On this day in History - Aug 20

0535 - Mochta of Louth dies. Disciple of St. Patrick.
0636 - Battle of Yarmuk: Arab forces led by Khalid bin Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
0917 - Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and drives the Byzantines out.
0984 - Pope John XIV dies.
1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1153 - São Bernardo morre no mosteiro cistercense de Claraval, de que era abade desde 1115.
1384 - Geert Groote dies (b. 1340). Dutch founder of the Brethren of the Common Life.
1391 - Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.
1517 - Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle was born (d. 1586). French church leader.
1561 - Jacopo Peri was born (d. 1633). Italian composer.
1572 - Miguel López de Legazpi dies (b. 1502). Spanish conquistador.
1580 - Jeronymo Osorio dies (b. 1506). Portuguese historian.
1611 - Tomás Luis de Victoria dies (b. 1548). Spanish composer.
1625 - Thomas Corneille was born (d. 1709). French dramatist.
1632 - Louis Bourdaloue was born (d. 1704). French Jesuit preacher.
1639 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld dies (b. 1597). German poet.
1643 - Anne Hutchinson dies (b. 1591). English Puritan preacher.
1644 - (P.) Manuel Bernardes was born in Lisbon (d. 1710). Portuguese writer.
1648 - Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury dies (b. 1583). English diplomat, poet, and philosopher.
1672 - Cornelis de Witt dies (b. 1623). Dutch politician.
1672 - Johan de Witt dies (b. 1625). Dutch politician.
1680 - William Bedloe dies (b. 1650). English informer.
1701 - Charles Sedley dies (b. 1639). English playwright.
1707 - Nicolas Gigault dies (b. 1627). French organist and composer.
1710 - French Army of Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Saragossa.
1710 - Thomas Simpson was born (d. 1761). British mathematician.
1719 - Christian Mayer was born (d. 1783). Czech astronomer.
1719 - Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec was born (d. 1791). French soldier and diplomat.
1741 - Alaska is discovered by Danish explorer Vitus Bering.
1773 - Enrique Florez dies (b. 1701). Spanish historian.
1778 - Bernardo O'Higgins (Ojíguins) dies (b. 1842). Leader of Chile's Independence.
1779 - Jöns Jakob Berzelius was born (d. 1848). Swedish chemist.
1794- Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.
1804 - Lewis and Clark Expedition: The "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis.
1811 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville dies (b. 1729). French explorer.
1817 - João Manuel Pereira da Silva was born. Brazilian writer and historian.
1823 - Pope Pius VII dies (b. 1740).
1825 - William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock dies (b. 1753). Governor of Newfoundland.
1830 - Luis de Eguílaz was born. Spanish writer.
1833 - Nat Turner leads his revolt against the Southern plantation owners of Southampton County, Virginia.
1833 - Benjamin Harrison was born (d. 1901). 23rd President of the United States.
1845 - St. Albert Chmielowski was born (d. 1916). Polish Catholic Saint.
1847 - Bolesław Prus was born (d. 1912). Polish writer.
1856 - Jakub Bart-Ćišinski was born (d. 1909). Serbian writer.
1860 - Raymond Poincaré was born (d. 1934). French statesman.
1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declared the U.S. Civil War over.
1873 - Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was born (d. 1950). Finnish architect.
1881 - Edgar Guest was born (d. 1959). English poet.
1882 - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow.
1885 - Matias de Lima was born. Portuguese poet.
1887 - Jules Laforgue dies (b. 1860). French poet.
1888 - Mutineers imprison Emin Pasha at Dufile.
1889 - Cora Carolina ( Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto) was born (d. 1985), Brazilian writer and poet.
1890 - H. P. Lovecraft was born (d. 1937). American writer (At the Mountains of Madness).
1897 - Tarjei Vesaas was born (d. 1970). Norwegian writer.
1898 - Vilhelm Moberg was born (d. 1973). Swedish author and historian.
1900 - Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling.
1901 - Salvatore Quasimodo was born (d. 1968). Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
1904 - René Waldeck-Rousseau dies (b. 1846). French statesman.
1905 - Jack Teagarden was born (d. 1964). American jazz musician.
1905 - Jean Gebser was born (d. 1973). German-born author, linguist and poet.
1905 - Adolphe William Bouguereau dies. French painter.
1908 - Al Lopez was born (d. 2005). Baseball player and manager.
1910 - Eero Saarinen was born (d. 1961). Finnish architect.
1912 - William Booth dies (b. 1829). Founder and first general of The Salvation Army.
1913 - Roger Wolcott Sperry was born (d. 17 Apr 1994). American psycologist and biologist who was 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine laureate.
1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
1914 - Pope Pius X (1903 -1914) dies (b. 1835).
1915 - Paul Ehrlich dies (b. 1854). German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1908.
1916 - Paul Felix Schmidt was born (d. 1984). Estonian–German chess player.
1917 - Adolf von Baeyer dies (b. 1835). German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1905.
1918 - Jacqueline Susann was born (d. 1974). Novelist.
1920 - The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
1923 - Jim Reeves was born (d. 1964). American singer.
1924 - British sprinter Eric Liddell, a potential gold medal winner in the 100 metres at the Paris Olympic Games, refuses to race in the 100m heats because they're being run on a Sunday.
1926 - Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
1926 - Nobby Wirkowski was born. American and Canadian football player and coach.
1930 - Mario Bernardi was born. Canadian conductor.
1930 - Charles Bannerman dies (b. 1851). Australian cricketer.
1931 - Don King was born. Boxing promoter.
1932 - Anthony Ainley was born (d. 2004). British actor.
1932 - Vasily Aksyonov was born. Russian novelist.
1934 - Alemania: Adolf Hitler asume la presidencia.
1934 - Armi Kuusela was born. Finnish beauty queen.
1935 - Ron Paul was born. American politician.
1936 - Hideki Shirakawa was born. Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize, laureate.
1937 - Andrei Konchalovsky was born. Russian film director.
1937 - El Fary was born (d. 2007). Spanish singer and actor.
1938 - Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam - a record that still stands.
1938 - Alain Vivien was born. French politician.
1939 - Fernando Poe Jr. was born. Filipino actor and presidential candidate.
1940 - Rubén Hinojosa was born. American politician.
1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice-ax. He will die the next day.
1941 - Slobodan Milošević was born (d. 2006). President of Serbia and Yugoslabia
1941 - Robin Oakley was born. British journalist.
1941 - Rich Brooks was born. American football coach.
1942 - Isaac Hayes was born. American singer, songwriter, and actor.
1942 - Fred Norman was born. American baseball player.
1942 - Isaac Hayes was born. Singer, songwriter, and actor.
1943 - Sylvester McCoy was born. Scottish actor.
1944 - The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.
1944 - Rajiv Gandhi was born (d. 1991). Prime Minister of India.
1945 - José Wilker was born. Brazilian actor.
1946 - Connie Chung was born. American journalist.
1946 - N.R. Narayana Murthy was born. Indian businessman.
1947 - Alan Lee was born. English conceptual artist.
1948 - Robert Plant was born. English singer (Led Zeppelin).
1948 - John Noble was born. Australian actor.
1949 - Phil Lynott was born (d. 1986). Irish musician.
1949 - Nikolas Asimos was born (d. 1988). Greek composer and singer.
1951 - Greg Bear was born. American science fiction author.
1952 - John Hiatt was born. American musician.
1953 - The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
1954 - Al Roker was born. American television broadcaster.
1954 - Don Stark was born. American actor.
1955 - Agnes Chan was born. Hong-Kong singer, professor of education, essayist.
1955 - In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria, raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
1956 - Joan Allen was born. American actress.
1957 - Finlay Calder was born. Scottish rugby player.
1960 - Senegal breaks from the Mali federation, declaring independence.
1961 - Greg Egan was born. Australian author.
1961 - Percy Williams Bridgman dies (b. 1882). American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
1962 - James Marsters was born. American actor.
1962 - Sophie Aldred was born. English actress.
1962 - Dong-Wook Song was born. South Korean tennis player.
1965 - KRS-One (Lawrence Krisna Parker) was born. American rapper.
1965 - Jonathan Myrick Daniels dies (b. 1939). Civil Rights Martyr.
1966 - Dimebag Darrell was born (d. 2004). American guitarist (Pantera/Damageplan).
1967 - Andy Benes was born. Baseball player.
1968 - 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.
1968 - Yuri Shiratori was born. Japanese voice actress and singer.
1969 - All four Beatles were together in the recording studio for the final time as they finished the Abbey Road LP.
1969 - Duke Droese was born. American professional wrestler.
1970 - John Carmack was born. American computer game programmer.
1971 - Fred Durst was born. American singer (Limp Bizkit).
1971 - Steve Stone was born. English footballer.
1971 - Jonathan Ke Quan was born. Vietnamese American actor.
1971 - David Walliams was born. British comedian.
1971 - Rashid Minhas dies (b. 1951). Pakistani Air Force pilot.
1972 - Juan Manuel Gálvez dies. President of Honduras (1949-1954).
1973 - Todd Helton was born. Baseball player.
1974 - Congress votes to reduce aid to South Vietnam from $1 Billion to $700 Million. Majority of the cuts were for military supplies.
1974 - Maxim Vengerov was born. Russian violinist.
1975 - Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
1975 - Amy Adams was born. American actress.
1975 - Andy Strachan was born. Australian musician (The Living End).
1976 - Chris Drury was born. American hockey player.
1977 - Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
1977 - Felipe Contepomi was born. Argentine rugby player.
1977 - Manuel Contepomi was born. Argentine rugby player.
1977 - Ivar Ingimarsson was born. Icelandic footballer.
1977 - Mayra Veronica was born. Cuban model and actress.
1979 - The East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland is restored when the Penmanshiel Diversion opens.
1979 - Cory Sullivan was born. Baseball player.
1980 - Italian climber Reinhold Messner makes the first successful solo ascent of Mount Everest. 1980 - Rochelle Gadd was born. British actress.
1980 - Joe Dassin dies (b. 1938). American singer.
1981 - Bernard Mendy was born. French footballer.
1982 - Lebanese Civil War: A multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.
1982 - Joshua Kennedy was born. Australian footballer.
1982 - Youssouf Hersi was born. Ethiopian footballer.
1982 - Cléber Luis Alberti was born. Brazilian footballer.
1982 - Ulla Jacobsson dies (b. 1929). Swedish actress.
1984 - Mirai Moriyama was born. Japanese actor.
1986 - In Edmond, Oklahoma, US Postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
1986 - Robert Clark was born. Canadian actor.
1986 - Milton Acorn dies (b. 1923). Canadian poet.
1987 - Cătălina Ponor was born. Romanian gymnast.
1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1988 - "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park.
1988 - Iran-Iraq War: A cease-fire is agreed to after almost eight years of war.
1989 - In Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot and kill their wealthy parents.
1989 - In London, the pleasure cruiser Marchioness is hit by a dredger, the Bowbelle, on the River Thames - 51 people attending a party on the boat are killed.
1989 - George Adamson dies (b. 1906). India-born English game warden and lion expert.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup that deposed President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1991 - Estonia secedes from the Soviet Union.
1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington D.C. the next month.
1993 - Bernard Delfgaauw dies (b. 1912). Dutch philosopher.
1995 - At least 350 are killed on one of India's worst railway accidents when two trains - both heading for Delhi - collide at Firozobad approx 120 miles from the capital.
1995 - Hugo Pratt dies. Italian cartoonist (Corto Maltese).
1996 - Abílio Duarte dies. First President of Parliament of Cape Verth.
1997 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people killed, 15 kidnapped.
1997 - Norris Bradbury dies (b. 1909). American physicist.
1997 - Léon Dion dies (b. 1922). Quebec political scientist.
1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada states Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
1998 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military 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. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
1998 - 229 people are killed when a Swissair plane crashes into the Atlantic near the coast of Nova Scotia en route from New York to Geneva.
1998 - António Assunção dies. Portuguese actor.
1998 - Raquel Rastenni dies (b. 1915). Danish singer.
1999 - World Championship in Athletism opens in Sevilla.
2001 - Sir Fred Hoyle dies (b. 1915). English astronomer and science fiction writer.
2001 - Kim Stanley dies (b. 1925). American actress.
2002 - A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein took over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin for five hours before releasing their hostages and giving up.
2003 - Prince Gabriel of Belgium was born.
2004 - Talk show host Regis Philbin breaks the record for Most Hours on Camera, with 15,188.
2005 - Cheez TV airs its last episode.
2005 - Thomas Herrion dies (b. 1981). American football player.
2005 - Krzysztof Raczkowski dies (b. 1970). Polish drummer.
2006 - Joe Rosenthal dies (b. 1911). American photographer.
2006 - Claude Blanchard dies (b. 1932). Quebec singer, comedian and actor.
Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Asmá (Names) - First day of the ninth month of the Bahá'í Calendar.
St. Stephen's day in Hungary, the main national holiday.