Rubén Eloy Hinojosa is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 15th congressional district, from 1997 to 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district stretched from Seguin, to McAllen on the Mexican border. Much of the region was rural although Hidalgo County is part of the third-fastest-growing metropolitan statistical area in the country. Hinojosa served on the Financial Services and Education committees.

1940Gus Macdonald, Scottish academic and politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office^[†]

Angus John Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of Tradeston, is a Scottish television executive, life peer and former Labour member of the House of Lords.

1940Rex Sellers, Indian-Australian cricketer^[†]

Reginald Hugh Durning Sellers is a former Test cricketer. He was the second Indian-born cricketer to have played a Test match for Australia and the first of Anglo-Indian descent.

Historical Events

1940In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.^[†]

Lev Davidovich Bronstein, better known as Leon Trotsky, was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and political theorist. He was a key figure in the 1905 Revolution, October Revolution of 1917, Russian Civil War, and the establishment of the Soviet Union, from which he was exiled in 1929 before his assassination in 1940. Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were widely considered the two most prominent figures in the Soviet state from 1917 until Lenin's death in 1924. Ideologically a Marxist and a Leninist, Trotsky's ideas inspired a school of Marxism known as Trotskyism.

1940World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".^[†]

World War II or the Second World War was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

1940World War II: The Eighth Route Army launches the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a successful campaign to disrupt Japanese war infrastructure and logistics in occupied northern China.^[†]

The Eighth Route Army, also known as the 18th Group Army, was a group army nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China, established in 1937 as part of the Second United Front against Japan. In practice, the Eighth Route Army was under the exclusive command of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and operated independently of the Kuomintang (KMT) central military command. Unlike most NRA units, which were directly overseen by the Nationalist Government, the Eighth Route Army maintained separate political and operational structures aligned with CCP objectives.

Headlines from August 20, 1940

U.S. AID TO CANADA BY NAVAL PATROL STUDIED IN CAPITAL; AS A DEFENSE MOVE Plan Would Release British Destroyers for Home Waters BOARD CHOICE IS PUSHED Roosevelt to Name Members of U.S.-Canadian Defense Group by Thursday

ICKES BELITTLES WILLKIE ADDRESS AS 'DEMAGOGUERY'; Says 'Simple, Barefoot Wall Street Lawyer' Chose Elwood to Offset New York Links SCOFFS AT DEBATE IDEA He Challenges Omissions of Acceptance Speech--Willkie Cries 'Falsehoods'

Army Recruiting Reaches New Weekly Peak of 8,605

Notable Births

Historical Events