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 232^nd 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, 29,260,800 minutes 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.

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.

August 20 Historical Events

• 1775 –
  The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
• 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.
• 1940 –
  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”.
• 1950 –
  Korean War: United Nations repel an offensive by North Korean divisions attempting to cross the Naktong River and assault the city of Taegu.
• 1986 –
  In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
• 1988 –
  Iran–Iraq War: a cease-fire is agreed after almost eight years of war.
• 1988 –
  Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 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.

Who were born on August 20?

• 1865 –
  Bernard Tancred, South African cricketer (d. 1911)
• 1887 –
  Phan Khoi, Vietnamese intellectual (d. 1959)
• 1918 –
  Jacqueline Susann, American novelist (d. 1974)
• 1936 –
  Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1949 –
  Katiana Balanika, Greek actress and singer
• 1949 –
  Phil Lynott, Irish musician (d. 1986)
• 1954 –
  Al Roker, American television personality
• 1981 –
  Bernard Mendy, French footballer
• 1982 –
  Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer
• 1990 –
  Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Dutch swimmer

Who died on August 20?

• 20 –
  Agrippa Postumus, youngest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, grandson and adoptive-son of Roman Emperor Augustus (b. 12 BC)
• 535 –
  Mochta of Louth, disciple of St. Patrick
• 1611 –
  Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer (b. 1548)
• 1643 –
  Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (b. 1591)
• 1672 –
  Johan de Witt, Dutch politician (b. 1625)
• 1680 –
  William Bedloe, English informer (b. 1650)
• 1823 –
  Pope Pius VII (b. 1740)
• 1965 –
  Jonathan Myrick Daniels, American activist (b. 1939)
• 2001 –
  Kim Stanley, American actress (b. 1925)
• 2001 –
  Sir Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (b. 1915)