Today is Friday, August 20, the 232nd day of 2010. There are 133 days left in the year.
1866 ― President Andrew Johnson formally declares Civil War over
1896 ― Dial telephone patented
1953 ― Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
1955 ― Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria
1960 _ USSR recovers two dogs; first living organisms to return from space
1968 ― 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia
1974 ― Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4 mph)
1977 ― NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
1980 ― Reinhold Messner of Italy is first to solo ascent Mt. Everest
1980 ― U.N. Security Council condemns (14-0, U.S. abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital