Friday 20th of January 1775

Physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère is born in Lyon, Saint-Nizier, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Wednesday 20th of January 1813

Axe murderer John Schild is executed by hanging in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States.

Schild confessed in print to bestiality and incest but assessed that "he had stolen no cloth of one Hartman, neither had he given poison to Hartman, nor to one Hertz, nor killed the wife of Michael Gehret, but he must confess that he had committed some thefts."

Monday 20th of January 1896

Comedian, actor and singer George Burns is born as Nathan Birnbaum in New York City, New York, United States.

Thursday 20th of January 1910

Naturalist, artist and writer Joy Friederike Victoria Adamson is born as Friederike Viktoria Gessner in Troppau, Österreichisch-Schlesien, Austria-Hungary.

Tuesday 20th of January 1920

Film director Federico Fellini is born in Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Monday 20th of January 1930

Astronaut Edwin Eugene Aldrin aka Buzz is born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, United States.

Monday 20th of January 1936

King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India George V dies of a cold at the age of 71 in Sandringham House, Sandringham, Norfolk, United Kingdom.

George V's physician Lord Dawson of Penn hastened the King's death by injecting him with two consecutive lethal injections: 3/4 gr. morphine followed by 1 gr. cocaine shortly afterwards. The King's last mumbled words "God damn you!" were addressed to his nurse Catherine Black when she gave him a sedative.

Friday 20th of January 1939

Murderer LeRoy Hershel McCarthy is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 29 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

McCarthy was the first man to be executed in the Oregon State Gas Chamber.

Sunday 20th of January 1946

Film director David Keith Lynch is born in Missoula, Montana, United States.

Sunday 20th of January 1946

Mass murderer John Linley Frazier aka The Killer Prophet is born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

Friday 20th of January 1956

32-year-old Serial killer Leslie 'Joe Goebbels' Irvin aka The Mad Dog Killer escapes from prison in Gibson County Jail, 112 E Emerson St, Princeton, Indiana, United States.

Irvin escaped by making keys with paperback novel covers, tin foil and glue.

Tuesday 20th of January 1959

Serial killer Joel David Rifkin aka The Long Island Ripper is born in New York, Bronx, New York, United States.

Wednesday 20th of January 1960

53-year-old SS-Oberscharführer and guard at Mauthausen KZ Richard Bugdalle aka Bruttalle is convicted to 16 terms of life imprisonment in München, Bayern, Germany.

Wednesday 20th of January 1965

Disc jockey and radio presenter Alan Albert James Freed aka Moondog known for naming Rock and Roll dies of uremia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism at the age of 44 in Palm Springs, California, United States.

Wednesday 20th of January 1965

Spree killer Alan Eugene Miller is born in Billingsley, Alabama, United States.

Saturday 20th of January 1968

35-year-old Film director Roman Polanski marries 25-year-old actress Sharon Tate in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Monday 20th of January 1969

Miss Hungary 1985 Csilla Andrea Molnár is born in Kaposvár, Dél-Dunántúl, Hungary.

Tuesday 20th of January 1970

Student Robert Gerekens commits suicide by self-immolation at the age of 18 in Lycée Gaston Berger, Avenue Gaston Berger, Lille, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Thursday 20th of January 1972

15-year-old John Alan Szyc is killed by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States.

Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy.

Monday 20th of January 1975

42-year-old Emily Jackson is hammered and stabbed 52 times with a Phillips screwdriver by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper in Roundhay Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

"I remember when she got in there was an overpowering smell of cheap perfume and sweat, this served all the more for me to hate this woman even though I didn't even know her."

Friday 20th of January 1984

Competition swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller known for his role as Tarzan dies of pulmonary edema at the age of 80 in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico.

As Weissmuller's coffin was lowered into the ground a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times at his request.

Sunday 20th of January 1985

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Johannes Thimme is killed in a bomb-attack at the age of 29 in Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Thimme's selfmade bomb went off too early, his companion 23-year-old Claudia Wannersdorfer was severely wounded.

Wednesday 20th of January 1988

26-year-old Serial killer Timothy Wilson Spencer is arrested and charged with the murders of 35-year-old Debbie Davis, 32-year-old Susan Hellams and 15-year-old Diane Cho in Richmond, Virginia, United States.

Monday 20th of January 1992

87 die in Air Inter Airbus A-320-111 Flight 148 crash in Barr, Bas-Rhin, France.

There were nine survivors.

Wednesday 20th of January 1993

Actress Audrey Hepburn dies of appendiceal cancer at the age of 64 in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland.

Wednesday 20th of January 1999

Double murderer Mark Arlo Sheppard is executed by lethal injection at the age of 28 in Greensville Correctional Center, Jarratt, Virginia, United States.

Thursday 20th of January 2000

Rapist and murderer David Hicks is executed by lethal injection at the age of 38 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Hicks raped and beat to death his 88-year-old grandmother Ocolor Hegger in April 1988 in Teague.

Thursday 20th of January 2005

A frame on the wall of the 'Goldene Schluessel' restaurant in Bern, Mittelland, Switzerland.

Thursday 20th of January 2011

52-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Dort oder Hier / Hommage aan Bernd Lohaus' in M_hka, Leuvenstraat 32, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

During a memorial event for artist Bernd Lohaus I reconstructed one of his works. I blocked the doorway between the cafetaria, where the event took place, and the museum with strips of tape. Nobody could pass through without destroying the work. On the floor I wrote: "Dort (das Museum) | Hier (die Kunstler) Warum? Bernd, der Kampf geht weiter."

Monday 20th of January 2025

Mass murderer Fan Weiqiu known for the Zhuhai car attack is executed by hanging at the age of 63 in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.