20th of August

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August 20 is the 232nd (two hundred and thirty-second) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar and the 233rd in leap years. There are 133 days left to end the year.

Events

636: In the battle of Yarmuk, Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine from the hands of the Byzantine Empire, performing the first large wave of Muslims outside Arabia.
917: In the battle of Elooo, the forces of the Simeon I of Bulgaria defeat the Byzantine army.
1000: the state of Hungary is created under King Stephen I. Today is the National Day of the country.
1083: Roman Pope Gregory VII canonize the first king of Hungary, Stephen I of Hungary and his son Emerico.
1391: Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the great vigesimocuarto of the Teutonic Order.
1487: In Spain, Christian troops enter Gibralfaro and the last Muslim warden in Malaga, Hamet el Zegri is apprehended and excluded from capitulation, ending as a slave in Carmona (Seville).
1561: In the current province of Jujuy (Argentina), Juan Pérez de Zurita founded the village of Nieva. Because of the ill-treatment of the Humahuaca Indians, in 1563 they rebel and set fire to the ranching.
1672: In The Hague, Johan of Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered.
1775: In Arizona, the Spaniards founded the Royal Presidio of San Agustín del Tucsón that would become the city of Tucson.
1794: Battle of the Fallen Trees: U.S. troops force the escape of the confederation formed by the Indian tribes of Shawnee, Mingo, Lenape, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi.
1804: In the framework of the Expedition of Lewis and Clark, the Discovery Corps that carried out the purchase of the Louisiana suffers the death of Sergeant Charles Floyd of an appendicitis.
1818: King Kamehameha I signed a treaty with Captain Hipólito Buchardo in which, among other things, Hawaii became the first country to recognize the independence of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata
1836: During the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation, General Andrés de Santa Cruz decrees the creation of the Litoral Province of Callao, with political autonomy in his internal affairs.
1847: Americans defeat Mexicans in Padierna and Churubusco as part of the War of Intervention.
1866: President Andrew Johnson formally declares the end of the American Secession War.
1882: in Moscow (Russia) the Obertura 1812 by Piotr Ilich Chaikovski.
1905: In Tokyo, Japan, Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren and others founded the secret society Tongmenghui, also known as the United League of China or the Revolutionary Alliance China. It was a resistance movement largely responsible for leading the 1911 revolution against Qing dynasty in China.
1914: In the framework of World War I, German forces occupy Brussels.
1920: Detroit begins to broadcast the first commercial radio in history, 8MK.
1920: in the United States the NFL (National Football League; national football league).
1940: in Mexico City, the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is seriously wounded with a piolet by Ramón Mercader. He'll die the next day.
1944: In the framework of World War II, 168 allied pilots – including Phil Lamason – arrive at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
1944: As part of the Second World War, the Russian offensive of the Battle of Romania begins.
1944: Mexico founded the Lion Club, seven times champion and first champion of the professional football of that country.
1953: the Soviet Union publishes that it has carried out successful testing of a hydrogen bomb.
1955: In Morocco, Berber forces from the Atlas Mountains kill 77 French invading soldiers.
1960: Senegal breaks with the Federation of Mali and declares its independence.
1967: in Mexico, professional gunmen hired by leaders of the Regional Union of Producers of Copra of the State of Guerrero and by Raymundo Abarca Alarcón, ambushed about 800 coprero peasants in Acapulco when they entered the building of La Coprera to hold a congress. The official balance leaves 32 dead and about 100 wounded.
1968: Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia and end the Spring of Prague.
1969: In West Germany, at 1:00 a.m., the 84 hours of Nürburgring are gone, where the IKA Torino of Argentinian manufacture have a very important performance, under the sporty driving of Juan Manuel Fangio.
1975: launch of the American probe Viking 1 to Mars.
1977: Voyager 2 is launched to pass through Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
1980: United Nations Security Council resolution 478 is adopted.
1982: Lebanese Civil War: multinational forces land in Beirut to find the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon.
1988: the Yellowstone National Park is on fire.
1988: Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
1988: Iran-Irak War: the ceasefire is declared after eight years of war.
1988: in Santander, Spain, the Campos de Sport de El Sardinero is inaugurated.
1989: In London, 51 people perish when the recreation boat Marchioness hit the dredging Bowbelle on the River Thames.
1991: Estonia is independent of the Soviet Union.
1991: State coup attempt in the Soviet Union: more than 100,000 people take parliament as a protest against the coup and with the intention of deposing President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1993: In Washington DC, United States, after a series of secret negotiations, representatives of Israel and Palestine sign the Oslo agreements at a public ceremony.
1998: The Supreme Court of Canada states that the province of Quebec cannot legally be independent of Canada without the approval of the federal Government.
1998: The United States bombs, with three Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in North Khartoum (Sudan). The U.S. government. The U.S. justified the attack by claiming that the factory was used to process the VX nervous agent and that the plant owners had links to al-Qaeda. The attack took place a week after the Lewinsky scandal, which caused some commentators to describe the attack as a distraction for the American public of Bill Clinton's sexual scandal.
2007: in Mexico, the new 20 bill is circulated as an official currency.
2008: in Madrid-Barajas Airport (Madrid, Spain), an airplane with 172 passengers, suffers an accident a few seconds after taking off, with a total of 154 deceased and 18 survivors.
2013: in Pune, India, Narendra Dabholkar (activist against superstition and black magic in India), is shot dead.
2020: Alekséi Navalni, chief opponent of the Russian government, enters a hospital in Omsk (Russian Federation) with symptoms of poisoning.

Births

1517: Antonio Perrenot de Granvela, French religious leader (f. 1586).
1561: Jacopo Peri, composer of Italian opera (f. 1633).
1625: Thomas Corneille, French playwright (f. 1709).
1632: Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit leader (f. 1704).
1710: Thomas Simpson, British mathematician (f. 1761).
1719: Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (f. 1783).
1757: Diego Corrientes Mateos, Spanish bandolero (f. 1781).
1757: Federico Carlos de Schleswig, German aristocrat (f. 1815).
1761: José de Braganza, Portuguese aristocrat (f. 1788).
1778: Bernardo O'Higgins, a Chilean politician and military, father of the Homeland (f. 1842).
1779: Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (f. 1848).
1786: José Joaquín Prieto, Chilean president between 1831 and 1841 (f. 1854).
1789: Bernardo de Monteagudo, Argentine lawyer and journalist (f. 1825).
1819: Andrew Jackson Grayson, American military, artist and ornithologist (f. 1869).
1821: Robustiana Armiño, Spanish poet (f. 1890).
1833: Benjamin Harrison, American politician, President of the United States between 1889 and 1893 (f. 1901).
1843: Edward Lee Greene, American botanist and micologist (f. 1915).
1845: Alberto Chmielowski, Polish Religious (f. 1916).
1847: Agustin Lhardy landscape designer and chef from Madrid (f. 1918).
1847: Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (f. 1912).
1849: Bernardo Reyes, Mexican military and political (f. 1913).
1856: Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, Polish writer (f. 1909).
1860: Raymond Poincaré, politician and president of France between 1913 and 1920 (f. 1934).
1873: Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (f. 1950).
1877: Rodolfo Mondolfo, Italian philosopher (f. 1976).
1879: Salvador González Anaya, a Spanish writer (f. 1955).
1885: Dino Campana, Italian poet, representative of Hermetism (f. 1932).
1886: Paul Tillich, the German-American theologian (f. 1965).
1887: Phan Khoi, Vietnamese intellectual, critical of the communist regime (f. 1959)
1888: Tôn Đđc Th)ng, Vietnamese politician, North Vietnam's second president (f. 1980)
1889: Concepción Castella de Zavala, a Spanish writer (f. 1966).
1890: Howard Phillips Lovecraft, American writer (f. 1937).
1897: Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian writer (f. 1970).
1898: Vilhelm Moberg, Swedish historian (f. 1973).
1901: Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian poet, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959 (f. 1968).
1901: Ruben Arthur Stirton, American zoologist and paleontologist (f. 1966)
1905: Jean Gebser, German poet and linguist (f. 1973)
1906: José María Rosa, Argentine historian (f. 1991)
1906: Misiem Yipintsoi, a Thai painter and sculptor (f. 1988).
1907: Anatole Fistoulari, director of Russian orchestra and British musician (f. 1995).
1909: Olga Rubtsova, Russian chessist (f. 1994).
1910: Eero Saarinen, American architect (f. 1961).
1913: Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, nobel medical prize in 1981 (f. 1994).
1915: Koldo Mitxelena, Spanish linguist (f. 1987).
1917: José Dammert, Peruvian Catholic priest (f. 2008)
1918: Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (f. 1974).
1919: Walter Bernstein, American film producer and screenwriter (f. 2021).
1920: Juana Lecaros, a Chilean painter and writer (f. 1993).
1922: Akutsu Tetsuzo, a Japanese surgeon, worked on building the first artificial heart (f. 2007)
1923: Jim Reeves, American country musician (f. 1964).
1927: Yootha Joyce, English actress (f. 1980).
1929: Yolanda Mérida, Mexican actress (f. 2012).
1932: Anthony Ainley, English actor (f. 2004).
1932: Ernesto Baffa, bandoneonist and Argentine composer of tango (f. 2016)
1934: Armi Kuusela, Finnish model and first winner of the Miss Universe.
1934: Peter Kleinow, American country music guitarist (f. 2007)
1935: Ron Paul, American politician.
1935: Francisco Valladares, Spanish actor (f. 2012).
1936: Andrzej Zieliński, velocist, athlete and Polish Olympic medalist (f. 2021).
1936: Antonio María Rouco Varela, Spanish religious.
1936: Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, nobel chemistry award in 2000.
1936: Miriam Colón, Puerto Rican actress (f. 2017).
1937: El Fary, flamenco singer and Spanish actor (f. 2007)
1937: Andréi Konchalovsky, Russian filmmaker.
1938: Jacqueline Andere, Mexican actress.
1939: Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor (f. 2004)
1940: Alberto Pandolfi Arbulú, a Peruvian politician and businessman.
1940: Rajendra K. Pachauri, engineer and Indian academic (f. 2020).
1941: Slobodan Milošević, Serbian politician, President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and Yugoslavia between 1997 and 2000 (f. 2006)
1942: Isaac Hayes, composer and singer of funk and soul and American actor (f. 2008)
1943: Sylvester McCoy, British actor.
1943: Angel Galán, Spanish politician (f. 2011).
1944: Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India between 1984 and 1989:(f. 1991).
1946: Ralf Hütter, German musician, Kraftwerk band, electronic music.
1946: Laurent Fabius, French politician.
1947: Alan Lee, illustrator of British books and films.
1948: John Noble, Australian actor.
1948: Robert Plant, British hard rock singer, Led Zeppelin.
1949: Phil Lynott, Irish musician of hard rock, Thin Lizzy (f. 1986).
1949: Nikólas Ásimos, composer and Greek singer (f. 1988).
1951: Francisco Javier Delicado Martínez, historian, essayist and Spanish art critic.
1951: Greg Bear, American science fiction writer.
1951: Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian engineer and politician, president of Egypt between 2011 and 2013 (f. 2019).
1954: John William Ashe, a former diplomat (f. 2016).
1955: Agnes Chan, singer, actress and Japanese nationalized Dutch writer
1956: Joan Allen, American actress.
1958: Daniel Torres, Spanish hysterist.
1958: David O. Russell, American filmmaker
1961: Manuel Merino, Peruvian businessman and politician, president of Peru in 2020.
1962: James Marsters, actor and American rock musician.
1962: Sophie Aldred, English actress.
1962: Carlos Tapia, Argentine footballer.
1965: KRS-One, American rapper.
1966: Miguel Albaladejo, Spanish filmmaker.
1966: Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist of heavy metal, Panther and Damageplan bands.
1966: Enrico Letta, Italian politician.
1967: Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Chilean soprano.
1968: Klas Ingesson, Swedish footballer (f. 2014).
1968: Yuri Shiratori, Japanese seiyū.
1970: John Carmack, American video game programmer.
1970: Fred Durst, American rock singer, from the band Limp Bizkit.
1971: Jonathan Ke Quan, an American actor of Vietnamese origin.
1971: Alexis Ravelo, Spanish writer (f. 2023).
1971: David Walliams, writer, comedian and British television personality.
1974: Maxim Vengerov, Russian violinist.
1974: Misha Collins, American actor.
1974: Amy Adams, American film and television actress.
1974: Szabolcs Sáfár, Hungarian footballer.
1974: Andy Strachan, Australian punk rock musician from The Living End.
1975: José Tomás, Spanish bullfighter.
1977: Felipe Contepomi, former Argentine rugby player.
1978: Sitapha Savané, Spanish-English basketball player.
1979: Jamie Cullum, British jazz and pop musician.
1979: Corey Carrier, American actor.
1979: Samuel Dumoulin, French cyclist.
1979: Nicolás Tauber, Argentine footballer.
1979: Enzo Maccarinelli, Welsh Professional Boxer.
1979: Zheng Zhi, Chinese footballer.
1981: Bernard Mendy, French footballer.
1981: Ben Barnes, English actor.
1982: Cléber Luis Alberti, Brazilian footballer.
1983: Andrew Garfield, British-American actor.
1984: Joaquín Larrivey, Argentine footballer.
1985: Brant Daugherty, American actor.
1985: Alvaro Negredo, Spanish footballer.
1985: Umeka Shōji, Japanese seiyū.
1986: Robert Clark, Canadian actor.
1986: Manuel Pamić, Croatian footballer.
1988: Jerryd Bayless, American basketball player.
1990: Ihor Plastun, Ukrainian footballer.
1990: Ranomi Kromowidjojo, a Dutch swimmer.
1990: Miriam Beizana Vigo, Spanish writer and literary criticism.
1990: Conlin McCabe, Canadian Remedy.
1991: Marko Djokovic, Serbian tennis player.
1992: Demi Lovato, American pop singer and actress.
1994: Oscar Valentín, Spanish footballer.
1995: Liana Liberato, American actress.
1996: Gennaro Tutino, Italian footballer.
1997: Vasyl Kravets, Ukrainian footballer.
1997: Gabriel Morbeck, Brazilian footballer.
1997: John Bell, British actor.
1999: Joe Willock, British footballer.
2000: Fatima Ptacek, American actress and model.
2002: Tobias Lund Andresen, Danish cyclist.
2003: Gabriel of Belgium, Belgian aristocrat.
2003: Hayley Faith Negrin, American actress.
2003: Théo Pourchaire, a French motor racing driver.

Deaths

917: Constantine Lips, Byzantine Admiral (n. 867).
984: John XIV, Catholic Pope between 983 and 984 (n. 930).
1153: Bernardo de Claraval, religious and holy French (n. 1090).
1384: Geert Grote, Dutch deacon, founder of the Brothers of Common Life (n. 1340).
1572: Miguel López de Legazpi, a Spanish military and explorer (n. 1503).
1639: Martin Opitz, German poet (n. 1597).
1648: Edward Herbert, English diplomat, poet and philosopher (n. 1583).
1672:
- Johan de Witt, a German politician (n. 1625).
- Cornelis de Witt, a German politician (n. 1623).
1701: Charles Sedley, English playwright (n. 1639).
1762: Shah Waliullah, Indian philosopher and theologian, Muslim reformist (n. 1703)
1773: Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian (n. 1701).
1811: Louis Antoine de Bougainville, French explorer (n. 1729).
1823: Pius VII, Catholic Pope between 1800 and 1823 (n. 1742).
1854: Friedrich Schelling, German philosopher (n. 1775).
1859: Juan Bautista Ceballos, Mexican politician (n. 1811).
1880: Luis Frías, an Argentine politician (n. 1823).
1887: Toles Laforgue, critic and French symbolist poet (n. 1860).
1904: Rene Waldeck-Rousseau, French statesman (n. 1846).
1907: Carlos M. Elías, a Colombian politician (n. 1841).
1912: William Booth, the British theologian (n. 1829).
1914: Pius X, Catholic Pope between 1903 and 1914 (n. 1835).
1915:
- Paul Ehrlich, German bacteriologist, nobel medical prize in 1908 (n. 1854).
- Carlos Juan Finlay, a Cuban doctor who discovered that malaria (malaria) and yellow fever were transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti (n. 1833).
1917: Adolf von Baeyer, a German chemistry prize in 1905 (n. 1835).
1945: Katti Anker Møller, Norwegian policy and reproductive rights activist (n. 1868).
1957: Raúl Marín Balmaceda, Chilean politician (n. 1907).
1959: William F. Halsey, American Admiral (n. 1882).
1960: Victor Domingo Silva, Chilean poet (n. 1882).
1961: Percy Williams Bridgman, U.S. physicist, nobel prize of physics in 1946 (n. 1882).
1962: Heraclio Alfaro Fournier, engineer and Spanish aviator (n. 1893).
1970: Román Viñoly Barreto, Uruguayan filmmaker (n. 1914).
1972: Roberto Urdaneta, Colombian president (n. 1890).
1975: José L. Lasplazas, journalist and Spanish sportsman (n. 1897).
1979: Christian Dotremont, Belgian painter and writer (n. 1922).
1980:
- Queta Garay: Mexican singer and actress (n. 1935)
- Joe Dassin, American French pop singer (n. 1938).
- Pedro Ferreira, Uruguayan musician of candombe (n. 1910).
1987:
- José María Bueno Monreal, Spanish priest (n. 1904).
- Fernando Oria de Rueda and Fontán, engineer and Spanish politician (n. 1900).
1989: José Peirats, anarcho-syndicalist (n. 1908).
1993: Bernard Delfgaauw, German philosopher (n. 1912).
1995: Hugo Pratt, Italian hysterist (n. 1927)
1996:
- Carlos Jáuregui, an Argentine LGBT activist (n. 1957).
- Rio Reiser, German singer (n. 1950).
1997:
- Norris Bradbury, American physicist (n. 1909).
- Léon Dion, a Canadian scientist (n. 1922).
2001:
- Marty Cosens, Argentine actor and melodic singer (n. 1935).
- Sir Fred Hoyle, astrophysicist and British writer (n. 1915).
2005: Krzysztof "Doc" Raczkowski, Polish drummer of the Vader band (n. 1970).
2006: Joe Rosenthal, American photographer (n. 1911).
2008:
- Hua Guofeng, Chinese politician (n. 1921).
- Stephanie Tubbs Jones, American politician (n. 1949).
2009: Larry Knechtel, American Rock Player and Guitarist (n. 1940).
2010: Dang Phong, Vietnamese historian (n. 1937)
2011:
- Héctor Barreiros, Argentine actor (n. 1929).
- Ram Sharan Sharma, Indian historian (n. 1919)
2012:
- Phyllis Diller, American actress (n. 1917).
- Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister and Maltese politician (n. 1916).
- Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian politician (n. 1955).
- Kapu Rajaiah, Indian painter (n. 1925)
2013:
- Elmore Leonard, American writer and writer (n. 1925).
- Ted Post, American Film and Television Director (n. 1918).
- Narendra Dabholkar, an Indian activist against superstition and black magic. He was killed in Pune, India (n. 1945)
2014:
- Eduardo Moliné O'Conor, Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina (n. 1938).
- B. K. S. Iyengar, yoga teacher and Indian writer (n. 1918).
2016:
- Tom Searle, British musician, guitarist of Architects (n. 1987).
- Ignacio Padilla, Mexican writer (n. 1968).
2017:
- Jerry Lewis, actor, comedian and American singer (n. 1926).
- Nati Mistral, actress, singer and Spanish recital (n. 1928).
2018:
- Andrés Aylwin, Chilean politician, highlighted for his defense of human rights during the military dictatorship of his country (n. 1925).
- María Isabel Chorobik de Mariani, an Argentine activist, founder and president of the Grandma Association of Plaza de Mayo (n. 1923).
2020: Frankie Banali, American rock drummer of the band Quiet Riot (n. 1951).