20 August History
- 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.
20 August Birthdays
- 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.