TODAY in HISTORY: AUGUST 20

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 20

 

Reuters


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.