1961 cold war failure of the bay of pigs invasion of us backed c 04 20
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1968 58 years ago Historical Events August 20 3 sources

Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate.

On August 20, in the year 1968, Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate. This event is recorded as a Historical Events event in the history of August 20, one of 496 recorded events on this date across all of history.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on August 20, 1968 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Historical Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 3 Wikipedia articles.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 31 July 2026.

On This Date in History 496

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2024 Aug 20 Al Attles, American basketball player and coach (born 1936)
Notable Deaths 2022 Aug 20 Darya Dugina, Russian journalist (born 1992)
Notable Deaths 2021 Aug 20 Igor Vovkovinskiy, Ukrainian-American law student and actor, American tallest person (born 1982)
Historical Events 2020 Aug 20 Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech virtually for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic…
Notable Deaths 2018 Aug 20 Uri Avnery, Israeli writer, politician and peace activist (born 1923)
Notable Deaths 2018 Aug 20 Jennifer Ramírez Rivero, Venezuelan model (born 1978)
Selected Events 2018 Aug 20 Silent Sam, a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was toppled by…
Notable Deaths 2017 Aug 20 Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (born 1926)
Historical Events 2016 Aug 20 Fifty-four people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 20 Egon Bahr, German journalist and politician, Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany (born 1922)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 20 Paul Kibblewhite, New Zealand chemist and engineer (born 1941)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 20 Frank Wilkes, Australian soldier and politician (born 1922)
Historical Events 2014 Aug 20 Seventy-two people are killed in Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture by a series of landslides caused by a month's worth of…
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 Anton Buslov, Russian astrophysicist and journalist (born 1983)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 Lois Mai Chan, Taiwanese-American librarian, author, and academic (born 1934)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 Boris Dubin, Russian sociologist and academic (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and author, founded Iyengar Yoga (born 1918)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 Buddy MacMaster, Canadian singer-songwriter and fiddler (born 1924)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 Sava Stojkov, Serbian painter and educator (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 20 Edmund Szoka, American cardinal (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 Sathima Bea Benjamin, South African singer-songwriter (born 1936)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 Narendra Dabholkar, Indian author and activist (born 1945)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 Don Hassler, American saxophonist and composer (born 1929)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 Elmore Leonard, American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 Marian McPartland, English-American pianist and composer (born 1918)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 John W. Morris, American general (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 20 Ted Post, American director and screenwriter (born 1918)
Historical Events 2012 Aug 20 A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 20 Phyllis Diller, American actress and comedian (born 1917)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 20 Daryl Hine, Canadian-American poet and academic (born 1936)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 20 Dom Mintoff, Maltese journalist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Malta (born 1916)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 20 Len Quested, English footballer and manager (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 20 Mika Yamamoto, Japanese journalist (born 1967)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 20 Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian soldier and politician, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (born 1955)
Historical Events 2011 Aug 20 First Air Flight 6560 crashes 1 mile from the Resolute Bay runway, killing 12 of the 15 aboard.
Notable Deaths 2011 Aug 20 Ram Sharan Sharma, Indian historian and academic (born 1919)
Notable Deaths 2010 Aug 20 Đặng Phong, Vietnamese economist and historian (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2009 Aug 20 Larry Knechtel, American keyboardist and bass player (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2009 Aug 20 Karla Kuskin, American author and illustrator (born 1932)
Historical Events 2008 Aug 20 Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the…
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 20 Ed Freeman, American soldier and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 20 Hua Guofeng, Chinese politician, 2nd Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 20 Stephanie Tubbs Jones, American lawyer and politician (born 1949)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 20 Gene Upshaw, American football player (born 1945)
Selected Events 2008 Aug 20 Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take-off from Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.
Historical Events 2007 Aug 20 China Airlines Flight 120 catches fire and explodes after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan.
Notable Deaths 2007 Aug 20 Leona Helmsley, American businesswoman (born 1920)
Historical Events 2006 Aug 20 Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in…
Notable Deaths 2006 Aug 20 Bryan Budd, Northern Ireland-born English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1977)
Notable Deaths 2006 Aug 20 Joe Rosenthal, American photographer and journalist (born 1911)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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