Birthday Paper › What happened on …? › August 20

Events on August 20

• 1619 The Atlantic slave trade reaches the North American continent. The first 20 black slaves arrive in Jamestown (Virginia) aboard a Dutch ship.
• 1870 In the Franco-Prussian War, the Army of the Rhine, withdrawn by Marshal Bazaine, is encircled by the Prussians and their allies in the city of Metz. A siege begins that lasts until October 27.
• 1882 The 1812 Overture by Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski, a commissioned work about Russia's victory over Napoleon in the Patriotic War, is premiered at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
• 1914 During World War I, German troops capture the Belgian capital, Brussels. On the same day, the siege of Antwerp begins, lasting until October 10.
• 1940 The Spaniard Ramón Mercader carries out an assassination attempt against Leo Trotzki in his apartment in Mexico City on behalf of the Soviet secret service NKVD. Trotzki succumbs to his injuries the following day.
• 1946 Under Law No. 34 of the Allied Control Council, the Allies disband the German Wehrmacht. In fact, it has already lost its significance as a result of its unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.
• 1960 As the first living beings, the dogs “Belka” and “Strelka”, launched into space the day before as part of the Sputnik 5 mission, return safe and sound to Soviet soil in their landing capsule.
• 1968 During the night from August 20 to 21, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries occupy Czechoslovakia, thus bringing the Prague Spring to an end.
• 1977 The American space probe Voyager 2, whose mission to explore the outer solar system is regarded as one of the greatest successes in spaceflight, begins its journey to the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
• 1980 Reinhold Messner becomes the first mountaineer to climb Mount Everest solo and without oxygen equipment.
• 1991 Following the attempted coup in Moscow, the Estonian Parliament proclaims Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union.
• 2018 Greta Thunberg begins her school strike for the climate in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm, laying the foundation for the pupil and student movement Fridays for Future.

Born on August 20

• 1860 Raymond Poincaré, French statesman
• 1890 H. P. Lovecraft, American writer
• 1901 Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian lyric poet and critic
• 1910 Eero Saarinen, Finnish architect and designer
• 1941 Hannelore Hoger, German actress and theatre director
• 1941 Slobodan Milošević, Yugoslav and Serbian politician, President of Yugoslavia and Serbia
• 1951 Kalle Pohl, German musician and comedian
• 1970 Fred Durst, American singer
• 1970 Marc Hosemann, German actor
• 1991 Simon Desue, German web video producer

Is your birthday on August 20?

Then there is a newspaper that tells only the story of your day: what was going on in the world on August 20 of your birth year, which song was at the top, what the weather was like at your birthplace, plus birthday twins and a personal greeting.

• For every birth year from 1946
• 4 to 10 pages, always €14.90, as a PDF to print
• With a greeting page for voice and video messages

Create the paper for August 20 · €14.90

Day and month are already filled in, you only choose the birth year.

Source of events and birthdays: German Wikipedia article „20. August“, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, selected, shortened and translated by Birthday Paper.

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