August 20 is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 133 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events
Up to 1900
14 – Agrippa Postumus, adopted son of the deceased emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances.
636 – Battle of Yarmuk: Arab forces led by Khalid bin Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
917 – Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and drives the Byzantines out.
1391 – Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of Teutonic Order.
1467 – The Second Battle of Olmedo takes place as part of the succession conflict between Henry IV of Castile and his half-brother, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias.
1860 – In Melbourne, Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills begin their south–north expedition of Australia. They successfully go from the South to North but both die on they way back south in late June1861.
1993 – After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington D.C. the next month.
1995 – The Hindutemple in Neasden, London, UK, is opened. At the time of its opening, it is the largest Hindu temple outside India.
1998 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
2009 – Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person to have been convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, who is suffering from prostate cancer, is released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds, returning to his native Libya. He dies on May 20, 2012.
2018 – Then-15-year-old Greta Thunberg protests outside the Swedish parliament over politicians' lack of action on climate change, starting what would become a worldwide movement of school strikes.