Events in History
Event of Interest
Aug 2 Clermont-Ferrand sentences General Charles de Gaulle to death
- Aug 2 KL-House of saxon & commandos focus on Gross Rosen, Silesia
- Aug 3 Italian troops invade British Somalia
- Aug 3 Lithuanian SSR is accepted into USSR
- Aug 3 Seaplane Clare makes 1st British passenger flight to the US
- Aug 5 "Acquaintance" blows-up Zandvoortse synagogue
- Aug 6 Estonia is annexed into Soviet empire
- Aug 7 Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
- Aug 7 Churchill recognizes De Gaulle's French government in exile
- Aug 7 Largest amount paid for a stamp ($45,000 for 1 1856 British Guiana)
- Aug 8 31 German aircraft shot down over England
Event of Interest
Aug 8 The "Aufbau Ost" directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.
'Hitler Will Have to Break Us or Lose the War'
Aug 13 Battle of Britain: Hermann Goering's "Adlertag" (Eagle Day) offensive happens, intending to destroy the Royal Air Force; 47-48 German aircraft shot down, the RAF loses 25 planes
Event of Interest
Aug 16 Pioneering 'Blood for Britain' program sending blood plasma for WWII wounded from the US, headed by Charles R. Drew, officially begins in Britain
Event of Interest
Aug 17 Adolf Hitler orders a total blockade of Great Britain
- Aug 18 Battle of Britain: The air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; Luftwaffe lose approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF lose 68 in one of the largest ever air battles
Event of Interest
Aug 20 British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
- Aug 20 First Polish fighter squadrons fight alongside allies in the Battle of Britain
Murder of Interest
Aug 20 Louis Buchalter is indicted on murder charges in Los Angeles for the killing of Harry Greenberg, a mob associate of casino owner Meyer Lansky and mobster Bugsy Siegel
- Aug 23 German Luftwaffe begins night bombing on London
Event of Interest
Aug 23 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands dismisses premier De Geer
- Aug 24 Luftwaffe bombs London
- Aug 25 First British night bombing of Germany (Berlin)
- Aug 25 Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia incorporated into Soviet Union
- Aug 26 Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor
- Aug 27 Caproni-Campini CC-2, experimental jet plane, maiden flight (Milan)
- Aug 28 French colonies Cameroon/Congo-Brazzaville support Gen De Gaulle
- Aug 31 1st edition of illegal opposition newspaper Free Netherlands
- Aug 31 German occupiers in Netherlands begin soap rationing
- Aug 31 RAF Fighter Command loses 39 aircraft against Luftwaffe's 41
- Aug 31 US National Guard assembles
Birthdays in History
- Aug 3 John W. Carlin, American politician (40th Governor of Kansas), born in Salina, Kansas
- Aug 4 Karel Vachek, Czech director (Moravska Hellas, Elective Affinities), born in Tišnov, Czech Republic
- Aug 6 Mukhu Aliyev, Russian politician, President of Dagestan
- Aug 7 Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian Prime Minister (1992-99), born in Montpellier, France (d. 2014)
- Aug 7 Tom Barlow, American politician (Rep-D-Kentucky), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 2017)
- Aug 10 Barbara Mills, QC, British Director of Public Prosecutions
- Aug 10 Richard Wells, Chief Constable (South Yorkshire)
- Aug 13 Ann Armstrong Dailey, American founder (Children's Hospice International), born in San Francisco, California
- Aug 14 Judith Kazantzis, English poet and feminist, born in Oxford, England (d. 2018)
- Aug 15 Gudrun Ensslin, German terrorist (Founder of Red Army Faction), born in Bartholomä, Germany (d. 1977)
- Aug 16 Bruce Beresford, Australian film director (Driving Miss Daisy; Tender Mercies), born in Paddington, Australia
- Aug 17 David Price, American politician, (Rep-D-North Carolina 1987-95, 1997-), born in Erwin, Tennessee
- Aug 20 Rubén Hinojosa, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas), born in Edcouch, Texas
- Aug 21 Ana Isabel Anderson-Imbert, Argentinian rheumatologist, born in Buenos Aires
- Aug 22 Antony Crosthwaite-Eyre, English publisher and multi-millionaire
- Aug 22 John Banham, British director-general (CBI)
- Aug 23 Thomas A. Steitz, American Biochemist (2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for ribosome discoveries), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 2018)
- Aug 24 Francine Lalonde, Canadian politician (Member of Parliament for La Pointe-de-l'Île), born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec
- Aug 27 Brooksley Born, American attorney, first female president of the Stanford Law Review, and public official (Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair, 1996-99; Profiles in Courage Award, 2009), born in San Francisco, California [1]
- Aug 27 David Hart, gen-sect (National Association of Head Teachers)
- Aug 28 William Cohen, US Secretary of Defense (1997-2001), (Sen (R) Maine, 1979-97), born in Bangor, Maine
- Aug 29 James Brady, U.S. press secretary (wounded during Reagan assassin attempt), born in Centralia, Illinois (d. 2014)
Weddings in History
- Aug 25 1st parachute wedding: Reverend Homer Tomlinson marries Arno Rudolphi and Ann Hayward while all are suspended in parachutes.
Deaths in History
- Aug 4 Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism, dies
- Aug 5 Frederick Cook, American explorer, claimed to have 1st discovered North Pole, dies at 75
- Aug 17 Billy Fiske, US RAF-pilot/2nd lieutenant and 1st American serviceman killed in action in World War II, dies at 29
- Aug 21 Hermann Obrecht, Swiss jurist, member of the Swiss Federal Council, dies at 58
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
Aug 21 Ukrainian-Russian Marxist revolutionary, political theorist and founder of the Red Army, assassinated at 62 by an ice-pick wielding Ramón Mercader
J. J. Thomson (1856-1940)
Aug 30 English physicist who discovered the electron (Nobel 1906), dies at 83
- Aug 31 George Gauthier, French Canadian Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal and rector of the Université de Montréal, dies at 68
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