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This day in history

This day in history: 20 August

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day226 · 110

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Key facts

398 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 20 August.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2020: Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech virtually for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Amadour

Christian feast day: August 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Bernard of Clairvaux

Christian feast day: Blessed Georg Häfner

Christian feast day: Heliodorus of Bet Zabdai

Christian feast day: Maria De Mattias

Christian feast day: Oswine of Deira

Christian feast day: Philibert of Jumièges

Christian feast day: Samuel (prophet)

Christian feast day: William and Catherine Booth (Church of England)

Feast of Asmá’ (Baháʼí Faith, only if Baháʼí Naw-Rúz falls on March 21)

Independence Restoration Day (Estonia), re-declaration of the independence of Estonia from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Events

2020Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech virtually for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

2016Fifty-four people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey.

2014Seventy-two people are killed in Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture by a series of landslides caused by a month's worth of rain that fell in one day.

2012A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.

2011First Air Flight 6560 crashes 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Resolute Bay runway, killing 12 of the 15 aboard.

2008Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the 172 people on board, 146 die immediately, and eight more later die of injuries sustained in the crash.

2007China Airlines Flight 120 catches fire and explodes after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan.

2006Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai.

2002A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, Germany for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.

1998The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

1998U.S. embassy bombings: The United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya a

1997Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped.

1995The Firozabad rail disaster kills 358 people in Firozabad, India.

1992In India, Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language) is included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of the Indian Government.

1991Dissolution 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.

1991Estonia, occupied by and incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of legal continuity of its pre-occupation statehood.

1989The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.

1988"Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park.

1988Iran–Iraq War: A ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war.

1988The Troubles: Eight British soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by an IRA roadside bomb in Ballygawley, County Tyrone.

1986In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill shoots and kills 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.

1977Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

1975ČSA Flight 540 crashes on approach to Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, killing 126 people.

1975Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

1968Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate.

1962The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.

1960Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.

1955Battle of Philippeville: In Algeria, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.

1949Hungary adopts the Hungarian Constitution of 1949 and becomes a People's Republic.

1948Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M. Lomakin is expelled by the United States, due to the Kasenkina Case.

1944World War II: One hundred sixty-eight captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.

1944World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.

1940In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.

1940World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".

1940World War II: The Eighth Route Army launches the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a successful campaign to disrupt Japanese war infrastructure and logistics in occupied northern China.

1926Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.

1920The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.

1920The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Conference in Canton, Ohio.

1914World War I: Brussels is captured during the German invasion of Belgium.

1910Extreme fire weather in the Inland Northwest of the United States causes many small wildfires to coalesce into the Great Fire of 1910, burning approximately 3 million acres (12,000 km2) and killing 87 people.

Born on this day

2003Prince Gabriel of Belgium

1998Lieke Klaver, Dutch track and field athlete

1997Daniel Vladař, Czech ice hockey player

1997Kaho Minagawa, Japanese rhythmic gymnast

1996Bunty Afoa, New Zealand rugby league player

1995Liana Liberato, American actress

1994Mitchell Trubisky, American football player

1993Tonisha Rock-Yaw, Barbadian netball player

1992Alex Newell, American actor and singer

1992Callum Skinner, Scottish track cyclist

1992Carolina Horta, Brazilian beach volleyball player

1992Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actress

1992Deniss Rakels, Latvian footballer

1991Cory Joseph, Canadian basketball player

1991Jyrki Jokipakka, Finnish hockey player

1991Marko Djokovic, Serbian tennis player

1990Bradley Klahn, American tennis player

1990Culoe De Song, South African music producer and DJ

1990Leigh Griffiths, Scottish footballer

1990Macauley Chrisantus, Nigerian footballer

1990Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Dutch swimmer

1989Dean Winnard, English footballer

1989Judd Trump, English snooker player

1989Kirko Bangz, American rapper and producer

1989Silas Kiplagat, Kenyan runner

1989Slavcho Shokolarov, Bulgarian footballer

1988Jerryd Bayless, American basketball player

1988José Zamora, Spanish footballer

1988Sarah R, Lotfi, American director, producer, and screenwriter

1987Egon Kaur, Estonian race car driver

1987Gunther, Austrian wrestler

1987Sido Jombati, Portuguese footballer

1987Stefan Aigner, German footballer

1987Vedran Janjetović, Croatian-Australian footballer

1986Andrew Surman, South African-English footballer

1985Brant Daugherty, American actor

1985Joe Vitale, American ice hockey player

1985Stephen Ward, Irish footballer

1985Thomas Domingo, French rugby player

1984Aílton José Almeida, Brazilian footballer

Died on this day

2024Al Attles, American basketball player and coach (born 1936)

2022Darya Dugina, Russian journalist (born 1992)

2021Igor Vovkovinskiy, Ukrainian-American law student and actor, American tallest person (born 1982)

2020Chi Chi DeVayne, American Drag Queen (born 1985)

2018Jennifer Ramírez Rivero, Venezuelan model (born 1978)

2018Uri Avnery, Israeli writer, politician and peace activist (born 1923)

2017Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (born 1926)

2015Egon Bahr, German journalist and politician, Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany (born 1922)

2015Paul Kibblewhite, New Zealand chemist and engineer (born 1941)

2014Anton Buslov, Russian astrophysicist and journalist (born 1983)

2014B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and author, founded Iyengar Yoga (born 1918)

2014Boris Dubin, Russian sociologist and academic (born 1946)

2014Buddy MacMaster, Canadian singer-songwriter and fiddler (born 1924)

2014Edmund Szoka, American cardinal (born 1927)

2014Lois Mai Chan, Taiwanese-American librarian, author, and academic (born 1934)

2014Sava Stojkov, Serbian painter and educator (born 1925)

2013Elmore Leonard, American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter (born 1925)

2013Marian McPartland, English-American pianist and composer (born 1918)

2013Narendra Dabholkar, Indian author and activist (born 1945)

2013Sathima Bea Benjamin, South African singer-songwriter (born 1936)

2013Ted Post, American director and screenwriter (born 1918)

2012Daryl Hine, Canadian-American poet and academic (born 1936)

2012Dom Mintoff, Maltese journalist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Malta (born 1916)

2012Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian soldier and politician, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (born 1955)

2012Mika Yamamoto, Japanese journalist (born 1967)

2012Phyllis Diller, American actress and comedian (born 1917)

2011Ram Sharan Sharma, Indian historian and academic (born 1919)

2010Đặng Phong, Vietnamese economist and historian (born 1937)

2009Karla Kuskin, American author and illustrator (born 1932)

2009Larry Knechtel, American keyboardist and bass player (born 1940)

Quote of the day

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”

Marcus Aurelius

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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