Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/December 20

Births

• 1717 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French politician and diplomat (d. 1787)
• 1860 – Dan Leno, English actor (d. 1904)
• 1868 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (d. 1938)
• 1890 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
• 1894 – Robert Menzies, 12th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
• 1922 – George Roy Hill, American director (d. 2002)

Deaths

• 1722 – Kangxi Emperor, 4th emperor of the Chinese Qing dynasty (b. 1654)
• 1812 – Sacagawea, Lemhi Shoshone guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition (b. 1788)
• 1921 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (b. 1850)
• 1961 – Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
• 1968 – John Steinbeck, American author and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• 1996 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer and author (b. 1934)