Events in History
- Aug 1 Russian supported forces of self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia attack Georgian villages, breaking a 1992 cease-fire agreement
Historic Publication
Aug 2 "Breaking Dawn", 4th book in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" is published by Little Brown at midnight with a print run of 3.7 million copies
- Aug 6 A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'etat in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi
- Aug 6 Access 31 TV stops broadcasting in Perth, Western Australia
- Aug 7 Russo-Georgian War: Georgia moves troops into Russian supported self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia in response to aggression; 1st European war of the 21st century.
- Aug 8 Russo-Georgian War: Russia launches a full-scale land, air and sea invasion of Georgia, referring to it as a 'peace enforcement' operation after Georgia responded to aggression from South Ossetian
Event of Interest
Aug 11 Airbnb is founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk
- Aug 12 Russo-Georgian War: Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, negotiates ceasefire agreement between Russia and Georgia, ending a brief war hostilities after 5 days
- Aug 13 The Baltic state slides into recession with a 0.9% fall in second-quarter GDP after a drop of 0.5% in the first quarter; it falls deeper into recession in the third quarter when the economy contracted 3.3%
- Aug 15 Lee Berger and his nine-year-old son, Matthew, discover the two-million-year-old fossils of a new species of human ancestor (Australopithecus sediba) at Malapa Cave, South Africa
- Aug 18 President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf resigns due to pressure from opposition
- Aug 20 Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. 146 people are killed in the crash, 8 more die afterwards. Only 18 people survive.
- Aug 26 Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, prompting the Georgian government to sever diplomatic relations with Russia
Presidential Convention
Aug 27 US Senator Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States
Deaths in History
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
Aug 3 Russian writer (Cancer Ward, Nobel Prize for Literature 1970), dies at 89
- Aug 3 Skip Caray, American TV and radio broadcaster (b. 1939)
- Aug 7 Andrea Pininfarina, Italian engineer (CEO of Pininfarina S.p.A.), dies in a road accident at 51
- Aug 7 Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent, manager and producer (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd), dies of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 77
- Aug 9 Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian prominent poet and writer, dies at 66
- Aug 13 Bill Gwatney, American political figure, assassinated at 48
- Aug 13 Henri Cartan, French Mathematician, dies at 104
- Aug 13 Jack Weil, American oldest working CEO (Rockmount Ranch Wear), dies at 107
- Aug 13 Sandy Allen, American second-tallest woman in the world at 7 feet 7 inches (231 cm), dies at 53
- Aug 17 Franco Sensi, Italian oil tycoon and president of A.S. Roma, dies at 82
- Aug 19 Levy Mwanawasa, Zambian politician (3rd President of Zambia), dies at 59
Hua Guofeng (1921-2008)
Aug 20 Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (1976-81) and Premier of the People's Republic of China (1976-80), dies at 87
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
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Revolutionaries
Scientists