Today is Tuesday, August twentieth, the 233rd day of the 12 months 2024. There are 133 days left within the 12 months.
Today in history:
On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact states invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the liberalization movement of the “Prague Spring.”
Also on this date:
In 1858, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was first published within the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
In 1866, President Andrew Johnson officially declared the Civil War over.
In 1882, Tchaikovsky’s “Overture 1812” had its premiere in Moscow.
In 1910, a series of wildfires raged across parts of Idaho, Montana and Washington, killing at the least 85 people and burning about 1.2 million acres of land.
In 1920, the American Professional Football Conference was founded by representatives of 4 skilled football teams; two years later, with 18 teams, it was renamed the National Football League.
In 1940, the exiled communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was attacked in Coyoacán, Mexico, by the assassin Ramón Mercader. (Trotsky died the following day.)
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, an almost $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
In 1986, postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill went on a rampage in a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, shooting 14 colleagues after which committing suicide.
In 1989, 51 people died when the pleasure boat Marchioness sank after colliding with a dredging vessel on the River Thames in London.
In 2012, after 80 years of existence, the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia (home of the Masters tournament) invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to develop into its first female members; each accepted the invitation.
In 2023, tropical storm Hilary Baja California hitThree people were killed and damage amounted to $15 million.
Today's birthdays:
- Boxing promoter Don King is 93.
- Former US Senator and diplomat George Mitchell is 91.
- Former U.S. Representative Ron Paul, Republican from Texas, is 89 years old.
- Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 78.
- Rock singer Robert Plant is 76.
- Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 72.
- Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 72.
- Actor and director Peter Horton is 71.
- TV weather presenter Al Roker is 70.
- Actress Joan Allen is 68.
- Film director David O. Russell is 66.
- Rapper KRS-One (Boogie Down Productions) is 59.
- Actor Colin Cunningham is 57.
- Actor Billy Gardell is 55.
- Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 54.
- Actor Ke Huy Quan is 53.
- Todd Helton, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is 51.
- Actress Amy Adams is 50.
- Actor Misha Collins (TV: “Supernatural”) is 50.
- Actor Ben Barnes is 43.
- Actor Andrew Garfield is 41.
- Actress and singer Demi Lovato is 32.
Originally published:
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