From one of Australia’s most famous expeditions to a wartime speech that entered history and two extraordinary journeys into space, August 20 has been quite a day.
On August 20, 1860, Robert O’Hara Burke, William John Wills and the Victorian Exploring Expedition set out from Melbourne’s Royal Park on an ambitious mission to cross Australia from south to north.
It was no quiet departure. Around 15,000 people reportedly gathered to farewell the expedition, which carried about 21 tonnes of equipment and included camels, horses and wagons.
Burke and Wills eventually reached the Gulf of Carpentaria region, but their return journey ended in tragedy. Both men died at Cooper Creek in 1861, their ill-fated adventure becoming one of the best-known stories in Australian exploration.
On this day in 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons during the Battle of Britain.
It was the speech that gave history one of his most famous lines: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Churchill was paying tribute to the Allied airmen defending Britain from German attack.
August 20 also became a remarkable date in space exploration.
In 1975, NASA launched Viking 1 on its journey to Mars. The following year its lander successfully touched down on the Red Planet and began sending images back to Earth.
Exactly two years later, on August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.
Nearly half a century later, Voyager 2 remains active in interstellar space. It is also the only spacecraft ever to have visited Uranus and Neptune.
Celebrating a birthday today is six-time Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams, born in 1974.
Soul and funk legend Isaac Hayes, the unmistakable voice behind Theme from Shaft, was born on August 20, 1942.
Do you remember watching the Voyager missions or seeing those extraordinary first images from the outer planets? Tell us in the comments.
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