HISTORY
On this day August 23-29, 2020 (week 35)
August 23, 2020 - August 29, 2020 - Graphics show birthdays and anniversaries for each day of the week. This week features Gaza strip, the Visigoth army, swimming the English Channel, the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, Haile Selassie, the opera Lohengrin and Hurricane Katrina
August 23, 2005: The evacuation of all 8,500 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip was completed, a step taken to show Israel’s commitment to negotiations with the Palestinians
August 24, 410: The Visigoth army, commanded by Alaric, sacked Rome, then the largest city in the world, the first time the city had fallen to a foreign enemy in 800 years
August 25, 1875: Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel, crossing from Dover to the French port of Calais in just under 22 hours
August 26, 2016: The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, the world’s tallest suspension bridge, was opened to traffic in Istanbul. It is the city’s third bridge across the Bosphorus
August 27, 1975: Haile Selassie, deposed emperor of Ethiopia, died under house arrest. Officially attributed to natural causes, rumours persist that he was murdered
August 28, 1850: Lohengrin, an opera by Richard Wagner, premiered at Weimar, directed by Franz Liszt. The tale of the Knight of the Swan is taken from medieval German romance
August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast. At least 1,800 people died, many in New Orleans which suffered 80% flooding after the city’s levees failed