On This Day

August 2003 in History

Events in History

  • Aug 5 A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
  • Aug 10 The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK - 38.5°C (101.3°F) in Kent . It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Aug 11 Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
  • Aug 11 A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112°F (44° C), leaving about 144 people dead.
  • Aug 11 NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
  • Aug 14 Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
  • Aug 16 U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
  • Aug 19 A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, 7 of them children
  • Aug 19 A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
  • Aug 22 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building
  • Aug 25 The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).
  • Aug 26 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
  • Aug 27 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
  • Aug 28 An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London's underground rail network to a halt.
  • Aug 29 Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.

Birthdays in History

  • Aug 20 Prince Gabriel of Belgium, second child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, born in Erasmus Hospital, Anderlecht, Brussels, Belgium
  • Aug 24 Alexandre Coste, Son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, born in Paris

Weddings in History

  • Aug 10 Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space, marrying Ekaterina Dmitriev (on earth)
  • Aug 30 Daughter of Paul McCartney and fashion designer Stella McCartney (31) weds British publisher Alasdhair Willis on the 300-acre Gothic Estate in Scotland's Isle of Bute

Deaths in History

  • Aug 1 Guy Thys, Belgian football coach (b. 1922)
  • Aug 2 Peter Safar, Austrian physician (pioneered cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR), dies at 79
  • Aug 2 Charles Kerruish, Manx politician and President of Tyndwald Isle of Man, dies at 86
  • Aug 4 Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist and Nobel Prize laureate 1954, dies at 86
  • Aug 11 Diana Mitford, English biographer, famous beauty, wife of Oswald Mosley and one of the Mitford sisters, dies at 93
  • Aug 11 Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (b. 1923)

Idi Amin

Aug 16 Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator (1971-79) who killed an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 people, dies of kidney failure aged between 75-80

Idi Amin
Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin
  • Aug 19 Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (b. 1926)
  • Aug 19 Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (b. 1948)
  • Aug 21 Kathy Wilkes, English philosopher and aid worker (b. 1946)
  • Aug 22 Arnold Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skating trainer (b. 1914)
  • Aug 22 Generosa Ammon, American widow of Ted Ammon (b. 1956)
  • Aug 23 Jack Dyer, Australian rules footballer (b. 1913)
  • Aug 23 John Geoghan, American Catholic priest (b. 1935)
  • Aug 24 Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)
  • Aug 24 John Jacob Rhodes, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona), dies at 86
  • Aug 27 Pierre Poujade, French politician (b. 1920)
  • Aug 28 Brian Douglas Wells, American criminal (failed) (b. 1956)
  • Aug 29 Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, Iraqi political leader (b. 1939)
  • Aug 29 Patrick Procktor, English artist, dies at 67
  • Aug 30 Donald Davidson, American philosopher (b. 1917)

Historical Figures

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