August 20

Historic Events

2020

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

2016

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

2014

Seventy-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. ›

2012

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

2011

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

2008

Spanair 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. ›

2007

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

2006

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

2002

A 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. ›

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 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 and Tanzania. ›

1997

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

1995

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

1992

In 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. ›

1991

Dissolution 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, 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. ›

1989

The 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. ›

1988

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

1988

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

1986

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

1977

Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft. ›

1975

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

1975

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

1968

Cold 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. ›

1962

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

1960

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

1955

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

1949

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

1948

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

1944

World 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. ›

1944

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

1940

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

1940

World 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". ›

1940

World 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. ›

1926

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

1920

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

1920

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

1914

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

1910

Extreme 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. ›

1905

Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others establish the Tongmenghui, a Republican, anti-Qing revolutionary organisation, in Tokyo, Japan. ›

1882

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia. ›

1866

President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over. ›

1864

Bakumatsu: Kinmon incident: The Chōshū Domain attempts to expel the Satsuma and Aizu Domains from Japan's imperial court. ›

1858

Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory. ›

1852

Steamboat Atlantic sinks on Lake Erie after a collision, with the loss of at least 150 lives. ›

1794

Northwest Indian War: United States troops force the United Indian Nations, a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Lenape, Wyandot, Miami, Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi warriors, into a disorganized retreat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. ›

1775

The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona. ›

1710

War of the Spanish Succession: A multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg defeats the Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay in the Battle of Saragossa. ›

1707

The first Siege of Pensacola comes to an end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida. ›

1672

Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are lynched by a mob in The Hague. ›

1648

The Battle of Lens is the last major military confrontation of the Thirty Years' War, contributing to the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in October that year. ›

1519

On the third day of battle, philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming dynasty's Zhengde Emperor. ›

1467

The Second Battle of Olmedo takes places as part of a succession conflict between Henry IV of Castile and his half-brother Alfonso, Prince of Asturias. ›

1308

At the conclusion of the interrogation of the leaders of the Knights Templar, the three papal investigators, Cardinals Bérenger Frédol, Etienne de Suisy and Landolfo Brancacci, write the "Chinon Parchment", in which they affirm that the accused Templars had confessed, done penance, and were absolved of heresy. ›

1191

Believing Saladin had reneged on ransom promises, Richard I of England initiates the massacre at Ayyadieh, beheading 2,700 captive Muslim soldiers and another 300 women and children seized at the Fall of Acre. ›

1119

King Henry I of England defeats king Louis VI of France in the battle of Brémule. ›

1083

The first King of Hungary, Stephen I, and his son, Prince Emeric, are canonized, a date now celebrated as a National Day in Hungary. ›

1057

An army under Isaac I Komnenos defeat forces loyal to rival emperor Michael VI Bringas in the battle of Hades. ›

917

Battle of Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army. ›

636

Battle of the Yarmuk: Marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia, Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid defeat the Byzantine Empire and take control of the Levant. ›

14

Agrippa Postumus, maternal grandson of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile. ›