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 - Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria[?] invades Thrace. Battle of Anchialus[?].
• 1794 - Battle of Fallen Timbers[?]
• 1885 - Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado opens at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City
• 1908 - Congo Free State becomes the Belgian Congo
• 1914 - German forces occupy Brussels
• 1920 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan
• 1960 - Senegal breaks from the Mali federation, declaring independence
• 1968 - Warsaw Pact nations invade Czechoslovakia to end "Prague Spring" of political liberalization
• 1977 - Voyager 2 spacecraft launched
• 1991 - Estonia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

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 Ghandi[?], Prime Minister of India (+ 1991)
• 1946 - Connie Chung, journalist
• 1948 - Robert Plant, rock and roll singer
• 1951 - Greg Bear, science fiction author
• 1956 - Joan Allen[?], actress (Nixon, Pleasantville)
• 1965 - KRS-One (Lawrence Krisna Parker), rap music singer

Deaths

• 1914 - Pope Pius X
• 1940 - Leon Trotsky, Bolshevik revolutionary
• 2001: Sir Fred Hoyle, astronomer, science fiction writer

Holidays and observances

• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Asmá (Names) - First day of the ninth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• St. Stpehen's day in Hungary, the main national holiday

August 19 - August 21 - July 20 - September 20 -- listing of all days

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