August 20 Historical Events

The following events took place on August 20. The list is arranged in chronological order.

Found 51 events. Showing 1 - 30.

• 14
  Agrippa Postumus, adopted son of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances.
• 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 Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army.
• 1000
  The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen, celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.
• 1083
  Canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen and his son Saint Emeric.
• 1308
  Pope Clement V pardons Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, absolving him of charges of heresy.
• 1391
  Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.
• 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.
• 1519
  Philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming dynasty’s Zhengde Emperor.
• 1672
  Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
• 1707
  The first Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
• 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.
• 1775
  The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
• 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.
• 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.

• 1866
  President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
• 1882
  Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.
• 1910
  The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the “Big Blowup” or the “Big Burn”) occurs in northeast Washington, northern Idaho (the panhandle), and western Montana, burning approximately 3 e6acre.
• 1914
  World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
• 1920
  The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.
• 1926
  Japan’s public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
• 1938
  Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam, a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.
• 1940
  In Mexico City, Mexico 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”.
• 1944
  World War II: 168 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.
• 1950
  Korean War: United Nations repel an offensive by North Korean divisions attempting to cross the Nakdong River and assault the city of Taegu.
• 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 its independence.
• 1962
  The NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.