Notable Historical Events on August 20th
August 20th Historical Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
2 |
Venus and Jupiter in conjunction - possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem |
573 |
Gregory of Tours selected bishop of Tours |
636 |
Battle at Yarmuk: Moslems beat Byzantines [or August 15] |
917 |
Battle at Anchialus: Bulgaria army counter attacks Byzantines |
1000 |
The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary. |
1191 |
Crusader King Richard I kills 3,000 muslim prisoners in Akko |
1391 |
Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order. |
1534 |
Turkish admiral Chaireddin "Barbarossa" occupies Tunis |
1566 |
Iconoclasm reaches Antwerp, Belgium |
1597 |
1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East |
1604 |
Spanish garrison of Sluis surrenders to count Maurice |
1619 |
1st known African Americans (appox. 20) land at Jamestown Virginia aboard Dutch vessel then sold or traded into servitude for supplies |
1641 |
England & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification |
1648 |
Battle of Lens: French duke d'Enghien defeats Spaniards |
1672 |
Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague. |
1741 |
Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition |
1745 |
Bonnie Prince Charlie reaches Blair Castle, Scotland |
1781 |
George Washington begins to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis |
1794 |
Gen Mad Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers Ohio |
1795 |
Joseph Haydn returns to Vienna from England |
1828 |
Gioacchino Rossini's opera "Le Comte Ory" premieres in Paris |
1856 |
Wilberforce University forms in Ohio |
1861 |
Skirmish at Jonesboro, MO |
1864 |
8th/last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Va (about 3,900 casualties) |
1865 |
President Andrew Johnson proclaims an end to "insurrection" in Texas |
1866 |
President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over |
1879 |
Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns |
1882 |
Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" opens in Moscow |
1888 |
Longest US men's single tournament match Palmer Presbrey defeats T S Tailer, 19-21, 8-6, 6-1, 6-4, an 80-game 1st-round contest |
1892 |
The Transvaal National Union, a political organisation, is set up with J. Tudhope as president |
1893 |
Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in Switzerland |
1895 |
Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Norwood Builder" (BG) |
1896 |
Dial telephone patented |
1900 |
Great Britain beats France in cricket in Olympic Games |
1900 |
Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling. |
1901 |
The Fawcett Commission visits Mafeking concentration camp in Cape Colony |
1905 |
Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary, forms the first chapter of T'ung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchus |
1908 |
Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo |
1908 |
America's Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to be greeted with a tremendous welcome; 221 American sailors desert to remain in Australia |
1910 |
US supported opposition brings down Madriz in Nicaragua |
1912 |
Plant Quarantine Act goes into effect |
1912 |
Wash Senator Carl Cushion no-hits Cleve Indians, 2-0 in 6 innings |
1913 |
1st pilot to parachute from an aircraft (Adolphe Pégoud, France) |
1913 |
Piotr Nesterow 1st flight (Kiev Ukraine) |
1914 |
German General von Bulow executes 211 Belgians |
1914 |
-24] Battle of Bounderies: Lorraine, Ardennen, Sambre & Meuse, Mons |
1914 |
Battle at Gumbinnen, East-Prussia: Russians beat Germans |
1914 |
Battle at Morhange: German troops chase French, killing thousands |
1914 |
Bavarian troops kill 50 inhabitants of Nomeny, France |
1914 |
German army captured Brussels as the Belgian army retreated to Antwerp |
1915 |
White Sox obtain Joe Jackson from Cleve in exchange for Robert Roth, Larry Chappell, Ed Klepfer, & $31,500 |
1918 |
Britain opens offensive on Western front during WW I |
1919 |
Wichita outfielder Joe Wilhoit (Western League) fails to get a hit, ending a 69-game streak (155 hits in 299 at bats for a .505 avg) |
1920 |
1st US commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit begins daily broadcasting |
1920 |
Allen Woodring wins Oympic 200 m dash wearing borrowed shoes |
1920 |
Israel publishes its first medical journal "Ha-Refuah" |
1920 |
Preliminary meeting in Akron to form American Pro Football League |
1920 |
Red Sox-Indians game postponed in Boston to allow Indian players to attend Ray Chapman's funeral in Cleveland |
1921 |
35th US Women's Tennis: Molla Mallory beats M Browne (4-6 6-4 6-2) |
1922 |
1st world championship athletics for women, held in Paris |
1923 |
London dock strike ends |
1925 |
WJR-AM in Detroit MI begins radio transmissions |
1926 |
Uprising against Rezā Shāh Pahlavi in Iran |
1926 |
Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai(NHK) is established. |
1929 |
1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward completed |
1930 |
Bradman scores 232 in 5th Test Cricket at The Oval |
1930 |
Dumont's 1st TV broadcast for home reception (NYC) |
1931 |
45th US Women's Tennis: Helen Moody beats Eileen Whitingstall (6-4 6-1) |
1934 |
Ponsford out for 266 in his final Test Cricket match |
1935 |
Miltary coup by General Pons & president Ibarra in Ecuador |
1938 |
Lou Gehrig hits record 23rd & last grand slam |
1939 |
1st black bowling league formed (National Bowling Assoc) |
1939 |
Russian offensive under General Zjoekov against Japanese invasion in Mongolia |
1940 |
1st Polish squadrons fight along allies in the Battle of Britain |
1940 |
British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" |
1940 |
Louis Buchalter is indicted on murder charges in Los Angeles for the killing of Harry Greenberg, a mob associate of casino owner Meyer Lansky and mobster Bugsy Siegel |
1941 |
Police raid 11th district of Paris, takes 4,000+ Jewish males |
1942 |
Dim-out regulations implemented in SF |
1944 |
"Anna Lucasta" opens on Broadway |
1944 |
26th PGA Championship: Bob Hamilton at Manito G & CC Spokane Wash |
1944 |
Gen de Gaulle returns to France |
1944 |
Russian offensive at Jassy & Kisjinev |
1944 |
US & British forces destroy German 7th Army at Falaise-Argentan Gap |
1945 |
Dodgers Tommy Brown, 17, is youngest player to hit a HR |
1945 |
Robert Hamilton wins PGA golf tournament |
1945 |
Russian troops occupy Harbin & Mukden |
1945 |
Tommy Brown, Bkln Dodger becomes youngest HR hitter (17) |
1947 |
Boston Braves hit a million attendance for 1st time |
1947 |
Turner Caldwell in D-558-I sets aircraft speed record, 1131 kph |
1948 |
15th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chi Cards 28, All-Stars 0 (101,220) |
1948 |
US expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin |
1949 |
78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland |
1949 |
Hungary (Magyar People's Republic) accepts constitution |
1952 |
Stalin meets Chou Enlai |
1953 |
General Fazlollah Zahedi arrests premier Mossadeq of Persia |
1953 |
Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation |
1955 |
1st airplane to exceed 1800 mph (2897 kph)-HA Hanes, Palmdale Ca |
1955 |
Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco & Algeria |
1956 |
Republicans convene at Cow Palace |
1957 |
"Simply Heavenly" opens at Playhouse Theater NYC for 62 performances |
1957 |
Chicago White Sox Bob Keegan no-hits Wash Senators, 6-0 |
1957 |
USAAF balloon breaks an altitude record at 102,000' (310,896 m) |
1957 |
White Sox Bob Keegan no-hits Senators 6-0 |
1958 |
Cubs use 1st baseman Dale Long as their 1st lefty catcher since 1906 |
1958 |
Dale Long becomes 1st major league lefty catcher in 52 years |
1958 |
Detroit Tiger Jim Bunning no-hits Boston Red Sox, 3-0 |
1959 |
Belgium shortens military conscription to 12 months |
1960 |
Senegal breaks from Mali federation, declaring independence |
1960 |
USSR recovers 2 dogs, 1st living organisms to return from space |
1961 |
Phillies set then dubious record of 23 straight loses, beat Braves |
1961 |
East Germany begins erecting 5' high wall along the border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13 |
1962 |
USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR |
1964 |
US President Johnson signs Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion |
1964 |
Rex Sellers bowls 5-1-17-0 v India in only Test Cricket innings |
1964 |
Yankee Phil Linz plays harmonica on bus despite Yogi Berra's orders |
1965 |
Rolling Stones release their single "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (their 1st #1 US hit) in the UK |
1965 |
Eddie Mathews & Hank Aaron (1954-65) pass Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig hitting 772 HRs while playing together on the same team |
1966 |
Beatles pelted with rotten fruit during Memphis concert |
1967 |
Alvin Dark (52-69) is fired, rehired, & fired again as manager of A's |
1967 |
Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Women's Western Golf Open |
1968 |
During the night 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops begin to invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring |
1968 |
USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR |
1969 |
69 cm rainfall in Nelson County, Virginia (state record) |
1970 |
-21] Hurricane Dorothy, kills 42 in Martinique |
1971 |
FBI begins covert investigation of journalist Daniel Schorr |
1972 |
Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Southgate Ladies Golf Open |
1972 |
USSR performs underground nuclear test |
1974 |
Brooklyn pitcher Dan Bankhead is 1st black to homer in his 1st at bat |
1974 |
Nelson Rockefeller selected US Vice President by President Ford |
1974 |
Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4 mph) |
1975 |
Il-62 crashes south of Damascus, Syria, killing 126 |
1975 |
Viking 1 launched to orbit around Mars, soft landing |
1977 |
NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune |
1978 |
Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus in London |
1978 |
Mark Vinchesi of Amherst Mass keeps a frisbee aloft 15.2 seconds |
1978 |
Sandra Post wins LPGA Lady Stroh's Golf Open |
1978 |
Tatyana Providokhina runs female world record 1k (2:30.6) |
1979 |
India premier Charan Singh resigns |
1979 |
Singer Vikki Carr & Michael Nilsson wed |
1979 |
The East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland is restored when the Penmanshiel Diversion opens. |
1980 |
NY Yankee Bob Watson hits Seattle Kingdome speaker, 2nd straight day |
1980 |
Pitts Omar Moreno steals record 70 bases for 3rd consecutive season |
1980 |
Reinhold Messner of Italy is 1st to solo ascent Mt Everest |
1980 |
Cleve Dan Spillner, 545 ERA, is 2 outs from a no-hitter when White Sox rookie Leo Sutherland singles |
1980 |
UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jersualem is its capital |
1982 |
Don Lever becomes 1st captain of NJ Devils |
1982 |
US marines land in Beirut Lebanon |
1983 |
The South African anti-apartheid umbrella organization, United Democratic Front (UDF) is launched at Rocklands Community Centre in Cape Town, South Afrca |
1985 |
1st NL pitcher to strike out 200+ in 1st 2 seasons (Dwight Gooden) |
1985 |
Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of US |
1985 |
Libya throws out 1000s Tunisian/Egyptian gas workers |
1985 |
Met Dwight Gooden strikes out 16 on way to his 13th consecutive win |
1985 |
Hanspeter Beck of South Australia, finishes a 3,875 mile, 51 day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle |
1986 |
Postal worker Patrick Sherrill shot 14 fellow workers dead in Edmond, Oklahoma |
1986 |
Phils Don Carmen perfect game bid is broken in 9th |
1988 |
6.5 earthquake strikes India/Nepal, 1,000s killed |
1988 |
Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria sets 100m hurdle woman's record (12.21) |
1988 |
"Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park |
1988 |
Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. |
1989 |
Dredger "Bow Belle" collides with pleasure boat "Marchioness" on the River Thames in central London; the "Marchioness" sinks in 30 seconds, drowning 51 |
1989 |
Howard Johnson joins Barry Bonds & Willie Mays to hit 30 HRs & steal 30 bases |
1989 |
Janet B Evans swims female world record 800m freestyle (8:16.22) |
1989 |
Said Aouita runs world record 3,000 m (7:29.45) |
1990 |
Gene Michael names NY Yankee VP/GM replacing Harding Peterson |
1990 |
George Steinbrenner steps down as NY Yankee owner |
1990 |
Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations (human shields) |
1990 |
NY Yankee Kevin Mass is quickest to reach 15 HRs (approx 132 at bat) |
1991 |
Norbert Rosza swims world record 100m breast stroke (1:01.29) |
1991 |
Dolphin Dan Marino surpasses Joe Montana as the highest paid NFL player with a 5-year extension for $25 million |
1991 |
Estonia formally declares its independence from the USSR |
1991 |
The United Democratic Front, one of the most prominent anti-apartheid movements, comprising of over 400 workers', church, civic and student organisations, dissolves |
1992 |
England get 7-363 in 55 overs vs Pakistan, then world ODI record |
1993 |
Colin Jackson runs world record 110m hurdles (12.91) |
1993 |
Howard Stern is fired from WLUP-AM, Chicago |
1993 |
Mother Teresa hospitalized with malaria |
1993 |
After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month. |
1994 |
109.8°F (43.2°C) in Cordoba Spain |
1994 |
Archbishop Quarracino wants all homosexuals to leave Argentina |
1994 |
Ferry boat sinks at Chandpur Bangladesh, 300-350 killed |
1994 |
Vuyani Bungu, the South African junior feartherweight, wins IBF World Boxing Title |
1995 |
"The Play's the Thing" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 75 performances |
1995 |
Indians' Jose Mesa sets record with his 37th consecutive save |
1995 |
Kerrie Webb wins LPGA Weetabix Women's British Golf Open |
1996 |
India defeat Pakistan in Under-15 World Challenge Final at Lord's |
1997 |
Shelly Moore, 18, of Tenn, crowned 15th Miss Teen USA |
1997 |
Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped. |
1998 |
The Supreme Court of Canada rules that 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. |
2000 |
82nd PGA Championship: Tiger Woods shoots a 270 at Valhalla Golf Club |
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 surrendering. |
2006 |
88th PGA Championship: Tiger Woods shoots a 270 at Medinah Country Club |
2008 |
Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. 146 people are killed in the crash, 8 more die afterwards. Only 18 people survive. |
2012 |
20 people are killed in a riot in Caracas, Venezuela |
2012 |
South Africa become the top-ranked test cricket nation after defeating England |
2013 |
9 Islamist militants are killed by Russian police in North Caucasus |
2016 |
Rio Olympics 2016: Usain Bolt wins ninth Olympic gold as Jamaica take 4x100m relay |
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