On This Day: August 20, 2008
Birthdays:| 1833 | Benjamin Harrison, Former (23rd) US President | | 1890 | H.P Lovecraft, American writer | | 1924 | Jim Reeves, American country singer | | 1937 | Jim Bowen, Comedian | | 1942 | Isaac Hayes, American film actor | | 1952 | John Embury, Cricketer |
Events:| 1914 | German forces occupied the Belgian city of Brussels | | 1917 | Bathing by Berlin residents was banned, to save water and coal | | 1940 | Leon Trotsky, the Russian politician, was murdered | | 1956 | Britain's first nuclear power station, Calder Hall, began operating | | 1968 | Russian and Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia | | 1975 | The US probe Viking I was launched; first craft to send pictures from the surface of Mars | | 1977 | The US spacecraft Voyager 2 was launched to the outer solar system | | 1982 | About 515 candidates vie for the 96 seats in the Senate held across the country. | | 1990 | Britons were held hostage at Iraqi miltary installations, during the Gulf War |
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