Portal:University of Oxford/On this day/December 20

Births

• 1770 – Lord Henry Spencer (Christ Church), politician and diplomat
• 1774 – Charles Richard Vaughan (Merton and All Souls), diplomat
• 1815 – James Legge (Corpus Christi), Professor of Chinese at Oxford 1876–1897
• 1840 – Adelbert John Robert Anson (Christ Church), Bishop of Qu’Appelle 1884–1892
• 1867 – Reginald Waterfield (New College), Dean of Hereford 1919–1946
• 1901 – Robert J. Van de Graaff, American physicist and creator of the Van de Graaff generator
• 1902 – Gunasena de Soyza (Jesus), Ceylonese diplomat and civil servant
• 1916 – Edgar Ritchie, Canadian diplomat
• 1923 – James Leasor (Oriel), novelist
• 1935 – Susan Thomas, Baroness Thomas of Walliswood (Lady Margaret Hall), businesswoman and Liberal Democrat politician
• 1950 – Geoffrey Grimmett (Merton and New College), mathematician
• 1974 – Iain Sutcliffe, cricketer

Deaths

• 1524 – Thomas Linacre (All Souls), humanist and physician
• 1773 – Sir John Rogers, 3rd Baronet (New College), lawyer and politician
• 1970 – Arnold Heeney, Canadian diplomat
• 1974 – R. A. Bevan (Christ Church), advertising and communications businessman
• 1994 – Dean Rusk (St John's), United States Secretary of State 1961–1969
• 2008 – Joel Mandelstam (Linacre), microbiologist
• 2008 – Adrian Mitchell (Christ Church), poet, novelist and playwright