On this day: August 20

Events on August 20

• 636 Battle of the Yarmuk: Marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia, Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid defeat the Byzantine Empire and take control of the Levant. Wikipedia
• 917 Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarian forces led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory at the Battle of Achelous. Wikipedia
• 1648 The Battle of Lens is the last major military confrontation of the Thirty Years' War, contributing to the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in October that year. Wikipedia
• 1707 The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British and Creek abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida. Wikipedia
• 1710 War of the Spanish Succession: A Spanish Bourbon army commanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over. Wikipedia
• 1882 Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia. Wikipedia
• 1892 Celtic Park, the largest football stadium in Scotland and home of Celtic F.C., opened. Wikipedia
• 1909 Pluto was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. Wikipedia
• 1910 Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, which burned about 4,700 square miles (12,100 km²), the largest fire in recorded U.S. history. Wikipedia
• 1920 The American Professional Football Conference, a predecessor of the National Football League, was established in Canton, Ohio. Wikipedia
• 1926 Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established. Wikipedia
• 1950 Korean War: United Nations forces repelled an attempt by North Korea to capture the city of Taegu. Wikipedia
• 1968 Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate. Wikipedia
• 1975 Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars. Wikipedia
• 1977 Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Wikipedia
• 1988 The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding twenty-eight. Wikipedia
• 1988 More than 150,000 acres (610 km2) were burned on the worst day of the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1988 Iran–Iraq War: A ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war. Wikipedia
• 1989 After colliding with the dredger Bowbelle on the River Thames in London, the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in thirty seconds, killing 51 people. Wikipedia
• 1989 The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was finished, completing at the time the world's longest and fastest guided busway, with buses travelling 12 km (7.5 mi) at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph). Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1998 The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan was destroyed by a missile attack launched by the United States in retaliation for the August 7 U.S. embassy bombings. Wikipedia
• 2008 Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take-off from Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 154 people. Wikipedia
• 2016 Fifty-four people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey. Wikipedia
• 2018 Silent Sam, a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was toppled by protestors. Wikipedia

Born on August 20

• 1778 Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean general and politician, 2nd Supreme Director of Chile (died 1842) Wikipedia
• 1779 Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist and academic (died 1848) Wikipedia
• 1833 Benjamin Harrison, American general, lawyer, and politician, 23rd President of the United States (died 1901) Wikipedia
• 1847 Bolesław Prus, Polish journalist and author (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1860 Raymond Poincaré, French lawyer and politician, 10th President of France (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1890 H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, novelist (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1901 Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian novelist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1913 Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neuropsychologist and neurobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1935 Ron Paul, American captain, physician, and politician Wikipedia
• 1936 Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1937 Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1941 Slobodan Milošević, Serbian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Serbia (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1942 Isaac Hayes, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1944 Rajiv Gandhi, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1946 Laurent Fabius, French politician, 158th Prime Minister of France Wikipedia
• 1948 Robert Plant, English singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1956 Joan Allen, American actress Wikipedia
• 1966 Enrico Letta, Italian lawyer and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Italy Wikipedia
• 1974 Amy Adams, American actress Wikipedia
• 1983 Andrew Garfield, American-English actor Wikipedia
• 1983 Yuri Zhirkov, Russian footballer Wikipedia
• 1992 Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actress Wikipedia

Died on August 20

• 2 Lucius Caesar, Roman son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (born 12 BC) Wikipedia
• 14 Agrippa Postumus, Roman son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (born 12 BC) Wikipedia
• 984 Pope John XIV Wikipedia
• 1153 Bernard of Clairvaux, French theologian and saint (born 1090) Wikipedia
• 1823 Pope Pius VII (born 1740) Wikipedia
• 1914 Pope Pius X (born 1835) Wikipedia
• 1915 Paul Ehrlich, German physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1854) Wikipedia
• 1917 Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1835) Wikipedia
• 1961 Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 2001 Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2008 Hua Guofeng, Chinese politician, 2nd Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 2012 Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian soldier and politician, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (born 1955) Wikipedia
• 2012 Phyllis Diller, American actress and comedian (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2017 Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Amadour Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernard of Clairvaux Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Georg Häfner Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Heliodorus of Bet Zabdai Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Maria De Mattias Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Oswine of Deira Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Philibert of Jumièges Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Samuel (prophet) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William and Catherine Booth (Church of England) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: August 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Feast of Asmá’ (Baháʼí Faith, only if Baháʼí Naw-Rúz falls on March 21) Wikipedia
• Indian Akshay Urja Day (India) Wikipedia
• Independence Restoration Day (Estonia), re-declaration of the independence of Estonia from the Soviet Union in 1991. Wikipedia
• Meitei Language Day, also known as Manipuri Language Day, the day on which Meitei (Manipuri) was included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of India. Wikipedia
• Revolution of the King and the People (Morocco) Wikipedia
• Saint Stephen's Day (Hungary) Wikipedia
• World Mosquito Day Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “August 20” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/August 20” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “August 20” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for August 20 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 27 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. The 1968 entry stays as well, and comes first in the one-line summary: we keep a short list, checked by hand, of widely known events that Wikipedia's editors leave out of their selection, usually because the article carries a maintenance notice. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.