Today in History: NASA Launches Viking 1 Spacecraft to Mars

August 20 is the 232th (233th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 133.

Railways

• 20 August 1927 Construction of Kütahya-Balıkesir line started from Kütahya. 29 started in November from Balıkesir.

Events 

• 636 – Battle of Yarmuk: Arab forces under Khalid bin Walid take control of Syria and Palestine from the Byzantine Empire.
• 917 – Battle of Achelous: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria captures Thrace from the Byzantines.
• 1648 – The Lens War: End of the Thirty Years' War.
• 1828 – In Paris, Gioacchino Rossini's “Count OryFirst performance of the opera.
• 1833 - Slaves in the United States revolted under the leadership of Nat Turner.
• 1866 - US President Andrew Johnson officially declares the end of the American Civil War.
• 1914 – World War I: German Troops occupy Brussels.
• 1940 – Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is attacked in Mexico City and dies the next day.
• 1941 – Creation of the Drancy concentration camp for Jews.
• 1947 – In the demonstration organized by the public at the opening of the Izmir Fair, “expensiveness” was protested.
• 1949 - The Hungarian People's Republic is proclaimed.
• 1952 – Miss Turkey Günseli Başar came first in the European Beauty pageant held in Naples.
• 1953 - The USSR officially announced that it was testing a hydrogen bomb.
• 1955 – In Morocco, Berber Troops kill 77 French.
• 1960 – Senegal broke away from the Mali Federation and declared its independence.
• 1968 – Czechoslovakia's attempt to liberalize politically, called the Prague Spring, ended with its occupation by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries (excluding Romania). Alexander Dubcek and other pro-liberal communist leaders were arrested. Soviet tanks met with popular resistance on the streets of Prague.
• 1975 - NASA launched the Viking 1 spacecraft to Mars.
• 1977 - NASA launched Voyager 2.
• 1982 – Bülent Ecevit, whose final sentence of 2 months and 27 days was not postponed, was imprisoned in Ankara Central Closed Prison.
• 1986 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, a postman named Patrick Sherrill, an employee of the United States Postal Service, killed 14 of his colleagues and committed suicide.
• 1988 – The eight-year Iran-Iraq War ends with a ceasefire.
• 1991 – Estonia seceded from the USSR.
• 1993 – After secret negotiations in Oslo, a treaty is signed between Israelis and Palestinians.
• 1998 – The US attacked an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Khartoum with a cruise missile. The attacks were said to be in retaliation for the August 7 bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Zambia.
• 2008 – An MD-82 type passenger plane belonging to Spanair company, while taking off from Madrid Barajas International Airport to go to the Canary Islands, went off the runway and burned down: 153 people died, 19 people survived.
• 2009 – Usain Bolt broke the world record with 2009 in the 200 meters at the 19.19 World Championships in Athletics.

Births 

• 1377 – Shahruh, third ruler of the Timurid Empire (d. 1447)
• 1561 – Jacopo Peri, Italian composer and singer (d. 1633)
• 1625 – Thomas Corneille, French poet (d. 1709)
• 1664 – János Pálffy, Hungarian Imperial Marshal (d. 1751)
• 1778 – Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean soldier, politician, and Chilean independence fighter (d. 1842)
• 1779 – Jöns Jakob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1848)
• 1789 – Abbas Mirza, heir apparent to the Qajar Dynasty of Iran (d. 1833)
• 1833 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (d. 1901)
• 1856 – Jakub Bart Cisinski, German writer (d. 1909)
• 1858 – Omar Mukhtar, Libyan revolutionary and leader of the resistance movement against the Italians (d. 1931)
• 1860 – Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (d. 1934)
• 1873 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish-American architect (d. 1950)
• 1885 Dino Campana, Italian poet (d. 1932)
• 1890 – Howard Phillips Lovecraft, American author (d. 1937)
• 1901 – Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
• 1908 – Kingsley Davis, American sociologist and demographer (coined the terms population explosion and zero population growth) (d. 1997)
• 1910 – Eero Saarinen, Finnish-American architect (d. 1961)
• 1913 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neuropsychologist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
• 1929 – Hüseyin Mükerrem Never, Turkish economics professor and politician (d. 2012)
• 1930 – Hüseyin Kutman, Turkish theater and cinema artist (d. 1988)
• 1930 – Toron Karacaoğlu, Turkish director, theater, cinema and TV series actor (d. 2018)
• 1935 – Gürdal Duyar, Turkish sculptor (d. 2004)
• 1941 – Slobodan Milošević, Serbian politician and President of Serbia (d. 2006)
• 1942 – Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor (d. 2008)
• 1944 – Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician and Prime Minister of India (d. 1991)
• 1948 – Robert Plant, English musician (Led Zeppelin)
• 1949 – Nikolas Asimos, Greek composer (d. 1988)
• 1951 – Aydın Ayaydın, Turkish bureaucrat, academic and politician
• 1953 – Ümit Efekan, Turkish director, screenwriter and producer
• 1962 – James Marsters, American actor
• 1965 – Alparslan Kuytul, Turkish writer and founder of Furkan Education and Service Foundation
• 1965 – Ilker Inanoglu, Turkish actor
• 1966 – Darrell Lance Abbott, American guitarist and founder of Pantera (d. 2004)
• 1970 – Berna Laçin, Turkish cinema, TV series actress and presenter
• 1973 – Elif İnci, Turkish actress
• 1974 – Amy Adams, American actress
• 1974 – Metin Yıldız, Turkish TV series and film actor
• 1974 – Big Moe, American black rapper and singer (d. 2007)
• 1974 – Misha Collins, American actress
• 1980 – Rosalba Pippa (Arisa) is an Italian singer.
• 1983 – Andrew Garfield, American actor
• 1988 – Jerryd Bayless, American basketball player
• 1992 – Demi Lovato, American actress and singer
• 1992 – Neslihan Atagül, Turkish actress
• 1994 – Berat Aydoğdu, Turkish football player

Deaths 

• 14 – Agrippa Postumus, son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder (b. 12 BC)
• 984 – XIV. John (birth name) Pietro Canepanova) Pope from December 983 until his death (b. ?)
• 1085 – Juwayni, Iranian jurist, theologian (b. 1028)
• 1153 – Bernard of Clairvaux – abbot, co-founder of the Cistercian order (b. 1090)
• 1268 – Beatris of Nazareth, Flemish Cistercian priestess and mystic (b. 1200)
• 1384 – Geert Groote, Dutch preacher (b. 1340)
• 1639 – Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (b. 1597)
• 1651 – Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, father of the Polish-Lithuanian aristocracy and future king of Poland, Michael I. Wi memberniowiec Prince (b. 1612)
• 1785 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b. 1714)
• 1821 – Dorothea von Medem, Duchess of Courland (b. 1761)
• 1823 – VII. Pius, real name Barnabas Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramontcleric who served as pope from March 14, 1800 until his death in 1823 (b. 1742)
• 1848 – Keisai Eisen, Japanese ukiyo-e artist (b. 1790)
• 1854 – Friedrich Schelling, German Idealist thinker (b. 1775)
• 1886 – Ann S. Stephens, American novelist and magazine editor (b. 1810)
• 1873 – Hermann Hankel, German mathematician (b. 1839)
• 1915 – Carlos Finlay, Cuban scientist (considered a pioneer of yellow fever research) (b.
• 1915 – Paul Ehrlich, German scientist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
• 1917 – Adolf von B.aeyPrivate, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
• 1951 – Izzettin Calislar, Turkish politician and soldier (b. 1882)
• 1963 – Benjamin Jones, British cyclist (b. 1882)
• 1961 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (b. 1882)
• 1976 – Mustafa Baydar, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1920)
• 1979 – Ömer Faruk Toprak, Turkish socialist-realist poet, novelist and short story writer (b. 1920)
• 1980 – Joe Dassin, American singer (b. 1938)
• 1990 – Ayla Dikmen, Turkish pop music singer (b. 1944)
• 1991 – Nadir Nadi Abalıoğlu, Turkish journalist and Cumhuriyet newspaper's Editor-in-Chief (b. 1908)
• 2006 – Tuncer Necmioğlu, Turkish actor, screenwriter and theater critic (b. 1936)
• 2008 – Hua Guofeng, Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Communist Party of China and Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China (b. 1921)
• 2011 – Reza Badiyi is an Iranian-American film director (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Phyllis Driller, American comedian, actress, and voice actor (b. 1917)
• 2012 – Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian politician (b. 1955)
• 2013 – Elmore Leonard, American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1925)
• 2013 – Ted Post, American TV and film director (b. 1918)
• 2015 – María de los Ángeles López Segovia known as: Lina Morgan, Spanish, TV, serial and film actor, entertainer (b. 1937)
• 2016 – Daniela Dessì, Italian opera singer and soprano (b. 1957)
• 2016 – Ignacio Padilla, Mexican writer (b. 1968)
• 2017 – Velichko Cholakov, Bulgarian Olympic weightlifter (b. 1982)
• 2017 – Margot Hielscher, German singer (b. 1919)
• 2017 – Jerry Lewis, American actor, comedian, and singer (b. 1926)
• 2017 – Colin Meads, former rugby player, coach and manager from New Zealand (b. 1936)
• 2018 – Uri Avnery, Israeli writer, politician, and activist (b. 1923)
• 2019 – Rudolf Hundstorfer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (b. 1951)
• 2019 – Alexandra Nazarova, Soviet-Russian actress of theatre, film and TV series (b. 1940)
• 2020 – Frank Cullotta, American crime syndicate, tour guide, and author (b. 1938)
• 2020 – Piotr Szczepanik, Polish singer and actor (b. 1942)