Events in History
- Aug 1 15.4 cm rainfall at Cheyenne, Wyoming (state record)
Event of Interest
Aug 1 Russian KGB officer Vitaly Yurchenko defects to the US in Rome, naming Americans Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard as KGB agents
- Aug 2 5 die in a train crash in Westminster Colo
- Aug 2 Delta Lockheed L-1011 crashes at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, 137 die
- Aug 3 "Nihilator" set harness pacing mile (1:49.6) in East Rutherford, NJ
- Aug 3 Train crash at Flaujac, France: 35 killed
- Aug 5 Flexible-wing glider altitude record (214,250') set by Larry Tudor
- Aug 6 19th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-G): Challenger 8 lands at Edwards AFB
- Aug 6 STS 51-I vehicle moves to launch pad
Meeting of Interest
Aug 7 A delegation of the South African Council of Churches meets with President P. W. Botha, following calls by the church for urgent discussions on the causes of unrest, forced removals and the emergency regulations in the country
- Aug 7 Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts
- Aug 8 Japan launches Planet A, a probe to Halley's comet
- Aug 11 Challenger flies to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz
- Aug 12 520 people die when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes in Ueno, Japan, the second-deadliest aviation disaster of all time
- Aug 13 South African Defence Force soldiers, travelling in a convoy of more than ten armoured vehicles, surrounded the Thaba-Juluba high school in Soweto and arrest 200 students during a clampdown on school boycotts
- Aug 14 Political violence by the youth begins after funeral of assassinated Victoria Mxenge, a civil rights lawyer, who was respected and liked by the Congress of South African Students
- Aug 15 First Iraqi air raid on Iran's main oil export terminal, Kharg Island
- Aug 15 P. W. Botha gives the "Rubicon" Speech in Durban, South Africa, disappointing many by refusing to consider immediate and major reforms in the country's apartheid system
- Aug 17 1,400 meatpackers walk off the job at a Geo A Hormel & Co plant
Election of Interest
Aug 17 Rajiv Gandhi announces Punjab state elections in India
- Aug 17 Sara Trollinger forms House of Hope in Orlando
- Aug 18 Suisei Launch (Halley's Comet Flyby)
Event of Interest
Aug 19 Following the Rubicon speech four days earlier, Archbishop Desmond Tutu snubs P. W. Botha's invitation to attend a meeting to discuss the role and actions of the police and security forces in South Africa
- Aug 19 Japan launches its 2nd probe of Halley's Comet, Suisei
- Aug 20 Hanspeter Beck of South Australia, finishes a 3,875 mile, 51 day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle
- Aug 20 Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of US
- Aug 20 Libya throws out 1000s Tunisian/Egyptian gas workers
- Aug 21 Mary Decker Slaney runs mile in world record 4:16.71
- Aug 21 NY Lotto pays $41 million to three winner (#s are 14-17-22-23-30-47)
- Aug 22 Airtours Boeing-737 crashes at Manchester airport, 55 killed
- Aug 23 Said Aouita of Morocco sets 1.5k record (3:29.46) in Berlin
- Aug 23 South African attorney/UDF leader "Dulah" Omar arrested
- Aug 23 West German top counter espionage Hans Tiedge moves to German DR
- Aug 24 STS 51-I mission scrubbed at T -5m because of bad weather
- Aug 25 STS 51-I scrubbed at T -9m because of an onboard computer problem
The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Aug 26 French government denies knowledge of bombing of the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland New Zealand
- Aug 27 20th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-I): Discovery 6 launches
Event of Interest
Aug 27 General Ibrahim Babangida overthrows Major General Muhammadu Buhari's regime in Nigeria
Birthdays in History
Mohammed bin Salman (37 years old)
Aug 31 Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (2017-) and Saudi Defense Minister (2015-), born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Weddings in History
- Aug 15 Anti-apartheid lawyer Bulelani Ngcuka marries in South Africa
Deaths in History
- Aug 1 Joseph Walker, cameraman, dies at 92
- Aug 5 Theodore Sturgeon, American sci-fi author (Hugo, It, Caviar), dies at 67
- Aug 8 Leo Weisgerber, German linguist (organicist theory), dies at 86
- Aug 13 J. Willard Marriott, American entrepreneur and hotelier (founder of Marriott Corporation), dies at 84
- Aug 20 Harchand Singh Longowai [Sant Ji], Indian Sikh leader and President of the Akali Dal during the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s, assassinated by Sikh extremists less than a month after he signed a peace accord with the government [1]
- Aug 22 Paul Peter Ewald, German Crystallographer and Physicist who devised the theory of X-ray interference by crystals and pioneered X-ray diffraction methods, dies at 97
- Aug 22 Willy-August Linnemann, Danish writer and journalist, dies at 71
- Aug 26 Alfredo Carmelo, Filipino aviator, lithographer, and painter, dies at 89
- Aug 26 Pieter "Piet" Jongeling, Dutch politician (GPV) and author of children's books (Scout: The Secret of the Swamp), dies at 76
- Aug 30 Taylor Caldwell [Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell], Anglo-American novelist (Dynasty of Death, Dear and Glorious Physician), dies at 84
- Aug 31 Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian virologist (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for tissue grafting), dies at 85
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists