Today is Tuesday, August 20, the 233rd day of the year 2024. There are 133 days left in the year.
Today in History:
On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries 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 in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society.
In 1862, the New York Tribune published an open letter from editor Horace Greeley calling on President Abraham Lincoln to take more aggressive action to free the slaves and end the Southern Rebellion.
In 1866, President Andrew Johnson declared the official end of the Civil War.
In 1882, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” was premiered in Moscow.
In 1910, a series of wildfires ravaged parts of Idaho, Montana, and Washington, killing at least 85 people and burning some 3 million acres.
In 1920, the American Professional Football Conference was formed by representatives of four professional football teams; two years later, with 18 teams, it was renamed the National Football League.
In 1940, exiled communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was attacked in Coyoacan, Mexico, by assassin Ramon Mercader. (Trotsky died the next day.)
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
In 1986, postal worker Patrick Henry Sherrill went on a killing spree at a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, killing 14 of his co-workers before killing himself.
In 1989, 51 people died when the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in the River Thames (tehmz) in London after being hit by a dredger.
In 2012, after 80 years in business, Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club (home of the Masters) invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become its first female members; both accepted.
In 2023, Tropical Storm Hilary struck Baja California, killing three people and causing $15 million in damage.
Today’s birthdays:
- Boxing promoter Don King is 93 years old.
- Former U.S. senator and diplomat George Mitchell is 91 years old.
- Former U.S. Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, is 89.
- Radio and television journalist Connie Chung is 78 years old.
- Rock singer Robert Plant is 76 years old.
- Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 72 years old.
- Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 72 years old.
- Actor-director Peter Horton is 71 years old.
- TV weather presenter Al Roker is 70.
- Actress Joan Allen is 68 years old.
- Director David O. Russell is 66 years old.
- Rapper KRS-One (Boogie Down Productions) is 59 years old.
- Actor Colin Cunningham is 57 years old.
- Actor Billy Gardell is 55 years old.
- Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 54 years old.
- Actor Ke Huy Quan is 53 years old.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Todd Helton is 51.
- Actress Amy Adams is 50 years old.
- Actor Misha Collins (TV’s “Supernatural”) is 50 years old.
- Actor Ben Barnes is 43 years old.
- Actor Andrew Garfield is 41 years old.
- Actress and singer Demi Lovato is 32 years old.
