20 August in Indian and World History is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons.20 August is the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, Nagavar Ramarao Narayana Murthy, Tania Sachdev, and Rajendra Kumar Pachauri.
20 August is also observed as the death anniversary of Gopinath Mohanty, Ram Sharan Sharma, and B. K. S. Iyengar.
Birth Anniversary
20 August in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:
Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991), son of Indira Gandhi and grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, was the seventh Prime Minister of India. Rajiv was married to Antonia Maino who was a citizen of Italy at that time. After marriage, his wife changed her name to Sonia Gandhi. It is said that he met Rajiv Gandhi when Rajiv had gone to Cambridge to study. They got married in 1968 after which they started living in India. Rajiv and Sonia have two children, a son Rahul Gandhi born in 1970, and a daughter Priyanka Gandhi born in 1972. After the untimely death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in an airplane accident in 1980, Rajiv Gandhi entered politics in 1981 to support Mother Indira Gandhi. He won the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi and became the Prime Minister of India after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by bodyguards on 31 October 1984 and remained the Prime Minister with the highest majority in the next general elections. Rajiv Gandhi is considered the father of the information revolution in India. He is credited with the computerization and telecommunication revolution of the country. He did the work of getting 33% reservations for women in local self-government institutions. By reducing the age of the voter from 21 years to 18 years, Rajiv Gandhi got the right to vote in the elections. Gandhi was Born on 20 August 1944 in Mumbai.
Nagavar Ramarao Narayana Murthy, the founder and well-known industrialist of India’s famous software company Infosys Technologies. He was born in Mysore. He moved to Bangalore from Mysore to study at IIT, where he obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Mysore in 1967 and a Master of Technology (M.Tech) degree from IIT Kanpur in 1969. Narayan Murthy started his career at Patni Computer Systems (PCS), Pune. Later along with his friend Shashikant Sharma and Professor Krishnayya he founded the Systems Research Institute in Pune in 1975. In 1981, Narayana Murthy founded Infosys Company. Started in an apartment in Mumbai, the story of the progress of this company is known to the world today. The hard work of all the colleagues paid off and in 1991 Infosys was converted into a public limited company. He has been decorated with the honors of Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan, and Officer of the Legion of Honour – Government of France [4]. Other names on this list were Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Warren Waffle. Though Narayana Murthy has now retired, he will continue to be the Honorary Chairman of Infosys. He was Born on 20 August 1946 in Karnataka.
Tania Sachdev, an Indian female chess player. Indian chess glamor girl Tania Sachdev became the Asian Women’s Chess Queen on 11 September 2007 in Iran. In the same year, he also won the National Chess Championship. In the senior category, the Asian Championship is his biggest title so far. She is an Indian female Grand Master. Tania had won the international level at the age of 8. In 1994, he made history by winning 5 titles at the British Championship in Norwich. He also won the International Master Norm. In 1997, Tania Sachdev won the national championship in the age group under 12, they won the national championship in the same category in 1998. In 1999, Tania won the championship of Delhi in the age group below 19 years. She was Born on 20 August 1986 in Delhi.
Rajendra Kumar Pachauri (20 August 1940 – 13 February 2020) is an internationally renowned environmentalist. He received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Vice President Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Gunner. It is noteworthy that while Al Gore received this award for his personal efforts for environmental protection-enhancement, However, Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri did not personally receive this award. The award was received jointly with Al Gore, a United Nations body called the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr. Pachauri was the president of this institution. But this does not diminish the importance of the award he received. In war, soldiers fight on the front, But the credit for the victory goes to the commander who created the array, the same can be said about Dr. Pachauri. He was born on 20 August 1940 in New Delhi.
Read More: 18 August in Indian and World History
Death Anniversary
20 August in Indian history is observed as the death anniversary of the following personalities:
Gopinath Mohanty (20 April 1914 – 20 August 1991), a famous Odia writer. The time between 1930 and 1938 is the building period of his writer’s life. Gopinath Mohanty was awarded the ‘Jnanpith Award’ for his contribution in 1973. Later in 1981, he was awarded ‘Padma Bhushan’ by the Government of India in the field of literature and education. Gopinath Mohanty started writing in 1936 with concentration and spent two years completing his first novel ‘Man Gahirar Chaas’. He died on 20 August 1991.
Ram Sharan Sharma (26 November 1919 – 20 August 2011), an Indian historian and educationist. He was one of the Indian historians of international repute, who made society aware of reality. Ram Sharan Sharma was counted among those who started the process of writing social and economic historiography by freeing ‘Indian history’ from dynastic tales. In the 1970s, as the Dean of the History Department of the University of Delhi, Professor R. s. The department was extensively expanded during Sharma’s tenure. The credit for the creation of most of the posts in the department is also given to the efforts of Professor Sharma. He died on 20 August 2011.
B. K. S. Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was a famous Indian yoga guru who introduced yoga to the world. He is considered the “Father of Modern Yoga”. Due to his achievements, he was awarded ‘Padma Bhushan’ in 2002 and ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in 2014. He has an important place among the best yoga gurus in the world. He started taking yoga lessons from yoga guru T. Krishnamacharya. After this, he never looked back and made yoga his karma. He cured all his ailments with yoga and attained a long life. Iyengar’s ‘Ashtanga Yoga’ is recognized all over the world today. Iyengar founded ‘Iyengar Yoga’ and made it famous all over the world. In 2004, Time magazine included his name in the list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He died on 20 August 2014.
Read More: 17 August in Indian and World History
Notable events on 20 August in Indian and World history
20 August 1828 – The first session of the Brahmo Samaj of Raja Ram Mohan Roy was held in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
20 August 1897 – Ronald Ross identified the Anopheles mosquito, the cause of malaria while working at the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
20 August 1901– Salvatore Quasimodo, an Italian poet, essayist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
20 August 1913 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, a renowned American neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, was born.
20 August 1915 – Paul Ehrlich a German physician, scientist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, died.
20 August 1921 – The Moplah rebellion started in the Malabar region of Kerala.
20 August 1972 – The then-Soviet Russia conducted an underground nuclear test.
20 August 1977 – America’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched on this day.
20 August 1979 – Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh resigned from his post.
20 August 2001 – In Spain, Indian champion Viswanathan Anand won the Villarodez Chess Championship title by defeating Alexei Shirov of Spain.
20 August 2004 – Forbes magazine released its list of the world’s most powerful women, Condoleezza Rice of America, Wu Yi of China, and Sonia Gandhi of India taking the first three places respectively.
20 August 2008 – Renowned Indian classical music artist Aruna Sai Ram was awarded the Distinguished Honour in the US.
20 August 2008 – Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced an additional subsidy of Rs 22,000 crore to the fertilizer industry in the current financial year.
20 August 2008 – Donald Pandiangan a revered Indonesian archer whose marksmanship and dedication left an enduring legacy in the world of archery, died.
20 August 2011 – Famous historian of India Ram Sharan Sharma died on this day.