On This Day

August 1865 in History

Events in History


Book releaseHistoric Publication

Aug 2 Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Author and Mathematician Lewis Carroll
Author and Mathematician
Lewis Carroll
  • Aug 2 Trans Atlantic Cable being laid by SS Great Eastern snaps and is lost
  • Aug 12 Joseph Lister performs 1st antiseptic surgery
  • Aug 15 Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri
  • Aug 16 Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic regains its independence after 4 years of fighting against the Spanish Annexation.

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Aug 20 President Andrew Johnson proclaims an end to "insurrection" in Texas

17th US President Andrew Johnson
17th US President
Andrew Johnson
  • Aug 22 William Sheppard is issued the first US patent for liquid soap

Birthdays in History

  • Aug 2 Irving Babbitt, American writer (Rousseau & Romanticism), born in Dayton, Ohio (d. 1933)
  • Aug 2 John Radecki, Australian stained glass artist, born in Łódź, Poland (d. 1955)
  • Aug 7 Micha Josef Berdyczewski, Jewish writer, born in Medzhybizh, Russian Empire (d. 1921)
  • Aug 14 Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician, born in Venice (d. 1952)
  • Aug 15 Johan Bernard Schepers, Frisian writer (Braga), born in Heerenveen, Netherlands (d. 1937)
  • Aug 15 Mikao Usui, Japanese founder of Reiki (form of spiritual practice), born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan (d. 1926)
  • Aug 15 Louisa Aldrich-Blake, British pioneering surgeon, born in Chingford, Essex (d. 1925)
  • Aug 22 Piet A W Hopmans, bishop of Breda (Eucharistic Crusade)
  • Aug 24 Ferdinand I VAM, King of Romania (1914-27), born in Sigmaringen, German Confederation (d. 1927)
  • Aug 27 Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President of the United States, banker and 1925 Nobel Peace Prize winner, born in Marietta, Ohio (d. 1951)
  • Aug 27 James Henry Breasted, American Egyptologist and anthropologist, born in Rockford, Illinois (d. 1935)

Deaths in History

  • Aug 12 William Jackson Hooker, botanist, dies
  • Aug 13 Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician who discovered the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever and introduced antisepsis into medical practice, dies at 47
  • Aug 17 Mosby Munroe Parsons, United States officer in the Mexican–American War and brigadier general of the Confederate States Army, dies in battle at 42
  • Aug 26 Johann F Encke, German astronomer (Comet Encke), dies at 73
  • Aug 26 Marcellus Monroe Crocker, US attorney/Union brigadier general, dies at 35
  • Aug 27 Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian novelist (The Clockmaker; or, The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville), dies at 68
  • Aug 29 John Brough, US publisher/(gov-R-Ohio), dies at about 54