Deaths in History on February 20

1762 Tobias Mayer, German astronomer, dies at 38
1771 Jean Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist, dies at 92
1773 Charles Emanuel III of Savoy, King of Sardinia, dies at 71
1778 Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar, dies at 66
1779 Johannes Burman, Dutch botanist, plant author and physician, dies at 71
1790 Joseph II, Emperor of Holy Roman Empire (1760-1790), dies at 48
1806 Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-born American military and political leader (b. 1725)
1810 Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean innkeeper, drover and leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against the revolutionary Napoleonic invasion during the War of the Fifth Coalition, executed at 42
1824 Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien, Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars, dies at 63
1848 Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, dies from tuberculosis at 29
1855 Joseph Hume, Scottish doctor and social reformer, dies at 78
1860 Henry Drummond, English banker and religious leader, dies at 69
1862 Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet (Florante at Laura), dies at 73
1871 Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter, dies at 60
1892 Hermann Kopp, German chemist (Law of Kopp), dies at 74
1893 P. G. T. Beauregard, American Confederate general (Hero of Sumter), dies at 74

Frederick Douglass (c. 1817/18-1895)

African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor who was also an escaped slave, dies of a heart attack at 77

1905 Jeremiah W. Farnham, American merchant captain

Henri Moissan (1852-1907)

French chemist who isolated the element "fluorine" from its compounds (Nobel 1906), dies of appendicitis at 54

1910 Boutros Ghali, Prime Minister of Egypt (1908-1910), assassinated by a nationalist at 64
1916 Klas Arnoldson, Swedish politician and pacifist (Nobel Peace 1908), dies at 71
1917 Leone Sextus Tollemache, British Army captain who was incorrectly alleged to have the longest English surname on record (Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache), dies in active service in WWI at 32

Robert Peary (1856-1920)

American arctic explorer who claimed to have 1st reached geographic North Pole (Apr 6 1909), dies at 63

1928 Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer, dies at 81
1950 Sarat Chandra Bose, Indian activist for independence, dies at 60
1959 Laurence Housman, English author and playwright (Victoria Regina), dies at 93
1960 Leonard Woolley, British pioneering archaeologist, dies at 79
1961 Otto Huiswoud, Suriname-born political activist and editor-in-chief (Negro Worker), dies at 67

Chester Nimitz (1885-1966)

American admiral who commanded the US Pacific fleet in World War II, dies at 80

1970 Café Filho, 18th Brazilian President (1954-1955), dies aged 71
1970 Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist, dies at 84
1972 Maria Goeppert-Mayer, American-German atomic physicist (Nobel 1963), dies at 65
1972 Walter Winchell, American journalist, gossip columnist, radio host, and narrator (the Untouchables), dies at 74
1973 Brigitte Reimann, German writer (Franziska Linkerhand), dies of cancer at 39
1973 Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (Violinist Notebook 1933), dies at 80
1976 Kathryn Kuhlman, religious leader/faith healer, dies
1976 René Cassin, French jurist and judge (Nobel Peace Prize 1968), dies at 88
1980 Alice Longworth Roosevelt, youngest daughter of Theodore, dies at 96
1980 Joseph Banks Rhine, American parapsychologist (Extra-Sensory Perception), dies at 84
1983 Fritz Köberle, Austrian-Brazilian physician, pathologistic, and scientific researcher, dies at 72
1983 James G Richardson, (Tim Cassidy-Sierra), dies at 37 in ski accident
1985 Clarence Nash, American voice actor (Donald Duck), dies of leukemia at 80
1986 Koss Rietkerk, Dutch foreign minister (VVD), dies at 58
1992 A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (member of Group of Seven), dies at 93
1992 Eugene R. Black, American President of World Bank (1953-62), dies at 93
1992 Roberto D'Aubuisson, El Salvadorian founder (ARENA), dies
1993 Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian auto-designer (Lamborghini), dies at 76
1994 Derek Jarman, English director (Last of England), dies at 52
1995 John Humphreys Whitfield, British scholar of Italian language & literature, dies at 88
1995 Shlomo Averbach, Rabbi, buried in Jerusalem, 250,000 attend
1996 Jeffrey Kindersley Quill, British test pilot (Spitfire), dies at 83
1996 Solomon Asch, American psychologist (b. 1907)
1996 Walter Charles Marshall, scientist, dies at 63
1999 Lotti van der Gaag, Dutch sculptor and painter, dies at 75
1999 Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
2000 Anatoly Sobchak, Russian politician (b. 1937)
2002 Stephen Longstreet, American writer (All or Nothing), dies at 94
2003 Maurice Blanchot, French author (b. 1907)
2003 Mushaf Ali Mir, Pakistani Chief of the Air Staff (b. 1947)
2003 Orville Freeman, American politician (b. 1918)

Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)

American journalist and author (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), commits suicide via a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 67

2005 Tom Willmore, English geometer, dies at 85
2005 William Gordon Harris, British civil engineer, dies at 92
2006 Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and author (Ford C. Frick Award; Pete Rozelle Award; lifetime achievement Emmy, 1992), dies of leukemia at 86
2006 Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist, writer and traveller (b. 1920)
2007 F. Albert Cotton, American chemist, dies at 76
2008 Larry Davis (criminal)

Alexander Haig (1924-2010)

American General and 59th Secretary of State (1981-82), dies from a staphylococcal infection at 85

2012 Renato Dulbecco, Italian-born American virologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 97
2016 Peter Mondavi, American winemaker (Charles Krug - Napa Valley), dies at 101
2019 William Broomfield, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan), dies at 96