Day in History Archive August 20

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Note: These historical tidbits have been collected from various sources, mostly on the Internet. As detailed in this article, there is a lot of wrong information that is repeated hundreds of times because most websites do not validate with authoritative sources. On RF Cafe, events with hyperlinks have been verified. All will eventually be either verified or removed.
Please submit significant historical events and dates for inclusion in these lists. I will be glad to include your name and birthday. Please do not submit your death date ;-)
 
 

August 20

1896: The dial telephone was patented. 1911: The first cable message was sent around the world by the NY Time from the U.S. via 29,000 miles of commercial telegraph wires; it read "This message sent around the world." 1923: Vilfredo Pareto, the economist who created the Pareto chart, died. 1930: Philo Farnsworth patented his television system. 1936: : Edward Weston, founder of the Weston Electrical Instrument Company, was born., founder of the Weston Electrical Instrument Company, died. 1953: The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb. 1977: The United States 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. 2001: Sir Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term "Big Bang," died.