Daily Calendar for Thursday, August 20, 2026

Daily Calendar

View daily calendar information including holidays, advice, and daily features.

Pope Pius X (religious leader) – 1914
Sir Fred Hoyle (English astronomer; died in Bournemouth, U.K.) – 2001
Somporn Saekow (founder of first Thailand monkey-training school) – 2002
Joe Rosenthal (photojournalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for the image of World War II servicemen raising an American flag over Iwo Jima. The photo became the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial) – 2006
Leona Helmsley (hotel magnate) – 2007
Phyllis Diller (comedienne & actress) – 2012
Elmore Leonard (author) – 2013
Jerry Lewis (American comedian; died in Las Vegas, Nevada) – 2017

The 1812 Overture debuted in Moscow – 1882
Strowger firm applied for a patent for the first telephone rotary dial – 1896
The Plant Quarantine Act came into effect, placing restrictions on the entry of plants into the U.S. – 1912
German forces occupied Brussels – 1914
Project Manhigh II completed – 1957
563-lb. 8-oz. giant sea bass caught near Anacapa Island, California – 1968
The unmanned U.S. planetary probe Viking 1 was launched on a journey to Mars. After nearly a year in space, it became the first vehicle to land on that planet – 1975
Jellyfish invaded the beaches of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island – 1978
Talk show host Regis Philbin achieved the Guinness World Record for most hours on camera – 2004
Parade of 83 tow trucks set a world record in Wenatchee, Washington – 2004

Salt crystals fell from the sky over Switzerland – 1870
The town of Indianola, Texas, was completely destroyed by a hurricane and fire – 1886
Deadly tornado hit Sudbury, Ontario – 1970
Historic heatwave roasts the central United States, with high temperatures combining with high dewpoints to create Heat Indices as high as 134°F (Lawrenceville, Kansas: Aug. 20, Aug. 21). – 2023 , – 2023 , – 2023 , – 2023 , – 2023