On This Day — 20 August

2020

Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech virtually for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Joe Biden

2016

Fifty-four people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey.

August 2016 Gaziantep bombing

2014

Seventy-two people are killed in Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture by a series of landslides caused by a month's worth of rain that fell in one day.

Hiroshima Prefecture

2012

A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.

2012 Yare prison riot

2011

First Air Flight 6560 crashes 1 mile from the Resolute Bay runway, killing 12 of the 15 aboard.

First Air Flight 6560

2008

Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the 172 people on board, 146 die immediately, and eight more later die of injuries sustained in the crash.

Spanair Flight 5022

2007

China Airlines Flight 120 catches fire and explodes after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan.

China Airlines Flight 120

2006

Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai.

Sri Lankan civil war

2002

A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, Germany for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.

Saddam Hussein

1998

The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

Supreme Court of Canada

1998

U.S. embassy bombings: The United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

1998 United States embassy bombings

1997

Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped.

Souhane massacre

1995

The Firozabad rail disaster kills 358 people in Firozabad, India.

Firozabad rail collision

1992

In India, Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language) was included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of the Indian Government.

Meitei language

1991

Dissolution 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.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

1991

Estonia, occupied by and incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of legal continuity of its pre-occupation statehood.

Estonia

1989

The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.

Marchioness disaster

1988

"Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone fires of 1988

1988

Iran–Iraq War: A ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war.

Iran–Iraq War

1988

The Troubles: Eight British soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by an IRA roadside bomb in Ballygawley, County Tyrone.

The Troubles

1986

In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill shoots and kills 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.

Edmond, Oklahoma

1977

Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

Voyager program

1975

Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

Viking program

1975

ČSA Flight 540 crashes on approach to Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, killing 126 people.

ČSA Flight 540

1968

Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate.

Cold War

1962

The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.

NS Savannah

1960

Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.

Senegal

1955

Battle of Philippeville: In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.

Battle of Philippeville

1949

Hungary adopts the Hungarian Constitution of 1949 and becomes a People's Republic.

Hungary

1948

Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M. Lomakin is expelled by the United States, due to the Kasenkina Case.

New York City

1944

World War II: One hundred sixty-eight captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Allied airmen at Buchenwald concentration camp

1944

World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.

Battle of Romania

1940

In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.

Leon Trotsky

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".

World War II

1940

World War II: The Eighth Route Army launches the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a successful campaign to disrupt Japanese war infrastructure and logistics in occupied northern China.

Eighth Route Army

1938

Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam, a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.

Lou Gehrig

1926

Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.

Public broadcasting

1920

The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.

WWJ (AM)

1920

The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Conference in Canton, Ohio

National Football League

1914

World War I: Brussels is captured during the German invasion of Belgium.

World War I

1910

Extreme fire weather in the Inland Northwest of the United States causes many small wildfires to coalesce into the Great Fire of 1910, burning approximately 3 million acres (12,000 km2) and killing 87 people.

National Fire Danger Rating System

1905

Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others establish the Tongmenghui, a Republican, anti-Qing revolutionary organisation, in Tokyo, Japan.

Sun Yat-sen

1882

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1866

President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.

President of the United States

1864

Bakumatsu: Kinmon incident: The Chōshū Domain attempts to expel the Satsuma and Aizu Domains from Japan's imperial court.

Bakumatsu

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.

Charles Darwin

1852

Steamboat Atlantic sank on Lake Erie after a collision, with the loss of at least 150 lives.

Atlantic (1848 ship)

1794

Northwest Indian War: United States troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Northwest Indian War

1775

The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.

Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón

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.

War of the Spanish Succession

1707

The first Siege of Pensacola comes to an end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.

Siege of Pensacola (1707)

1672

Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are lynched by a mob in The Hague.

Grand pensionary

1648

The Battle of Lens is the last major military confrontation of the Thirty Years' War, contributing to the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in October that year.

Battle of Lens

1519

On the third day of battle, philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming dynasty's Zhengde Emperor.

Wang Yangming

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.

Second Battle of Olmedo

1308

At the conclusion of the interrogation of the leaders of the Knights Templar, the three papal investigators, Cardinals Bérenger Frédol, Etienne de Suisy and Landolfo Brancacci, write the "Chinon Parchment", in which they affirm that the accused Templars had confessed, done penance, and were absolved of heresy.

Knights Templar

1191

Believing Saladin had reneged on ransom promises, Richard I of England initiates the massacre at Ayyadieh, beheading 2,700 captive Muslim soldiers and another 300 women and children seized at the Fall of Acre.

Saladin

1083

The first King of Hungary, Stephen I, and his son, Prince Emeric, are canonized, a date now celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.

King of Hungary

917

Battle of Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army.

Battle of Achelous (917)

636

Marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia, Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid defeat the Byzantine Empire and take control of the Levant.

Muslims

14

Agrippa Postumus, maternal grandson of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile.

AD 14