Historical Events on August 20

Events 1 - 200 of 224

• 2 Venus and Jupiter in conjunction - possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem

• 636 Battle at Yarmuk: Muslims 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.

• 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
• 1612 9 Pendle witches hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster, England
• 1619 1st known African Americans in English North America (approx. 20) land at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia. They are then sold or traded into servitude.
• 1641 England & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification
• 1648 Battle of Lens: French Duc 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

• 1795 Joseph Haydn returns to Vienna from England
• 1828 Gioacchino Rossini's opera "Le Comte Ory" premieres in Paris
• 1828 Hindi reform movement Brahmo Samaj founded by Ram Mohan Roy and Dwarkanath Tagore in Calcutta
• 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)

• 1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over
• 1879 Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns

• 1888 Longest US men's single tennis 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
• 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

• 1908 Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo

• 1910 US supported opposition brings down Madriz in Nicaragua


• 1912 Plant Quarantine Act goes into effect
• 1912 Wash Senator Carl Cushion no-hits Cleveland 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 WWI: Britain opens offensive on Western front
• 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 American Professional Football Association forms, which would later become the National Football League (NFL)
• 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 Red Sox-Indians game postponed in Boston to allow Indian players to attend Ray Chapman's funeral in Cleveland
• 1921 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Germantown CC, PA: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory wins her 6th US singles title; beats 3-time champion Mary 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 Dumont's 1st TV broadcast for home reception (NYC)

• 1934 Ponsford out for 266 in his final Test Cricket match
• 1935 Military coup by General Pons & president Ibarra in Ecuador

• 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

• 1941 Police raid 11th district of Paris, takes 4,000+ Jewish males
• 1942 Dim-out regulations implemented in San Francisco
• 1944 "Anna Lucasta" opens on Broadway

• 1944 Gen de Gaulle returns to France
• 1944 Soviet 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 Soviet troops occupy Harbin & Mukden
• 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
• 1950 11th Venice Film Festival: "Justice est faite" directed by Andre Cayatte wins the Golden Lion

• 1953 Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
• 1953 14th Venice Film Festival opens. No Golden Lion awarded
• 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 Washington Senators, 6-0
• 1957 USAAF balloon breaks an altitude record at 102,000' (310,896 m)
• 1958 Cubs use 1st baseman Dale Long as their 1st major league lefty catcher since 1906
• 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


• 1961 22nd Venice Film Festival: "Last Year at Marienbad" directed by Alain Resnais wins Golden Lion
• 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

• 1964 Rex Sellers bowls 5-1-17-0 v India in only Test Cricket innings

• 1965 Rolling Stones release their single "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (their 1st #1 US hit) in the UK

• 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 LPGA Western Open Women's Golf, Pekin CC: Kathy Whitworth wins by 7 strokes from Sandra Haynie

• 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 USSR performs underground nuclear test
• 1974 Brooklyn pitcher Dan Bankhead is 1st black to homer in his 1st at bat

• 1974 Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed is elected fifth President of India
• 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 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 Jerusalem is its capital
• 1982 Don Lever becomes first captain of NHL New Jersey 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 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 Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations (human shields)
• 1990 NY Yankee Kevin Maas is quickest to reach 15 HRs (approx 132 at bat)
• 1991 Norbert Rosza swims world record 100m breast stroke (1:01.29)

• 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 Oslo Peace Accords signed, after secret negotiations in Norway, 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 featherweight, wins the 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 British Open Women's Golf, Woburn, Duke's Course: Australian Karrie Webb scores a 6 stroke win over runners-up Annika Sörenstam and Jill McGill
• 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: US military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
• 1999 7th Athletics World Championships open at Seville, Spain
• 2000 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Valhalla GC: Tiger Woods becomes first since Ben Hogan (1953) to win 3 majors in a calendar year; wins back-to-back PGA titles in 3-hole playoff with Bob May
• 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.
• 2004 Ethiopian runners Kenenisa Bekele (27:05.10 OR) and Sileshi Sihine go 1-2 in the 10,000m at the Athens Olympics

• 2006 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Medinah CC: Tiger Woods wins his 3rd PGA C'ship by 5 strokes from Shaun Micheel
• 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.
• 2008 Russian long-distance swimmer Larisa Ilchenko wins inaugural women's open water marathon (10k) in 1:59:27.7 at the Beijing Olympics

• 2009 12th Athletics World Championships: Usain Bolt wins 200m

• 2012 20 people are killed in a riot in Caracas, Venezuela

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