http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Aug 20, 1911: First around-the-world telegram sent, 66 years before Voyager II launch
On this day in 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service. Exactly 66 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sends a different kind of message--a phonograph record containing information about Earth for extraterrestrial beings--shooting into space aboard the unmanned spacecraft Voyager II.
The Times decided to send its 1911 telegram in order to determine how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply "This message sent around the world," left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores--among other locations--the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later. It was the fastest time achieved by a commercial cablegram since the opening of the Pacific cable in 1900 by the Commercial Cable Company.
On August 20, 1977, a NASA rocket launched Voyager II, an unmanned 1,820-pound spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the first of two such crafts to be launched that year on a "Grand Tour" of the outer planets, organized to coincide with a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Aboard Voyager II was a 12-inch copper phonograph record called "Sounds of Earth." Intended as a kind of introductory time capsule, the record included greetings in 60 languages and scientific information about Earth and the human race, along with classical, jazz and rock 'n' roll music, nature sounds like thunder and surf, and recorded messages from President Jimmy Carter and other world leaders.
The brainchild of astronomer Carl Sagan, the record was sent with Voyager II and its twin craft, Voyager I--launched just two weeks later--in the faint hope that it might one day be discovered by extraterrestrial creatures. The record was sealed in an aluminum jacket that would keep it intact for 1 billion years, along with instructions on how to play the record, with a cartridge and needle provided.
More importantly, the two Voyager crafts were designed to explore the outer solar system and send information and photographs of the distant planets to Earth. Over the next 12 years, the mission proved a smashing success. After both crafts flew by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager I went flying off towards the solar system's edge while Voyager II visited Uranus, Neptune and finally Pluto in 1990 before sailing off to join its twin in the outer solar system.
Thanks to the Voyager program, NASA scientists gained a wealth of information about the outer planets, including close-up photographs of Saturn's seven rings; evidence of active geysers and volcanoes exploding on some of the four planets' 22 moons; winds of more than 1,500 mph on Neptune; and measurements of the magnetic fields on Uranus and Neptune. The two crafts are expected to continue sending data until 2020, or until their plutonium-based power sources run out. After that, they will continue to sail on through the galaxy for millions of years to come, barring some unexpected collision.
Aug 20, 1968: Soviet Union intervenes in Czechoslovakia
In the face of rising anti-Soviet protests in Czechoslovakia, Soviet troops (backed by troops from other Warsaw Pact nations) intervene to crush the protest and restore order. The brutal Soviet action shocked the West and dealt a devastating blow to U.S.-Soviet relations.
The troubles in Czechoslovakia began when Alexander Dubcek took over as secretary general of the nation's Communist Party in January 1968. It was immediately apparent that Dubcek wanted a major overhaul of Czechoslovakia's political and economic system—he called his particular ideology "Socialism with a human face." He called for greater political freedom, including more participation by noncommunist parties. Dubcek also pressed for economic policies that would ensure less state control and more reliance on free market economics. Finally, he insisted on greater freedom from Soviet domination, although he reiterated his nation's allegiance to the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet bloc's counterpart to NATO.
Dubcek's policies shocked the Soviets and leaders in other Eastern European nations. Throughout early and mid-1968, negotiations took place between Dubcek and representatives from Russia and other Soviet bloc nations in an attempt to have the Czechoslovakian leader soften his reforms. Dubcek refused, and tensions with the Soviet Union steadily increased. Meanwhile, the sudden atmosphere of freedom that Dubcek was encouraging took root, and Czech citizens embraced and celebrated the new tolerance for free exchange of ideas and open discussion in what came to be known as the "Prague Spring." On the night of August 20, 1968, more than 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops crossed into Czechoslovakia and headed for the capital city of Prague. In just over a day, the entire country was occupied; within a week nearly three-quarters of a million foreign troops were in Czechoslovakia. Anti-Soviet riots broke out in Prague, but these were viciously crushed and thousands of Czechs fled the country.
The Soviet action in August 1968 shocked the West. Not since 1956, when Soviet troops intervened in Hungary, had the Russian government resorted to such force to bring one of its communist allies into line with its own policies. The Czech invasion was particularly damaging to U.S.-Soviet relations. In June 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin to begin discussions related to a number of issues, including arms control. It was agreed that Johnson would visit the Soviet Union in October 1968 to continue the talks. The Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia caused Johnson to cancel his visit abruptly.
Aug 20, 1944: Brits launch Operation Wallace and aid French Resistance
On this day in 1944, 60 British soldiers, commanded by Major Roy Farran, fight their way east from Rennes toward Orleans, through German-occupied forest, forcing the Germans to retreat and aiding the French Resistance in its struggle for liberation. Code-named Operation Wallace, this push east was just another nail in the coffin of German supremacy in France.
The Germans had already lost their position in Normandy, and had retreated from southern France. Most of the German troops in the west were trapped—and were either being killed or taken prisoner—in what was called "the Falaise Pocket," a site around the eastern town of Falaise, which was encircled by the Allies. The Allies were also landing tens of thousands of men and vehicles in France, and the French Resistance was becoming more brazen every day. On the 19th, the French police force announced its loyalty to the Resistance cause by seizing the Prefecture de Police in Paris, raising the French national flag, and singing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
Major Roy Farran, a veteran of the fighting in Italy, employed his British Special Air Service force to boldly burst eastward from Rennes to the region just north of Orleans through the German lines of defense in order to attack the enemy from within its own strongholds. Along the way, French Resistance fighters joined the battle with him. Farran was taken aback by the strength of the French freedom fighters, and the anticipation of liberation in the air. Describing one Frenchwoman, Farran said, "Her smile ridiculed the bullets."
Today
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
2 - Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-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
1585 - English queen Elizabeth I signs Treaty of Nonsuch:
aid to Netherland
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 - Britain & Scotland sign Treaty of Pacification
1648 - Battle of Lens: French duke d'Enghien 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
1781 - George Washington begins to move his troops south to
fight Cornwallis
First US President George Washington 1794 - Gen Mad Anthony
Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers Ohio
1795 - Joseph Haydn returns to Vienna from England
1828 - Gioacchino Rossini's opera "Le Comte Ory,"
premieres in Paris
1852 - Steamer "Atlantic" collided with fishing
boat, sinks with 250 aboard
1856 - Wilberforce University forms in Ohio
1861 - Skirmish at Jonesboro MO
1864 - 8th/last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Va (about
3900 casualties)
1865 - Pres Johnson proclaims an end to
"insurrection" in Tx
1866 - Pres Andrew Johnson formally declares Civil War over
1879 - Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns
1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" opens in
Moscow
1888 - Longest US men's single tournament match Palmer
Presbrey defeats T S Tailer, 19-21, 8-6, 6-1, 6-4, an 80-game 1st-round contest
1893 - Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in
Switzerland
1895 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Norwood
Builder" (BG)
1896 - Dial telephone patented
Composer Tchaikovsky 1900 - Great Britain beats France in
cricket in Olympic Games
1900 - Japan's primary school law is amended to provide for
four years of mandatory schooling.
1901 - Fawcett committee visits Mafeking concentration camp
in Cape Colony
1908 - Congo Free State becomes Belgian Congo
1910 - US supported opposition brings down Madriz in
Nicaragua
1912 - Plant Quarantine Act goes into effect
1912 - Wash Senator Carl Cushion no-hits Cleve Indians, 2-0
in 6 innings
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 - -24] Battle of Bounderies: Lorraine, Ardennen, Sambre
& Meuse, Mons
1914 - Battle at Gumbinnen, East-Prussia: Russian beat
Germans
1914 - Battle at Morhange: German troops chase French,
killing 1000s
1914 - Bavarian troops kill 50 inhabitants of Nomeny France
1914 - German army captured Brussels as the Belgian army
retreated to Antwerp
1915 - White Sox obtain Joe Jackson from Cleve in exchange
for Robert Roth, Larry Chappell, Ed Klepfer, & $31,500
1918 - Britain opens offensive on Western front during WW I
1919 - Wichita outfielder Joe Wilhoit (Western League) fails
to get a hit, ending a 69-game streak (155 hits in 299 at bats for a .505 avg)
1920 - 1st US commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit
begins daily broadcasting
1920 - Allen Woodring wins Oympic 200 m dash wearing
borrowed shoes
1920 - Israel publishes it's 1st medical journal
"Ha-Refuah"
1920 - Preliminary meeting in Akron to form American Pro
Football League
1920 - Red Sox-Indians game postponed in Boston to allow
Indian players to attend Ray Chapman's funeral in Cleveland
1921 - 35th US Womens Tennis: Molla B Mallory beats M Browne
(46 64 62)
1922 - 1st world championship athletics for women, held in
Paris
1923 - London harbor strike ends
1925 - WJR-AM in Detroit MI begins radio transmissions
1926 - Uprising against Rezā Shāh Pahlavi in Iran
1926 - Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō
Kyōkai(NHK) is established.
1929 - 1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward
completed
1930 - Bradman scores 232 in 5th Test Cricket at The Oval
1930 - Dumont's 1st TV broadcast for home reception (NYC)
1931 - 45th US Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Eileen
Whitingstall (64 61)
1934 - Ponsford out for 266 in his final Test Cricket match
1935 - Milt coup by General Pons & president Ibarra in
Ecuador
1938 - Lou Gehrig hits record 23rd & last grand slam
1939 - 1st black bowling league formed (National Bowling
Assoc)
1939 - Russian offensive under General Zjoekov against
Japanese invasion in Mongolia
1940 - 1st Polish squadrons fight along 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
1942 - Dim-out regulations implemented in SF
1944 - "Anna Lucasta," opens on Broadway
1944 - 26th PGA Championship: Bob Hamilton at Manito G &
CC Spokane Wash
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 - Dodgers Tommy Brown, 17, is youngest player to hit a
HR
1945 - Robert Hamilton wins PGA golf tournament
1945 - Russian troops occupy Harbin & Mukden
1945 - Tommy Brown, Bkln Dodger becomes youngest HR hitter
(17)
1947 - Boston Braves hit a million attendance for 1st time
1947 - Turner Caldwell in D-558-I sets aircraft speed
record, 1131 kph
1948 - 15th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chi Cards 28,
All-Stars 0 (101,220)
1948 - US expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob
Lomakin
1949 - 78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland
1949 - Hungary (Magyar People's Republic) accepts
constitution
Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin 1952 - Stalin meets Chou
Enlai
1953 - General Fazlollah Zahedi arrests premier Mossadeq of
Persia
1953 - Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test
detonation
1955 - 1st airplane to exceed 1800 mph (2897 kph)-HA Hanes,
Palmdale Ca
1955 - Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco
& Algeria
1956 - Republicans convene at Cow Palace
1957 - "Simply Heavenly" opens at Playhouse
Theater NYC for 62 performances
1957 - Chicago White Sox Bob Keegan no-hits Wash Senators,
6-0
1957 - USAAF balloon breaks an altitude record at 102,000'
(310,896 m)
1958 - Cubs use 1st baseman Dale Long as their 1st lefty
catcher since 1906
1958 - Dale Long becomes 1st major league lefty catcher in
52 years
1958 - Detroit Tiger Jim Bunning no-hits Boston Red Sox, 3-0
1959 - Belgium shortens conscription to 12 months
1960 - Senegal breaks from Mali federation, declaring
independence
1960 - USSR recovers 2 dogs, 1st living organisms to return
from space
1961 - Phillies set then dubious record of 23 straight
loses, beat Braves
1961 - East Germany begins erecting 5' high wall along the
border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1964 - LBJ signs anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1
billion
1964 - President Johnson signs Economic Opportunity Act
1964 - Rex Sellers bowls 5-1-17-0 v India in only Test
Cricket innings
1964 - Yankee Phil Linz plays harmonica on bus despite Yogi
Berra's orders
1965 - Rolling Stones release "Satisfaction"
(their 1st #1 US hit)
1965 - Eddie Mathews & Hank Aaron (1954-65) pass Babe
Ruth-Lou Gehrig hitting 772 HRs while playing together on the same team
1966 - Beatles pelted with rotten fruit during Memphis
concert
1967 - Alvin Dark (52-69) is fired, rehired, & fired
again as manager of A's
1967 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Women's Western Golf Open
Baseball Player Hank Aaron 1968 - 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops
invade Czechoslovakia
1968 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1969 - 69 cm rainfall in Nelson Co., Virginia (state record)
1970 - -21] Hurricane Dorothy, kills 42 in Martinique
1971 - FBI begins covert investigation of journalist Daniel
Schorr
1972 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Southgate Ladies Golf Open
1972 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1974 - Brooklyn pitcher Dan Bankhead is 1st black to homer
in his 1st at bat
1974 - Nelson Rockefeller becomes VP
1974 - Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4
mph)
1974 - Pres Gerald Ford, assumes office after Richard
Nixon's resignation
1975 - Il-62 crashes south of Damascus, Syria, killing 126
1975 - Viking 1 launched to orbit around Mars, soft landing
1977 - NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus & Neptune
1978 - Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus in
London
37th US President Richard Nixon 1978 - Mark Vinchesi of
Amherst Mass keeps a frisbee aloft 15.2 seconds
1978 - Sandra Post wins LPGA Lady Stroh's Golf Open
1978 - Tatyana Providokhina runs female world record 1k
(2:30.6)
1979 - India premier Charan Singh resigns
1979 - Singer Vikki Carr & Michael Nilsson wed
1979 - The East Coast Main Line rail route between England
and Scotland is restored when the Penmanshiel Diversion opens.
1980 - Mt Everest climbed by Italian Reinhold Messner, alone
1980 - NY Yankee Bob Watson hits Seattle Kingdome speaker,
2nd straight day
1980 - Pitts Omar Moreno steals record 70 bases for 3rd
consecutive season
1980 - Reinhold Messner of Italy is 1st to solo ascent Mt
Everest
1980 - Cleve Dan Spillner, 545 ERA, is 2 outs from a
no-hitter when White Sox rookie Leo Sutherland singles
1980 - UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains)
Israeli declaration that all of Jersualem is it's capital
1982 - Don Lever becomes 1st captain of NJ Devils
1982 - US marines land in Beirut Lebanon
1983 - Miss National Teen-Ager
1985 - 1st NL pitcher to strike out 200+ in 1st 2 seasons
(Dwight Gooden)
1985 - Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of US
1985 - Libya throws out 1000s Tunisian/Egyptian gas workers
1985 - Met Dwight Gooden strikes out 16 on way to his 13th
consecutive win
1985 - Hanspeter Beck of South Australia, finishes a 3,875
mile, 51 day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle
1986 - Mail carrier Patrick Sherrill, Edmond Ok, shot 14
fellow workers dead
1986 - Phils Don Carmen perfect game bid is broken in 9th
1988 - 6.5 earthquake strikes India/Nepal, 1,000s killed
1988 - Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria sets 100m hurdle woman's
record (12.21)
1988 - "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in
Yellowstone National Park
1988 - Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention
copyright treaty.
1989 - Aak crashes into pleasure boat The Margin on the
Thames, 51 killed
1989 - Howard Johnson joins B Bonds & W Mays to hit 30
HRs & steal 30 bases
1989 - Janet B Evans swims female world record 800m
freestyle (8:16.22)
1989 - Said Aouita runs world record 3000 m (7:29.45)
1990 - Gene Michael names NY Yankee VP/GM replacing Harding
Peterson
New York Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner 1990 - George
Steinbrenner steps down as NY Yankee owner
1990 - Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations
(human shields)
1990 - NY Yankee Kevin Mass is quickest to reach 15 HRs
(approx 132 at bat)
1991 - After the attempted coup in the Soviet Union, Estonia
declares
1991 - Norbert Rosza swims world record 100m breast stroke
(1:01.29)
1991 - Dolphin Dan Marino surpasses Joe Montana as the
highest paid NFL player with a 5-year extension for $25 million
1991 - Estonia declares it's independence from USSR itself
independent
1992 - England get 7-363 in 55 overs vs Pakistan, then world
ODI record
1993 - Colin Jackson runs world record 110m hurdles (12.91)
1993 - Howard Stern is fired from WLUP-AM, Chicago
1993 - Mother Teresa hospitalized with malaria
1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the
Oslo Peace Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington,
D.C. the following month.
1994 - 109.8°F (43.2°C) in Cordoba Spain
1994 - Archbishop Quarracino wants all homosexuals to leave
Argentina
1994 - Ferry boat sinks at Chandpur Bangladesh, 300-350
killed
Catholic Missionary Mother Teresa 1995 - "Play's the
Thing" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 75 perfs
1995 - Indians' Jose Mesa sets record with his 37th
consecutive save
1995 - Kerrie Webb wins LPGA Weetabix Women's British Golf
Open
1996 - India defeat Pakistan in Under-15 World Challenge
Final at Lord's
1997 - Shelly Moore, 18, of Tenn, crowned 15th Miss Teen USA
1997 - Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are
killed and 15 kidnapped.
1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot
legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
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.
2002 - A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam
Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin for five hours before releasing
their hostages and surrendering.
2008 - Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria,
skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. 146 people are killed in
the crash, 8 more die afterwards. Only 18 people survive.
2012 - 20 people are killed in a riot in Caracas, Venezuela
2012 - South Africa become the top-ranked test cricket
nation after defeating England
1641 - Scotland and Britain signed the Treaty of Pacification. 1741 - Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering discovered Alaska. 1862 - Horace Greeley's "The Prayer of Twenty Millions" was published. 1866 - The National Labor Union in the U.S. advocated an eight-hour workday. 1866 - It was formally declared by U.S. President Andrew Johnson that the American Civil War was over. The fighting had stopped months earlier. 1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow. 1885 - "The Mikado", by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City. 1914 - German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I. 1918 - The British opened its Western Front offensive during World War I. 1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," was launched in Lakehurst, NJ. The ship began its maiden voyage from the same location on September 4. 1939 - The National Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, MI. It was the first bowling association in the U.S. for African-Americans. 1940 - France fell to the Germans during World War II. 1945 - Tommy Brown (Brooklyn Dodgers) became the youngest player to hit a home run in a major league ball game. Brown was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days old. 1949 - Cleveland’s Indians and Chicago’s White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before the largest crowd, 78,382 people, to see a nighttime major-league baseball game. 1953 - It was announced by the Soviet Union that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb. 1955 - In Morocco and Algeria hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting. 1955 - Colonel Horace A. Hanes, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flew to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Hanes reached a speed of 822.135 miles per hour in a Super Sabrejet. 1964 - A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. 1967 - The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record's subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings. 1968 - The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization. 1977 - Voyager 2 was launched by the United States. The spacecraft was carrying a 12 inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature. 1985 - The original Xerox 914 copier was presented to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History. Chester Carlson was the man who invented the machine. 1991 - A rally of more that 100,000 people occurred outside the Russian parliament building to protest the coup that removed Gorbachev from power. 1997 - NATO troops seized six police stations in Banja Luka that had been held by troops controlled by former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic. 1997 - Britain began voluntary evacuation of its Caribbean island of Montserrat due to the volcanic activity of the Soufriere Hills. 1998 - Canada's Supreme Court announced that Quebec could not secede without the federal government's consent. 1998 - U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan. Both targets were chosen for cruise missile strikes due to their connection with Osama bin Laden. 1998 - The U.N. Security Council extended trade sanctions against Iraq for blocking arms inspections.
1964 As part of his Great Society policies, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act which, among other things, established the Head Start program. 1968 The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia. 1977 The space probe Voyager 2 was launched. It continues to explore to this day, and is now more than 7 billion miles from Earth. 1980 Italian Reinhold Messner made the first successful solo ascent of Mount Everest and without oxygen. 1998 U.S. cruise missiles hit suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and the Sudan. 2000 Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug20.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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