History of 20 August
1914 – German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
1918 – The British opened its Western Front offensive during World War I.
1923 – The first American dirigible, the “Shenandoah,” was launched in Lakehurst, NJ. The ship began its maiden voyage from the same location on September 4.
1939 – The National Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, MI. It was the first bowling association in the U.S. for African-Americans.
1940 – France fell to the Germans during World War II.
1945 – Tommy Brown (Brooklyn Dodgers) became the youngest player to hit a home run in a major league ball game. Brown was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days old.
1948 – Cleveland’s Indians and Chicago’s White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before a crowd of 78,382 people. It was the largest crowd to see a nighttime major-league baseball game to date.
1953 – It was announced by the Soviet Union that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb.
1955 – In Morocco and Algeria hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting.
1955 – Colonel Horace A. Hanes, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flew to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Hanes reached a speed of 822.135 miles per hour in a Super Sabrejet.
1964 – A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1967 – The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for the album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record’s subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings.
1968 – The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” liberalization.
1977 – Voyager 2 was launched by the United States. The spacecraft was carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
1985 – The original Xerox 914 copier was presented to the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History. Chester Carlson was the man who invented the machine.
1991 – A rally of more than 100,000 people occurred outside the Russian parliament building to protest the coup that removed Gorbachev from power.
1997 – NATO troops seized six police stations in Banja Luka that had been held by troops controlled by former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.
1997 – Britain began voluntary evacuation of its Caribbean island of Montserrat due to the volcanic activity of the Soufriere Hills.
1998 – Canada’s Supreme Court announced that Quebec could not secede without the federal government’s consent.
1998 – U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan. Both targets were chosen for cruise missile strikes due to their connection with Osama bin Laden.
1998 – The U.N. Security Council extended trade sanctions against Iraq for blocking arms inspections.
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.
2006 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah are shot dead at his home in Tellippalai.
2007 – China Airlines Flight 120 caught fire and exploded after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan.
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 later die of injuries sustained in the crash.
2010 – The last American combat brigade exited Iraq after more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion began.
2012 – A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.
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.
2016 – Fifty-four people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Brett Finch, Australian rugby league player, and sportscaster
- 1981 – Artur Kotenko, Estonian footballer
- 1981 – Bernard Mendy, French footballer
- 1981 – Craig Ochs, American football player
- 1981 – Byron Saxton, American wrestler, manager, and sportscaster
- 1982 – Cléber Luis Alberti, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Aleksandr Amisulashvili, Georgian footballer
- 1982 – Monty Dumond, South African rugby player
- 1982 – Youssouf Hersi, Ethiopian footballer
- 1982 – Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer
- 1982 – Mijaín López, Cuban wrestler
- 1982 – Richard Petiot, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Barney Rogers, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1982 – Enyelbert Soto, Venezuelan-Japanese baseball player
- 1983 – Hamza Abdullah, American football player
- 1983 – Paulo André Cren Benini, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Andrew Garfield, American-English actor
- 1983 – Héctor Landazuri, Colombian footballer
- 1983 – Mladen Pelaić, Croatian footballer
- 1983 – Brian Schaefer, American football player
- 1983 – Yuri Zhirkov, Russian footballer
- 1984 – Aílton Jose Almeida, Brazilian footballer
- 1984 – Pavel Eismann, Czech footballer
- 1984 – Laura Georges, French footballer
- 1984 – Jamie Hoffmann, American baseball player
- 1984 – Ingrid Lukas, Estonian-Swiss singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1985 – Brant Daugherty, American actor
- 1985 – Glen Buttriss, Australian rugby league player
- 1985 – Blake DeWitt, American baseball player
- 1985 – Thomas Domingo, French rugby player
- 1985 – Matt Hague, American baseball player
- 1985 – Jack King, English footballer
- 1985 – Álvaro Negredo, Spanish footballer
- 1985 – Willie Ripa, New Zealand rugby player
- 1985 – Joe Vitale, American ice hockey player
- 1985 – Stephen Ward, Irish footballer
- 1985 – Mark Washington, American football player
- 1986 – Andrew Surman, South African-English footballer
- 1986 – Steven Zalewski, American ice hockey player
- 1987 – Stefan Aigner, German footballer
- 1987 – Vedran Janjetović, Croatian-Australian footballer
- 1987 – Sido Jombati, Portuguese footballer
- 1987 – Egon Kaur, Estonian race car driver
- 1988 – Jerryd Bayless, American basketball player
- 1988 – Sarah R, Lotfi, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1988 – Jose Zamora, Spanish footballer
- 1989 – Kirko Bangz, American rapper, and producer
- 1989 – Nebil Gahwagi, Hungarian footballer
- 1989 – Silas Kiplagat, Kenyan runner
- 1989 – Slavcho Shokolarov, Bulgarian footballer
- 1989 – Judd Trump, English snooker player
- 1989 – Dean Winnard, English footballer
- 1990 – Macauley Chrisantus, Nigerian footballer
- 1990 – Culoe De Song, South African music producer, and DJ
- 1990 – Venelin Filipov, Bulgarian footballer
- 1990 – Leigh Griffiths, Scottish footballer
- 1990 – Fabien Jarsale, French footballer
- 1990 – Bradley Klahn, an American tennis player
- 1991 – Marko Djokovic, a Serbian tennis player
- 1991 – Jyrki Jokipakka, Finnish hockey player
- 1991 – Arseny Logashov, Russian footballer
- 1991 – Luke O’Neill, English footballer
- 1991 – Mario Ticinovic, Croatian footballer
- 1992 – Matt Eisenhuth, Australian rugby league player
- 1992 – Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1992 – Andrei Peteleu, Romanian footballer
- 1992 – Deniss Rakels, Latvian footballer
- 1992 – Callum Skinner, Scottish track cyclist
- 1993 – Mario Jelavic, Croatian footballer
- 1995 – Liana Liberato, American television, and film actress
- 1996 – Bunty Afoa, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1999 – Oregon Kaufusi, Australian rugby league player