World News
August 20, Soviets invade Czechoslovakia – JS
Today is Tuesday, August 20, the 233rd day of 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 enslaved people and end the South’s rebellion.
In 1866, President Andrew Johnson declared the official end of the Civil War.
In 1882, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture had its premiere in Moscow.
In 1910, a series of wildfires swept through parts of Idaho, Montana and Washington, killing at least 85 people and burning about 3 million acres.
In 1920, the American Professional Football Conference was founded by representatives of four professional football teams; two years later, with 18 teams, it would be renamed the National Football League.
In 1940, exiled communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was attacked by assassin Ramon Mercader in Coyoacan, Mexico. (Trotsky died the next day.)
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
In 1986, postal worker Patrick Henry Sherrill went on the rampage at a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, killing fourteen co-workers before killing himself.
In 1989, 51 people were killed when the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in the River Thames (tehmz) in London after being struck by a dredger.
In 2012, after 80 years in existence, Georgia’s Augusta National golf club (home of the Masters Tournament) 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 hit Baja Californiakilling three and causing $15 million in damage.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Boxing promoter Don King is 93.
- Former US Senator and diplomat George Mitchell is 91.
- Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is 89.
- Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 78.
- Rock singer Robert Plant is 76.
- Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 72.
- Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 72.
- Actor-director Peter Horton is 71.
- TV weather presenter Al Roker is 70.
- Actor Joan Allen is 68.
- Film director David O. Russell is 66.
- Rapper KRS-One (Boogie Down Productions) is 59.
- Actor Colin Cunningham is 57.
- Actor Billy Gardell is 55.
- Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 54.
- Actor Ke Huy Quan is 53.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Todd Helton is 51.
- Actor Amy Adams is 50.
- Actor Misha Collins (TV: “Supernatural”) is 50.
- Actor Ben Barnes is 43.
- Actor Andrew Garfield is 41.
- Actor-singer Demi Lovato is 32.
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