Deaths in History on October 20

Holy Roman Emperor (1711-40), dies after falling ill on a hunting trip at 55

1765 William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, English supreme commander, dies at 44
1794 James Adam, Scottish architect and furniture designer, (partnership with brother Robert Adam), dies at about 64
1842 Grace Darling, English heroine who saved shipwreck survivors, dies of tuberculosis at 26
1864 Stephen Dodson Ramseur, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 27
1865 Champ Ferguson, American Confederate guerrilla, found guilty of war crimes during US Civil War, executed and hung at 43
1876 Jeronimo de Bosch Kemper, Dutch sociologist and historian, dies at 68
1882 Olegario Victor Andrade, Argentina poet (El arpa perdida), dies at 41

English explorer and translator (Arabian Nights), dies at 69

1894 James Anthony Froude, English historian and novelist (The Nemesis of Faith), dies at 76
1896 Félix Tisserand, French Astronomer, dies at 51
1900 Charles Dudley Warner, American novelist (As We Go), dies at 70
1900 Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet and writer, dies at 54
1907 Said Pasha Kurd, Kurdish statesman (b.1834)
1910 David B. Hill, American politician and Governor of New York (1885-91), dies at 67
1913 Daniel David Palmer, Canadian founder of chiropractic (1897 Palmer School of Chiropractic), dies of typhoid fever at 68
1926 Eugene V. Debs, American labor leader and Socialist presidential candidate, dies at 70
1929 José Batlle y Ordóñez, President of Uruguay (1899, 1903-7, 1911-15), dies at 73
1929 Rudolf Kittel, German theologist (Psalms), dies at 76
1935 Adolphus Washington Greely, American Arctic explorer and recipient of the Medal of Honor, dies at 91
1936 Anne Sullivan [Johanna Macy], American teacher who educated Helen Keller, dies at 70
1940 Gunnar Asplund, Swedish modernist architect (The Woodland Crematorium), dies at 55
1950 Henry L. Stimson, American statesman (46th United States Secretary of State), dies at 83
1953 Werner Baumbach, German bomber pilot (Luftwaffe special bombing unit WWII), dies in a plane accident at 36

American politician and 31st President of the United States (Republican: 1929-33), dies in NY at 90

1964 Miles Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn, English diplomat (High Commissioner of Egypt and the Sudan), dies at 84
1967 Shigeru Yoshida, Japanese politician and diplomat, Prime Minister of Japan (1946-54), dies at 89
1968 Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, African-American TV preacher, dies at 84
1972 Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (Sun's position in galaxy), dies at 86
1983 Yves Thériault, French Canadian author, dies at 67
1984 Carl Ferdinand Cori, Czech-American bio-chemist (Nobel 1947-discovery of how glycogen (animal starch) – a derivative of glucose – is broken down and resynthesized in the body, for use as a store and source of energy), dies at 87

English physicist (quantum electrodynamics, Nobel 1933), dies at 82

1986 Samora Machel, President of Mozambique, dies in air crash at 53
1987 Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician (theory of probability), dies at 84

English aviator who completed the 1st round-the-world solo flight by a woman, dies of cancer at 61

1990 Bridget Bate Tichenor (born Bridget Pamela Arkwright Bate), Mexican surrealist painter dies at 72
1992 Orton Chirwa, Malawi lawyer, Minister of Justice, dies in captivity at 73
1993 Sugiyama Yasushi, Japanese Nihonga style painter, and designer, dies on his 84th birthday
1994 (Charles) Robert Medley, English abstract and figurative style painter, dies at 88
1994 Francis Steegmuller, American biographer (Cocteau), dies at 88
1994 Ivan Sviták, Czech philosopher and poet, dies at 69
1995 Bernadette Hingley, English priest, one of 1st women to be ordained in England, dies of cancer at 47
1996 Bill Bedford, British test pilot (pioneered the development of V/STOL aircraft), dies at 75
1996 Mary Tuck, British social researcher and civil servant, dies at 68

Irish politician and Taoiseach (1966-73 and 1977-79), dies at 82

2001 Ted Ammon, American financier and investment banker, bludgeoned to death at 52
2004 Anthony Hecht, American poet, dies at 81
2005 Endon Mahmood, First Lady of Malaysia, wife of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, dies of breast cancer at 64
2005 Eva Švankmajerová, Czech surrealist artist, dies of cancer at 65
2008 Sœur Emmanuelle, Belgian-French religious sister, dies at 99

American publisher (Penthouse, Omni), dies of lung cancer at 79

2010 Farooq Leghari, 8th President of Pakistan (1993-97), dies at 70
2011 Moatassem Gaddafi, Son of Moammar Gaddafi and National Security Adviser of Libya (b. 1977)

Libyan revolutionary, political theorist and dictator (1969-2011), beaten to death in captivity by a Misratan militia at about 69

2011 Tone Pavček, Slovenian poet and translator (b. 1928)
2013 Lawrence Klein, American economist who created computer models to forecast economic trends (1980 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences), dies at 93
2014 John Hoskyns, Policy Advisor to Margaret Thatcher (1979-82), dies at 87
2014 Oscar de la Renta, Domincan American fashion designer (Coty Hall of Fame-1973), dies at 82
2016 Junko Tabei, Japanese mountain-climber, 1st woman to climb Mount Everest, dies at 77
2018 Wim Kok, Dutch politician, Dutch Prime Minister (1994-2002), dies at 80
2019 Nick Tosches, American writer (bio of Jerry Lee Lewis), dies at 69