20 August on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

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

Battle of the Yarmuk: 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.

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

An army under Isaac I Komnenos defeat forces loyal to rival emperor Michael VI Bringas in the battle of Hades.

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

King Henry I of England defeats king Louis VI of France in the battle of Brémule.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are lynched by a mob in The Hague.

The first Siege of Pensacola comes to an end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.

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.

The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.

Northwest Indian War: United States troops force the United Indian Nations, a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Lenape, Wyandot, Miami, Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi warriors, into a disorganized retreat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Steamboat Atlantic sinks on Lake Erie after a collision, with the loss of at least 150 lives.

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.

Bakumatsu: Kinmon incident: The Chōshū Domain attempts to expel the Satsuma and Aizu Domains from Japan's imperial court.

President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.

Celtic Park, the largest football stadium in Scotland and home of Celtic F.C., opened.

Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others establish the Tongmenghui, a Republican, anti-Qing revolutionary organisation, in Tokyo, Japan.

Pluto was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.

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.

World War I: Brussels is captured during the German invasion of Belgium.

The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Conference in Canton, Ohio.

The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit.

Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.

In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.

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".

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.

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.

World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.

Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M. Lomakin is expelled by the United States, due to the Kasenkina Case.

Hungary adopts the Hungarian Constitution of 1949 and becomes a People's Republic.

Korean War: United Nations forces repelled an attempt by North Korea to capture the city of Taegu.

Battle of Philippeville: In Algeria, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.

Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.

The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.

Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate.

Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

ČSA Flight 540 crashes on approach to Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, killing 126 people.

Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill shoots and kills 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.

"Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park.

Iran–Iraq War: A ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war.

The Troubles: Eight British soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by an IRA roadside bomb in Ballygawley, County Tyrone.

The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was finished, completing at the time the world's longest and fastest guided busway, with buses travelling 12 km (7.5 mi) at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).

The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Estonia, occupied by and incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of legal continuity of its pre-occupation statehood.

In India, Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language) is included in the scheduled languages' list and made one of the official languages of the Indian Government.

The Firozabad rail disaster kills 358 people in Firozabad, India.

Souhane massacre in Algeria; over 60 people are killed and 15 kidnapped.

The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

U.S. embassy bombings: The United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, Germany for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.

Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai.

China Airlines Flight 120 catches fire and explodes after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan.

Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the 172 people on board, 146 die immediately, and eight more later die of injuries sustained in the crash.

First Air Flight 6560 crashes 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Resolute Bay runway, killing 12 of the 15 aboard.

A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.

Seventy-two people are killed in Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture by a series of landslides caused by a month's worth of rain that fell in one day.

Fifty-four people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey.

Silent Sam, a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was toppled by protestors.

Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech virtually for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Benjamin Harrison, American general, lawyer, and politician, 23rd President of the United States (died 1901)

Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actress

Andrew Garfield, American-English actor

H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, novelist (died 1937)

Rajiv Gandhi, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (died 1991)

Slobodan Milošević, Serbian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Serbia (died 2006)

Amy Adams, American actress

Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian novelist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)

Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist and academic (died 1848)

Ron Paul, American captain, physician, and politician

Raymond Poincaré, French lawyer and politician, 10th President of France (died 1934)

Enrico Letta, Italian lawyer and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Italy

Robert Plant, English singer-songwriter

Andrei Konchalovsky, Russian director, producer, and screenwriter

Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Bolesław Prus, Polish journalist and author (died 1912)

Laurent Fabius, French politician, 158th Prime Minister of France

Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean general and politician, 2nd Supreme Director of Chile (died 1842)

Isaac Hayes, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor (died 2008)

Yuri Zhirkov, Russian footballer

Joan Allen, American actress

Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neuropsychologist and neurobiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)

Paul Tillich, German-American philosopher and theologian (died 1965)

Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian and professor of New Testament at the University of Marburg (died 1976)

Joshua Kennedy, Australian footballer

Jacopo Peri, Italian singer and composer (died 1633)

Eero Saarinen, Finnish-American architect and furniture designer, designed the Gateway Arch (died 1961)

Ke Huy Quan, Vietnamese-American actor

Misha Collins, American actor

Ben Barnes, English actor

David O. Russell, American director and screenwriter

Fred Durst, American singer-songwriter

David Walliams, English comedian, actor, and author

Mijaín López, Cuban wrestler

Vasily Aksyonov, Russian physician, author, and academic (died 2009)

Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect and academic, co-designed the National Museum of Finland (died 1950)

Shahrukh Mirza, ruler of Persia and Transoxiania (died 1447)

Judd Trump, English snooker player

John Noble, Australian actor and director

Henry Every, English pirate (died 1696)

Greg Bear, American author (died 2022)

James Marsters, American actor

Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2004)

Liana Liberato, American actress

Leopold Infeld, Polish nuclear physicist, writer (died 1968)

Phil Lynott, Irish singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (died 1986)

Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Dutch swimmer

Simon Donaldson, English mathematician and academic

KRS-One, American rapper and producer

Stephen Ward, Irish footballer

Tôn Đức Thắng, Vietnamese politician, 2nd President of Vietnam (died 1980)

Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian author and poet (died 1970)

N. R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman, co-founded Infosys

Jean-Loup Chrétien, French military officer and astronaut

Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor

Ralf Hütter, German singer and keyboard player

Alan Lee, English painter and illustrator

Ray Wise, American actor

Klas Ingesson, Swedish footballer and manager (died 2014)

Maxim Vengerov, Russian-Israeli violinist and conductor