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Today in History
August 20

917		A Byzantine counter-offensive is routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.
1619		The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Virginia.
1667		John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
1741		Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering, commisioned by Peter the Great of Russia to find land connecting Asia and North America, discovers America.
1794		American General "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeats the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the area.
1847		General Winfield Scott wins the battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City.
1904		Dublin’s Abbey Theatre is founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory.
1908		The American Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
1913		700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.
1914		Russia wins an early victory over Germany at Gumbinnen.
1940		After a previous machine gun attack failed, exiled Russian Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City, with an alpine ax to the back of the head.
1940		Radar is used for the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain. Also on this day, in a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill makes his famous homage to the Royal Air Force: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
1941		Adolf Hitler authorizes the development of the V-2 missile.
1944		United States and British forces close the pincers on German units in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
1971		The Cambodian military launches a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge.
Born on August 20
1833		Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States and grandson of President William Henry Harrison.
1886		Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher who wrote Systematic Theology.
1890		H.P. Lovecraft, author of horror tales.
1905		Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist.
1944		Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minster of India.

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