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