Died On July 20th

An iconic actor and martial artist, Bruce Lee, in his short life, gained international fame and developed his own form of martial arts, Jeet Kune Do. In films, he debuted as a child actor and became a huge Hollywood star after the release of his last film Enter the Dragon.

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian electrical engineer and inventor best remembered for his work on long-distance radio transmission. Marconi, who is credited with inventing the radio, was honored with the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in the field of wireless telegraphy. Also a businessman, Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in 1897. 

Canadian actor James Doohan was initially a soldier in the Canadian army and had even sustained injuries in World War II. He later soared to fame with his Saturn Award-nominated role of Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek film and TV franchise. He also voiced the character in various video games.

Singer, songwriter, and musician Chester Bennington rose to prominence as the lead vocalist for the band, Linkin Park. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest rock vocalists of his generation. He possessed a three-octave tenor vocal range that showed tremendous durability for the entirety of his career. He died of suicide in 2017.

Bernhard Riemann was a German mathematician best remembered for his contributions to number theory, analysis, and differential geometry. His paper on the prime-counting function, which was published in 1859, is considered one of the most influential papers in the history of analytic number theory. Riemann is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians ever.

Abdullah I of Jordan reigned as the King of Jordan from 25 May 1946 until his assassination on 20 July 1951. Prior to his service as the king of Jordan, Abdullah I of Jordan served as the Emir of Transjordan from 11 April 1921 to 25 May 1946.

Ferdinand I of Romania reigned as the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death on 20 July 1927. He chose to support the Triple Entente during World War I and managed to annex Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia, and parts of Maramureș, Crișana, and Banat, which resulted in the establishment of Greater Romania.

The son of architect L. Freud and the grandson of legendary psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, painter Lucian Freud was born in Berlin but later moved to London to flee Nazism. He showed an inclination toward surrealism initially but later drifted to realism. Cedric Morris remains one of his notable works.

Sergey Yosifovich Paradzhanov was a Soviet film director, artist, and screenwriter. He is best remembered for making important contributions to world cinema with films like The Color of Pomegranates and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Sergei Parajanov is widely regarded as one of the most influential and greatest filmmakers in cinema history.

Best known for his collections of folklore, fairy tales, and legends, Scottish author and Merton College fellow Andrew Lang was also an avid historian and anthropologist who coined the term psychical research. His The World of Homer and his translations of Homer’s works remain invaluable to Homerian students.

Paul Valery was a French poet, philosopher, and essayist. Thanks to his immense contribution to literature, Valery received several nominations for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. The title of the 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film The Wind Rises was inspired by one of Paul Valery's verses. Also, his poem Palme inspired James Merrill's celebrated poem, Lost in Translation.

Legendary American investment banker Marcus Goldman was born into a German Jewish family of farmers and was part of the first wave of Jewish immigration to America. He went from being a peddler to founding Goldman Sachs, which is now one of the largest investment banks of the world.

Paul Delvaux was a Belgian painter best remembered for his dream-like scenes of classical architecture, women, train stations, trains, and skeletons. Although he is considered a surrealist, Delvaux identified with the Surrealist movement only briefly. However, he did combine the bizarre juxtapositions of surrealism with the classical beauty of academic painting.

Regarded as the pioneer of modern ophthalmology, Albrecht von Gräfe was born to German surgeon Karl Ferdinand von Graefe, known for his pathbreaking research on plastic surgery. He explained Gräfe’s sign, made the first legitimate use of the ophthalmoscope, and also launched an eye clinic deemed one of Europe’s best.

Initially the head of the Truppenamt and then the Chief of Army General Staff, Ludwig Beck tried to influence Adolf Hitler’s foreign policy, although never an official Nazi Party member. He was part of a plot to assassinate Hitler and bring about an alternate power but was shot dead after it failed.

Ernest Mandel was a Belgian Trotskyist activist and theorist, Marxian economist, and Holocaust survivor. During the German occupation of Belgium, Mandel fought against the Nazis in the underground resistance. He served as an editor of Het Vrije Woord, an underground newspaper during the Second World War. During his life, Mandel published some 30 books and 2,000 articles in various languages.

Edward T. Hall was an anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher best known for developing the concepts of proxemics, monochronic time, and polychronic time. He explored cultural and social cohesion in his research and described how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal space. Hall was a colleague of philosopher Marshall McLuhan and architect Buckminster Fuller. 

José Sanjurjo was a Spanish general best remembered for his involvement in the July 1936 coup d'etat which led to the Spanish Civil War. He was killed in a plane crash while returning to Spain from Portugal in 1936. Sanjurjo was featured in Harry Turtledove's novel Hitler's War, which was part of his six-novel series The War That Came Early.

Josefina de Vasconcellos was an English sculptor. She worked in a variety of materials, including bronze, stone, wood, and lead. Her best-known works are  Reconciliation, Holy Family, and Nativity. She was trained at the Royal Academy Schools. During World War II, she worked on several large sculptures. She also held exhibitions regularly. She was married to artist Delmar Banner. 

Demetrius Vikelas was a Greek writer and businessman. He is best remembered for serving as the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) first president from 1894 to 1896. The Syros Island National Airport and the Sports Center Stadium in Syros are named in his honor.

One of the greatest Greek modern poets, Kostas Karyotakis was a qualified lawyer but chose to write instead of practicing law. He was known for pioneering iconoclastic themes in Greek poems. Depressed over his diagnosis of syphilis, he unsuccessfully tried killing himself by drowning and then shot himself to death.

Legendary Czech goalkeeper František Plánička is remembered for his 15-year career-long stint with the club Slavia Prague. He was named the 1938 FIFA World Cup Best Goalkeeper. An 8-time Czech League winner, he quit international football after an injury. However, he continued to play football till 70.