September 20 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on September 20

• Upton Sinclair (1878)

  American author known for The Jungle, a novel exposing conditions in the meatpacking industry that led to federal food safety reforms.

• Sophia Loren (1934)

  Italian actress and Academy Award winner known for Two Women and a decades-long career in European and American cinema.

• George R. R. Martin (1948)

  American author known for the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, adapted into the television series Game of Thrones.

• Asia Argento (1975)

  Italian actress and director known for her film work and her role as an early public voice in the #MeToo movement.

This Day in History

• 1519 — Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships on the expedition that would achieve the first circumnavigation of the globe, though Magellan himself died before completing it.

• 1873 — The failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company triggered the Panic of 1873, setting off a severe economic depression in the United States and Europe.

• 1946 — The first Cannes Film Festival opened in France, beginning what would become one of the world's most prestigious film festivals.

What September 20 Says About You

Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain on September 20, 1519, with five ships and roughly 270 men, on a voyage aimed at finding a western route to the Spice Islands that ended up achieving something far larger than intended: the first circumnavigation of the globe, though Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines partway through and never saw the expedition's return. It's a story about an ambition that outran the person who started it, which fits neatly with two other events tied to this date. In 1873, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company triggered the Panic of 1873, a financial collapse that spiraled into a depression lasting most of the following decade, a reminder of how quickly one institution's overreach can cascade through an entire economy. And in 1946, the first Cannes Film Festival opened in France, launched partly as a postwar gesture of cultural renewal, and grew over subsequent decades into one of the most prestigious and closely watched film festivals in the world. Four people born on September 20 have built work around exposing uncomfortable truths or building entire imagined worlds. Upton Sinclair, born in 1878, wrote The Jungle intending to draw sympathy for exploited immigrant workers, but the public reacted mainly to its descriptions of unsanitary meatpacking conditions, leading directly to federal food safety legislation regardless of the author's original aim. Sophia Loren, born in 1934, won an Academy Award for a wrenching dramatic performance in Two Women after building her early career in lighter Italian cinema. George R. R. Martin, born in 1948, spent decades building the sprawling fictional world behind A Song of Ice and Fire before it became the basis for one of television's most-watched series. And Asia Argento, born in 1975, became an early and prominent public voice in the #MeToo movement. Numerology reduces the 20th to day number 2, tied to partnership and balance, an interesting counterpoint to a date whose real history is full of single ambitious ventures that spiraled well past their original scope. As a Virgo date, September 20 carries the sign's investigative, detail-oriented instincts, well matched to a birthday whose events keep circling back to things that started small and were revealed, later, to be much larger. Only one of Magellan's five original ships, the Victoria, actually completed the full circumnavigation three years later in 1522, returning to Spain with just 18 of the roughly 270 men who had originally set sail, a survival rate brutal enough that the voyage is remembered as much for its cost as for its achievement. As with every date in September, the 20th shares its birthstone and flowers rather than owning them outright, though sapphire's old reputation for insight suits a birthday whose events keep circling back to ventures that started modestly and were revealed, later, to be much larger than intended.