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Events in History for Thursday 20th August 2015

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Today's Significant Events

1597 - 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East

1619 - 1st known African Americans (appox. 20) land at Jamestown Virginia aboard Dutch vessel then sold or traded into servitude for supplies\

1741 - Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition

1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over

1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" opens in Moscow

1968 - During the night 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops begin to invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring

1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month.

Today's Historical Events

Events 1 - 196 of 196

2 - Venus and Jupiter in conjunction - possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem
573 - Gregory of Tours selected bishop of Tours
636 - Battle at Yarmuk: Muslims beat Byzantines [or August 15]
917 - Battle at Anchialus: Bulgaria army counter attacks Byzantines
1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1191 - Crusader King Richard I kills 3,000 muslim prisoners in Akko
1391 - Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.

King Richard the Lionheart1534 - Turkish admiral Chaireddin "Barbarossa" occupies Tunis
1566 - Iconoclasm reaches Antwerp, Belgium
1597 - 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East
1604 - Spanish garrison of Sluis surrenders to count Maurice
1619 - 1st known African Americans (appox. 20) land at Jamestown Virginia aboard Dutch vessel then sold or traded into servitude for supplies
1641 - England & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification
1648 - Battle of Lens: French Duc d'Enghien defeats Spaniards
1672 - Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
1741 - Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie reaches Blair Castle, Scotland

First US President George Washington1781 - George Washington begins to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis
1794 - Gen "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers, Ohio
1795 - Joseph Haydn returns to Vienna from England
1828 - Gioacchino Rossini's opera "Le Comte Ory" premieres in Paris
1856 - Wilberforce University forms in Ohio
1861 - Skirmish at Jonesboro, MO
1864 - 8th/last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Va (about 3,900 casualties)
1865 - President Andrew Johnson proclaims an end to "insurrection" in Texas
1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over
1879 - Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns
1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" opens in Moscow
1888 - Longest US men's single tournament match Palmer Presbrey defeats T S Tailer, 19-21, 8-6, 6-1, 6-4, an 80-game 1st-round contest
1892 - The Transvaal National Union, a political organisation, is set up with J. Tudhope as president

Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky1893 - Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in Switzerland
1895 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Norwood Builder" (BG)
1896 - Dial telephone patented
1900 - Great Britain beats France in cricket in Olympic Games
1900 - Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for four years of mandatory schooling.
1901 - The Fawcett Commission visits Mafeking concentration camp in Cape Colony
1905 - Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary, forms the first chapter of T'ung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchus
1908 - Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo
1908 - America's Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to be greeted with a tremendous welcome; 221 American sailors desert to remain in Australia
1910 - US supported opposition brings down Madriz in Nicaragua
1912 - Plant Quarantine Act goes into effect
1912 - Wash Senator Carl Cushion no-hits Cleve Indians, 2-0 in 6 innings
1913 - 1st pilot to parachute from an aircraft (Adolphe Pégoud, France)
1913 - Piotr Nesterow 1st flight (Kiev Ukraine)
1914 - German General von Bulow executes 211 Belgians
1914 - -24] Battle of Bounderies: Lorraine, Ardennen, Sambre & Meuse, Mons
1914 - Battle at Gumbinnen, East-Prussia: Russians beat Germans
1914 - Battle at Morhange: German troops chase French, killing thousands
1914 - Bavarian troops kill 50 inhabitants of Nomeny, France
1914 - German army captured Brussels as the Belgian army retreated to Antwerp
1915 - White Sox obtain Joe Jackson from Cleve in exchange for Robert Roth, Larry Chappell, Ed Klepfer, & $31,500
1918 - WW I: Britain opens offensive on Western front
1919 - Wichita outfielder Joe Wilhoit (Western League) fails to get a hit, ending a 69-game streak (155 hits in 299 at bats for a .505 avg)
1920 - 1st US commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit begins daily broadcasting
1920 - Allen Woodring wins Oympic 200 m dash wearing borrowed shoes
1920 - Israel publishes its first medical journal "Ha-Refuah"
1920 - Preliminary meeting in Akron to form American Pro Football League
1920 - Red Sox-Indians game postponed in Boston to allow Indian players to attend Ray Chapman's funeral in Cleveland

Tennis Player and Eight-Time U.S. Open Champion Molla Mallory1921 - 35th US Women's Tennis: Molla Mallory beats M Browne (4-6 6-4 6-2)
1921 - 35th U.S. Women's National Championship: Molla Bjurstedt Mallory beats Mary Browne (4-6, 6-4, 6-2)
1922 - 1st world championship athletics for women, held in Paris
1923 - London dock strike ends
1925 - WJR-AM in Detroit MI begins radio transmissions
1926 - Uprising against Rezā Shāh Pahlavi in Iran
1926 - Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai(NHK) is established.
1929 - 1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward completed
1930 - Bradman scores 232 in 5th Test Cricket at The Oval
1930 - Dumont's 1st TV broadcast for home reception (NYC)
1931 - 45th US Women's Tennis: Helen Moody beats Eileen Whitingstall (6-4 6-1)
1931 - 45th U.S. Women's National Championship: Helen Wills Moody beats Eileen Bennett Whittingstall (6-4, 6-1)

Tennis Player Helen Wills Moody1934 - Ponsford out for 266 in his final Test Cricket match
1935 - Miltary coup by General Pons & president Ibarra in Ecuador
1938 - Lou Gehrig hits record 23rd & last grand slam
1939 - 1st black bowling league formed (National Bowling Assoc)
1939 - Russian offensive under General Zjoekov against Japanese invasion in Mongolia
1940 - 1st Polish squadrons fight along allies in the Battle of Britain
1940 - British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
1940 - Louis Buchalter is indicted on murder charges in Los Angeles for the killing of Harry Greenberg, a mob associate of casino owner Meyer Lansky and mobster Bugsy Siegel
1941 - Police raid 11th district of Paris, takes 4,000+ Jewish males
1942 - Dim-out regulations implemented in SF

Mobster Louis Buchalter1944 - "Anna Lucasta" opens on Broadway
1944 - 26th PGA Championship: Bob Hamilton at Manito G & CC Spokane Wash
1944 - Gen de Gaulle returns to France
1944 - Russian offensive at Jassy & Kisjinev
1944 - US & British forces destroy German 7th Army at Falaise-Argentan Gap
1945 - Dodgers Tommy Brown, 17, is youngest player to hit a HR
1945 - Robert Hamilton wins PGA golf tournament
1945 - Russian troops occupy Harbin & Mukden
1945 - Tommy Brown, Bkln Dodger becomes youngest HR hitter (17)
1947 - Boston Braves hit a million attendance for 1st time
1947 - Turner Caldwell in D-558-I sets aircraft speed record, 1131 kph
1948 - 15th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chi Cards 28, All-Stars 0 (101,220)
1948 - US expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin
1949 - 78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland
1949 - Hungary (Magyar People's Republic) accepts constitution

Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin1952 - Stalin meets Chou Enlai
1953 - General Fazlollah Zahedi arrests premier Mossadeq of Persia
1953 - Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
1955 - 1st airplane to exceed 1800 mph (2897 kph)-HA Hanes, Palmdale Ca
1955 - Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco & Algeria
1956 - Republicans convene at Cow Palace
1957 - "Simply Heavenly" opens at Playhouse Theater NYC for 62 performances
1957 - Chicago White Sox Bob Keegan no-hits Wash Senators, 6-0
1957 - USAAF balloon breaks an altitude record at 102,000' (310,896 m)
1957 - White Sox Bob Keegan no-hits Senators 6-0
1958 - Cubs use 1st baseman Dale Long as their 1st lefty catcher since 1906
1958 - Dale Long becomes 1st major league lefty catcher in 52 years
1958 - Detroit Tiger Jim Bunning no-hits Boston Red Sox, 3-0
1959 - Belgium shortens military conscription to 12 months
1960 - Senegal breaks from Mali federation, declaring independence
1960 - USSR recovers 2 dogs, 1st living organisms to return from space
1961 - Phillies set then dubious record of 23 straight loses, beat Braves
1961 - East Germany begins erecting 5' high wall along the border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1964 - US President Johnson signs Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion
1964 - Rex Sellers bowls 5-1-17-0 v India in only Test Cricket innings

MLB Catcher and ManagerYogi Berra1964 - Yankee Phil Linz plays harmonica on bus despite Yogi Berra's orders
1965 - Rolling Stones release their single "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (their 1st #1 US hit) in the UK
1965 - Eddie Mathews & Hank Aaron (1954-65) pass Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrighitting 772 HRs while playing together on the same team
1966 - Beatles pelted with rotten fruit during Memphis concert
1967 - Alvin Dark (52-69) is fired, rehired, & fired again as manager of A's
1967 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Women's Western Golf Open
1968 - During the night 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops begin to invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring
1968 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1969 - 69 cm rainfall in Nelson County, Virginia (state record)
1970 - -21] Hurricane Dorothy, kills 42 in Martinique
1971 - FBI begins covert investigation of journalist Daniel Schorr

LPGA Golfer Kathy Whitworth1972 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Southgate Ladies Golf Open
1972 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1974 - Brooklyn pitcher Dan Bankhead is 1st black to homer in his 1st at bat
1974 - Nelson Rockefeller selected US Vice President by President Ford
1974 - Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4 mph)
1975 - Il-62 crashes south of Damascus, Syria, killing 126
1975 - Viking 1 launched to orbit around Mars, soft landing
1977 - NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune
1978 - Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus in London
1978 - Mark Vinchesi of Amherst Mass keeps a frisbee aloft 15.2 seconds
1978 - Sandra Post wins LPGA Lady Stroh's Golf Open
1978 - Tatyana Providokhina runs female world record 1k (2:30.6)
1979 - India premier Charan Singh resigns

MLB Pitching Legend Nolan Ryan1979 - Singer Vikki Carr & Michael Nilsson wed
1979 - The East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland is restored when the Penmanshiel Diversion opens.
1980 - NY Yankee Bob Watson hits Seattle Kingdome speaker, 2nd straight day
1980 - Pitts Omar Moreno steals record 70 bases for 3rd consecutive season
1980 - Reinhold Messner of Italy is 1st to solo ascent Mt Everest
1980 - Cleve Dan Spillner, 545 ERA, is 2 outs from a no-hitter when White Sox rookie Leo Sutherland singles
1980 - UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jersualem is its capital
1982 - Don Lever becomes 1st captain of NJ Devils
1982 - US marines land in Beirut Lebanon
1983 - The South African anti-apartheid umbrella organization, United Democratic Front (UDF) is launched at Rocklands Community Centre in Cape Town, South Afrca
1985 - 1st NL pitcher to strike out 200+ in 1st 2 seasons (Dwight Gooden)
1985 - Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of US
1985 - Libya throws out 1000s Tunisian/Egyptian gas workers
1985 - Met Dwight Gooden strikes out 16 on way to his 13th consecutive win
1985 - Hanspeter Beck of South Australia, finishes a 3,875 mile, 51 day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle
1986 - Postal worker Patrick Sherrill shot 14 fellow workers dead in Edmond, Oklahoma
1986 - Phils Don Carmen perfect game bid is broken in 9th
1988 - 6.5 earthquake strikes India/Nepal, 1,000s killed
1988 - Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria sets 100m hurdle woman's record (12.21)
1988 - "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1989 - Dredger "Bow Belle" collides with pleasure boat "Marchioness" on the River Thames in central London; the "Marchioness" sinks in 30 seconds, drowning 51

MLB Third Baseman Howard Johnson1989 - Howard Johnson joins Barry Bonds & Willie Mays to hit 30 HRs & steal 30 bases
1989 - Janet B Evans swims female world record 800m freestyle (8:16.22)
1989 - Said Aouita runs world record 3,000 m (7:29.45)
1990 - Gene Michael names NY Yankee VP/GM replacing Harding Peterson
1990 - George Steinbrenner steps down as NY Yankee owner
1990 - Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations (human shields)
1990 - NY Yankee Kevin Mass is quickest to reach 15 HRs (approx 132 at bat)
1991 - Norbert Rosza swims world record 100m breast stroke (1:01.29)
1991 - Dolphin Dan Marino surpasses Joe Montana as the highest paid NFL player with a 5-year extension for $25 million
1991 - Estonia formally declares its independence from the USSR
1991 - The United Democratic Front, one of the most prominent anti-apartheid movements, comprising of over 400 workers', church, civic and student organisations, dissolves

Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback Dan Marino1992 - England get 7-363 in 55 overs vs Pakistan, then world ODI record
1993 - Colin Jackson runs world record 110m hurdles (12.91)
1993 - Howard Stern is fired from WLUP-AM, Chicago
1993 - Mother Teresa hospitalized with malaria
1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month.
1994 - 109.8°F (43.2°C) in Cordoba Spain
1994 - Archbishop Quarracino wants all homosexuals to leave Argentina
1994 - Ferry boat sinks at Chandpur Bangladesh, 300-350 killed
1994 - Vuyani Bungu, the South African junior feartherweight, wins IBF World Boxing Title
1995 - "The Play's the Thing" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 75 performances

Catholic Missionary Mother Teresa1995 - Indians' Jose Mesa sets record with his 37th consecutive save
1995 - Kerrie Webb wins LPGA Weetabix Women's British Golf Open
1996 - India defeat Pakistan in Under-15 World Challenge Final at Lord's
1997 - Shelly Moore, 18, of Tenn, crowned 15th Miss Teen USA
1997 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped.
1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
1998 - U.S. embassy bombings: the United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
2002 - A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.

Golfer Tiger Woods2006 - 88th PGA Championship: Tiger Woods shoots a 270 at Medinah Country Club
2008 - Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. 146 people are killed in the crash, 8 more die afterwards. Only 18 people survive.
2012 - 20 people are killed in a riot in Caracas, Venezuela
2012 - South Africa become the top-ranked test cricket nation after defeating England
2013 - 9 Islamist militants are killed by Russian police in North Caucasus

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