On This Day: 20 August

20 August in Indian history

• 2006Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai.India
• 1995The Firozabad rail disaster kills 358 people in Firozabad, India.India
• 1992In India, Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language) is included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of the Indian Government.India
• 1794Northwest Indian War: United States troops force the United Indian Nations, a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Lenape, Wyandot, Miami, Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi warriors, into a disorganized retreat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.India

20 August in world history

• 1998U.S. embassy bombings: The United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
• 1989After colliding with the dredger Bowbelle on the River Thames in London, the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in thirty seconds, killing 51 people.
• 1988The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding twenty-eight.
• 1988More than 150,000 acres (610 km2) were burned on the worst day of the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
• 1955Battle of Philippeville: In Algeria, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
• 1948Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M. Lomakin is expelled by the United States, due to the Kasenkina Case.
• 1920The American Professional Football Conference, a predecessor of the National Football League, was established in Canton, Ohio.
• 1910Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, which burned about 4,700 square miles (12,100 km²), the largest fire in recorded U.S. history.
• 1909Pluto was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
• 1905Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others establish the Tongmenghui, a Republican, anti-Qing revolutionary organisation, in Tokyo, Japan.
• 1864Bakumatsu: Kinmon incident: The Chōshū Domain attempts to expel the Satsuma and Aizu Domains from Japan's imperial court.
• 1858Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
• 1710War of the Spanish Succession: A Spanish Bourbon army commanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg.
• 917Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarian forces led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory at the Battle of Achelous.

Born on 20 August

• 1990Culoe De Song, South African music producer and DJ
• 1965KRS-One, American rapper and producer
• 1946N. R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman, co-founded InfosysIndia
• 1944Rajiv Gandhi, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (died 1991)India
• 1896Gostha Pal, Indian footballer (died 1976)India
• 1884Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian and professor of New Testament at the University of Marburg (died 1976)

Died on 20 August

• 2014B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and author, founded Iyengar Yoga (born 1918)India
• 2012Dom Mintoff, Maltese journalist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Malta (born 1916)
• 2011Ram Sharan Sharma, Indian historian and academic (born 1919)India
• 1936Edward Weston, English-American chemist (born 1850)

Frequently asked questions

What happened on 20 August in history?

2006: Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai. 1998: U.S. embassy bombings: The United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 1995: The Firozabad rail disaster kills 358 people in Firozabad, India. 1992: In India, Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language) is included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of the Indian Government.

What happened on 20 August in Indian history?

2006: Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai. 1995: The Firozabad rail disaster kills 358 people in Firozabad, India. 1992: In India, Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language) is included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of the Indian Government.

Which famous people were born on 20 August?

Culoe De Song, South African music producer and DJ (1990); KRS-One, American rapper and producer (1965); N. R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman, co-founded Infosys (1946); Rajiv Gandhi, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (died 1991) (1944).

Which day is observed on 20 August?

Sadbhavana Diwas; Indian Akshay Urja Day (India); Feast of Asmá’ (Baháʼí Faith, only if Baháʼí Naw-Rúz falls on March 21); Independence Restoration Day (Estonia), re-declaration of the independence of Estonia from the Soviet Union in 1991.; Meitei Language Day, also known as Manipuri Language Day, the day on which Meitei (Manipuri) was included in the scheduled languages' list a.