- Aug 1 California introduces sales tax (for education)
Event of Interest
Aug 1 Fidel Castro arrested in Cuba
Fidel Castro
- Aug 1 KMBC TV channel 9 in Kansas City, Missouri (MET/ABC) begins broadcasting
- Aug 1 KOBI TV channel 5 in Medford, Oregon (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Aug 1 Northern Rhodesia becomes part of Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- Aug 1 Boston Red Sox pitcher Ben Flowers sets then MLB record of 8 consecutive games in relief
- Aug 2 Betty Jack Davis, singer (w/Skeeter Davis), killed in car crash
- Aug 2 KCPQ TV channel 13 in Tacoma-Seattle, WA (IND) begins broadcasting
- Aug 3 Frank Blair becomes news anchor of "Today Show"
- Aug 4 Black families move into Trumbull Park housing project in Chicago
- Aug 4 New York Yankees Vic Raschi sets MLB record for a pitcher by driving in 7 runs in a 15-0 win v Detroit
- Aug 5 Operation "Big Switch"; Korean War prisoner exchanged at Panmunjom
Film Release
Aug 5 "From Here to Eternity" based on book by James Jones, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1954)
Burt Lancaster
Frank Sinatra
Event of Interest
Aug 6 Future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Ted Williams returns to Red Sox from military service in Korea; ends abbreviated season with .407 batting average
Ted Williams
- Aug 7 Eastern Airlines enters jet age, uses Electra prop-jet
Georgy Malenkov
- Aug 8 US & South Korea initial a mutual security pact
- Aug 9 Premier Mohammed Abdullah of Kashmir fired
- Aug 12 Ann Davison arrives in Miami in her 23 foot boat Felicity Ann, becoming the 1st woman to sail solo across the Atlantic
- Aug 12 Heavy earthquake strikes the Ionian islands, 435 killed
- Aug 12 Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb
- Aug 13 4-5 million French go on strike against economizations
Event of Interest
Aug 13 US President Dwight Eisenhower establishes Government Contract Compliance Committee
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event of Interest
Aug 15 General Omar Bradley leaves office as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after four years and retires from active military service
Omar Bradley
- Aug 16 KTAL TV channel 6 in Shreveport-Texarkana, LA (NBC) begins
Event of Interest
Aug 16 Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi & princess Soraya flee to Baghdad & Rome
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Coup d'état
Aug 19 The democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh is overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name 'Operation Boot') and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project)
Mohammad Mosaddegh
- Aug 20 General Fazlollah Zahedi arrests Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in a CIA supported coup d'état
- Aug 20 Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
- Aug 20 14th Venice Film Festival opens. No Golden Lion awarded
- Aug 21 Baseball player representatives Ralph Kiner (NL) & Allie Reynolds (AL) hire labor leader John Norman Lewis at $15,000 to give legal advice to players in negotiations with team owners
- Aug 21 Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reaches record 25,370 m
- Aug 21 Sultan Sidi Mohammed Am Joessoef V of Morocco deposed
- Aug 22 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to Tehran
- Aug 23 Braves' Phil Paine is 1st former major leaguer to play in Japan
- Aug 23 Cyclist Arie Van Vliet becomes world champion sprinter
- Aug 23 Dutch DC-6 crashes near Ymuiden in North Sea, 21 die
- Aug 23 KBAK TV channel 29 in Bakersfield, CA (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Aug 23 Phil Grate sets record for throwing a baseball (443'3")
- Aug 23 USSR performs nuclear test
- Aug 23 Italian Ferrari driver Alberto Ascari clinches his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by winning Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten
Film Release
Aug 27 "Roman Holiday", starring Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, and Eddie Albert, is released
- Aug 28 "Me & Juliet" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 358 performances
- Aug 29 KHSL TV channel 12 in Chico, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Aug 29 USSR explodes its first hydrogen bomb
- Aug 31 KRBC TV channel 9 in Abilene, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Aug 31 WKBG (now WLVI) TV channel 56 in Cambridge-Boston, MA (IND) begins