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History on the 20th of August

History
Date Text
20 Aug 1553 RELIGIOUS Protestant reformer John Calvin wrote in a letter: 'Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness.'
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20 Aug 1745 RELIGIOUS Birth of Francis Asbury, English Methodist missionary and circuit-riding bishop of the American colonies. During 42 years of labor, Asbury traveled 300,000 miles by horseback, ministering up and down the Eastern seaboard.
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20 Aug 1884 RELIGIOUS Birth of Rudolf Bultmann, German New Testament scholar. He pioneered Form Criticism with his History of the Synoptic Tradition (1921), whereby he sought to identify the devices of Hebrew speech in order to make the central Gospel message meaningful to moderns.
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20 Aug 1886 RELIGIOUS Birth of Paul Tillich, German philosophical theologian. Tillich advocated "myth" as a signpost, participating in the reality to which it points. Evangelicals generally criticize Tillich today for his pantheistic views of God.
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20 Aug 1914 WW1 Begin of Battle of Gumbinnen
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20 Aug 1918 WW2 Settsu was assigned to Battleship Division 2 of the First Fleet. 
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20 Aug 1919 WW2 General Jiro Akashi was named the commanding officer of the newly-formed Taiwan Army with Major General Koichiro Soda as his chief of staff. 
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20 Aug 1921 WW2 Joseph Rochefort became one of the rare few during this period who were transferred from the naval reserve into the United States Navy. He was given the rank of ensign. 
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20 Aug 1924 WW2 Light carrier Hosho's modification work was completed at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan, which saw the removal of her island, mast, and crane. 
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20 Aug 1924 WW2 General Soroku Suzuki was named the commanding officer of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea, relieving Shinnosuke Kikuchi. 
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20 Aug 1924 WW2 Lieutenant General Takaichi Kanno was named the commanding officer of the Taiwan Army. 
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20 Aug 1929 WW2 Ashigara was commissioned into service. 
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20 Aug 1929 WW2 Captain Ibo Takahashi was named the commanding officer of Tenryu. 
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20 Aug 1931 WW2 Masafumi Arima was made the gunnery officer of Asama. 
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20 Aug 1935 WW2 Roger Backhouse was made the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, with his flag aboard battleship HMS Nelson. 
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20 Aug 1937 WW2 Mutsu embarked 2,000 men of the Japanese Army 11th Division. 
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20 Aug 1937 WW2 China was divided into five war areas for the purpose of organizing defense. 
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20 Aug 1937 WW2 Liu Cuigang, flying a Hawk III fighter, shot down a Japanese fighter and an E8N seaplane from seaplane carrier Kamoi after he dropped a 500-pound bomb on a Japanese troop concentration in Shanghai, China. 
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20 Aug 1937 WW2 Nachi departed Nagoya, Japan with the headquarters company and 1st company of 6th Infantry Regiment of Japanese Army 3rd Division aboard. 
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20 Aug 1938 WW2 USS Enterprise crossed the Equator off Brazil. 
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20 Aug 1938 WW2 Japanese 106th Division under Yasuji Okamura and the Japanese 101st Division launched an offensive in Jiangxi Province, China in an attempt to cut off Chinese troops in Nanxun and Wuning Railway. Chinese troops withdrew from Xinzi, Jiangxi Province after sundown, falling back toward Yikou. 
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20 Aug 1939 WW2 German leader Adolf Hitler personally asked Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to move up the date for the meeting of the respective foreign ministers, preferably to 22 Aug or 23 Aug from the originally-proposed 26 Aug. Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck formally rejected British and French request for Poland to allow Soviet troops to enter Poland in case of a German invasion. 
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20 Aug 1939 WW2 Georgy Zhukov commenced a large-scale surprise offensive against Japanese forces in the Mongolia Area of China. 
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20 Aug 1939 WW2 The British turned over four Chinese nationals to the Japanese despite protest from the Chinese government. The four men had been accused of killing a pro-Japanese Chinese collaborationist. The four Chinese accused would soon be executed by the Japanese. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 Hermann Göring sent peace proposals to Britain via Dutch and Turkish foreign ministries, but the proposals were ignored by the British. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 Joseph Stalin's political enemy Leon Trotsky was attacked in his home in Mexico with an ice axe by undercover NKVD agent Ramón Mercader. Trotsky would die on the next day. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 British submarine HMS Cachalot torpedoed and sank German submarine U-51 in the Bay of Biscay 100 miles west of St. Nazaire, France, killing the entire crew of 43. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 German armed merchant cruiser Orion spotted British ship Turakina 350 miles east of New Plymouth, New Zealand, finally sinking her with gunfire and one torpedo after a prolonged chase; 38 crew members were killed. Despite knowing the New Zealand Navy might already be on the way, Orion's commanding officer nevertheless decided to remain in the area for 5 hours to rescue 21 of Turakina's survivors. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 Theodor Osterkamp, the commanding officer of Jagdgeschwader 51, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz). Forty-eight year old Osterkamp was one of only a handful of aviators to see combat in both World Wars. During the Great War he had been awarded both the Knight's Cross of the Royal Hohenzollern House Order with Swords and the Pour le Mérite, and finished the war with thirty kills to his name. In 1940 he added six more victories before his superiors insisted that his further career should be chairbound. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 Chinese communist forces launched the Hundred Regiments Offensive in Hebei and Shanxi Provinces in China. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 Luftwaffe leadership ordered that no more Ju 87 Stuka aircraft were to be sent into action over Britain, after suffering unsustainable loss rates; almost 60 were shot down in the past 11 days. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 At 1445 hours, 190 German aircraft flew over the Thames Estuary in search of British shipping, but failed to find any; British fighters arrived and shot down five German aircraft. Meanwhile, RAF Manston in northeastern Kent, England, United Kingdom was attacked; 1 Spitfire fighter was shot down while attempting to defend the airfield. In total, 7 Luftwaffe aircraft and 3 RAF aircraft were lost today. 
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20 Aug 1940 WW2 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made the "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" speech in the House of Commons in London, England, United Kingdom. 
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20 Aug 1941 WW2 German 250th Infantry Division, nicknamed "Blue Division" and consisted of Spanish volunteers, was formed and began to move to Poland. 
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20 Aug 1941 WW2 The German siege of Leningrad, Russia began. 
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20 Aug 1941 WW2 After sundown, the Germans conducted another round-up of Jews in Paris, France. Their French passports were confiscated, and they would eventually be deported to the Drancy Concentration Camp and later to various concentration camps in Germany and Eastern Europe. 
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20 Aug 1941 WW2 Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki stepped down as the chief of staff of Kure Naval District, Japan. 
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20 Aug 1941 WW2 Captain Takahiko Kiyota was named the commanding officer of Nachi. 
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20 Aug 1941 WW2 German Eleventh Army captured Kherson, Ukraine. Romanian aircraft destroyed a Soviet armored train at Odessa Ukraine. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 USS Copahee was reclassified an auxiliary aircraft carrier with hull number ACV-12. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 Mutsu sortied to hunt for USS Long Island which was delivering aircraft for Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, but failed to make contact. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 Destroyer Yukikaze completed a period of training in the Inland Sea in Japan. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 British ship City of Manila, damaged by German submarine U-406 on the previous day, sank 450 miles west of Portugal. A PBY Catalina aircraft of US Navy squadron VP-73 attacked German submarine U-464 with depth charges 250 miles west of the Faroe Islands between Britain and Iceland at 0530 hours, killing 2 men and damaging the submarine; U-464 was scuttled at 0815 hours after the 51 survivors abandoned ship; all survivors were captured by the British. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 USS Tuscaloosa, USS Rodman, USS Emmons, and HMS Onslaught, carrying war goods for the Soviet Union, were spotted by German aircraft. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 770 Japanese troops under Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki reached within a few miles of Henderson Field at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands by 0430 hours. During the day, Henderson Field received 31 US Marine fighter aircraft (19 Wildcat fighters and 12 Dauntless dive bombers) from USS Long Island, allowing air supply and evacuation of wounded to begin between Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal; the small air fleet at Henderson Field was dubbed "Cactus Air Force". In the evening, Ichiki gave the order to move foward, running into the US Marines defensive perimeter at Tenaru River by surprise around midnight. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 German submarine U-464 was sunk by US Navy pilot Lieutenant (jg) Robert Hopgood in Skerjafjord near Reykjavik, Iceland; 53 German crew members survived. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 Saburo Kurusu arrived in Japan. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 Kichisaburo Nomura arrived in Japan. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 The German 6.Armee began to attack Stalingrad, Russia, crossing the Don River by inflatable boats. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 German bombers attacked Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom. 
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20 Aug 1942 WW2 USS Gunnel was commissioned into service with Lieutenant Commander John S. McCain, Jr. in command. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 USS S-31 completed training services at Nouméa, New Caledonia. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Gar sank a Japanese ship in daylight with one of three torpedoes fired. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 Otto Skorzeny returned to mainland Italy after being shot down by British fighters two days prior. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 German Admiral Canaris' sources informed him that Benito Mussolini might be held prisoner on the island of Elba, Italy. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 Admiral Chester Nimitz submitted a general plan for the invasion of the Marshall Islands. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 Baanga island, located just off western New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, was secured by elements of the US Army 43rd Division. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 German Army formed XXII Gebirgskorps in Greece; Hubert Lanz would soon be named its commanding officer. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Air Group 9 departed. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Whale suffered some damage in the East China Sea during a typhoon. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Wahoo sank a small vessel with her deck guns in the Sea of Okhotsk; six nearby fishermen surrendered and were taken prisoner. Two hours later, she destroyed another small vessels. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 Soviet and German tanks engaged in combat in the fields near Kharkov, Ukraine; the Soviets were defeated after losing 184 T-34 tanks. 
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20 Aug 1943 WW2 USS Alabama departed Norfolk, Virginia, United States. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 French resistance fighters liberated Toulouse, France. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 At Falaise, France, Major David Currie became the only Canadian to win the Victoria Cross during the Normandy campaign. In three days of non-stop action, his little force of tanks, self-propelled anti-tank guns and infantry had destroyed seven Panzers, 12 heavy guns and 40 other vehicles, killing more than 1,000 of the enemy and taking 11,000 prisoners. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Members of the Armia Krajowa attacked the State Telephone Exchange high-rise building in Warsaw, Poland. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Segundo completed taking on ammunition and supplies for a war patrol. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Destroyer Yuzuki was assigned to Destroyer Division 30 of Escort Squadron 31 of the Combined Fleet as the division's flagship under Captain Seiji Sawamura. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Remy Van Lierde became the commanding officer of No. 164 Squadron RAF. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 The US Liberty ship, SS Richard Montgomery, with a cargo of explosives, ran aground and broke her back on a sandbank off Sheerness, Kent, England, United Kingdom. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Cero arrived at Brisbane, Australia, ending her fifth war patrol. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 The Falaise pocket in France began to close around German troops; the Allies captured over 4,000 prisoners of war. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 US 79th Division reached Seine River above Paris, France. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Charles De Gaulle landed at Cherbourg, France. Meeting Dwight Eisenhower later in the day, he convinced the Allied commander that the French capital of Paris should be a priority objective that should not be bypassed. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Pierre Laval stepped down as the Prime Minister of France. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Blockship Foch was hit by two aerial bombs at the mouth of the Toulon harbor, France. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Thirteen men of D-1, Unit 5, arrived on board. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 Captain Enpei Kanoka was named the commanding officer of Nachi while the ship was at Kure Naval Arsenal, Japan. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Gunnel attacked a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all 9 torpedoes missed. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 2nd Ukrainian Front and 3rd Ukrainian Front launched the Second Jassy-Kishinev Offensive into northeastern Romania. The Romanian 3rd Army was broken, while Axis shipping was attacked by Soviet aircraft on the Romanian coast. 
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20 Aug 1944 WW2 USS Kete departed Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 Soviet forces declared the cities of Mukden, Changchun, and Qiqihar in northeastern China secure. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 He Yingqin arrived in Zhijiang, Hunan Province, China and met with China Expeditionary Army representative Takeo Imai to negotiate surrender terms. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 The final naval engagement of WW2 took place along the Chinese coast between Wenzhou and Shanghai between a Japanese-manned junk equipped with a howitzer and two smaller Sino-American junks each equipped with a bazooka (five rounds each) and various small arms. The Allies were of the US Navy Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) organization. The Japanese junk surrendered after 44 of its 83-men crew were killed; 35 were wounded. 4 Chinese were killed on the Allied side; 4 Chinese and 1 American were wounded. This was also the last US Navy engagement in a vessel powered by sail. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 I-401 received orders to report in with her current location. Tatsunosuke Ariizumi, commanding officer of 6th Fleet who was aboard the submarine, did not respond. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 Joseph Stalin signed the final GKO order (No. 9887) making Lavrentiy Beria the head of State Committees No. 1 (atomic research), No. 2 (jet engine research), and No. 3 (radio location equipment development); he no longer held direct authority over counterintelligence. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 Pavel Meshik was named the deputy head of the Soviet 1st Main Directorate for the construction of atomic weapons. 
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20 Aug 1945 WW2 Percy Hobart's British 79th (Experimental) Armoured Division Royal Engineers was disbanded. 
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20 Aug 1946 WW2 Joseph Stalin explained that Vsevolod Merkulov's dismissal in May 1946 was due to his dishonesty during the war. 
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20 Aug 1946 WW2 Rohan Amerasekera became the assistant aerodrome officer at the Ratmalana Airport in Ceylon. 
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20 Aug 1946 WW2 Vojtech Tuka was execute by hanging. 
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20 Aug 1947 WW2 The Doctors' Trial ended in Nuremberg, in which an United States military court found 16 of the 20 doctors and 3 Nazi officials guilty of human experimentation. 7 were given death sentences and 9 were given prison sentences. 
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20 Aug 1949 WW2 USS Sea Robin arrived at New London, Connecticut, United States and joined Submarine Squadron 8. 
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20 Aug 1958 RELIGIOUS A pentecostal sect, formed by Grady R. Kent out of the Church of God of Prophecy, formally adopted as its name "The Church of God of All Nations." The denomination is headquartered today in Cleveland, Tennessee.
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