- 322 BC Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great
- 626 Battle at Constantinople: Slavic/Persians/Avarenvloot defeated
- 768 Stephen III [IV] begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 936 Otto I the Great becomes King of Germany
- 1409 Council of Pisa closes
- 1428 Valais witch trial proceedings begin in Valais Canton, Switzerland, first organized witch trials
- 1461 Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor
- 1479 Battle of Guinegate: Emperor Maximilian I vs King Louis XI
- 1485 Henry Tudor's (Henry VII to be) army lands in Milford Haven, South Wales
Event of Interest
1573 Francis Drake's fleet returns to Plymouth after a year spent raiding for Spanish treasure
Francis Drake
- 1575 Spanish troops conquer Oudewater, almost all inhabitants died
Event of Interest
1606 Possible first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace for King James I
William Shakespeare
James I and VI
Event of Interest
1620 Astronomer Johannes Kepler's mother arrested for witchcraft
Johannes Kepler
- 1620 Battle at Ponts-the-Ce, Poitou: French king Louis XIII defeats his mother Marie de Medici
- 1710 Sidney, 1st Earl of Godolphin resigns as English minister of Finance
- 1714 The Battle of Gangut: the first important victory of the Russian Navy during the Great Northern War against Sweden
- 1750 Slave uprising on Curacao
- 1760 Ft Loudon, Tennessee surrenders to Cherokee Indians
Event of Interest
1782 George Washington creates the Purple Heart medal (original name Badge of Military Merit) as commander of the Continental Army
George Washington
- 1789 US Congress creates the Department of War and the United States Lighthouse Establishment
Napoléon Bonaparte
- 1814 Pope Pius VII reinstates the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
- 1819 Battle of Boyacá; Bolívar defeats Spanish in Colombia
- 1820 1st potatoes planted in Hawaii
- 1864 Battle of Moorefield, West Virginia
- 1879 The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
- 1882 Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of east Kentucky feud, 100 wounded or die
- 1884 Germany annexes Angra Pequena (Southwest-Africa)
- 1885 Five German warships anchor off Zanzibar
- 1888 Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia patents revolving door
- 1893 53rd Congress (1893-95) convenes
- 1900 Diamond workers in Amsterdam strike
- 1903 Tommy Corcoran sets MLB record for shortstops when he records 14 assists in Cincinnati's 4 - 2 win v St. Louis Cardinals
- 1904 Train derails on bridge in Eden, Colorado, during a flash flood, kills 96
Event of Interest
1907 Washington Senators legendary pitcher Walter Johnson wins first of his 416 career wins, 7-2 v Cleveland
Walter Johnson
- 1908 The first train to travel the length of New Zealand's North Island 'main trunk line', leaves Wellington
Presidential Convention
1912 Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for US President
Theodore Roosevelt
Event of Interest
1914 Lord Kitchener says "Your country needs you" poster spreads over UK
Horatio Kitchener
- 1914 Russia invades East Prussia
- 1915 WWI: Assault against Russell's Top at Gallipolis, Turkey - 232 Australians are killed
- 1915 Dario Resta, driving a Peugeot, wins the first Champ Car race ever to average over 100mph at a 100-mile race in Chicago; average speed 101.8mph
- 1921 Dutch cyclist Piet Moeskops wins the 1st of 4 straight, and 5 total world sprint championships when he beats defending champion Bob Spears of Australia in Copenhagen
- 1925 League of Nation advises against Turk/Iraqi division of Mosoelgebied
- 1927 Peace Bridge between US and Canada dedicated
- 1927 US rum smuggler Horace Alderman kills 3
- 1929 Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms Dutch government
- 1930 A large mob estimated at 2,000, lynch two young black men Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana
Election of Interest
1930 Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King loses the election to Richard Bedford Bennett of the Conservative Party
Richard Bedford Bennett
Mackenzie King
- 1933 The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.
Event of Interest
1934 US Court of Appeals upheld lower court ruling striking down government's attempt to ban controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses"
James Joyce
- 1935 60% of voters agrees to Nazism in Danzig (Gdańsk)
- 1936 A Finnish quinella in the 5,000m final at the Berlin Olympics; Gunnar Höckert runs an Olympic record to beat team mate Lauri Lehtinen
- 1936 Twenty-two nations line-up as the first basketball competition in the Olympics Games starts in Berlin; Estonia beats France 34-29 in the first game
- 1936 Argentina wins the polo gold medal beating Great Britain 11-0 in the final at the Berlin Olympics; final time the sport is contested at the Olympics
Baseball Record
1938 2,000th Brooklyn Dodgers home run: legendary shortstop Leo Durocher homers off Reds hurler Peaches Davis in 8th inning of a 6-3 win
Leo Durocher
- 1938 Nazis close theologic department of Innsbruck university
Event of Interest
1939 Millionaire Howard Hughes is presented with a Congressional Gold Medal
Howard Hughes
- 1940 Churchill recognizes De Gaulle's French government in exile
- 1940 Largest amount paid for a stamp ($45,000 for 1 1856 British Guiana)
- 1940 Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
- 1941 551 Jews are shot in Kishnev ghetto in Romania
- 1942 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island
- 1942 Dutch resistance bombs Rotterdam railway
- 1942 Transport 16 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
- 1943 Red Army recaptures Bogodukov
- 1944 Anton de Kom arrested by Surinam resistance fighter
- 1944 Canada/Polish offensive direction Falaise: Total Cooperation
- 1944 German counter attack at Avranches fails
- 1944 July 20th Plot trial under Roland Freis in Berlin begins
- 1944 US 3rd Army reaches suburbs of Brest, Brittany
- 1944 IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I)
Event of Interest
1946 1st US commemorative coin of an African American, Booker T. Washington (half dollar)
Booker T. Washington
- 1947 The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST)
Event of Interest
1947 Thor Heyerdahl and the crew of the Kon-Tiki crash into a reef in the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia after 101 days crossing the Pacific Ocean
Thor Heyerdahl
- 1948 1st Dutch government of Beel resigns
- 1948 Delfo Cabrera of Argentina wins dramatic marathon in 2:34:51.6 at the London Olympics
- 1948 Swedish race walker John Mikaelsson wins the gold medal in the 10k event by 30.6 seconds from team mate Ingemar Johansson at the London Olympics
- 1948 Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands wins her 4th track & field gold medal of the London Olympics as part of the Dutch 4 x 100m relay team in 47.5
- 1948 American swimmer Jimmy McLane wins the 1,500m for his 2nd gold medal at the London Olympics (4 x 200m freestyle relay); marks a US clean sweep of every men's swimming gold medal at the Games
- 1948 American Alice Coachman becomes the first black woman from any country to win an Olympic gold medal when she takes out the high jump at the London Games
- 1949 "All after Love" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 121 performances
- 1950 Police bar white players-Lou Chirban, Stan Mierko and Frank Dyle, from playing in Negro League
- 1950 Tour de France: Ferdi Kübler becomes first Swiss rider to win Tour; Louison Bobet of France wins mountain classification
- 1951 Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket reaches 1,992 kph
- 1951 US Viking rocket reaches 210 km height (record)
- 1953 Eastern Airlines enters jet age, uses Electra prop-jet
- 1954 "Golden Apple" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 125 performances
- 1954 Charles Mahoney becomes 1st US black to serve as a full UN delegate
Event of Interest
1954 Englishman Roger Bannister beats Australia’s John Landy in the mile at the Empire Games in Vancouver; first time 2 men run a mile in less than 4 minutes in the same race
Roger Bannister
Event of Interest
1956 Boston Red Sox fine slugger Ted Williams $5,000 for spitting at heckling Boston fans, third incident in 3 weeks
Ted Williams
- 1956 British government sends 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt
- 1956 Dynamite transport explodes in Colombia; about 1200 die
- 1956 51-year-old Satchel Paige (Miami Marlins) wins a game before the largest crowd in minor league history, 57,000 at Miami’s Orange Bowl; International League: Marlins 6-2 v Columbus Jets
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1957 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957
- 1959 Explorer 6 transmits 1st TV photo of Earth from space
- 1960 Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) gains independence from France
- 1960 Students stage kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches
Golf Tournament
1960 Arnold Palmer's 20th PGA Tour win; rallies from a 5-stroke deficit to enter a playoff, then beats Jack Fleck and Bill Collins to win the Insurance City Open
Arnold Palmer
- 1961 Cosmonaut Gherman Titov circles Earth for a full day in Vostok 2
Event of Interest
1961 Soviet premier Khrushchev predicts USSR economy will surpass US
Nikita Khrushchev
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Event of Interest
1963 Jacqueline Kennedy becomes 1st US First Lady to give birth (Patrick Kennedy) since Mrs Cleveland
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Agreement of Interest
1965 Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore signs a separation agreement with Malaysia, after 2 years of political union
Lee Kuan Yew
- 1966 Race riot in Lansing Michigan
- 1970 First all-computer chess championship is conducted in New York and won by CHESS 3.0 (CDC 6400), a program written by Slate, Atkin & Gorlen at Northwestern University
- 1970 Christine Perfect (McVie) joins Fleetwood Mac
- 1970 WDHN TV channel 18 in Dothan, AL (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1970 Shootout at Marin Courthouse in San Rafael, California, kills 4, including the presiding judge
- 1971 Apollo 15 returns to Earth
- 1971 A Catholic man is shot dead by a British soldier in Belfast
Hall of Fame
1972 Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Early Wynn, Josh Gibson, Will Harridge, Buck Leonard & Ross Youngs are inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame
Yogi Berra
- 1974 Philippe Petit walks tightrope strung between twin towers
- 1976 US Viking 2 goes into Martian orbit after 11-month flight from Earth
- 1976 Scientists in Pasadena, California, announce Viking I found strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars
- 1977 "Shenandoah" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 1,050 performances
- 1978 Eddie Mathews, Addie Joss and Larry MacPhail are inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY
PGA Championship
1983 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Riviera CC: Hal Sutton wins his only major title by 1 stroke from Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus
- 1983 Grete Waitz of Norway wins inaugural women's marathon at the 1st world athletics championships in Helsinki, Finland
- 1983 Some 675,000 AT&T employees strike
- 1984 David Rabe's "Hurlyburly" premieres in NYC
- 1984 Japan beats US, 6-3 in the final of the Los Angeles Olympic baseball demonstration event
- 1984 The US collects its first Olympic gold medal in women's basketball history with a 85-55 win over South Korea in the final at the LA Games
Music Recording
1985 Barbra Streisand records "Broadway Album"
Barbra Streisand
- 1985 Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts
Meeting of Interest
1985 A delegation of the South African Council of Churches meets with President P. W. Botha, following calls by the church for urgent discussions on the causes of unrest, forced removals and the emergency regulations in the country
P. W. Botha
- 1986 "Honky Tonk Nights" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 4 performances
- 1986 Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel and Anne Knabe begin cycling journey of 15,266 miles from Prudhoe Bay Alaska to Argentina
- 1987 5 Central American presidents sign peace accord in Guatemala
- 1987 Javed Miandad becomes first to score 6,000 Test runs for Pakistan as he cracks 260 in drawn 5th Test v England at The Oval
- 1987 Lynne Cox swims 4.3 km from US to USSR in 39°F (4°C) Bering Sea
- 1988 Writers guild ends its 6 months strike
- 1988 Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
- 1988 Angola, Cuba and South Africa allegedly signed a cease fire treaty
- 1988 Future Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye wins his 4,000th career race aboard 2-year-old filly Fawn and Hahn in the 4th race at Del Mar
- 1989 U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
Operation Desert Shield
1990 US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia beginning Operation Desert Shield
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Event of Interest
1991 Court rules Manuel Noriega, may access some secret US documents
Manuel Noriega
- 1991 Manhattan Cable final day of amnesty to return illegal cable boxes
World Record
1991 American team of Carl Lewis, Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell & Dennis Mitchell set 4 x 100m relay world record of 37.67 seconds in Zürich, Switzerland
Carl Lewis
- 1992 San Francisco Giants announce sale of MLB franchise to group of Tampa Bay investors; move blocked by other investors
Event of Interest
1992 The Orlando Magic signs NBA No. 1 draft pick Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal
- 1992 Taking advantage of 6 months training on home town Terrassa pitch, Spain wins their first hockey gold medal beating Germany 2-1 in the women's final at the Barcelona Olympics
- 1993 "Camelot" closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 56 performances
- 1993 Tropical storm Brett ravages Venezuela, 118 killed
- 1994 "Hedda Gabler" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 33 performances
- 1994 1st telephone link between Israel & Jordan
- 1994 Ernesto Samper sworn in as president of Colombia
Music Concert
1997 Garth Brooks performs a free concert in NYC's Central Park for HBO, later releasing it as Garth: Live from Central Park
Garth Brooks
Event of Interest
2000 Los Angeles Lakers announce retirement of former star player and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Jerry West; name Mitch Kupchak to succeed him
Jerry West
Event of Interest
2004 Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux enters the history books with his 300th career win in the Chicago's 8-4 triumph v San Francisco at SBC Park
Greg Maddux
- 2005 American sprinter Justin Gatlin blitzes field to win 100m in 9.88 at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland
- 2005 In one of cricket history's closest Tests, and despite a brave unbeaten 43 from Australian tail-ender Brett Lee, England sneaks a 2-run win in series turning 2nd Test at Edgbaston
Baseball Record
2007 San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds hits his 756th career home run to break Hank Aaron's long-standing MLB record
Barry Bonds
Historic Publication
2007 "Eclipse" 3rd book in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" is published by Little Brown - initial print run 1 million copies
Stephenie Meyer
- 2008 Georgia launches a military offensive to surround and capture the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, from Russian control, starting the Russo-Georgian War
Hall of Fame
2010 Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, John Randle, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Floyd Little & Dick LeBeau are inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Emmitt Smith
Jerry Rice
- 2010 Hampered by a back injury Indian cricket batsman VVS Laxman scores a brave, unbeaten 103 to guide India to a 5 wicket win v Sri Lanka in Colombo; draw series
- 2012 21 people are killed by a gun attack in a church in Okene, Nigeria
- 2012 Heavy rain forces 20,000 people to flee their homes in Manila, Phillipines
- 2012 200,000 people are evacuated from Shanghai in anticipation of Typhoon Haikui
- 2013 11 people are killed by a bombing in Karachi, Pakistan
Event of Interest
2015 US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump says in a CNN interview that news anchor Mergyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”
Donald Trump
- 2016 Miami Marlins veteran Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki becomes the 30th member of the 3,000 hit club in a 10 - 7 win v Rockies
- 2016 Jim Furyk fires 12-under-par 58 in final round of the Travelers Championship at TPC at River Highlands, Cromwell, Connecticut, becoming 1st player to shoot 58 in a PGA Tour event and 1st PGA Tour pro to card 2 sub-60 rounds
- 2016 British swimmer Adam Peaty records a world record 57.13 to win the gold medal in the men's 100m breaststroke at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
Olympic Gold
2016 United States men's 4 × 100m freestyle relay team wins the final in 3:09.92 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; Michael Phelps' record 19th Olympic gold medal
Michael Phelps
World Record
2016 American swimmer Katie Ledecky sets a new world record with a time of 3:56.46 to win the gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
Katie Ledecky
- 2016 Sarah Sjöström of Sweden breaks world record in 55.48 to win the gold medal in the women's 100m butterfly at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
- 2017 England breaks 19-year drought in home Test cricket series against South Africa; beat Proteas by 177 in 4th Test at Old Trafford; Moeen Ali 75no and 5/69
Film Premier
2018 "Crazy Rich Asians" first Hollywood film with all-Asian cast, starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding and Michelle Yeoh premieres in Los Angeles
Constance Wu
Event of Interest
2018 China bans release of Winnie the Pooh movie "Christopher Robin", after character used to mock Chinese President Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping
- 2018 CW network announces Ruby Rose cast as lesbian superhero Batwoman
- 2018 Australia's population hits 25 million according to Australian Bureau of Statistics
- 2019 Largest single-state immigration raid in Mississippi as nearly 700 people arrested
- 2019 Wanda Vazquez becomes Puerto Rico's third governor in a week after her predecessor Pedro Pierluisi is removed by the supreme court
- 2019 Bodies of two teenagers at center of huge manhunt and suspected of killing three people on remote British Columbia roads found after apparent suicides
August in History
The Strange, Mysterious Story of the Balloon Expedition to the North Pole
The discovery of Swedish engineer S. A. Andrée's tragic, long-lost polar expedition in 1930 led to more questions than answers.
August 5, 1930A Pill to Cure All Ills
Not well? Take a Beecham’s Pill was often the advice. So popular was it that nobody doubted it’s extravagant claim in the world’s first advertising slogan.
August 6, 1859Why Mata Hari Was Not the Spy You Thought She Was
The controversial life and death of Mata Hari, the glamorous WWI double agent, executed in 1917, has recently been reassessed in the light of new evidence.
August 7, 1876Ship Of Gold Sails Into Oblivion
A frigate with more than 150 souls on board, as well as nearly three tons of gold, sailed out of Melbourne on this day – never to be seen again.
August 12, 1853
