Events in History
Historic Publication
Aug 2 Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Lewis Carroll
- Aug 2 Trans Atlantic Cable being laid by SS Great Eastern snaps and is lost
Event of Interest
Aug 20 President Andrew Johnson proclaims an end to "insurrection" in Texas

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