August 20

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

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

Events

636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
917 - Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and drives the Byzantines out.
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.
1672 - Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis were brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
1794 - Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.
1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis.
1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declared the U.S. Civil War over.
1882 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.
1888 - Mutineers imprison Emin Pasha at Dufile.
1900 - Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling.
1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
1920 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
1926 - Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
1938 - Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam - a record that still stands.
1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice axe. He dies the next day.
1944 - World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.
1953 - The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
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.
1969 - All four Beatles were together in the recording studio for the final time as they finished the Abbey Road LP.
1974 - Congress votes to reduce aid to South Vietnam from $1 Billion to $700 Million. Majority of the cuts were for military supplies.
1975 - Viking Program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
1977 - Voyager Program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
1979 - The East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland is restored when the Penmanshiel Diversion opens.
1982 - Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.
1986 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
1988 - "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1988 - Iran-Iraq War: A cease-fire is agreed to after almost eight years of war.
1991 - Collapse 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 secedes from the Soviet Union.
1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the next month.
1997 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people killed, 15 kidnapped.
1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada states 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.
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 giving up.

Births

1517 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French church leader (d. 1586)
1561 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (d. 1633)
1625 - Thomas Corneille, French dramatist (d. 1709)
1632 - Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit preacher (d. 1704)
1710 - Thomas Simpson, British mathematician (d. 1761)
1719 - Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (d. 1783)
1719 - Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1791)
1776 - Bernardo O'Higgins, South American revolutionary (d. 1842)
1779 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1848)
1833 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (d. 1901)
1845 - St. Albert Chmielowski, Polish Catholic Saint (d. 1916)
1847 - Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (d. 1912)
1856 - Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Sorbian writer (d. 1909)
1860 - Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (d. 1934)
1868 - Ellen Roosevelt, American tennis player (d. 1954)
1873 - Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1950)
1881 - Edgar Guest, English poet (d. 1959)
1890 - H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (d. 1937)
1897 - Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian writer (d. 1970)
1898 - Vilhelm Moberg, Swedish author and historian (d. 1973)
1901 - Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
1905 - Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist, and poet (d. 1973)
1905 - Jack Teagarden, American musician (d. 1964)
1908 - Al Lopez, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
1910 - Eero Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1961)
1913 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
1916 - Paul Felix Schmidt, Estonian–German chess player (d. 1984)
1918 - Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (d. 1974)
1923 - Jim Reeves, American singer (d. 1964)
1926 - Nobby Wirkowski, American and Canadian football player and coach
1927 - Geriatric1927, English video blogger
1927 - Yootha Joyce, English actress (d. 1980)
1930 - Mario Bernardi, Canadian conductor
1931 - Don King, American Boxing Promoter
1932 - Anthony Ainley, British actor (d. 2004)
1932 - Vasily Aksyonov, Russian novelist
1933 - George J. Mitchell, former United States Senator
1934 - Armi Kuusela, Finnish beauty queen
1936 - Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 - Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian film director
1937 - El Fary, Spanish singer and actor (d. 2007)
1937 - Jim Bowen, English comedian
1938 - Alain Vivien, French politician
1939 - Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor and politician (d. 2004)
1940 - Rubén Hinojosa, American politician
1941 - Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia (d. 2006)
1941 - Rich Brooks, American football coach
1941 - Robin Oakley, British journalist
1941 - Jo Ramirez, Mexican motor racing team manager and author
1942 - Isaac Hayes, American singer, songwriter, and actor
1942 - Fred Norman, American baseball player
1943 - Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor
1944 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)
1946 - Connie Chung, American journalist
1946 - Ralf Hütter, German musician (Kraftwerk)
1946 - N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman
1947 - Alan Lee, English conceptual artist
1948 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)
1948 - John Noble, Australian actor
1949 - Phil Lynott, Irish musician (d. 1986)
1949 - Nikolas Asimos, Greek composer and singer (d. 1988)
1949 - Norman Featherstone, South African cricketer
1949 - Alan Hardwick, English TV presenter
1951 - Greg Bear, American author
1952 - John Hiatt, American musician
1952 - Doug Fieger, American musician (The Knack)
1952 - John Emburey, English cricketer
1954 - Tawn Mastrey, American disc jockey (d. 2007)
1954 - Al Roker, American television personality
1954 - Don Stark, American actor
1955 - Agnes Chan, Hong Kong singer and writer
1956 - Joan Allen, American actress
1957 - Finlay Calder, Scottish rugby player
1961 - Greg Egan, Australian author
1961 - Joe Pasquale, English comedian
1962 - Sophie Aldred, English actress
1962 - James Marsters, American actor
1962 - Dong-Wook Song, South Korean tennis player
1965 - KRS-One, American rapper
1966 - Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist (Pantera and Damageplan) (d. 2004)
1967 - Andy Benes, baseball player
1967 - Colin Cunningham, American actor
1967 - Terri Poch, American yogini and former professional wrestler
1968 - Klas Ingesson, Swedish footballer
1968 - Yuri Shiratori, Japanese voice actress and singer
1969 - Duke Droese, American professional wrestler
1970 - John D. Carmack, American computer game programmer
1970 - Fred Durst, American singer (Limp Bizkit)
1971 - Brad Avery, American musician (guitarist for Third Day)
1971 - Jonathan Ke Quan, Vietnamese American actor
1971 - Steve Stone, English footballer
1971 - David Walliams, British comedian
1973 - Todd Helton, baseball player
1974 - Amy Adams, American actress
1974 - Big Moe, American rapper (d. 2007)
1974 - Maxim Vengerov, Russian violinist
1974 - Szabolcs Sáfár, Hungarian footballer
1975 - Marcus Mastin, American author
1975 - Andy Strachan, Australian musician (The Living End)
1976 - Chris Drury, American hockey player
1977 - Felipe Contepomi, Argentine rugby player
1977 - Manuel Contepomi, Argentine rugby player
1977 - Ivar Ingimarsson, Icelandic footballer
1977 - Mayra Veronica, Cuban model and actress
1979 - Cory Sullivan, baseball player
1980 - Rochelle Gadd, British actress
1980 - Corey Carrier, American actor
1981 - Bernard Mendy, French footballer
1981 - Benjamin Barnes, English actor (Prince Caspian)
1982 - Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer
1982 - Youssouf Hersi, Ethiopian footballer
1982 - Cléber Luis Alberti, Brazilian footballer
1984 - Mirai Moriyama, Japanese actor
1986 - Robert Clark, Canadian actor
1987 - Cătălina Ponor, Romanian gymnast
1990 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Dutch swimmer
1991 - Marko Đoković, Serbian tennis player
1992 - Demi Lovato, American Actress
2003 - Prince Gabriel of Belgium