2024-08-20

Silent Sam, a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was toppled by protestors.

Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take-off from Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.

The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory (pictured) in Sudan was destroyed by a missile attack launched by the United States in retaliation for the August 7 U.S. embassy bombings.

After colliding with the dredger Bowbelle on the River Thames in London, the pleasure boat Marchioness sank in thirty seconds, killing 51 people.

The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was finished, completing at the time the world's longest and fastest guided busway, with buses (example pictured) travelling 12 km (7.5 mi) at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding twenty-eight.

Fires in the United States' Yellowstone National Park ravaged more than 150,000 acres (610 km2) on the single worst day of the conflagration.

Korean War: United Nations forces repelled an attempt by North Korea to capture the city of Taegu.

The American Professional Football Association, a predecessor of the National Football League, was founded.

Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, which burned about 4,700 square miles (12,100 km²), the largest fire in recorded U.S. history.