King Sebastian of Portugal (d. 1578) |
| 20th of January 1586 | BIRTHDAY | Johann Schein, German composer (d. 1630) |
| 20th of January 1664 | BIRTHDAY | Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (d. 1718) |
| 20th of January 1716 | BIRTHDAY | King Charles III of Spain (d. 1788) |
| 20th of January 1716 | BIRTHDAY | Jean-Jacques Barthelemy, French writer and numismatist (d. 1795) |
| 20th of January 1732 | BIRTHDAY | Richard Henry Lee, American statesman (d. 1794) |
| 20th of January 1755 | BIRTHDAY | Sir Albemarle Bertie, 1st Baronet, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1824) |
| 20th of January 1775 | BIRTHDAY | Andre-Marie Ampere, French physicist (d. 1836) |
| 20th of January 1781 | BIRTHDAY | Joseph Hormayr Freiherr zu Hortenburg, Austrian politician (d. 1848) |
| 20th of January 1783 | BIRTHDAY | Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (d. 1860) |
| 20th of January 1798 | BIRTHDAY | Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (d. 1858) |
| 20th of January 1804 | BIRTHDAY | Eugene Sue, French novelist (d. 1857) |
| 20th of January 1812 | BIRTHDAY | Thomas Meik, Scottish engineer (d. 1896) |
| 20th of January 1834 | BIRTHDAY | George D. Robinson, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896) |
| 20th of January 1837 | BIRTHDAY | David Josiah Brewer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1910) |
| 20th of January 1855 | BIRTHDAY | Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899) |
| 20th of January 1867 | BIRTHDAY | Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (d. 1944) |
| 20th of January 1873 | BIRTHDAY | Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish Nobel laureate (d. 1950) |
| 20th of January 1876 | BIRTHDAY | Jozef Hofmann, Polish pianist (d. 1967) |
| 20th of January 1878 | BIRTHDAY | Finlay Currie, British actor (d. 1968) |
| 20th of January 1878 | BIRTHDAY | Ruth St. Denis, American dancer (d. 1968) |
| 20th of January 1880 | BIRTHDAY | Walter W. Bacon, American politician and 60th Governor of Delaware (d. 1962) |
| 20th of January 1889 | BIRTHDAY | Allan Haines Loughead, American aviation executive (d. 1969) |
| 20th of January 1891 | BIRTHDAY | Mischa Elman, Ukrainian born violinist (d. 1967) |
| 20th of January 1893 | BIRTHDAY | Georg Aberg, Swedish athlete (d. 1946) |
| 20th of January 1894 | BIRTHDAY | Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976) |
| 20th of January 1895 | BIRTHDAY | Gabor Szego, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1985) |
| 20th of January 1896 | BIRTHDAY | George Burns, American actor, comedian (d. 1996) |
| 20th of January 1896 | BIRTHDAY | Isabel Withers, American actress (d. 1968) |
| 20th of January 1898 | BIRTHDAY | U Razak, Burmese politician (d. 1947) |
| 20th of January 1899 | BIRTHDAY | Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese development of television (d. 1990) |
| 20th of January 1899 | BIRTHDAY | Clarice Cliff, English ceramic artist (d. 1972) |
| 20th of January 1900 | BIRTHDAY | Colin Clive, British actor (d. 1937) |
| 20th of January 1902 | BIRTHDAY | Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993) |
| 20th of January 1903 | BIRTHDAY | Jennifer Ishikawa, Japanese singer (d. 1985) |
| 20th of January 1907 | BIRTHDAY | Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (d. 2000) |
| 20th of January 1908 | BIRTHDAY | Fleur Cowles, American writer, editor and artist (d. 2009) |
| 20th of January 1910 | BIRTHDAY | Joy Adamson, Austrian naturalist and writer (d. 1980) |
| 20th of January 1911 | BIRTHDAY | Wendell J. Westcott, American carillonneur (d. 2010) |
| 20th of January 1912 | BIRTHDAY | Walter Briggs, Jr., American sports executive (d. 1970) |
| 20th of January 1913 | BIRTHDAY | Cleon Skousen, American author (d. 2006) |
| 20th of January 1915 | BIRTHDAY | Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006) |
| 20th of January 1918 | BIRTHDAY | Juan Garcia Esquivel, Mexican bandleader (d. 2002) |
| 20th of January 1918 | BIRTHDAY | Nevin S. Scrimshaw, American food scientist |
| 20th of January 1920 | BIRTHDAY | Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian author and ski jumper (d. 2006) |
| 20th of January 1920 | BIRTHDAY | Frank Kush, American football player and coach |
| 20th of January 1920 | BIRTHDAY | DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999) |
| 20th of January 1920 | BIRTHDAY | Federico Fellini, Italian film director (d. 1993) |
| 20th of January 1921 | BIRTHDAY | Telmo Zarraonaindia, Spanish footballer (d. 2006) |
| 20th of January 1922 | BIRTHDAY | Ray Anthony, American trumpeter, bandleader and actor |
| 20th of January 1922 | BIRTHDAY | Graham Stark, British actor |
| 20th of January 1923 | BIRTHDAY | Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer |
| 20th of January 1924 | BIRTHDAY | Slim Whitman, American singer |
| 20th of January 1925 | BIRTHDAY | Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan theologian and politician |
| 20th of January 1926 | BIRTHDAY | Qurratulain Hyder, Indian and Pakistani novelist (d. 2007) |
| 20th of January 1926 | BIRTHDAY | Patricia Neal, American actress (d. 2010) |
| 20th of January 1926 | BIRTHDAY | Jamiluddin Aali, Pakistani poet, essayist and columnist |
| 20th of January 1926 | BIRTHDAY | David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996) |
| 20th of January 1928 | BIRTHDAY | Rudy Boesch, Contestant on Survivor: Borneo (3rd Place) and Survivor: All-Stars (17th Place) |
| 20th of January 1929 | BIRTHDAY | Arte Johnson, American actor |
| 20th of January 1929 | BIRTHDAY | Jimmy Cobb, American jazz drummer |
| 20th of January 1929 | BIRTHDAY | Glenn Roberts, American race car driver (d. 1964) |
| 20th of January 1930 | BIRTHDAY | Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut |
| 20th of January 1931 | BIRTHDAY | David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate |
| 20th of January 1931 | BIRTHDAY | Hachidai Nakamura, Japanese songwriter and pianist (d. 1992) |
| 20th of January 1932 | BIRTHDAY | Lou Fontinato, Canadian ice hockey player |
| 20th of January 1933 | BIRTHDAY | Ron Townson, American singer (The 5th Dimension) (d. 2001) |
| 20th of January 1934 | BIRTHDAY | Tom Baker, British actor |
| 20th of January 1935 | BIRTHDAY | Joan Weston, Roller Derby Queen (d. 1997) |
| 20th of January 1935 | BIRTHDAY | Alexander Men, Russian priest (d. 1990) |
| 20th of January 1937 | BIRTHDAY | Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer and actress (d. 2010) |
| 20th of January 1938 | BIRTHDAY | William Berger, Austrian actor (d. 1993) |
| 20th of January 1938 | BIRTHDAY | Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007) |
| 20th of January 1939 | BIRTHDAY | Paul Coverdell, American politician (d. 2000) |
| 20th of January 1940 | BIRTHDAY | Carol Heiss, American figure skater |
| 20th of January 1940 | BIRTHDAY | Krishnam Raju, Indian actor and politician |
| 20th of January 1941 | BIRTHDAY | Pierre Lalonde, Canadian singer and television host |
| 20th of January 1942 | BIRTHDAY | Linda Moulton Howe, American investigative journalist and documentary producer-writer-director-editor |
| 20th of January 1944 | BIRTHDAY | Farhad Mehrad, Iranian musician (d. 2002) |
| 20th of January 1944 | BIRTHDAY | Jose Luis Garci, Spanish filmmaker |
| 20th of January 1945 | BIRTHDAY | Robert Olen Butler, American writer |
| 20th of January 1945 | BIRTHDAY | Christopher Martin-Jenkins, cricket commentator and correspondent |
| 20th of January 1945 | BIRTHDAY | Eric Stewart, English musician and songwriter (10cc) |
| 20th of January 1946 | BIRTHDAY | David Lynch, American film director |
| 20th of January 1947 | BIRTHDAY | Cyrille Guimard, French cyclist and directeur sportif |
| 20th of January 1948 | BIRTHDAY | Natan Sharansky, Russian-born physicist and politician |
| 20th of January 1948 | BIRTHDAY | Nancy Kress, American writer |
| 20th of January 1948 | BIRTHDAY | Mel Pritchard, British Musician |
| 20th of January 1949 | BIRTHDAY | Goran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden (1996-2006) |
| 20th of January 1950 | BIRTHDAY | Liza Goddard, British actress |
| 20th of January 1950 | BIRTHDAY | Chuck Lefley, Canadian ice hockey player |
| 20th of January 1950 | BIRTHDAY | Edward Hirsch. American poet |
| 20th of January 1950 | BIRTHDAY | Mahamane Ousmane, President of Niger |
| 20th of January 1951 | BIRTHDAY | Ian Hill, British musician (Judas Priest) |
| 20th of January 1951 | BIRTHDAY | Ivan Fischer, Hungarian conductor |
| 20th of January 1952 | BIRTHDAY | Paul Stanley, American musician (Kiss) |
| 20th of January 1953 | BIRTHDAY | Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and convicted sex offender |
| 20th of January 1954 | BIRTHDAY | Ken Page, American cabaret singer and actor |
| 20th of January 1954 | BIRTHDAY | Rudy La Scala, Venezuelan singer-songwriter |
| 20th of January 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Wyatt Knight, American actor |
| 20th of January 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Hiromi Ota, Japanese singer |
| 20th of January 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Joe Doherty, Provisional Irish Republican Army member |
| 20th of January 1956 | BIRTHDAY | Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst |
| 20th of January 1956 | BIRTHDAY | Maria Larsson, Swedish politician |
| 20th of January 1958 | BIRTHDAY | Lorenzo Lamas, American actor |
| 20th of January 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Apa Sherpa, Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer, summitted Everest 19 times |
| 20th of January 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Scott Thunes, American musician (Frank Zappa) |
| 20th of January 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Will Wright, American computer game designer |
| 20th of January 1963 | BIRTHDAY | James Denton, American actor |
| 20th of January 1963 | BIRTHDAY | Firebreaker Chip, American professional wrestler |
| 20th of January 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Ozzie Guillen, Venezuelan-born baseball player and manager |
| 20th of January 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Ron Harper, American basketball player |
| 20th of January 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Kazushige Nojima, Japanese game scenario writer |
| 20th of January 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Greg Kriesel, American bassist (The Offspring) |
| 20th of January 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Colin Calderwood, Scottish footballer |
| 20th of January 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Sophie, The Countess of Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex |
| 20th of January 1965 | BIRTHDAY | John Michael Montgomery, American singer |
| 20th of January 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Anton Weissenbacher, Romanian footballer |
| 20th of January 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Heather Small, British Soul Singer |
| 20th of January 1966 | BIRTHDAY | Rainn Wilson, American actor |
| 20th of January 1966 | BIRTHDAY | Stacey Dash, American actress |
| 20th of January 1966 | BIRTHDAY | Tracii Guns, American guitarist |
| 20th of January 1968 | BIRTHDAY | Nick Anderson, American basketball player |
| 20th of January 1968 | BIRTHDAY | Melissa Rivers, American reporter and actress |
| 20th of January 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Nicky Wire, British musician (Manic Street Preachers) |
| 20th of January 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Patrick K. Kroupa, American computer hacker |
| 20th of January 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Mitch Benn, UK comedian, songwriter, actor |
| 20th of January 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Edwin McCain, American singer-songwriter |
| 20th of January 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Skeet Ulrich, American actor |
| 20th of January 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Kerri Kenney-Silver, American actress |
| 20th of January 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Gary Barlow, English singer (Take That) |
| 20th of January 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Derrick Green, American singer (Sepultura) |
| 20th of January 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Wakanohana Masaru, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 66th Yokozuna |
| 20th of January 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Brian Giles, American baseball player |
| 20th of January 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, American drummer (The Roots) |
| 20th of January 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Gerard McDonnell, Irish mountaineer (d. 2008) |
| 20th of January 1973 | BIRTHDAY | Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant |
| 20th of January 1974 | BIRTHDAY | David Dei, Italian footballer |
| 20th of January 1975 | BIRTHDAY | David Eckstein, American baseball player |
| 20th of January 1975 | BIRTHDAY | Norberto Fontana, Argentine racing driver |
| 20th of January 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater |
| 20th of January 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Kirsty Gallacher, Scottish television presenter |
| 20th of January 1977 | BIRTHDAY | Sid Wilson, American Musician, (Slipknot) |
| 20th of January 1977 | BIRTHDAY | Melody, Belgian singer |
| 20th of January 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Sonja Kesselschlager, German heptathlete |
| 20th of January 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Allan S?gaard, Danish footballer |
| 20th of January 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Joy Giovanni, American actress and glamour model |
| 20th of January 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Asaka Kubo, Japanese gravure idol of 20th Century |
| 20th of January 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Will Young, British singer |
| 20th of January 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Shang Yi, Chinese footballer |
| 20th of January 1980 | BIRTHDAY | Brigitte Olivier, Belgian judoka |
| 20th of January 1980 | BIRTHDAY | Philippe Cousteau, Jr., French oceanographer; grandson of Jacques Cousteau |
| 20th of January 1980 | BIRTHDAY | Matt Tuck, Welsh musician (Bullet For My Valentine) |
| 20th of January 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Freddy Guzman, Dominican baseball player |
| 20th of January 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Jason Richardson, American basketball player |
| 20th of January 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Owen Hargreaves, English footballer |
| 20th of January 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Brendan Fevola, Australian Rules Football Player |
| 20th of January 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Daniel Cudmore, Canadian actor |
| 20th of January 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Crystal Lowe, Canadian actress |
| 20th of January 1982 | BIRTHDAY | Fredrik Str?mstad, Norwegian footballer |
| 20th of January 1982 | BIRTHDAY | Joe Swash, English actor |
| 20th of January 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer (Morning Musume) |
| 20th of January 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Geovany Soto, Puerto Rican baseball player |
| 20th of January 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Paula Taylor, English-Thai actress, model and presenter |
| 20th of January 1984 | BIRTHDAY | Olivia Hallinan, English actress |
| 20th of January 1984 | BIRTHDAY | Toni Gonzaga, Filipina actress and singer |
| 20th of January 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Derek Fathauer, American professional golfer |
| 20th of January 1988 | BIRTHDAY | Benjamin Ulrich, German rugby player |
| 20th of January 1989 | BIRTHDAY | Washington, Brazilian footballer |
| 20th of January 1991 | BIRTHDAY | Jolyon Palmer, English racing driver; son of Jonathan Palmer |
| 20th of January 0250 | DEATH | Pope Fabian |
| 20th of January 1156 | DEATH | Bishop Henry, patron saint of Finland |
| 20th of January 1191 | DEATH | Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia (Born 1167) |
| 20th of January 1479 | DEATH | King John II of Aragon (Born 1397) |
| 20th of January 1568 | DEATH | Myles Coverdale, English Bible translator |
| 20th of January 1612 | DEATH | Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (Born 1552) |
| 20th of January 1663 | DEATH | Isaac Ambrose, English Puritan divine (Born 1604) |
| 20th of January 1666 | DEATH | Anna of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France and regent (Born 1601) |
| 20th of January 1707 | DEATH | Humphrey Hody, English theologian (Born 1659) |
| 20th of January 1709 | DEATH | Francois de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (Born 1624) |
| 20th of January 1739 | DEATH | Francesco Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (Born 1659) |
| 20th of January 1751 | DEATH | John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (Born 1665) |
| 20th of January 1770 | DEATH | Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (Born 1722) |
| 20th of January 1779 | DEATH | David Garrick, English actor (Born 1717) |
| 20th of January 1810 | DEATH | Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania (Born 1722) |
| 20th of January 1819 | DEATH | King Charles IV of Spain (Born 1748) |
| 20th of January 1848 | DEATH | Christian VIII of Denmark (Born 1786) |
| 20th of January 1850 | DEATH | Adam Oehlenschlager, Danish poet (Born 1779) |
| 20th of January 1852 | DEATH | Onomatsu Midorinosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 6th Yokozuna (Born 1794) |
| 20th of January 1873 | DEATH | The Blessed Father Basil Anthony Marie Patrice Moreau, Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (Born 1799) |
| 20th of January 1875 | DEATH | Jean-Francois Millet, French painter (Born 1814) |
| 20th of January 1877 | DEATH | Dato Maharajalela Lela, Malay nationalist. |
| 20th of January 1891 | DEATH | David Kalakaua, King of Hawaii (Born 1836) |
| 20th of January 1900 | DEATH | John Ruskin, English art critic (Born 1819) |
| 20th of January 1901 | DEATH | Zenobe Gramme, Belgian engineer (Born 1826) |
| 20th of January 1908 | DEATH | John Ordronaux, American Civil War army surgeon, a professor of medical jurisprudence, and pioneering mental health commissioner (Born 1830) |
| 20th of January 1913 | DEATH | Jose Guadalupe Posada, Mexican engraver and illustrator (Born 1852). |
| 20th of January 1920 | DEATH | Georg Lurich, Estonian wrestler (Born 1876) |
| 20th of January 1936 | DEATH | King George V of the United Kingdom (Born 1865) |
| 20th of January 1940 | DEATH | Omar Bundy, American army general (Born 1861) |
| 20th of January 1944 | DEATH | James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (Born 1860) |
| 20th of January 1947 | DEATH | Josh Gibson, American baseball player (Born 1911) |
| 20th of January 1954 | DEATH | Fred Root, English cricketer (Born 1890) |
| 20th of January 1962 | DEATH | Robinson Jeffers, American poet (Born 1887) |
| 20th of January 1965 | DEATH | Alan Freed, American disk jockey (Born 1922) |
| 20th of January 1971 | DEATH | Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, American actor, director, writer, and producer (Born 1880) |
| 20th of January 1971 | DEATH | Minanogawa Tozo, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 34th Yokozuna (Born 1903) |
| 20th of January 1973 | DEATH | Lorenz Bohler, Austrian physician (Born 1885) |
| 20th of January 1973 | DEATH | Amilcar Cabral, Guinea Bissauan and Cape Verdian politician (Born 1924) |
| 20th of January 1979 | DEATH | Gustav Winckler, Danish singer (Born 1925) |
| 20th of January 1983 | DEATH | Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (Born 1933) |
| 20th of January 1984 | DEATH | Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (Born 1904) |
| 20th of January 1988 | DEATH | Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pashtun Nationalist & non-violent freedom fighter (Born 1890) |
| 20th of January 1988 | DEATH | Dora Stratou, Greek choreographer and folklorist (Born 1903) |
| 20th of January 1989 | DEATH | Alamgir Kabir, Bangladeshi film director (Born 1938) |
| 20th of January 1990 | DEATH | Hayedeh, Persian singer (Born 1942) |
| 20th of January 1990 | DEATH | Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (Born 1907) |
| 20th of January 1993 | DEATH | Audrey Hepburn, Anglo-Dutch actress (Born 1929) |
| 20th of January 1994 | DEATH | Sir Matt Busby, Scottish football player and coach (Born 1909) |
| 20th of January 1996 | DEATH | Gerry Mulligan, American musician (Born 1927) |
| 20th of January 1997 | DEATH | Curt Flood, American baseball player (Born 1938) |
| 20th of January 1998 | DEATH | Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (Born 1924) |
| 20th of January 2002 | DEATH | Carrie Hamilton, actress and singer, daughter of comedienne/actress Carol Burnett (Born 1963). |
| 20th of January 2003 | DEATH | Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (Born 1903) |
| 20th of January 2003 | DEATH | Craig Kelly, American snowboarder (Born 1966) |
| 20th of January 2003 | DEATH | Nedra Volz, American actress (Born 1908) |
| 20th of January 2003 | DEATH | Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (Born 1947) |
| 20th of January 2004 | DEATH | Guinn Smith, American athlete (Born 1920) |
| 20th of January 2005 | DEATH | Roland Frye, American literary critic and theologian (Born 1921) |
| 20th of January 2005 | DEATH | Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway (Born 1913) |
| 20th of January 2005 | DEATH | Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Polish journalist, writer, and politician (Born 1913) |
| 20th of January 2005 | DEATH | Miriam Louisa Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist, and author (Born 1908) |
| 20th of January 2006 | DEATH | Dave Lepard, Swedish rock singer and guitarist (Born 1980) |
| 20th of January 2009 | DEATH | Stephanos II Ghattas, Patriarch Emeritus of Alexandria for the Coptic Catholic Church (Born 1920) |
| 20th of January 2009 | DEATH | Stan Hagen, Canadian politician (Born 1940) |
| 20th of January 2009 | DEATH | David Newman, American jazz musician, nicknamed "Fathead" (Born 1933) |
| 20th of January 2009 | DEATH | Sheila O'Nions Walsh (aka Sheila Walsh, Sophie Leyton), English romance writer (Born 1928) |