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 233rd day of the year 2020 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 133 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is August 7, 2020 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 26,631,360 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 ‘dihectatriacontatrigon’ 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 176 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 2,799 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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August 20 Historical Events
- 20 –Agrippa Postumus, adoptive-son of the late Roman Emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances
- 1000 –The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen. Today celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.
- 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.
- 1914 –World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
- 1944 –World War II: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being “terror fliers”, arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
- 1988 –Iran–Iraq War: a cease-fire is agreed after almost eight years of war.
- 1988 –The Troubles: Eight British Army soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by a Provisional Irish Republican Army roadside bomb in Northern Ireland (see Ballygawley bus bombing).
- 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.
- 1997 –Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped.
- 1998 –The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government’s approval.
Who were born on August 20?
- 1905 –Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist, and poet (d. 1973)
- 1913 –Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
- 1941 –Dave Brock, British musician and founder of Hawkwind
- 1946 –N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman
- 1958 –Patricia Rozema, Canadian film director and screenwriter
- 1965 –KRS-One, American rapper
- 1974 –Amy Adams, American actress
- 1979 –Cory Sullivan, American baseball player
- 1983 –Yuri Zhirkov, Russian footballer
- 1986 –Robert Clark, Canadian actor
Who died on August 20?
- 1611 –Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer (b. 1548)
- 1823 –Pope Pius VII (b. 1740)
- 1917 –Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1835)
- 1919 –Greg MacGregor, England cricketer (b. 1869)
- 1971 –Rashid Minhas, Pakistani Air Force pilot (b. 1951)
- 1980 –Joe Dassin, American singer (b. 1938)
- 1993 –Bernard Delfgaauw, Dutch philosopher (b. 1912)
- 2005 –Thomas Herrion, American football player (b. 1981)
- 2007 –Leona Helmsley, American hotel operator and real estate investor (b. 1920)
- 2009 –Larry Knechtel, American keyboard player and bassist (b. 1940)
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