On This Day in History

August 20

Historical Events

1597 First Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East

1619 Slavery begins in America when the first known African Americans (approximately 20) land at Point Comfort, Virginia, before being sold or traded into servitude

1741 Alaska is first sighted by a Russian expedition led by Danish explorer Vitus Bering

1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares the US Civil War over

1905 Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen forms the first chapter of Tongmenghui, a union of secret societies determined to bring down the Qing dynasty

Crowds of protesters surround Soviet tanks during the first days of the invasion of Czechoslovakia

1968 During the night, 250,000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to put down the Prague Spring

1993 Oslo Peace Accords are signed after secret negotiations in Norway, a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. is held the next month

More Historical Events

Famous Birthdays

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen 1779 - 1852 Benjamin Harrison 1833 - 1901

Rajiv Gandhi 1944 - 1991 Robert Plant 76th Birthday

Also Isaac Hayes and Amy Adams (50).

More Famous Birthdays

Famous Deaths

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling 1775 - 1854 Phyllis Diller 1917 - 2012

Also Hua Guofeng and Jerry Lewis.

More Famous Deaths

The Battle For Western Civilization

The history books abound with battles against impossible odds. One of the first was being fought on this day with no less than Western civilization at stake.

Greek Warriors Fight to the Last Man