Tuesday, August 20, 2013

TODAY IN HISTORY

Tuesday, August  20, 2013
AP Highlight in History: 
On Aug. 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime.
 
AP Photo
On this date in:
1833Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, was born in North Bend, Ohio.
1914German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
1918Britain opened an offensive on the Western front during World War I.
1940British 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."
1953The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
1955Hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1964President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
1977The 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.
1992The Republican National Convention in Houston nominated President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term.
1998Retaliating 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.
2006Former Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising picture during World War II, died at age 94.
2009Voting in Afghanistan's presidential election was marred by rampant ballot-box stuffing. (Hamid Karzai was declared the winner in November.)
2009The 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.
 
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Today's Birthdays:
TV weatherman Al Roker ("Today") turns 59 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
NameProfessionAge
George MitchellFormer Senate majority leader80
Connie ChungBroadcast journalist67
Jimmy PankowRock musician (Chicago)66
Robert PlantRock singer (Led Zeppelin)65
John HiattRock singer, songwriter61
Joan AllenActress57
David O. RussellDirector55
James MarstersActor ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel")51
KRS-OneRapper48
Billy GardellActor ("Mike and Molly")44
Fred DurstRock singer (Limp Bizkit)43
Todd HeltonBaseball player40
Actress-singer Demi Lovato ("Sonny with a Chance") turns 21 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini

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