Historical Events
- Aug 3 Gioacchino Rossini's "William Tell" premieres in Paris
- Aug 3 Opera "Guillaume Tell" (William Tell) Gioachino Rossini's last and greatest opera premieres in Paris
- Aug 8 French government of De Polignac forms
- Aug 9 "Stourbridge Lion" locomotive goes into service
- Aug 16 Siamese twins Chang & Eng Bunker arrive in Boston to be exhibited
- Aug 25 President Jackson makes an offer to buy Texas, but Mexican government refuses
Famous Birthdays
- Aug 5 Heinrich Franz Daniel Stiehl, composer
- Aug 5 Milo Smith Hascall, American banker, real estate executive, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Le Roy, New York (d. 1904)
- Aug 7 Thomas Ewing Jr, American attorney, 1st chief justice of Kansas, congressman, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Lancaster, Ohio (d. 1896)
- Aug 12 John Horace Forney, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1902)
- Aug 15 Eduard de Hartog, composer
- Aug 21 Otto Goldschmidt, German composer, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1907)
- Aug 23 Moritz B. Cantor, German historian of mathematics, born in Mannheim, Germany (d. 1920)
- Aug 28 Albert Dietrich, German composer and conductor, born in Meissen, Germany (d. 1908)