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HISTORY & TIMELINE
20 August

A journey through
20 August in history

The story of 20 August runs from the Battle of the Yarmuk in 636 to Canada’s Supreme Court ruling on Quebec secession in 1998. In between come the lynching of the de Witt brothers in The Hague, the founding of the presidio at Tucson, the departure of the Burke and Wills expedition, the official premiere of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the founding of the Tongmenghui, the first broadcasts of 8MK in Detroit, Churchill’s tribute to ‘the Few’, Senegal’s break from the Mali Federation, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the launch of Voyager 2 and Reinhold Messner’s solo climb of Everest.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

636
The Battle of the Yarmuk in an early 14th-century manuscript of Hayton's Flower of the Histories of the East, with the Arab army under a crescent banner and the Byzantines under a starThe Battle of the Yarmuk in an early 14th-century manuscript of Hayton’s Flower of the Histories of the East, with the Arab army under a crescent banner and the Byzantines under a starImage: anonymous Catalonian illustrator · Public domain
world · Middle East

Arab armies defeat the Byzantines at the Yarmuk and win Syria

Within a few years of the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, the armies of the new Muslim state had burst out of Arabia into the Byzantine province of Syria and taken Damascus. The emperor Heraclius gathered a large army of Byzantine troops and allies to drive them out, and the Arab commanders pulled back to unite their forces near the Yarmuk River, a tributary of the Jordan, on today’s border between Syria and Jordan. The battle lasted six days. Britannica dates its start to 20 August 636, while many other accounts make 20 August the final and decisive day. Under the generalship of Khalid ibn al-Walid, the Arab forces broke the Byzantine army, and many fleeing soldiers died in the steep ravines around the battlefield. Byzantine rule in Syria was over, Jerusalem surrendered soon afterwards, and the victory opened the way for the rapid spread of the early caliphate across the Middle East.

Source: Britannica: Battle of Yarmouk ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1672
The Gevangenpoort in The Hague, the prison gate where the de Witt brothers were seized, in a painting in the RijksmuseumThe Gevangenpoort in The Hague, the prison gate where the de Witt brothers were seized, in a painting in the RijksmuseumImage: Johannes Adrianus van der Drift · Public domain
politics · Europe

A mob kills Johan and Cornelis de Witt in The Hague

Johan de Witt had led the Dutch Republic as Grand Pensionary of Holland for almost 20 years, but in 1672, the ‘disaster year’, France invaded and the public blamed him and turned to the young William III of Orange. His brother Cornelis was arrested on a charge of plotting against William and sentenced to banishment. On 20 August 1672, when Johan came to fetch him from the Gevangenpoort prison, a crowd broke in and killed both brothers in the street outside.

Source: Britannica: Johan de Witt ↗
1775
Francisco Garcés, the Franciscan friar who was present when the presidio site was chosenFrancisco Garcés, the Franciscan friar who was present when the presidio site was chosenImage: Unknown author · Public domain
world · Americas

Hugo O’Conor marks out the Spanish presidio at Tucson

Spain guarded the northern frontier of New Spain with a chain of fortified posts called presidios. On 20 August 1775 Hugo O’Conor, an Irish-born officer in Spanish service, chose a site beside the O’odham village of Tucson, on the Santa Cruz River, as the new home of the garrison then stationed at Tubac, with the Franciscan friar Francisco Garcés as a witness. The adobe-walled presidio of San Agustín grew into the city of Tucson, which still counts 20 August as its birthday.

Source: Pima County Public Library: Founder’s Day, Tucson, Arizona ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1860
The funeral procession for Burke and Wills in Melbourne in January 1863, from the Illustrated Melbourne PostThe funeral procession for Burke and Wills in Melbourne in January 1863, from the Illustrated Melbourne PostImage: Unknown illustrator; published by Charles Frederick Somerton · Public domain
world · Oceania

Burke and Wills set out from Melbourne to cross Australia

In 1860 the colony of Victoria, rich from gold, set out to send the first expedition right across Australia from south to north, from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Its leader was Robert O’Hara Burke, an Irish-born police officer with no experience of exploring, and his surveyor and later second-in-command was William John Wills. The expedition was lavishly supplied, with horses, wagons and camels imported from India, and some 20 tonnes of equipment. On 20 August 1860 the party left Royal Park in Melbourne, watched by about 15,000 people. Slowed by its baggage and by quarrels, the expedition split up, and in February 1861 Burke, Wills and two companions reached the tidal mangroves near the Gulf. On the way back, Burke and Wills died of hunger and exhaustion near Cooper Creek. Only John King survived, cared for by the Yandruwandha people until a rescue party found him.

Source: National Museum of Australia: Burke and Wills ↗
1882
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, photographed by Émile ReutlingerPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, photographed by Émile ReutlingerImage: Émile Reutlinger · Public domain
culture · Europe

Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture has its official premiere in Moscow

In 1880 Tchaikovsky was asked to write music for the All-Russian Arts and Industrial Exhibition planned in Moscow. He chose to mark the defeat of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, and wrote an overture in which the French ‘Marseillaise’ is gradually drowned out by Russian themes, the old Tsarist hymn ‘God Save the Tsar’, church bells and cannon fire. He thought little of it himself, finding it loud and written without much love. The official premiere came on 20 August 1882 (8 August in the Russian calendar of the time), at a concert of Tchaikovsky’s music in a hall built for the exhibition, conducted by Ippolit Altani; it was not, as often said, played outside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It became one of the most popular pieces of orchestral music in the world, and a favourite of open-air concerts with real cannon and fireworks.

Source: Tchaikovsky Research: The Year 1812 ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1905
A Tongmenghui membership certificate dated 1912A Tongmenghui membership certificate dated 1912Image: Unknown author · Public domain
politics · Asia

Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary league is founded in Tokyo

By the early 1900s many young Chinese had lost faith in the ability of the Qing dynasty to reform and defend the country. Thousands of them were studying in Japan, and Tokyo became a meeting place for exiles and radicals. Several revolutionary groups had grown up separately, among them Sun Yat-sen’s Revive China Society, Huang Xing’s China Revival Society and the Restoration Society. On 20 August 1905 about a hundred delegates met in Tokyo and merged these groups into a single Revolutionary Alliance, the Tongmenghui, with Sun as its leader and Huang Xing as his deputy. Its programme called for driving out the Manchu rulers, restoring Chinese rule, founding a republic and sharing land fairly. The league published its own newspaper and organised a string of risings in southern China; most failed, but the Wuchang rising of October 1911 brought down the dynasty, and in 1912 the Tongmenghui became the core of the new Nationalist Party.

Source: Britannica: China, reformist and revolutionist movements at the end of the dynasty ↗
1920
Staff at work in the 8MK radio station of the Detroit News in August 1920Staff at work in the 8MK radio station of the Detroit News in August 1920Image: Detroit News · Public domain
culture · Americas

Radio station 8MK begins broadcasting from Detroit

The Detroit News set up a radio transmitter in its building and on 20 August 1920 began regular broadcasts under the call sign 8MK, sending out news, music and announcements to the few hundred local enthusiasts who owned receivers. It was one of the first stations in the world to broadcast on a regular schedule, though its claim to be the very first is disputed. Renamed WWJ, it was Michigan’s first radio station and soon carried election results, sport and orchestral concerts.

Source: Detroit Historical Society: Encyclopedia of Detroit, WWJ ↗
1940
A wartime poster carrying Churchill's words about the RAF pilots of the Battle of BritainA wartime poster carrying Churchill’s words about the RAF pilots of the Battle of BritainImage: H.M. Stationery Office · Public domain
world · Europe

Churchill praises ‘the Few’ of the Royal Air Force

In the summer of 1940 the German air force was trying to destroy the Royal Air Force as a step towards invading Britain. On the afternoon of 20 August 1940, reviewing the war in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill paid tribute to the RAF’s fighter pilots with the words ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’. The pilots of the Battle of Britain have been known as ‘the Few’ ever since.

Source: Hansard: House of Commons, War Situation, 20 August 1940 ↗
1960
Mamadou Dia, head of Senegal's government when it broke away from the Mali FederationMamadou Dia, head of Senegal’s government when it broke away from the Mali FederationImage: Bruno Christophe · CC BY-SA 3.0
politics · Africa

Senegal breaks away from the Mali Federation

As France’s West African colonies moved towards self-rule, some of their leaders hoped to hold together in a larger union. In 1959 Senegal and the Sudanese Republic, today’s Mali, joined to form the Mali Federation, named after the medieval empire of the western Sahel. Other territories stayed out, and the two partners, led by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Mamadou Dia in Dakar and Modibo Keïta in Bamako, soon disagreed over how the federation should be run and who should lead it. The Mali Federation became independent on 20 June 1960, but it lasted only two months. On 20 August 1960, after a crisis over the federal presidency and control of the army, Senegal’s assembly declared the country’s own independence, and Keïta and his Sudanese ministers were sent home to Bamako by train. Senghor became Senegal’s first president that September, and on 22 September the Sudanese Republic proclaimed itself the Republic of Mali.

Source: Britannica: Mali Federation ↗
1968
Burning barricades and Soviet tanks in Czechoslovakia on 21 August 1968, in a photograph held by the US National ArchivesBurning barricades and Soviet tanks in Czechoslovakia on 21 August 1968, in a photograph held by the US National ArchivesImage: Unknown photographer (US National Archives) · Public domain
world · Europe

Warsaw Pact tanks roll into Czechoslovakia to end the Prague Spring

In January 1968 Alexander Dubček became leader of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party and began a programme he called ‘socialism with a human face’. Censorship was eased, newspapers and radio spoke freely, and citizens debated reforms that had been unthinkable a few months earlier. In Moscow and in neighbouring Communist capitals, leaders who remembered Hungary in 1956 feared that the ‘Prague Spring’ would spread and loosen their grip on Eastern Europe. On the night of 20 to 21 August 1968 some 200,000 troops of the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, with a token East German presence, crossed the border under the cover of Warsaw Pact exercises. They seized Prague, the main cities and the radio and transport links within hours. Czechoslovaks met the tanks with argument, painted slogans and switched-round road signs rather than armed resistance, but 137 people are thought to have been killed. Dubček was flown to Moscow and forced to reverse his reforms, and Soviet troops stayed in the country until 1991.

Source: US Office of the Historian: Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968 ↗
1977
A Titan IIIE-Centaur rocket lifts Voyager 2 off from Cape Canaveral on 20 August 1977A Titan IIIE-Centaur rocket lifts Voyager 2 off from Cape Canaveral on 20 August 1977Image: NASA/MSFC · Public domain
science · Americas

Voyager 2 is launched on its grand tour of the outer planets

In the late 1970s the giant outer planets lined up in a way that happens only once every 175 years or so, allowing a spacecraft to swing from one to the next using each planet’s gravity. NASA built two identical probes to take advantage of it. Voyager 2 was launched first, on a Titan-Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 10.29 a.m. local time on 20 August 1977; its twin, Voyager 1, followed on a faster path on 5 September. Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1981, then went on to become the only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus, in 1986, and Neptune, in 1989. Each carried a gold-plated record of sounds and images from Earth. In 2018, more than 40 years after launch, Voyager 2 became the second human-made object to cross into interstellar space.

Source: NASA Science: Voyager mission overview ↗
1980
The north face of Mount Everest from the Tibetan side, the side Reinhold Messner climbed alone in 1980The north face of Mount Everest from the Tibetan side, the side Reinhold Messner climbed alone in 1980Image: Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) · CC BY-SA 2.5
sport · Asia

Reinhold Messner stands alone on the summit of Everest

In 1978 the Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner and the Austrian Peter Habeler had become the first to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Two years later Messner set himself a harder task: to climb it entirely alone, without oxygen, without fixed ropes or camps prepared by others, and during the summer monsoon, from the Tibetan side of the mountain. After weeks of acclimatising, he left his advanced base on 18 August 1980 and fell into a crevasse in the dark within hours, but climbed out and carried on up the north side. On 20 August 1980, exhausted, he reached the summit, the first person to stand there truly alone. He came down safely, and the climb is still counted among the greatest feats in mountaineering.

Source: Britannica: Mount Everest, first solo climb ↗
1998
The Supreme Court of Canada building in OttawaThe Supreme Court of Canada building in OttawaImage: Dig deeper · CC BY 4.0
politics · Americas

Canada’s Supreme Court rules on whether Quebec may secede

After Quebec voted by the narrowest of margins to stay in Canada in 1995, the federal government asked the Supreme Court whether the province could leave on its own. On 20 August 1998 the court ruled unanimously that Quebec had no right to secede unilaterally under either Canadian or international law. But it added that a clear majority on a clear question would oblige the rest of Canada to negotiate. The ruling led to the Clarity Act of 2000.

Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia: Reference re Secession of Quebec ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 20 August, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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