The 140th day of the year, the 141st in a leap year
Born on 20 May
In UTC, since 1920, 20 May has been Taurus all day in 86 years. In the other 21, the sun moved from Taurus into Gemini during the day, so a birthday then is Taurus or Gemini depending on the hour; the table below gives the moment. Those are UTC days: in 48 more years a crossing on the day before or after fell on 20 May by the clocks somewhere east or west of Greenwich, listed below the table.
- Star sign
- Taurus or GeminiThe sun changed sign on this date in 21 of 107 years.
- Birthstone
- EmeraldThe same as on the 1912 list.
- Birth flower
- Lily of the valley, HawthornUsually taken today to mean returning happiness and hope.
- Most common weekdays
- Friday and Wednesday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.
Gemini, earlier each cycle
Taurus has kept 20 May for most of the period: in 86 of the 107 years from 1920 to 2026 the sun did not enter Gemini until the 21st or later, in UTC. The exceptions began in 1972, when the crossing came at 22:59 UTC, and have come more often since, in every leap year and, from 2000 on, in the year after it too.
The time has crept earlier as well. In 2024 the sun entered Gemini at 13:00 UTC on 20 May, the earliest in the period, and in 2025 at 18:55 UTC. So a birth on 20 May 2024 after one in the afternoon, UTC, is Gemini; in Tokyo, nine hours ahead, the change came at 22:00 that evening.
In 2026 the crossing moved back onto the 21st, at 00:37 UTC, and 20 May was Taurus all day in UTC. It was still 20 May in New York, at 20:37, so a birth there late that evening was Gemini.
Your year
Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 20 May in any year.
Which sign, by year
The sun moves from Taurus into Gemini at an instant that falls about six hours later each year and jumps back most of a day at each leap year. On 20 May that instant has fallen inside the day in 21 years since 1920; those years show the moment, in UTC and to the minute. A birth before it is Taurus, after it Gemini. To read one of these times on your own clock on 20 May, add your time zone's offset east of Greenwich or subtract it to the west, or put the year into the calculator above, which works in your own time zone.
Every year from 1920 to 2026. Where a cell shows a time, the sun entered Gemini at that moment, UTC. Why the day moves →
Other time zones
A date begins earlier east of Greenwich and later to the west, so in these years the sun changed sign on the day before or after in UTC, at a moment when clocks somewhere on earth already, or still, showed 20 May — worked out from the time zones in use at that moment, as the IANA time zone database records them. A birth there on 20 May that year could be either sign, and the calculator above works it out for your own time zone.
- 1920: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 09:22 UTC
- 1924: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 08:41 UTC
- 1928: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 07:52 UTC
- 1932: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 07:07 UTC
- 1936: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 06:07 UTC
- 1940: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 05:23 UTC
- 1941: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 11:23 UTC
- 1944: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 04:50 UTC
- 1945: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 10:40 UTC
- 1948: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 03:58 UTC
- 1949: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 09:51 UTC
- 1952: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 03:04 UTC
- 1953: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 08:53 UTC
- 1956: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 02:13 UTC
- 1957: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 08:10 UTC
- 1960: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 01:33 UTC
- 1961: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 07:22 UTC
- 1964: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 00:50 UTC
- 1965: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 06:50 UTC
- 1968: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 00:06 UTC
- 1969: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 05:50 UTC
- 1970: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 11:38 UTC
- 1973: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 04:54 UTC
- 1974: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 10:36 UTC
- 1977: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 04:14 UTC
- 1978: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 10:09 UTC
- 1981: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 03:40 UTC
- 1982: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 09:23 UTC
- 1985: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 02:43 UTC
- 1986: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 08:28 UTC
- 1989: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 01:54 UTC
- 1990: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 07:37 UTC
- 1993: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 01:02 UTC
- 1994: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 06:49 UTC
- 1997: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 00:18 UTC
- 1998: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 06:05 UTC
- 2002: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 05:30 UTC
- 2006: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 04:31 UTC
- 2007: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 10:12 UTC
- 2010: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 03:34 UTC
- 2011: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 09:21 UTC
- 2014: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 02:59 UTC
- 2015: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 08:45 UTC
- 2018: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 02:15 UTC
- 2019: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 07:59 UTC
- 2022: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 01:23 UTC
- 2023: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 07:09 UTC
- 2026: the sun entered Gemini on 21 May, 00:37 UTC
Which weekday 20 May falls on
Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 20 May falls on every day of the week: Friday 16, Wednesday 16, Thursday 15, Saturday 15, Sunday 15, Tuesday 15, Monday 15.
Showing 20 May in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →
How common a birthday 20 May is
In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,806 babies were born on 20 May in each year of the twenty, making it the 189th most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.
Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →
Born on 20 May
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Honoré de Balzac | 1799–1850 | French novelist and playwright |
| John Stuart Mill | 1806–1873 | British philosopher and political economist |
| Cher | 1946– | American musician, singer, actress and television personality |
| Sigrid Undset | 1882–1949 | Norwegian writer |
| José Mujica | 1935–2025 | Uruguayan guerrilla fighter and politician |
| Iker Casillas | 1981– | Spanish association football player |
| James Stewart | 1908–1997 | American actor and military officer |
| Joe Cocker | 1944–2014 | British singer |
| Eduard Buchner | 1860–1917 | German chemist (1907 Nobel Prize) |
| Moshe Dayan | 1915–1981 | Israeli military leader and politician |
| Yoshihiko Noda | 1957– | Prime Minister of Japan from 2011 to 2012 |
| Max Euwe | 1901–1981 | Dutch chess player and mathematician |
| Frédéric Passy | 1822–1912 | French economist and statesman |
| Petr Čech | 1982– | Czech footballer |
| Faisal I | 1885–1933 | King of Iraq from 1921 to 1933 |
| Chris Froome | 1985– | British cyclist |
| Roger Milla | 1952– | Cameroonian footballer |
| Busta Rhymes | 1972– | American rapper |
Died on 20 May
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Christopher Columbus | 1451–1506 | Italian navigator, explorer, and colonist |
| Philipp Lenard | 1862–1947 | German physicist |
| Verner von Heidenstam | 1859–1940 | Swedish writer |
| Clara Schumann | 1819–1896 | German musician and composer |
| Osman II | 1604–1622 | 16th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1618–1622) |
| Marquis de Lafayette | 1757–1834 | French general and politician |
| Niki Lauda | 1949–2019 | Austrian racing driver |
| Pope John XXI | 1215–1277 | pope (1276-1277) |
| Stephen Jay Gould | 1941–2002 | American biologist and historian of science |
| John Hicks | 1904–1989 | British economist |
| George Wendt | 1948–2025 | American actor |
| Paul Ricœur | 1913–2005 | French philosopher |
Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.