Calendar date · August

What happened on August 20

On August 20, 14: Agrippa Postumus, maternal grandson of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile.

Events

61

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Leo

Featured moment · 14

Agrippa Postumus, maternal grandson of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile.

AD 14 (XIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Appuleius. The denomination AD 14 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

People

Born on August 20

Prince Gabriel of Belgium 2003– Belgian prince (born 2003)
Lieke Klaver 1998– Dutch sprinter (born 1998)
Kaho Minagawa 1997– Japanese rhythmic gymnast
Daniel Vladař 1997– Czech ice hockey player (born 1997)
Bunty Afoa 1996– Samoan rugby league footballer
Liana Liberato 1995– American actress (born 1995)
Mitchell Trubisky 1994– American football player (born 1994)
Tonisha Rock-Yaw 1993– Barbadian netball player
Matt Eisenhuth 1992– Australian rugby league footballer
Show 9 more — notable births on August 20
Carolina Horta 1992– Brazilian beach volleyball player (born 1992)
Demi Lovato 1992– American singer and actress (born 1992)
Alex Newell 1992– American actor and singer (born 1992)
Deniss Rakels 1992– Latvian footballer
Callum Skinner 1992– Scottish track cyclist
Marko Djokovic 1991– Serbian professional tennis player
Jyrki Jokipakka 1991– Finnish ice hockey player (born 1991)
Cory Joseph 1991– Canadian basketball player (born 1991)
Macauley Chrisantus 1990– Nigerian footballer

People

Died on August 20

Al Attles American basketball player and coach (1936–2024)
Darya Dugina Russian journalist and activist (1992–2022)
Igor Vovkovinskiy Ukrainian-American known for being America's tallest person
Uri Avnery Israeli politician, journalist and author (1923–2018)
Jennifer Ramírez Rivero Venezuelan model (1978–2018)
Jerry Lewis American comedian, actor and filmmaker (1926–2017)
Egon Bahr German politician
Paul Kibblewhite New Zealand scientist
Frank Wilkes Australian politician
Show 9 more — notable deaths on August 20
Anton Buslov Russian blogger and writer (1983–2014)
Lois Mai Chan Taiwanese-American library scientist
Boris Dubin Russian sociologist
B. K. S. Iyengar Indian yoga teacher and author (1918–2014)
Buddy MacMaster Canadian musician
Sava Stojkov Serbian painter and educator (born 1925)
Edmund Szoka American Roman Catholic priest and cardinal
Sathima Bea Benjamin South African vocalist and composer (1936–2013)
Narendra Dabholkar Indian physician and author (1945–2013)

Timeline

Every August 20 on record

  1. 14 Agrippa Postumus, maternal grandson of the late Roman emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile.

    Calendar year

    AD 14 (XIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Appuleius. The denomination AD 14 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

  2. 636 Marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia, Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid defeat the Byzantine Empire and take control of the Levant.

    Adherents of Islam

    Muslims are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham as it was revealed to Muhammad, the last Islamic prophet. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injil (Gospel).

  3. 917 Battle of Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army.

    Part of the Byzantine–Bulgarian wars

    The Battle of Achelous or Acheloos, also known as the Battle of Anchialus, took place on 20 August 917, on the Achelous river near the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, close to the fortress Tuthom between Bulgarian and Byzantine forces. The Bulgarians obtained a decisive victory which not only secured the previous successes of Simeon I, but made him de facto ruler of the whole Balkan Peninsula, excluding the well-protected Byzantine capital Constantinople and the Peloponnese. The battle, which was one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the European Middle Ages, was one of the worst disasters ever to befall a Byzantine army, and conversely one of the greatest military successes of Bulgaria.

  4. 1083 The first King of Hungary, Stephen I, and his son, Prince Emeric, are canonized, a date now celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.

    Monarch of the Kingdom of Hungary (1000–1918)

    The King of Hungary was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all monarchs of Hungary.

  5. 1191 Believing Saladin had reneged on ransom promises, Richard I of England initiates the massacre at Ayyadieh, beheading 2,700 captive Muslim soldiers and another 300 women and children seized at the Fall of Acre.

    Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty (c. 1137–1193)

    Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, commonly known as Saladin, was a Kurdish commander and political leader. He was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant.

  6. 1308 At the conclusion of the interrogation of the leaders of the Knights Templar, the three papal investigators, Cardinals Bérenger Frédol, Etienne de Suisy and Landolfo Brancacci, write the "Chinon Parchment", in which they affirm that the accused Templars had confessed, done penance, and were absolved of heresy.
  7. 1467 The Second Battle of Olmedo takes places as part of a succession conflict between Henry IV of Castile and his half-brother Alfonso, Prince of Asturias.
  8. 1519 On the third day of battle, philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming dynasty's Zhengde Emperor.
  9. 1648 The Battle of Lens is the last major military confrontation of the Thirty Years' War, contributing to the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in October that year.
  10. 1672 Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are lynched by a mob in The Hague.
  11. 1707 The first Siege of Pensacola comes to an end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
  12. 1710 War of the Spanish Succession: A multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg defeats the Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay in the Battle of Saragossa.
  13. 1775 The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
  14. 1794 Northwest Indian War: United States troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
  15. 1852 Steamboat Atlantic sank on Lake Erie after a collision, with the loss of at least 150 lives.
Show 15 earlier entries from August 20
  1. 1858 Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
  2. 1864 Bakumatsu: Kinmon incident: The Chōshū Domain attempts to expel the Satsuma and Aizu Domains from Japan's imperial court.
  3. 1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
  4. 1882 Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.
  5. 1905 Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others establish the Tongmenghui, a Republican, anti-Qing revolutionary organisation, in Tokyo, Japan.
  6. 1910 Extreme fire weather in the Inland Northwest of the United States causes many small wildfires to coalesce into the Great Fire of 1910, burning approximately 3 million acres (12,000 km2) and killing 87 people.
  7. 1914 World War I: Brussels is captured during the German invasion of Belgium.
  8. 1920 The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.
  9. 1920 The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Conference in Canton, Ohio
  10. 1926 Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
  11. 1938 Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam, a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.
  12. 1940 In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.
  13. 1940 World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".
  14. 1940 World War II: The Eighth Route Army launches the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a successful campaign to disrupt Japanese war infrastructure and logistics in occupied northern China.
  15. 1944 World War II: One hundred sixty-eight captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.

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