AUGUST 20TH

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Today is Wednesday, August 20, the 233rd day of 2008.
There are 133 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On August 20, 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."

On this date:

• In 1833, Benjamin Harrison, 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 fighting had stopped.
• In 1914, German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
• In 1920, pioneering American radio station 8MK in Detroit (later WWJ) began daily broadcasting.
• In 1948, the United States ordered the expulsion of the Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin, accusing him of attempting to return two consular employees to the Soviet Union against their will.
• In 1955, hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
• In 1964, President Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
• In 1977, the U.S. launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
• In 1986, postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill went on a deadly rampage at a post office in Edmond, Okla., shooting 14 fellow workers to death before killing himself.
• In 1988, eight British soldiers were killed by an Irish Republican Army land mine that destroyed a military bus near Omagh, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

Ten years ago:

• Retaliating 13 days after the deadly embassy bombings in East Africa, U.S. forces launched cruise missile strikes against alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan and what was described as a chemical plant in Sudan.
• Monica Lewinsky went before a grand jury for a second round of explicit testimony about her White House encounters with President Clinton.

Five years ago:

• Hundreds of thousands marched in Venezuela, demanding the recall of President Hugo Chavez.
• The United States won the women's overall team gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, Calif.; Romania took the silver medal and Australia, the bronze.

One year ago:

• Tens of thousands of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as Hurricane Dean roared toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
• A roadside bomb killed the governor of the predominantly Shiite Muthanna province in Iraq.
• A China Airlines Boeing 737-800 exploded in a fireball at an airport gate in Okinawa seconds after all 157 passengers and eight crew had safely evacuated.
• Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expressed irritation with the "Obama Girl" Web video, saying it had upset his daughters.
• Hotel magnate Leona Helmsley died in Greenwich, Conn., at age 87.

Today's Birthdays:

• Writer-producer-director Walter Bernstein is 89.
• Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, is 75.
• U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is 73.
• Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 62.
• Musician Jimmy Pankow (Chicago) is 61.
• Rock singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 60.
• Rock singer Doug Fieger (The Knack) is 56.
• Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 56.
• Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 56.
• Actor-director Peter Horton is 55.
• TV weatherman Al Roker is 54.
• Actor Jay Acovone is 53.
• Actress Joan Allen is 52.
• TV personality Asha Blake is 47.
• Actor James Marsters is 46.
• Rapper KRS-One is 43.
• Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) is 38.
• Rock musician Brad Avery is 37.
• Actor Jonathan Ke Quan is 37.
• Rock singer Monique Powell (Save Ferris) is 33.

Thought for Today:

"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries 'Give, give!'"
Abigail Adams, American first lady (1744-1818).

"Let's all be careful out there!"