August 20th

The only man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 returned home to Libya after his release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

Former Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising picture during World War II, died at age 94.

Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year.

Retaliating for deadly embassy bombings in East Africa, the United States launched cruise missile strikes against al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and what was described as a chemical plant in Sudan.

Oslo Peace Accords signed, after secret negotiations in Norway, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month.

The Republican National Convention in Houston nominated President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term.

The Iran-Iraq War comes to an end after 7 years. The deadly conventional war between the two Middle Eastern countries began when Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980.

Italian Reinhold Messner made the first successful solo ascent of Mount Everest and without oxygen.

The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

Viking 1 is launched by NASA using a Titan launch vehicle. It became the first space probe to successfully land on Mars.

During the night 200,00 Warsaw Pact Soviet led troops begin to invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring.

As part of his Great Society policies, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act which, among other things, established the Head Start program.

Senegal withdraws from the Mali Federation. Senegal withdrew from the Mali Federation, a year after its establishment. Léopold Senghor became the first president of Senegal a month later.

Hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.

The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.".

Britain opened an offensive on the Western front during World War I.

German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.

Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' opens in Moscow.

President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over.

Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, was born in North Bend, Ohio.

Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition.

1st known African Americans in English North America (approx. 20) land at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia then sold or traded into servitude.

1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East.