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.
- 14Agrippa Postumus, adopted son of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances.
- 636Battle 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.
- 917Battle of Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army.
- 1000The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen, celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.
- 1083Canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen and his son Saint Emeric.
- 1308Pope Clement V pardons Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, absolving him of charges of heresy.
- 1391Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.
- 1467The 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.
- 1519Philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming dynasty’s Zhengde Emperor.
- 1672Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
- 1707The first Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
- 1710War 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.
- 1775The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
- 1794Battle of Fallen Timbers: American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.
- 1858Charles 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.
- 1866President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
- 1882Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.
- 1910The 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.
- 1914World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
- 1920The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.
- 1926Japan’s public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
- 1938Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam, a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.
- 1940In Mexico City, Mexico exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.
- 1940World 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”.
- 1944World War II: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being “terror fliers”, arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
- 1944World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.
- 1950Korean War: United Nations repel an offensive by North Korean divisions attempting to cross the Nakdong River and assault the city of Taegu.
- 1955In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
- 1960Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.
- 1962The NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
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