Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 20:
1940 – Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, was fatally wounded by a Spanish Communist with an ice axe in Mexico City, dying the next day. The Soviet government denied responsibility.
1953 – French forces deposed the Sultan of Morocco, Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef.
1960 – Senegal decided to withdraw from the Mali Federation which it had formed with French Soudan (now Mali) in 1959.
1961 – East Germany began to erect a five-foot-high wall along the border between East and West Berlin to replace the barbed wire put up on August 13.
1980 – The Italian climber Reinhold Messner made the first successful solo ascent of Mount Everest.
1989 – Said Aouita of Morocco sets a 3,000m world record.
1995 – At least 350 people were killed in India’s worst train disaster when two Delhi-bound trains collided at Firozabad, 200 km (125 miles) from the Indian capital.
1999 – Three Japanese banks announce plans for broad alliance, forming the world’s first trillion-dollar financial group.
2011 – Freddy Nock of Switzerland breaks his own world record when he balances on the ropeway of a cable car on Germany’s highest mountain.
2014 – Landslides sweep through residential areas in Hiroshima, Japan.
2016 – Usain Bolt of Jamaica sets new world record in men’s 200m race.
(Reuters)
