October 20:
(1) (1616) Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian Thomas Bartholin is born. He is best known for his discovery of the human lymphatic system, a system of the body that is part of both the circulatory and the immune system.
(2) (1942) German biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is born. She shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her contribution to the research on genetic control of embryonic development.
(3) (1944) In Cleveland, Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks and then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire killed 130 people.