1920
Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1920
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Ongoing
Births
January-February
- January 1 - Virgilio Savona, Italian singer and songwriter (Quartetto Cetra)
- January 2 - Isaac Asimov, Russian-born author (d. 1992), Anne-Sofie Østvedt, Norweigan resistance leader
- January 3 - Renato Carosone, Italian musician and singer (d. 2001)
- January 5 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (d. 1995)
- January 6
- January 9 - Hakim Mohammed Said, Pakistani scholar and philanthropist (d. 1998)
- January 12 - Bill Reid, Canadian artist (d. 1998)
- January 19 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian United Nations Secretary General
- January 20
- January 23 - Gottfried Böhm, German architect
- January 27 - Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (d. 2002)
- January 30 - Delbert Mann, American television and film director
- February 2 - Heikki Suolahti, Finnish composer (d. 1936)
- February 7 - An Wang, Chinese-born computer pioneer (d. 1990)
- February 11
- February 12 - William Roscoe Estep, American Baptist historian (d. 2000)
- February 13 - Seneka Bibile, Sri Lankan pharmacologist (d. 1977)
- February 17 - Ivo Caprino, Norwegian film director (d. 2001)
- February 18 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
- February 18 - Eddie Slovik, U.S. Army private (d. 1945)
- February 26
- February 29 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
March-April
- March 3
- March 4
- March 10
- Alfred Peet, Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea (d. 2007)
- Boris Vian, French writer, poet, singer, and musician (d. 1959)
- March 11 - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 14 - Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (d. 2001)
- March 15
- March 16 - Leo McKern, Australian actor (d. 2002)
- March 19 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian poet and artist (d. 2002)
- March 20 - Pamela Harriman, English-born U.S. ambassador to France (d. 1997)
- March 22 - Werner Klemperer, German actor (d. 2000)
- March 24 - Corbin Harney, an elder and spiritual leader of the Newe (Western Shoshone) people (d. 2007)
- March 25
- March 27 - Robin Jacques, English illustrator (d. 1995)
- April 1 - Toshirô Mifune, Japanese actor (d. 1997)
- April 2 - Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1982)
- April 5 - Arthur Hailey, American writer (d. 2004)
- April 6 - Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss-American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 7 - Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player
- April 8 - Carmen McRae, American jazz singer (d. 1994)
- April 11 - Peter O'Donnell, British author and writer of comic strips
- April 13 - Liam Cosgrave, fifth Taoiseach of Ireland
- April 15 - Thomas Stephen Szasz, Hungarian-born psychiatrist and writer
- April 21 - Edmund Adamkiewicz, German footballer (d. 1991)
- April 27 - Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
- April 29 - Harold Shapero, American composer
May-June
- May 2
- May 6 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (d. 2004)
- May 8 - Saul Bass, American graphic designer (d. 1996)
- May 9 - Richard Adams, English author
- May 9 - Mitsuko Mori, Japanese actress
- May 11 - Denver Pyle, American actor (d. 1997)
- May 13 - Gareth Morris, British flautist (d. 2007)
- May 18
- May 23 - Helen O'Connell, American singer (d. 1993)
- May 26 - Peggy Lee, American singer (d. 2002)
- May 28 - Gene Levitt, American television writer, producer, and director (d. 1999)
- May 29 - John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
- May 30 - Franklin Schaffner, American film and television director (d. 1989)
- June 2 - Tex Schramm, American football executive (d. 2003)
- June 12
- June 16 - José López Portillo, President of Mexico (d. 2004)
- June 17
- June 25 - Ozan Marsh, American pianist
- June 29 - Ray Harryhausen, American animator
July-August
- July 4 - Leona Helmsley, Hotel operator, Realestate investor (d. 2007)
- July 10 - Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 11 - Yul Brynner, Russian-born actor (d. 1985)
- July 13
- July 17 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish International Olympic Committee president
- July 21 - Isaac Stern, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 2001)
- July 24 - Bella Abzug, American politician (d. 1998)
- July 25 - Rosalind Franklin, British crystallographer (d. 1958)
- August 1 - Sammy Lee, Korean American diver
- August 2 - Reginald Hugh Hickling, British lawyer, colonial civil servant, law academic and author (d. 2007)
- August 3 - Hayden Carruth, American poet and literary critic
- August 8
- August 9 - Milton G. Henschel, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and 5th President of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (d. 2003)
- August 20 - Red Holzman, American basketball coach (d. 1998)
- August 16 - Charles Bukowski, American writer (d. 1994)
- August 17 - Maureen O'Hara, Irish actress
- August 18
- August 21 - Christopher Robin Milne, English author and bookseller (d. 1996)
- August 22 - Ray Bradbury, American writer
- August 26 - Mauri Favén, Finnish painter (d. 2006)
- August 29 - Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1955)
September-October
- September 9 - Aldo Parisot, Brazilian/American cellist
- September 10 - Fabio Taglioni, Italian motorcycle engineer (d. 2001)
- September 14
- September 18 - Jack Warden, American actor (d. 2006)
- September 22 - William H. Riker, American political scientist (d. 1993)
- September 23 - Mickey Rooney, American film actor
- September 24 - Dick Bong, American fighter ace
- September 27 - Jayne Meadows, American actress
- September 29 - Peter D. Mitchell, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
- October 1
- October 6 - Pietro Consagra, Italian sculptor (d. 2005)
- October 8 - Frank Herbert, American author (d. 1986)
- October 9 - Jens Bjørneboe, Norwegian author (d. 1976)
- October 13 - Laraine Day, American actress (d. 2007)
- October 15 - Mario Puzo, American author (d. 1999)
- October 19 - Pandurang Shastri Athavale, Founder Swadhyay Movement (d. 2003)
- October 22 - Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (d. 1996)
- October 29 - Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- October 30 - Norman Bird, British character actor (d. 2005)
- October 31
November-December
- November 2 - Ann Rutherford, Canadian actress
- November 22 - Anne Crawford, British actress (d. 1956)
- November 25 - Ricardo Montalban, Mexican actor
- November 29 - Yegor Ligachev, Soviet politician
- November 30 - Virginia Mayo, American actress (d. 2005)
- December 6
- December 9 - Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic
- December 21 - J. Roderick MacArthur American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1984)
- December 24 - Evgeniya Rudneva, Soviet World War II heroine (d. 1944)
- December 30 - Jack Lord, American actor (d. 1998)
- December 31 - Rex Allen, American actor, singer, songwriter (d. 1999)
- date unknown
Deaths
January - March
- January 2 - Paul Adam, French writer (b. 1862)
- January 3 - Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician (b. 1888)
- January 4 - Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (b. 1843)
- January 6 - Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen, Danish mathematician (b. 1839)
- January 7 - Edmund Barton, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1849)
- January 18 - Giovanni Capurro, Italian poet (b. 1825)
- January 24
- January 26 - Jeanne Hébuterne, French artist, model, and common-law wife of Amedeo Modigliani (suicide) (b. 1898)
- February 2 - Field E. Kindley, American World War I aviator (b. 1896)
- February 3 - Frank Brown, Governor of Maryland (b. 1846)
- February 6 - Augustus F. Goodridge, Canadian merchant and politician (b. 1839)
- February 7 - Aleksandr Kolchak, Russian naval commander (b. 1874)
- February 15 - Joseph Burton Sumner, founder of Sumner, Mississippi (b. 1837)
- February 20
- February 27 - William Sherman Jennings, Governor of Florida (b. 1863)
- March 1
- March 4 - Roswell P. Bishop, U.S. Congressman from Michigan (b. 1843)
- March 11 - Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (b. 1865)
- March 13 - Charles Lapworth, English geologist (b. 1842)
- March 26
- March 31
April - June
- April 8
- April 9 - Moritz Cantor, German historian of mathematics (b. 1829)
- April 21 - Maria L. Sanford, American educator (b. 1836)
- April 26 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (b. 1887)
- May 1 - Princess Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden (b. 1882)
- May 11
- May 16 - Levi P. Morton, Vice President of the United States (b. 1824)
- May 21
- May 23 - Svetozar Borojevic, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (b. 1856)
- May 30 - George Ernest Morrison, Australian adventurer (b. 1862)
- June 5
- June 6 - James Dunsmuir, Canadian politician (b. 1851)
- June 13 - Essad Pasha, Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1863)
- June 14
- June 18
- June 20
- June 27 - Adolphe Basile Routhier, Canadian poet (b. 1839)
July - September
- July 1 - Delfim Moreira, President of Brazil (b. 1868)
- July 2 - William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (b. 1846)
- July 10 - John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, British admiral (b. 1841)
- July 11 - Empress Eugénie of France (b. 1826)
- July 14 - Albert Keller, German painter (b. 1844)
- July 22 - William Kissam Vanderbilt, American heir (b. 1849)
- August 1
- August 2 - Ormer Locklear, American pilot (b. 1891)
- August 9 - Samuel Griffith, Australian politician and judge (b. 1845)
- August 10 - Adam Politzer, Austrian otologist (b. 1835)
- August 12 - Hermann Struve, Russian-born astronomer (b. 1854)
- August 16
- August 17 - Ray Chapman, baseball player (b. 1891)
- August 22 - Anders Zorn, Swedish painter (b. 1860)
- August 26 - James Wilson, Scottish-born American politician (b. 1835)
- August 31 - Wilhelm Wundt, German physiologist and psychologist (b. 1832)
- September 7 - Simon-Napoléon Parent, Premier of Quebec (b. 1855)
- September 10 - Olive Thomas, American actress (b. 1894)
- September 18 - Robert Beaven, Canadian politician (b. 1836)
- September 24 - Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian jeweler (b. 1846)
- September 25 - Jacob Schiff, German-born banker and philanthropist (b. 1847)
- September 30 - William Wilfred Sullivan, Canadian journalist, politician, and jurist (b. 1843)
October - December