August 20

August 20 is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 133 days remaining.

Events

   * 917 - Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and
     drives the Byzantines out.
   * 1794 - Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy
     of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa and
     Pottawatomie warriors into a disorganized retreat.
   * 1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The "Corps of Discovery", whose
     purpose is to explore the Louisiana Purchace, suffers it first and last
     death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute
     appendicitis.
   * 1882 - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow.
   * 1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
   * 1920 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations
     in Detroit, Michigan.
   * 1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded in
     Mexico City by an assassin's ice-ax. He will die the next day.
   * 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 Edmon, Oklahoma, US Postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill
     guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
   * 1989- In Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their
     wealthy parents to death in their family's den.
   * 1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Estonia declares its independence
     from the Soviet Union.
   * 1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: More than 100,000 people rally
     outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup that
     deposed President Mikhail Gorbachev.
   * 1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada states Quebec can not legally secede
     from Canada without the federal government's approval.
   * 1998 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches
     cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Quaida 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

   * 1561 - Jacopo Peri, composer
   * 1779 - Jons Jacob Berzelius, chemist
   * 1833 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States
   * 1881 - Edgar Guest, poet
   * 1890 - H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer (+ 1937)
   * 1905 - Jack Teagarden, jazz musician (+ 1964)
   * 1910 - Eero Saarinen, architect
   * 1918 - Jacqueline Susann, novelist (+ 1974)
   * 1923 - Jim Reeves, country and western singer (+ 1964)
   * 1931 - Don King, boxing promoter
   * 1942 - Isaac Hayes, singer, songwriter, actor
   * 1944 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (+ 1991)
   * 1946 - Connie Chung, journalist
   * 1948 - Robert Plant, rock and roll singer
   * 1949 - Phil Lynott, rock and roll musician (+ 1986)
   * 1951 - Greg Bear, science fiction author
   * 1952 - John Hiatt, musician
   * 1956 - Joan Allen, actress (Nixon, Pleasantville)
   * 1965 - KRS-One (Lawrence Krisna Parker), rap music singer

Deaths

   * 1611 - Tom‡s Luis de Victoria, composer
   * 1914 - Pope Pius X
   * 1940 - Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik revolutionary
   * 2001: Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer, science fiction writer

Holidays and observances

   * Bah‡'’ Faith - Feast of Asm‡ (Names) - First day of the ninth month of
     the Bah‡'’ Calendar
   * St. Stephen's day in Hungary, the main national holiday

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