Tuesday 20th of October 1187

172nd Pope Urbanus III dies of grief at the age of 67 in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Friday 20th of October 1854

Poet Arthur Jean Nicolas Rimbaud is born in 12 rue Napoléon, Charleville, Champagne-Ardenne, France.

Tuesday 20th of October 1874

Modernist composer Charles Edward Ives is born in Danbury, Connecticut, United States.

Friday 20th of October 1882

Actor Bela Lugosi known for portraying Count Dracula is born as Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Lugoj, Timiș, Romania.

Lugosi later based his last name on his hometown.

Tuesday 20th of October 1891

27-year-old Matilda Clover is poisoned by serial killer Thomas Neill Cream aka The Strychnine Specialist in Lambeth Road 27, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 20th of October 1894

Actress and model Olive Thomas is born as Oliveretta Elaine Duffy in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, United States.

Monday 20th of October 1902

19-year-old Maud Marsh is poisoned with tartar-emetic by serial poisoner George Chapman aka The Borough Poisoner in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Thursday 20th of October 1904

49-year-old Bigamist and multiple murderer Johann Otto Hoch aka The Bluebeard Murderer marries Caroline Streicher as John Schmidt in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Thursday 20th of October 1910

Victim of Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf Heinz Brinkmann is born in Clausthal, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Wednesday 20th of October 1926

59-year-old Virginia A. Grant is strangled by serial killer Earle Leonard Nelson aka The Gorilla Murderer in Portland, Oregon, United States.

Friday 20th of October 1944

130 die in East Ohio Gas Company explosion in East 61st Street, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.

Sunday 20th of October 1946

Writer Elfriede Jelinek is born in Mürzzuschlag, Steiermark, Austria.

Tuesday 20th of October 1964

31st President of the United States Herbert Clark Hoover dies of massive internal bleeding at the age of 90 in New York City, New York, United States.

Sunday 20th of October 1968

39-year-old First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Lee Bouvier aka Jackie Kennedy marries 62-year-old Aristotelis Onassis in Skorpios, Ionian Islands, Greece.

Saturday 20th of October 1973

28-year-old Quita Pirelli-Minetti Hague is decapitated by murder gang The Black Zebra Killers aka The Death Angels in San Francisco, Telegraph Hill, California, United States.

Hague and her 30-year-old husband Richard were strolling near their home when they were kidnapped by a group of black men and forced into a van. Quita was fondled by two men and then nearly decapitated by a third man with a machete. One of the men who had fondled Quita then similarly hacked Richard and left him for dead, but he survived. Quita's assailant Larry Craig Green was convicted of her murder and sentenced to a California prison.

Tuesday 20th of October 1981

4-year-old Danny Davis is abducted, tortured and killed by child molester and serial killer Arthur Gary Bishop aka The Mormon Murderer in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

Wednesday 20th of October 1982

66 die in FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem soccer game stampede in Central Lenin Stadium, Moscow, Khamovniki, Central Federal District, Russia.

Sunday 20th of October 1985

Twentieth bomb attack by Terrorist organisation Les Cellules Communistes Combattantes aka CCC on the car of Mr. Galand, chairman of the CNAPD in Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

It was the second action in their Campagne Pierre Akkerman.

Thursday 20th of October 1994

Actor Burt Burton Stephen Lancaster dies of a third heart attack at the age of 81 in The Century Towers, Los Angeles, Century City, California, United States.

Wednesday 20th of October 2004

Murderer Ricky Eugene Morrow is executed by lethal injection at the age of 53 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Morrow's last meal request was for a cheeseburger, French fries, onion rings and iced tea. 

Thursday 20th of October 2005

Murder plotter Luis L. Ramirez is executed by lethal injection at the age of 42 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Ramirez hired Edward Bell to kill the boyfriend of his ex-wife Dawn.

Thursday 20th of October 2016

Mountaineer Junko Tabei known for becoming the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest dies of cancer at the age of 77 in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan.

Sunday 20th of October 2024

A rusty abandoned water tower in Limassol, Limassol District, Cyprus.