20 May in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. 20 May is the birth anniversary of Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, Sumitranandan Pant, Piru Singh Shekhawat, Simranjit Singh Mann, and N.T Rama Rao.
20 May is also observed as the death anniversary of Malhar Rao Holkar, Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Swami Brahmananda Saraswati.
Birth Anniversary
20 May in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati (20 May 1894 – 8 January 1994) also known as the Sage of Kanchi was the 68th Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. He was born on 20 May 1894 in Villupuram.
Sumitranandan Pant (20 May 1900 – 28 December 1977), an Indian poet. The beautiful and lively depiction of nature is rare as found in Pantji’s poem. He was a beautiful poet of nature and was well versed in drawing a lively, beautiful, and captivating picture. The composition of national love is also found abundantly in the poetry of Pant Ji. He was a serious thinker, an excellent poet, and a man of innately skilled craftsman of humanity. Pant received the ‘Gyan Peeth Award’ for his work ‘Chidambra‘. His other compositions are the following – Veena, Granthi, Pallava, Pallvini, Atima, Gunjan, Yuganta, Yugavani Gramya, Swarn Kiran, Swarna Dhuli ‘,’ Uttara ‘,’ Shilpi ‘ and Rashmibandh. Pant became the first Hindi poet to receive the Jnanpith Award in 1969 for a collection of his most famous poems titled Chidambara. He also got Padma Bhushan in 1961 by the Indian Government. He was born on 20 May 1900 in Kausani, North-Western Provinces, British India.
Piru Singh Shekhawat (20 May 1918 – 18 July 1948), an Indian Army non-commissioned officer, awarded the Param Vir Chakra. He took part in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, serving with the Indian Army’s 6th Rajputana Rifles. Piru Singh was born on 20 May 1918 in Beri, Rajputana, British India.
Simranjit Singh Mann, a politician, a former police officer from Punjab, and the president of the political party, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). He was born on 20 May 1945.
N.T Rama Rao, an Indian actor, singer, and television presenter who works in Telugu Cinema. He was also known as Jr NTR or Tarak. He is well known for his acting in Aadi (2002), Simhadri (2003), Rakhi (2006), Yamadonga (2007), Brindavanam (2010), Temper (2015), Nannaku Prematho (2016), Janatha Garage (2016), Jai Lava Kusa (2017) and Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018). He was born on 20 May 1983 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now in Telangana), India.
Read More: 19 May in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
20 May in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Malhar Rao Holkar (16 March 1694 – 20 May 1766), a noble subedar of the Maratha Empire, in present-day India. He helped in the spread of the Maratha rule to northern states and was given the estate of Indore to rule by the Peshwas, during the reign of the Maratha Emperor Shahu I. He died on 20 May 1766 at the age of 73.
Ganesh Vyankatesh Joshi (9 June 1851 – 20 May 1911), an economist born on 9 June 1851 in Miraj, Maharashtra, India in the Utturkar family. He is also famous with the name Hon.Rao Bahadur G.V.Joshi. Joshi died on 20 May 1911 at the age of 59 in Poona, India.
Bipin Chandra Pal (7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932), an Indian revolutionary, teacher, journalist, and writer. He is one of the great personalities who played a major role in laying the foundation of India’s independence movement. He was part of the famous Lal-Bal-Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Vipin Chandra Pal) trio. This trio shook the cradles of English rule with its sharp attack. Apart from being a nationalist leader. He is also considered the father of revolutionary ideas in India. He died on 20 May 1932 at the age of 73 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), British India.
Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (21 December 1871 – 20 May 1953), the Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Math monastery in India. He is also known as Guru Dev. Some of his disciples included Swami Shantanand Saraswati, Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Svāmī Swarūpānanda Sarasvatī and Swami Karpatri. He died on 20 May 1953 at the age of 81 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.
Read More: 18 May in Indian and World History
Notable events on 20 May in Indian and World History
20 May 1498 – The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, reached Calicut (now Kozhikode) after discovering the sea route to India.
20 May 1822 – Frederic Passy, a French economist, pacifist, and Nobel Prize Laureate was born.
20 May 1860 – Eduard Buchner, a German chemist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
20 May 1873 – San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis were awarded the same day in 1873 to make the world’s first jeans.
20 May 1882 – Sigrid Undset, a Norwegian novelist, essayist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
20 May 1918 – Piru Singh, an Indian Army non-commissioned officer, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
20 May 1918 – Edward Butts Lewis, an American geneticist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
20 May 1940 – Verner von Heidenstam, a Swedish poet, novelist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
20 May 1947 – Philipp Lenard, a Hungarian-born German physicist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
20 May 1965 – About 100 people lost their lives in the crash of a Pakistani Boeing aircraft “720-B” in Egypt.
20 May 1965 – Successful launch of unmanned space ‘Spectra’ by Russia.
20 May 1983 – 16 people were killed and more than 130 injured in a car bomb blast in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.
20 May 1989 – John Richards Hicks, a British economist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
20 May 2003 – Pakistan banned the militant group Hizbul Mujahideen.
20 May 2012 – Earthquake in Italy killed 27 people.