August 20

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August 20 in recent years

2008 (Tuesday)

August 20 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 134 days remaining until the end of the year.

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

Events

636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-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.
1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1391 - Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.
1672 - Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis were brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
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.
1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declared the U.S. Civil War over.
1882 - Peter Ilyich 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 dies the next day.
1944 - World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.
1953 - The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
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.
1969 - All four Beatles were together in the recording studio for the final time as they finished the Abbey Road LP.
1974 - Congress votes to reduce aid to South Vietnam from $1 Billion to $700 Million. Majority of the cuts were for military supplies.
1975 - Viking Program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
1977 - Voyager Program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
1979 - The East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland is restored when the Penmanshiel Diversion opens.
1982 - Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.
1986 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
1988 - "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1988 - Iran-Iraq War: A cease-fire is agreed to after almost eight years of war.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union, August Coup: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1991 - Estonia secedes from the Soviet Union.
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.
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.
2002 - A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin for five hours before releasing their hostages and giving up.

Births

1517 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French church leader (d. 1586)
1561 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (d. 1633)
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)
1776 - Bernardo O'Higgins, South American revolutionary (d. 1842)
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)
1856 - Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Sorbian writer (d. 1909)
1860 - Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (d. 1934)
1868 - Ellen Roosevelt, American tennis player (d. 1954)
1873 - Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1950)
1881 - Edgar Guest, English poet (d. 1959)
1890 - H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (d. 1937)
1897 - Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian writer (d. 1970)
1898 - Vilhelm Moberg, Swedish author and historian (d. 1973)
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, American 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)
1916 - Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian–German chess player (d. 1984)
1918 - Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (d. 1974)
1923 - Jim Reeves, American singer (d. 1964)
1926 - Nobby Wirkowski, American and Canadian football player and coach
1927 - Geriatric1927, English video blogger
1927 - Yootha Joyce, English actress (d. 1980)
1930 - Mario Bernardi, Canadian conductor
1931 - Don King, American Boxing Promoter
1932 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (d. 2004)
1932 - Vasily Aksyonov, Russian novelist
1933 - George J. Mitchell, former United States Senator
1934 - Armi Kuusela, Finnish beauty queen
1936 - Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 - Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian film director
1937 - El Fary, Spanish singer and actor (d. 2007)
1937 - Jim Bowen, English comedian
1938 - Alain Vivien, French politician
1939 - Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor and politician (d. 2004)
1940 - Rubén Hinojosa, American politician
1941 - Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia (d. 2006)
1941 - Rich Brooks, American football coach
1941 - Robin Oakley, British journalist
1941 - Jo Ramirez, Mexican motor racing team manager and author
1942 - Isaac Hayes, American singer, songwriter, and actor
1942 - Fred Norman, American baseball player
1943 - Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor
1944 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)
1946 - Connie Chung, American journalist
1946 - Ralf Hütter, German musician (Kraftwerk)
1946 - N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman
1947 - Alan Lee, English conceptual artist
1948 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)
1948 - John Noble, Australian actor
1949 - Phil Lynott, Irish musician (d. 1986)
1949 - Nikolas Asimos, Greek composer and singer (d. 1988)
1949 - Norman Featherstone, South African cricketer
1949 - Alan Hardwick, English TV presenter
1951 - Greg Bear, American author
1952 - John Hiatt, American musician
1952 - Doug Fieger, American musician (The Knack)
1952 - John Emburey, English cricketer
1954 - Tawn Mastrey, American disc jockey (d. 2007)
1954 - Al Roker, American television personality
1954 - Don Stark, American actor
1955 - Agnes Chan, Hong Kong singer and writer
1956 - Joan Allen, American actress
1957 - Finlay Calder, Scottish rugby player
1961 - Greg Egan, Australian author
1961 - Joe Pasquale, English comedian
1962 - Sophie Aldred, English actress
1962 - James Marsters, American actor
1962 - Dong-Wook Song, South Korean tennis player
1965 - KRS-One, American rapper
1966 - Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist (Pantera and Damageplan) (d. 2004)
1967 - Andy Benes, baseball player
1967 - Colin Cunningham, American actor
1967 - Terri Poch, American yogini and former professional wrestler
1968 - Klas Ingesson, Swedish footballer
1968 - Yuri Shiratori, Japanese voice actress and singer
1969 - Duke Droese, American professional wrestler
1970 - John D. Carmack, American computer game programmer
1970 - Fred Durst, American singer (Limp Bizkit)
1971 - Brad Avery, American musician (guitarist for Third Day)
1971 - Jonathan Ke Quan, Vietnamese American actor
1971 - Steve Stone, English footballer
1971 - David Walliams, British comedian
1973 - Todd Helton, baseball player
1974 - Amy Adams, American actress
1974 - Big Moe, American rapper (d. 2007)
1974 - Maxim Vengerov, Russian violinist
1974 - Szabolcs Sáfár, Hungarian footballer
1975 - Marcus Mastin, American author
1975 - Andy Strachan, Australian musician (The Living End)
1976 - Chris Drury, American hockey player
1977 - Felipe Contepomi, Argentine rugby player
1977 - Manuel Contepomi, Argentine rugby player
1977 - Ivar Ingimarsson, Icelandic footballer
1977 - Mayra Veronica, Cuban model and actress
1979 - Cory Sullivan, baseball player
1980 - Rochelle Gadd, British actress
1980 - Corey Carrier, American actor
1981 - Bernard Mendy, French footballer
1981 - Benjamin Barnes, English actor (Prince Caspian)
1982 - Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer
1982 - Youssouf Hersi, Ethiopian footballer
1982 - Cléber Luis Alberti, Brazilian footballer
1984 - Mirai Moriyama, Japanese actor
1986 - Robert Clark, Canadian actor
1987 - Cătălina Ponor, Romanian gymnast
1990 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Dutch swimmer
1991 - Marko Đoković, Serbian tennis player
2003 - Prince Gabriel of Belgium

Deaths

535 - Mochta of Louth, disciple of St. Patrick
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, Nobel laureate (b. 1854)
1917 - Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1835)
1930 - Charles Bannerman, Australian cricketer (b. 1851)
1959 - William Halsey, Jr, American admiral (b. 1882)
1961 - Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
1965 - Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Civil Rights Martyr (b. 1939)
1971 - Rashid Minhas, Pakistani Air Force pilot (b. 1951)
1980 - Joe Dassin, American singer (b. 1938)
1982 - Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish actress (b. 1929)
1986 - Milton Acorn, Canadian poet (b. 1923)
1989 - George Adamson, India-born English game warden and lion expert (b. 1906)
1993 - Bernard Delfgaauw, Dutch philosopher (b. 1912)
1997 - Norris Bradbury, American physicist (b. 1909)
1997 - Léon Dion, French-Canadian political scientist (b. 1922)
1998 - Raquel Rastenni, Danish singer (b. 1915)
2001 - Sir Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (b. 1915)
2001 - Kim Stanley, American actress (b. 1925)
2005 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (b. 1981)
2005 - Krzysztof Raczkowski, Polish drummer (b. 1970)
2006 - Claude Blanchard, French-Canadian singer, comedian and actor (b. 1932)
2006 - Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (b. 1911)
2006 - Cpl Bryan Budd VC, British soldier (Afghanistan) (b. 1977)
2007 - Leona Helmsley, American hotel operator and real estate investor (b. 1920)
2007 - Larry Hartsell, American martial artist, bodyguard, trainer, student of Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto (b. 1942)

Holidays and observances

World Union - World Union Day.
Roman Catholic saints - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Asmá (Names) - First day of the ninth month of the Bahá'í calendar.
Hungary - St. Stephen's day, the main national holiday in Hungary.

External links

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