Deaths in History on July 20

  • 833 Ansegis/Ansegius, French abbot of Fontenelle/author, dies at about 63
  • 985 Antipope Boniface VII (974, 984–985)
  • 1031 Robert II of France [the Pious, the Wise], King of the Franks (996-1031), dies during a civil war at 59
  • 1156 Emperor Toba of Japan (b. 1103)
  • 1160 Peter Lombard, French theologian
  • 1201 Agnes of France, queen of France, dies [or 7/18]
  • 1320 King Oshin of Armenia (b. 1282)
  • 1322 Frederik II van Sierck, bishop of Utrecht (1317-22), dies
  • 1351 Margaretha Ebner, German visionary (b. 1291)
  • 1387 Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu (poisoned) (b. 1356)
  • 1398 Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir to the throne of England, dies at 24
  • 1453 Enguerrand de Monstrelet, French chronicler
  • 1454 Johan II, King of Castile, dies at 49
  • 1524 Claude of France, Duchess of Brittany and wife of Francis I of France, dies at 24
  • 1573 Lancelot of Brederode, water beggar, beheaded
  • 1597 Franciscus Raphelengius [French of Ravelingen], Neth publisher, dies

  • 1607 Paulus Merula, Dutch lawyer and historian (Historia Belgica), dies at 48
  • 1609 Federico Zuccari, Italian Mannerist painter, dies at about 69
  • 1616 Hugh O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone, Irish soldier
  • 1636 John Oldham, trader in Mass, murdered by indians
  • 1704 Peregrine White, First English child born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, dies at 83
  • 1766 Isabelle Farnese, queen of Spain, dies
  • 1816 Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, Russian poet (b. 1743)
  • 1819 John Playfair, Scottish geologist/mathematician, dies
  • 1824 Joan M Kemper, lawyer (layed-out Civil Code), dies
  • 1859 Hans E Schack, Danish politician/writer (Fantasy), dies
  • 1866 Faa di Bruno, Italian captain (Er d'italia, Lissa), commits suicide
  • 1866 G F Berhard Riemann, German mathematician (zeta-function), dies
  • 1881 Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, English 1st baron of Hesketh, dies
  • 1888 Henri Braekeleer, Flemish painter, dies at 48
  • 1897 Jean Ingelow, English poet (b. 1820)
  • 1897 Philip Dale Roddey, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 71
  • 1901 William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic (b. 1840)
  • 1903 Leo XIII, [Vincenzo G Pecci], Pope (1878-1903), dies at 93
  • 1912 Andrew Lang, Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and anthropologist (Andrew Lang's Fairy Books), dies at 68
  • 1922 Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (b. 1856)
  • 1923 Pancho Villa [José Doroteo Arango Arámbula], Mexican revolutionary general and guerrilla leader, , murdered at 55
  • 1926 Felix Dzerzhinsky [Iron Felix, Bloody Felix], Soviet statesman, established and developed Soviet secret police (Cheka, forerunner to the KGB), dies at 48
  • 1927 Ferdinand I VAM, King of Romania (1914-27), dies at 61
  • 1928 Kostas Karyotakis, Greek poet (b. 1896)
  • 1932 René Bazin, French novelist (b. 1853)

  • 1936 Jose Sanjurjo, Spanish general (Morocco) and high director, dies at 64

Person of interestGuglielmo Marconi

1937 Guglielmo Marconi, Italian engineer/marquis (radio, Nobel 1909), dies of a heart attack at 63

Inventor and Nobel Laureate Guglielmo Marconi
Inventor and Nobel Laureate
Guglielmo Marconi
  • 1939 Joseph Mendes da Costa, sculptor, dies
  • 1940 Y G Van de Peat, Dutch director of employment, commits suicide
  • 1941 Lew Fields, American vaudeville performer (b. 1867)
  • 1942 Patric Cobb, British sea officer, dies in battle
  • 1944 Arthur J Treadwell, English mayor of Stoke Newington, dies at about 71
  • 1944 Brandt, col/German staff chief, dies in bombing
  • 1944 Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, count/German antifascist colonel, dies
  • 1944 Friedrich Olbricht, German general (July 20th plotter), executed
  • 1944 Korten, chef gen of Germany Luftwaffe, dies in bomb explosion
  • 1944 Ludwig Beck, German general (July 20th plot), dies at 64
  • 1944 Mertz, German colonel (July 20th plotter), executed
  • 1944 Rudolf Schmundt, German general /Hitler's Army adjunct, dies from wounds in attempt to assassinate Hitler at 48
  • 1944 Werner von Haeffen, German lieutenant (July 20th plotter), executed
  • 1945 Paul Valéry [Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry], French author, philosopher and poet (La Jeune Parque), dies at 73
  • 1951 Abdullah Ibn Hussein, Jordan's King (1946-51), killed in Jerusalem
  • 1951 Mustafa Shuqri Ashu, tailor/murderer of king Abdullah, shot to death
  • 1951 Friedrich Wilhelm Hohenzollern, Crown Prince of Germany (b. 1882)
  • 1953 Dumarsaid Estime, President of Haiti (b. 1900)
  • 1953 Jan Struther, British author (b. 1901)
  • 1954 Blair Moody, (Sen-Mich), dies at 52
  • 1956 James Alexander Calder, Canadian politician (b. 1868)
  • 1962 Andre Renard, Belgium worker's union leader (MSU), dies at 51
  • 1962 George MacAulay Trevelyan, English royal historian, dies at 86
  • 1964 Anna Vyrubova, Russian lady-in-waiting, the best friend and confidante of Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna, dies at 80
  • 1970 Iain Macleod, Conservative Party Politician and Chancellor of Exchequer at time of his death (b. 1913)
  • 1973 Robert Smithson, American land artist (b. 1938)
  • 1976 Samuel Mutendi, founder of the Zimbabwean Zion Christian Church, dies
  • 1982 Okot p'Bitek, Ugandan poet (b. 1931)
  • 1984 Jim Fixx, American jogger and writer (Jim Fixx on Running), dies at 52
  • 1989 Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, commander (French resistance), dies
  • 1990 Herbert Jenkins, Atlanta's longest serving police chief (b. 1907)
  • 1993 Vince Foster, American lawyer and Deputy White House Counsel commits suicide aged 48
  • 1994 Paul Delvaux, Belgian surrealist painter, dies at 96
  • 1994 Reginald Hall, endocrinologist, dies at 83
  • 1994 Ernest Mandel, Belgian philosopher and economist (Marxist), dies at 72
  • 1995 Helmut Erich Robert Gernsheim, photographer/collector, dies at 82
  • 1996 Colin Campbell Mitchell, soldier, dies at 70
  • 1996 Peter Malcolm Gordon Raleigh, journalist, dies at 77
  • 2000 Gregory Hill (also known as Malaclypse the Younger,) American writer (Principia Discordia), dies at 59
  • 2001 Carlo Giuliani, Italian anarchist (b. 1978)
  • 2003 Nicolas Freeling, English writer (b. 1927)
  • 2004 Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fiji chieftainess, wife of Kamisese Mara (b. 1931)
  • 2005 Finn Gustavsen, Norwegian politician (b. 1926)
  • 2006 Ted Grant, British Trotskyist (b. 1913)
  • 2007 Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker), American televangelist (b. 1942)
  • 2011 Lucian Freud, German-British artist (Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, Boy With a Rat), dies at 88
  • 2015 Elio Fiorucci, Italian fashion designer, dies at 80

July in History