| 917 |
|
A Byzantine counter-offensive is routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria. |
| 1619 |
|
The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Virginia. |
| 1667 |
|
John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve. |
| 1741 |
|
Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering, commisioned by Peter the Great of Russia to find land connecting Asia and North America, discovers America. |
| 1794 |
|
American General "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeats the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the area. |
| 1847 |
|
General Winfield Scott wins the battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City. |
| 1904 |
|
Dublin's Abbey Theatre is founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory. |
| 1908 |
|
The American Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome. |
| 1913 |
|
700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely. |
| 1914 |
|
Russia wins an early victory over Germany at Gumbinnen. |
| 1940 |
|
After a previous machine gun attack failed, exiled Russian Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City, with an alpine ax to the back of the head. |
| 1940 |
|
Radar is used for the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain. Also on this day, in a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill makes his famous homage to the Royal Air Force: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." |
| 1941 |
|
Adolf Hitler authorizes the development of the V-2 missile. |
| 1944 |
|
United States and British forces close the pincers on German units in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France. |
| 1971 |
|
The Cambodian military launches a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge. |
|
Born on August 20 |
| 1833 |
|
Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States and grandson of President William Henry Harrison. |
| 1886 |
|
Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher who wrote Systematic Theology. |
| 1890 |
|
H.P. Lovecraft, author of horror tales. |
| 1905 |
|
Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist. |
| 1944 |
|
Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minster of India. |
| |
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