What are the important events that happened on August 20? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
August 20: Facts & Myths About This Day
August 20 is the 232nd day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 133 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is August 7, 2025 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,755,648,000 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘dihectatriacontadigon’ day.
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Leo is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Peridot is the modern birthstone for this month. Diamond is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 181 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,625 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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August 20 Historical Events
- 1000 –The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen. Today celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.
- 1083 –Canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen and his son Saint Emeric.
- 1710 –War of the Spanish Succession: a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg defeats the Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by the Marquis de Bay in the Battle of Saragossa.
- 1866 –President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
- 1882 –Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.
- 1910 –The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup or the Big Burn) occurred in northeast Washington, northern Idaho (the panhandle), and western Montana, burning approximately 3 e6acre.
- 1920 –The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1977 –Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
- 1988 –Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1998 –U.S. embassy bombings: the United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Who were born on August 20?
- 1873 –Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (d. 1950)
- 1933 –George J. Mitchell, former United States Senator
- 1937 –Stelvio Cipriani, Italian composer
- 1940 –Rex Sellers, Australian cricketer
- 1941 –Rich Brooks, American football coach
- 1949 –Alan Hardwick, English TV presenter
- 1954 –Al Roker, American television personality
- 1962 –James Marsters, American actor
- 1980 –Langhorne Slim, American country singer
- 1995 –Liana Liberato, American actress
Who died on August 20?
- 917 –Constantine Lips, Byzantine Admiral
- 1580 –Jeronymo Osorio, Portuguese historian (b. 1506)
- 1643 –Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (b. 1591)
- 1672 –Johan de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1625)
- 1887 –Jules Laforgue, French poet (b. 1860)
- 1915 –Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, Nobel laureate (b. 1854)
- 1917 –Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1835)
- 2001 –Sir Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (b. 1915)
- 2005 –Krzysztof Raczkowski, Polish drummer (b. 1970)
- 2010 –Michael Been, American musician (The Call) (b. 1950)
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