- Aug 1 San Francisco Giants 1st baseman Willie McCovey hits NL record 18th MLB career grand slam
- Aug 1 Former Lockheed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers crashes the news helicopter he was flying in Los Angeles
- Aug 2 In his comeback Test, England cricket batsman Geoff Boycott is unbeaten on 80 after a 1st innings 107 as England beats Australia by 7 wickets in the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge
- Aug 3 Radio Shack issues a press release introducing the TRS-80 computer, within weeks thousands were ordered
- Aug 3 United States Senate Hearing on MKULTRA.
- Aug 4 US President Carter establishes Department of Energy
- Aug 4 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Aug 7 "Shenandoah" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 1,050 performances
- Aug 8 Maurine Stuart, ordained as Zen priest by Eido Tai Shimano Roshi
- Aug 8 Texas Rangers turn their 1st triple play (vs A's)
- Aug 9 Chris Old completes a century in 37 mins, Yorks v Warwicks
- Aug 9 NHL refuses merger of 6 WHA clubs
- Aug 9 Military-controlled Government of Uruguay announces the return to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 to democratically elect a President and Congress
- Aug 10 Phillies & Expos play a doubleheader that ends at 3:23 AM
- Aug 10 US & Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accord
- Aug 10 USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
- Aug 10 Postal employee David Berkowitz arrested in Yonkers NY, accused of being "Son of Sam" 44 caliber killer
- Aug 10 About 100 white sympathisers joined evicted black squatters in a protest against the demolition of shanty dwellings outside Cape Town, South Africa
- Aug 11 Geoff Boycott scores his 100th FC hundred, v Aust at Headingley
- Aug 12 For 2nd straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen foils a no-hit bid
- Aug 12 High Energy Astronomy Observatory {HEAO] 1 launched into Earth's orbit by NASA
- Aug 12 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric test flight
- Aug 13 1st test glide of space shuttle
- Aug 13 Randy Bachman quits BTO, they disband
- Aug 14 PGA Championship, Pebble Beach: Lanny Wadkins wins his only major title in event's 1st sudden-death playoff with Gene Littler
- Aug 14 77,691 see NY Cosmos beat Fort Lauderdale Strikers 8-3 at Giants Stadium
- Aug 14 Debbie Austin wins LPGA Long Island Charity Golf Classic
- Aug 15 England regain cricket Ashes by taking a 3-0 series lead over Australia
- Aug 15 Herbert Kappler, head of Nazi police and security services (SS) in Rome during WWII, escapes from prison hospital in Rome
- Aug 15 "Wow" possible alien radio signal from deep space received at "The Big Ear", Ohio State's radio telescope in Delaware
- Aug 16 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Aug 16 Yanks blow 9-4 lead in 9th but beat Chicago 11-10 in bottom of 9th
- Aug 17 Russian nuclear sub "Artika" is 1st to North Pole
- Aug 17 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Aug 17 Thomas Wessinghage, Harald Hudak, Michael Lederer and Karl Fleschen walk world record 4x1500m (14:38.8)
- Aug 18 2 girls are killed by a runaway car outside of Graceland
- Aug 18 Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton throws his NL record tying 5th one-hitter
- Aug 18 South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko is arrested at a roadblock (dies of police beating 12 September)
- Aug 19 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
- Aug 20 NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune
- Aug 21 Debbie Austin wins LPGA Wheeling Golf Classic
- Aug 21 Donna Patterson Brice sets high speed water skiing record (111.11 mph)
- Aug 23 1st man-powered flight of a mile (Bryan Allen in Gossamer Condor)
- Aug 23 Marxist philosopher Rudolf Bahro imprisoned in German DR
Hall of Fame
Aug 25 Canadian NHL player Tim Horton posthumously inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame
Tim Horton
- Aug 26 Frank Martinus Arion forms Surinamese Writers group 77
- Aug 27 "Chicago" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 947 performances
- Aug 27 Army shoots on market vendor women in Conakry, Guinea
- Aug 27 Toby Harrah and Bump Wills hit back-to-back inside-the-park-homers off Yankee Ken Clay at Yankee Stadium, Rangers won 8-2
- Aug 28 Bonnie Lauer wins LPGA Patty Berg Golf Classic
- Aug 28 NY Yankee Ron Guidry faces just 28 men & beats Texas Rangers 1-0
Baseball Record
Aug 28 Nolan Ryan strikes out 300 batters for 5th straight year
Nolan Ryan
- Aug 28 NY Cosmos defeat Seattle Sounders, 2-1, at Civic Stadium in Portland Ore, winning their 2nd North American Soccer League championship
Album Release
Aug 29 Iggy Pop releases his second album "Lust for Life", a collaboration with David Bowie
Iggy Pop
David Bowie