Today is Saturday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2005. There are 133 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Aug. 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime.
On this date:
In 1833, Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, was born in North Bend, Ohio.
In 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, months after the fighting had stopped.
In 1914, German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
In 1918, Britain opened its offensive on the Western front during World War I.
In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
In 1953, the Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
In 1955, hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
In 1964, President Johnson signed a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
In 1977, the U.S. launched Voyager II, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
In 1994, Benjamin Chavis Jr. was fired as head of the NAACP after a turbulent 16-month tenure.
Ten years ago: In northern India, 348 people were killed when a passenger train rammed another that had stopped on the tracks after hitting a cow. The remnants of an American peace delegation headed home from Bosnia-Herzegovina with the bodies of three diplomats killed in an accident.
Five years ago: Verizon Communications and unions representing 50,000 workers reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year-contract as a two-week strike neared an end. Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship in a playoff over Bob May, becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year.
One year ago: Democrats labored to deflect attacks on John Kerry's war record with fresh television ads touting his fitness for national command. In Athens, Michael Phelps matched Mark Spitz's record of four individual gold medals in the Olympic pool with a stirring comeback in the 100-meter butterfly, then removed himself from further competition.
Today's Birthdays: Writer-producer-director Walter Bernstein is 86. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, is 72. Singer-musician Isaac Hayes is 63. Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 59. Musician Jimmy Pankow (Chicago) is 58. Rock singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 57. Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 53. Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 53. Actor-director Peter Horton is 52. TV weatherman Al Roker is 51. Actor Jay Acovone is 50. Actress Joan Allen is 49. TV personality Asha Blake is 44. Actor James Marsters is 43. Rapper KRS-One is 40. Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 35. Rock musician Brad Avery (Third Day) is 34. Actor Jonathan Ke Quan is 34. Rock singer Monique Powell (Save Ferris) is 30.
Thought for Today: "History abhors determinism, but cannot tolerate chance." — Bernard De Voto, American author, journalist and critic (1897-1955).