On this day: 20 August
Events, births and deaths on 20 August. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Frank Caprio
10 years ago2016
- Events · August 2016 Gaziantep bombing
100 years ago1926
- Births · Frank Rosolino
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 984 · Deaths · John XIV
- 1086 · Births · Bolesław III Wrymouth
- 1119 · Events · Battle of Brémule
Events · 29
- 917Battle of Achelous — 917 battle, part of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars
- 1057Battle of Petroe — battle between two rival Byzantine armies in 1057
- 1119(Julian date)Battle of Brémule — 1119 battle between Henry I of England and Louis VI the Fat of France
- 1191(Julian date)Massacre at Ayyadieh — 1191 massacre of the Third Crusade
- 1467(Julian date)Second Battle of Olmedo — part of the conflict over the succession of Henry IV of Castile (1467)
- 1648Battle of Lens — 1648 battle of the Thirty Years' War
- 1710Battle of Saragossa — battle in 1710
- 1794Battle of Fallen Timbers — battle fought in 1794
- 1864Kinmon Incident — 1864 rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate
- 1892Celtic Park — football stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- 1905Tongmenghui — Chinese revolutionary group
- 1940Hundred Regiments Offensive — 1940 military offensive
- 1949Hungarian People's Republic — 1949–1989 socialist republic in Central Europe
- 1955Battle of Philippeville — 1955 attack in the Algerian War
- 1968Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia — August 1968 unrest in Czechoslovakia
- 1975ČSA Flight 540 — 1975 plane crash of a CSA Il-62 near Damascus, Syria, killing 126
- 1986Edmond post office shooting — Mass shooting in the US
- 1988Ballygawley bus bombing — 1988 Provisional IRA attack in Northern Ireland
- 1989Marchioness disaster — collision between two ships on the River Thames in London on 20 August 1989
- 1995Firozabad rail disaster — rail disaster in India
- 1997Souhane massacre — 1997 massacre in Algeria
- 1998al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory — Sudanese pharmaceutical factory destroyed by US missile strike
- 1998cruise missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan — 1998 American bombing campaign
- 2007China Airlines Flight 120 — aviation accident
- 2008Spanair Flight 5022 — 2008 aviation accident in Spain
- 2011First Air Flight 6560 — aviation accident
- 20122012 Caracas prison riot — 2012 riot by armed prisoners in Miranda State, Venezuela
- 20142014 Hiroshima landslides — 2014 natural disaster in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
- 2016August 2016 Gaziantep bombing — suicide bombing at Gaziantep, Turkey on 20 August 2016
Births · 60
- 1086(Julian date)Bolesław III Wrymouth — duke of Poland between 1107 and 1138
- 1377(Julian date)Shah Rukh — Timurid ruler
- 1561(Julian date)Jacopo Peri — Italian composer and singer
- 1778Bernardo O'Higgins — Chilean independence leader (1778–1842)
- 1779Jöns Jacob Berzelius — Swedish chemist (1779–1848)
- 1833Benjamin Harrison — President of the United States, 1889-1893 (1833–1901)
- 1847Bolesław Prus — Polish novelist (1847–1912)
- 1860Raymond Poincaré — French statesman and lawyer, President of France (1860-1934)
- 1873Eliel Saarinen — Finnish-American architect (1873-1950)
- 1884Rudolf Bultmann — German theologian (1884–1976)
- 1886Paul Tillich — German-American theologian and philosopher
- 1888Tôn Đức Thắng — President of North Vietnam (1888–1980)
- 1890H. P. Lovecraft — American writer and editor (1890–1937)
- 1891Shiso Kanakuri — Japanese long-distance runner
- 1897Tarjei Vesaas — Norwegian author (1897–1970)
- 1898Leopold Infeld — Polish physicist (1898–1968)
- 1901Salvatore Quasimodo — Italian writer (1901-1968)
- 1910Eero Saarinen — American architect (1910–1961)
- 1913Roger Sperry — American neuroscientist
- 1932Vasily Aksyonov — Soviet-Russian writer (1932-2009)
- 1935Ron Paul — American politician (born 1935)
- 1936Hideki Shirakawa — Japanese scientist (1936–2026)
- 1937Andrei Konchalovsky — Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter and film producer
- 1938Jean-Loup Chrétien — French astronaut (born 1938)
- 1941Slobodan Milošević — Yugoslav–Serbian politician (1941–2006)
Deaths · 60
- 2Lucius Caesar — grandson of emperor Augustus (17 BC - AD 2)
- 651(Julian date)Oswine of Deira — 7th-century English monarch and Christian saint
- 768(Julian date)Eadberht — King of Northumbria
- 984(Julian date)John XIV — pope
- 1153(Julian date)Bernard of Clairvaux — Burgundian saint, abbot and theologian (1090–1153)
- 1158(Julian date)Rögnvald Kali Kolsson — Earl of Orkney
- 1384(Julian date)Geert Groote — Dutch humanist and mystic (1340-1384)
- 1471Borso d'Este — Italian noble
- 1528(Julian date)Georg von Frundsberg — German noble
- 1572(Julian date)Miguel López de Legazpi — 16th-century Spanish conquistador, navigator, and colonial governor
- 1595Toyotomi Hidetsugu — Japanese daimyō (1568–1595)
- 1639Martin Opitz — German poet
- 1648Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury — English soldier and poet (1583–1648)
- 1651Jeremi Wiśniowiecki — Polish-Lithuanian politician (1612-1651)
- 1672Johan de Witt — Grand Pensionary of Holland (1625–1672)
- 1785Jean-Baptiste Pigalle — French sculptor (1714-1785)
- 1823Pius VII — head of the Catholic Church, ruler of the Papal States from 1800 to 1823 (1742–1823)
- 1854Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling — German philosopher (1775–1854)
- 1859Juan Bautista Ceballos — President of Mexico (1811-1859)
- 1887Jules Laforgue — Franco-Uruguayan poet (1860–1887)
- 1912William Booth — British Methodist preacher (1829-1912)
- 1914Pius X — Pope of the Catholic Church from 1903 to 1914, saint
- 1915Paul Ehrlich — Jewish-German physician and scientist (1854-1915)
- 1917Adolf von Baeyer — German chemist (1835-1917)
- 1925Liao Zhongkai — Chinese politician (1877-1925)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.