20 August - Today in History - Important historical events happened on this day in India and World History
According to Gregory calendar, on August 20, the day number in a year is 232 and if it is a leap year then the day number is 233. August 20 has a special significance in India and world history, because many such incidents have occurred on this day which have been recorded forever in the pages of history. Let's know some such important events which will increase your general knowledge. The facts collected will be as follows: People born on this day, demise of famous people, war treaty, freedom of any country, invention of new technologies, change of power, important National and International Day etc.
August 20 in History - Top Historical Events
| Year | Event / Incidence / Incident |
| 636 | Rashidun forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid took control of Syriaand Palestine in the Battle of Yarmouk, marking the first great wave ofMuslim conquests after the death of Muhammad. |
| 1597 | The Dutch East India Company's first ship returned from East Asia. |
| 1641 | England and Scotland signed the Pact of Treaty. |
| 1707 | The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the Britishabandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida. |
| 1710 | War of the Spanish Succession-The Spanish-Bourbon armycommanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg. |
| 1781 | George Washington began to move southern troops to fight Cornwallis. |
| 1794 | The Fallen Timbers were fought in Northwestern Ohio. |
| 1828 | The first session of Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Brahmo Samaj was held in Calcutta (now Kolkata). |
| 1847 | American soldiers defeated Mexican soldiers at the Battle of Churubusco. |
| 1882 | The 1812 Overture (audio featured) by Russian composer PyotrIlyich Tchaikovsky was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ theSaviour in Moscow. |
| 1882 | The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskywas first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. |
| 1897 | Ronald Ross identified malaria-causing anopheles mosquito while working at the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta (now Kolkata). |
| 1910 | Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in theU.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, whichburned about three million acres (12,140 km²), the largest fire inrecorded U.S. history. |
| 1911 | The first telegram sent from the US New York Times office reached the whole world. |
| 1920 | The first commercial radio station starts its operations in Detroit, Michigan, with call sign 8MK. The radio station was launched by The Detroit News newspaper and is now taken care of by CBS. |
| 1940 | In the midst of the Battle of Britain, British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill delivered a speech thanking the Royal Air Force,declaring, 'Never was so much owed by so many to so few.' |
| 1944 | World War II-The Gestapo transported 168 Allied airmen, who had been classified as spies and criminals so as not to warrant prisoner of war treatment, to Buchenwald concentration camp. |
| 1944 | The 6th Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi was born. |
| 1953 | French forces removed Mohammed bin Yusuf, the Sultan of Morocco, from Sidi. |
| 1953 | The French government ousted Morocco's King Mohammed V, capturing him in Corsica. |
| 1962 | NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship,underwent her maiden voyage. |
| 1964 | International Telecommunication Satellite Consortium Intelsat) started functioning. |
| 1977 | US Space Agency NASA sent Voyager to spacecraft. |
| 1979 | Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh resigned as Prime Minister after a 23-day tenure. |
| 1982 | A Multi National peacekeeping force is dispatched to Lebanon in order to stop the conflict between Muslim and Christian Militia groups, and to supervise the Palestinian retreating from Lebanon. |
| 1988 | The worse fire in the Yellowstone National Park destroys over 150,000 acres of the park. It caused a summer where over 1/3 of the park was ruined while the fire gained between 5 to 10 miles a day. |
| 1988 | Fires in the United States' Yellowstone National Park destroyedmore than 150,000 acres (610 km2), the single-worst day of theconflagration. |
| 1988 | A magnitude 6.5 earthquake in India and Nepal killed a thousand people. |
| 1989 | After a collision with a dredger on the River Thames in London,the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in just thirty seconds, killing 51people. |
| 1989 | The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, SouthAustralia, was completed, becoming the world's longest and fastestguided busway with buses travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) atmaximum speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph). |
| 1995 | Purushottam Express and Kalidi Express suffered 350 casualties in a head-on collision. |
| 2005 | The original paper by Albert Einstein, entitled 'Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas, dated December 1924, has been located in the archives of Leiden University's Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics. |
| 2007 | NASA clears the Space Shuttle Endeavour for an early landing tomorrow at Cape Canaveral. |
| 2008 | Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take off from Madrid'sBarajas Airport, killing 154 people. |
| 2009 | Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, was freed from prison by the Scottish government. He was released on the terms of humanity because he was diagnosed with a terminal form of prostate cancer. |
| 2010 | A new method for tackling mood disorders, such as depression, is found in study of Ketamine activity with the nervous system, particularly mTOR-dependent synapse formation. |
| 2011 | Two US Hikers who were blamed of spying and illegally entering Iran were sentenced to eight years in jail by a Tehran court. |
| 2011 | India's famous historian Ram Sharan Sharma passed away. |
| 2013 | Turkey’s Prime Minister RecepTayyipErdoğan blames American and Israeli influence of being the ouster of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi; which are denied by both. |
| 2013 | A radioactive water leak was detected at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. The plant has suffered several issues, like meltdowns and fires, since being affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. |
| 2013 | Nine militants were killed in Russian police action in the North Caucasus. |
Famous Birthdays of August 20:
| Year | Name / Profession / Country |
| 1944 | Rajeev Gandhi / Politician / India |
| 1992 | Deniss Rakels / Footballer / Latvia |
| 1901 | Salvatore Quasimodo / Poet / Italy |
| 1989 | Nebil Gahwagi / Footballer / Hungary |
| 1957 | Sorin Antohi / Journalist / Romania |
| 1973 | Donn Swaby / Actor / United States of America |
| 1983 | Brian Schaefering / Footballer / United States of America |
| 1969 | Mark Holzemer / Baseball Player / United States of America |
| 1720 | Bernard de Bury / Composer / France |
| 1926 | Nobby Wirkowski / Footballer / United States of America |
| 1981 | Brett Finch / Rugby Player / Australia |
| 1972 | Chaney Kley / Actor / United States of America |
| 1938 | Alain Vivien / Politician / France |
| 1953 | Mike Jackson / Politician / United States of America |
| 1975 | Elijah Williams / Footballer / United States of America |
| 1938 | Peter Day / Academic / United Kingdom |
| 1992 | Andrei Peteleu / Footballer / Romania |
| 1939 | Fernando Poe Jr. / Politician / Philippines |
| 1977 | Manuel Contepomi / Rugby Player / Argentina |
| 1983 | Paulo André Cren Benini / Footballer / Brazil |
| 1971 | Nenad Bjelica / Footballer / Croatia |
| 1990 | Macauley Chrisantus / Footballer / Nigeria |
| 1919 | Walter Bernstein / Writer / United States of America |
| 1719 | Christian Mayer / Educator / Czech Republic |
| 1905 | Jack Teagarden / Writer / United States of America |
| 1918 | Jacqueline Susann / Actress / United States of America |
| 1909 | Alby Roberts / Cricketer / New Zealand |
| 1942 | Isaac Hayes / Actor / United States of America |
| 1984 | Laura Georges / Footballer / France |
| 1865 | Bernard Tancred / Cricketer / South Africa |
The day in other months: January 20 | February 20 | March 20 | April 20 | May 20 | June 20 | July 20 | August 20 | September 20 | October 20 | November 20 | December 20
