August 20
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is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 133 days remaining.
Events
- 636 - Battle of Yarmuk: Arab forces led by Khalid bin Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
- 917 - Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and drives the Byzantines out.
- 1391 - Konrad IV von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.
- 1794 - Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.
- 1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis.
- 1833 - Nat Turner leads his revolt against the Southern plantation owners of Southampton County, Virginia
- 1882 - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.
- 1888 - Mutineers imprison Emin Pasha at Dufile.
- 1900 - Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling.
- 1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
- 1920 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1926 - Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
- 1938 - Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam--a record that still stands.
- 1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice axe. He will die the next day.
- 1944 - The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.
- 1955 - In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria, raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
- 1960 - Senegal breaks from the Mali federation, declaring independence.
- 1968 - 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.
- 1975 - Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
- 1977 - Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
- 1982 - Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.
- 1986 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, US Postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
- 1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1989 - In Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot and kill their wealthy parents.
- 1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev. Estonia reclaimed its independence and seceded from the Soviet Union. Estonia had been occupied by the Soviets for more than 50 years.
- 1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the next month.
- 1994 - Circus elephant trainer Allen Campbell is crushed to death in Honolulu, Hawaii, by the performing elephant "Tyke".
- 1997 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people killed, 15 kidnapped.
- 1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada states Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
- 1998 - U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
Births
- 1517 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French church leader (d. 1586)
- 1561 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (d. 1633)
- 1601 - Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
- 1625 - Thomas Corneille, French dramatist (d. 1709)
- 1632 - Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit preacher (d. 1704)
- 1710 - Thomas Simpson, British mathematician (d. 1761)
- 1719 - Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (d. 1783)
- 1719 - Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1791)
- 1779 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1848)
- 1833 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (d. 1901)
- 1845 - St. Albert Chmielowski, Polish Catholic Saint (d. 1916)
- 1847 - Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (d. 1912)
- 1860 - Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (d. 1934)
- 1881 - Edgar Guest, English poet (d. 1959)
- 1897 - Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian writer (d. 1970)
- 1890 - H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (d. 1937)
- 1901 - Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- 1905 - Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist, and poet (d. 1973)
- 1905 - Jack Teagarden, American musician (d. 1964)
- 1908 - Al Lopez, baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
- 1910 - Eero Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1961)
- 1913 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
- 1918 - Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (d. 1974)
- 1923 - Jim Reeves, American singer (d. 1964)
- 1931 - Don King, American boxing promoter
- 1932 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (d. 2004)
- 1932 - Vasily Aksyonov, Russian novelist
- 1934 - Armi Kuusela, Finnish beauty queen
- 1935 - Ron Paul, American politician
- 1936 - Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1937 - Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian film director
- 1939 - Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor and presidential candidate
- 1940 - Rubén Hinojosa, American politician
- 1941 - Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia (d. 2006)
- 1941 - Robin Oakley, British journalist
- 1942 - Isaac Hayes, American singer, songwriter, and actor
- 1943 - Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor
- 1944 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)
- 1946 - Connie Chung, American journalist
- 1946 - N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman
- 1948 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)
- 1948 - John Noble, Australian Actor
- 1949 - Phil Lynott, Irish musician (d. 1986)
- 1951 - Greg Bear, American author
- 1952 - John Hiatt, American musician
- 1954 - Al Roker, American television broadcaster
- 1955 - Agnes Chan, Hong Kong singer and writer
- 1956 - Joan Allen, American actress
- 1961 - Greg Egan, Australian author
- 1962 - Sophie Aldred, English actress
- 1962 - James Marsters, American actor
- 1965 - KRS-One, American rapper
- 1966 - Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist (Pantera and Damageplan) (d. 2004)
- 1968 - Yuri Shiratori, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1970 - John Carmack, American computer game programmer
- 1970 - Fred Durst, American singer (Limp Bizkit)
- 1971 - Steve Stone, English footballer
- 1973 - Todd Helton, baseball player
- 1974 - Maxim Vengerov, Russian violinist
- 1976 - Chris Drury, American hockey player
- 1977 - Mayra Veronica, Cuban model and actress
- 1979 - Cory Sullivan, baseball player
- 1981 - Bernard Mendy, French footballer
- 1982 - Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer
- 1984 - Mirai Moriyama, Japanese actor
- 1986 - Robert Clark, Canadian actor
- 1987 - Cătălina Ponor, Romanian gymnast
Deaths
- 984 - Pope John XIV
- 1384 - Geert Groote, Dutch founder of the Brethren of the Common Life (b. 1340)
- 1572 - Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish conquistador (b. 1502)
- 1580 - Jeronymo Osorio, Portuguese historian (b. 1506)
- 1611 - Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer (b. 1548)
- 1639 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (b. 1597)
- 1643 - Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (b. 1591)
- 1648 - Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, English diplomat, poet, and philosopher (b. 1583)
- 1672 - Johan de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1625)
- 1672 - Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1623)
- 1680 - William Bedloe, English informer (b. 1650)
- 1701 - Charles Sedley, English playwright (b. 1639)
- 1707 - Nicolas Gigault, French organist and composer (b. 1627)
- 1773 - Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (b. 1701)
- 1811 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (b. 1729)
- 1823 - Pope Pius VII (b. 1740)
- 1825 - William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1753)
- 1887 - Jules Laforgue, French poet (b. 1860)
- 1904 - René Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (b. 1846)
- 1912 - William Booth, English founder of the Salvation Army (b. 1829)
- 1914 - Pope Pius X (b. 1835)
- 1915 - Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
- 1917 - Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
- 1961 - Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- 1971 - Rashid Minhas, Pakistani Air Force pilot (b. 1951)
- 1986 - Milton Acorn, Canadian poet (b. 1923)
- 1998 - Raquel Rastenni, Danish singer (b. 1915)
- 2001 - Sir Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (b. 1915)
- 2005 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (heart disease) (b. 1981)
- 2005 - Krzysztof Raczkowski, Polish drummer (b. 1970)
Holidays and observances
- RC saints - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Asmá (Names) - First day of the ninth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Estonia - Restoration Day
- Hungary - St. Stephen's day, the main national holiday in Hungary
- Morocco - Revolution of the King and the People Day
External links
August 19 - August 21 - July 20 - September 20 -- listing of all days
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