Today is Thursday, August 20, the 232nd day of 2009. There are 133 days left in the year.
1866 _ President Andrew Johnson formally declares Civil War over
1896 _ Dial telephone patented
1920 _ First U.S. commercial radio, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit, began daily broadcasting
1940 _ Leon Trotsky, assassinated in Mexico City by Stalin agents, dies
1949 _ Hungary (Magyar People's Republic) accepts constitution
1953 _ Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
1965 _ Rolling Stones release ``Satisfaction" (their first No. 1 U.S. hit)
1968 _ 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia
1974 _ Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4 mph)
1980 _ U.N. Security Council condemns (14-0, U.S. abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jersualem is its capital