41st year - N° 20 Tuesday, 20 January 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-) 41st year - N° 20 Tuesday, 20 January 2026

20 January / Today's 30 Events: (+) 251 years ago  Friday 20th of January 1775 Physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère is born in Saint-Nizier, Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France. (-) 213 years ago He Sort of Confessed Wednesday 20th of January 1813 Axe murderer John Schild is executed by hanging in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States. Schild confessed in print to bestiality and incest but assessed that "he had stolen no cloth of one Hartman, neither had he given poison to Hartman, nor to one Hertz, nor killed the wife of Michael Gehret, but he must confess that he had committed some thefts." (+) 130 years ago  Monday 20th of January 1896 Comedian, actor and singer George Burns, originally Nathan Birnbaum is born in New York City, New York, United States. (+) 116 years ago  Thursday 20th of January 1910 Naturalist, artist and writer Joy Friederike Victoria Adamson, originally Friederike Viktoria Gessner is born in Troppau, Österreichisch-Schlesien, Austria-Hungary. (+) 106 years ago  Tuesday 20th of January 1920 Film director Federico Fellini is born in Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. (+) 96 years ago  Monday 20th of January 1930 Astronaut Edwin Eugene Aldrin aka Buzz is born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, United States. (-) 90 years ago He Was Hastened by Morphine and Cocaine Monday 20th of January 1936 King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India George V, originally George Frederick Ernest Albert dies of a cold at the age of 71 in Sandringham House, Sandringham, Norfolk, United Kingdom. George V's physician Lord Dawson of Penn hastened the King's death by injecting him with two consecutive lethal injections: 3/4 gr. morphine followed by 1 gr. cocaine shortly afterwards. The King's last mumbled words "God damn you!" were addressed to his nurse Catherine Black when she gave him a sedative. (-) 87 years ago  Friday 20th of January 1939 Murderer LeRoy Hershel McCarthy is executed by the gas chamber at the age of 29 in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States. McCarthy was the first man to be executed in the Oregon State Gas Chamber. (+) 80 years ago  Sunday 20th of January 1946 Film director David Keith Lynch is born in Missoula, Montana, United States. (+) 80 years ago  Sunday 20th of January 1946 Mass murderer John Linley Frazier aka The Killer Prophet is born in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. (x) 70 years ago He Was a Paperback Escapee Friday 20th of January 1956 32-year-old Serial killer Leslie 'Joe Goebbels' Irvin aka The Mad Dog Killer escapes from prison in Gibson County Jail, 112 E Emerson St, Princeton, Indiana, United States. Irvin escaped by making keys with paperback novel covers, tin foil and glue. (+) 67 years ago  Tuesday 20th of January 1959 Serial killer Joel David Rifkin aka The Long Island Ripper is born in Bronx, New York, New York, United States. (x) 66 years ago  Wednesday 20th of January 1960 53-year-old SS-Oberscharführer and guard at Mauthausen KZ Richard Bugdalle aka Bruttalle is convicted to 16 terms of life imprisonment in München, Bayern, Germany. (-) 61 years ago  Wednesday 20th of January 1965 Disc jockey and radio presenter Alan Albert James Freed aka Moondog dies of uremia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism at the age of 44 in Palm Springs, California, United States. (+) 61 years ago  Wednesday 20th of January 1965 Spree killer Alan Eugene Miller is born in Billingsley, Alabama, United States. (x) 58 years ago  Saturday 20th of January 1968 35-year-old Film director Roman Polanski, originally Rajmund Roman Thierry Polański marries 25-year-old actress Sharon Tatein London, Greater London, United Kingdom. (+) 57 years ago  Monday 20th of January 1969 Miss Hungary 1985 Csilla Andrea Molnár is born in Kaposvár, Dél-Dunántúl, Hungary. (-) 56 years ago  Tuesday 20th of January 1970 Student Robert Gerekens commits suicide by self-immolation at the age of 18 in Lycée Gaston Berger, Avenue Gaston Berger, Lille, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. (-) 54 years ago  Thursday 20th of January 1972 John Alan Szyc is killed by serial killer John Wayne Gacy aka The Killer Clown in 8213 West Summerdale Avenue, Cook, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy. (-) 51 years ago He Was Overpowered by the Smell of Cheap Perfume and Sweat Monday 20th of January 1975 Emily Jackson is hammered and stabbed 52 times with a Phillips screwdriver by serial killer Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper in Roundhay Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. "I remember when she got in there was an overpowering smell of cheap perfume and sweat, this served all the more for me to hate this woman even though I didn't even know her." (-) 42 years ago  Friday 20th of January 1984 Competition swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller, originally Peter Johann Weißmüller dies of pulmonary edema at the age of 80 in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. As Weissmuller's coffin was lowered into the ground a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times at his request. (-) 41 years ago  Sunday 20th of January 1985 Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Johannes Thimme is killed in a bomb-attack at the age of 29 in Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Thimme's selfmade bomb went off too early, his companion 23-year-old Claudia Wannersdorfer was severely wounded. (x) 38 years ago  Wednesday 20th of January 1988 26-year-old Serial killer Timothy Wilson Spencer, originally The Southside Strangler is arrested and charged with the murders of 35-year-old Debbie Davis, 32-year-old Susan Hellams and 15-year-old Diane Cho in Richmond, Virginia, United States. (x) 34 years ago  Monday 20th of January 1992 87 die in Air Inter Airbus A-320-111 Flight 148 crash in Barr, Bas-Rhin, France. There were nine survivors. (-) 33 years ago  Wednesday 20th of January 1993 Actress Audrey Hepburn, originally Audrey Kathleen Rustondies of appendiceal cancer at the age of 64 in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland. (-) 27 years ago  Wednesday 20th of January 1999 Double murderer Mark Arlo Sheppard is executed by lethal injection at the age of 28 in Greensville Correctional Center, Jarratt, Virginia, United States. (-) 26 years ago  Thursday 20th of January 2000 Rapist and murderer David Hicks is executed by lethal injection at the age of 38 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States. Hicks raped and beat to death his 88-year-old grandmother Ocolor Hegger in April 1988 in Teague. 21 years ago  Thursday 20th of January 2005 A frame on the wall of the 'Goldene Schluessel' restaurant in Bern, Mittelland, Switzerland. (x) 15 years ago  Thursday 20th of January 2011 52-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Dort oder Hier / Hommage aan Bernd Lohaus' in M_hka, Leuvenstraat 32, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium. During a memorial event for artist Bernd Lohaus I reconstructed one of his works. I blocked the doorway between the cafetaria, where the event took place, and the museum with strips of tape. Nobody could pass through without destroying the work. On the floor I wrote: "Dort (das Museum) | Hier (die Kunstler) Warum? Bernd, der Kampf geht weiter." (-) 1 years ago  Monday 20th of January 2025 Mass murderer Fan Weiqiu is executed by hanging at the age of 63 in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.

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