- Aug 1 California introduces sales tax (for education)
Historic Event
Aug 1 Fidel Castro arrested in Cuba
- 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, American country singer (with Skeeter Davis in The Davis Sisters), killed in car crash at 21
- 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)
Sports History
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
- Aug 7 Eastern Airlines enters jet age, uses Electra prop-jet
- Aug 8 US & South Korea initial a mutual security pact
- Aug 9 1st elected Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah dismissed by the Indian government and later arrested
- 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
Historic Event
Aug 13 US President Dwight Eisenhower establishes Government Contract Compliance Committee
Historic Event
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
- Aug 16 KTAL TV channel 6 in Shreveport-Texarkana, LA (NBC) begins
Historic Event
Aug 16 Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi & princess Soraya flee to Baghdad & Rome
Coup d'état
Aug 19 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)
- 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 Former Boston Braves pitcher Phil Paine becomes first major leaguer to play in Japan; on military service with U.S. Air Force plays first of 9 games for Nishitetsu Lions
- 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
Sports History
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