This Day In European History

20th August

Events
1667: Paradise Lost is published.
1913: The first stainless steel is cast, in Sheffield, UK.
1913: The first parachute jump from an aeroplane, by Adolphe Pegoud.
1940: Winston Churchill makes his 'the few' speech.
1960: Sputnik Five returns two Russian dogs alive to earth.
1968: Czechoslovakia is invaded by Warsaw Pact forces.

Births
1358: King John I of Castile.
1517: Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, Spanish minister.
1745: Francis Asbury, English bishop.
1860: Raymond Poincaré, French president.

Deaths
651: King/St. Oswin of Deira.
1540: Guillaume Bude, French classical scholar.
1639: Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet.
1672: Johan de Witt, Dutch leader.
1823: Pope Pius VII.
1854: Friedrich Schelling, German philosopher.
1940: Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, assassinated on Stalin's orders.

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