On this day in history: 20th August: 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: Moslems 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. 1534 - Turkish admiral Chaireddin Barbarossa occupies Tunis 1566 - Iconoclasm reaches Antwerp, Belgium 1597 - 1st Dutch East India Company ships returned from Far East 1604 - Spanish garrison of Sluis surrenders to count Maurice 1619 - 1st Black slaves brought by Dutch to colony of Jamestown Virginia 1641 - England & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification 1648 - Battle of Lens: French duke dEnghien 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 discovered by Danish explorer Vitus Bering 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie reaches Blair Castle, Scotland 1795 - Joseph Haydn returns to Vienna from England 1879 - Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns 1893 - Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in Switzerland 1895 - Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure of Norwood Builder 1900 - Japans 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 Tung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchus 1908 - Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo 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 - 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 1918 - Britain opens offensive on Western front during WW I 1920 - Israel publishes its first medical journal Ha-Refuah 1923 - London dock strike ends 1926 - Uprising against Rezā Shāh Pahlavi in Iran 1926 - Japans public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai(NHK) is established. 1929 - 1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward completed 1935 - Miltary coup by General Pons & president Ibarra in Ecuador 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 1941 - Police raid 11th district of Paris, takes 4,000+ Jewish males 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 - Russian troops occupy Harbin & Mukden 1949 - Hungary (Magyar Peoples Republic) accepts constitution
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 19:36:59 +0000
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