Major Events
- 1597 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East
- 1619 Slavery begins in America: 1st known African Americans (approx. 20) land at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia before being sold or traded into servitude
- 1741 Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition
Aug 20 in Film & TV
- 1951 12th Venice Film Festival: “Rashomon” directed by Akira Kurosawa wins the Golden Lion
Aug 20 in Music
Aug 20 in Sport
- 1920 American Professional Football Association forms; Jim Thorpe installed as president; later to become the National Football League (NFL)
- 2000 PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Valhalla GC: Tiger Woods becomes first since Ben Hogan (1953) to win 3 majors in a calendar year; wins back-to-back PGA titles in 3-hole playoff with Bob May
Did You Know?
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”
Fun Fact About August 20
After 108 years a “message in a bottle” put in the sea by UK Marine Biological Association is announced to have been found in April on a beach on the island of Amrum, Germany
Famous Weddings
- 1836 English novelist (Vanity Fair) William Makepeace Thackeray (25) marries Isabella Gethin Shawe (20)
- 1939 “Rebecca” actress Joan Fontaine (21) weds actor Brian Aherne (37); divorce in 1945
- 1992 British “Police” singer Sting (41) weds British actress Trudie Styler (38) at an 11th century chapel in Wiltshire, England
Famous Divorces
- 2012 The man known primarily for gatecrashing the White House, Tareq Salahi (42) divorces socialite Michaele Salahi (46) due to adultery, desertion and construction desertion
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