Events in History
- Aug 2 Australian state of Victoria announces state of disaster and imposes further lockdown measures after spike in COVID-19 cases
- Aug 2 Islamic State stages a jail break at a prison in Afghan city of Jalalabad, placing bombs at its entrance, results in 20 hr gunfight, 29 deaths and over 300 prisoners at large
- Aug 2 South Africa confirms over 500,000 cases of COVID-19 with 10,107 deaths, highest total on the African continent
- Aug 2 SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico, 1st commercial crewed mission
- Aug 2 United Arab Emirates starts up the Arab world's first nuclear power station at the Barakah plant
- Aug 3 Hurricane Isaias makes landfall in the US as a Category 1 hurricane near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina
- Aug 3 Number of Iranian COVID-19 deaths triple that of government tally, showing 42,000 have died instead of 14,405, according to BBC Persian Service investigation [1]
- Aug 3 Spain's former King Juan Carlos announces he will go into exile abroad amid his implication in a corruption inquiry
- Aug 4 COVID-19 infection spike forces a return to lockdown in Manila and surrounding provinces in the Philippines, affecting 27 million people as cases pass 100,000
- Aug 4 Huge explosions at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, kill more than 200 and leaves over 6,000 thousand people injured
- Aug 4 UN says COVID-19 pandemic has created biggest educational disruption in history affecting nearly 1.6 million students in 190 countries, 94% worldwide [1]
Event of Interest
Aug 5 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the cornerstone for a new Hindu temple at Ayodhya Ram to replace a previous Muslim mosque
- Aug 6 COVID-19 detected cases in Africa pass 1 million with 21,983 deaths
- Aug 6 US COVID-19 death toll could reach 300,000 by 1 December, about 70,000 lives saved if masks worn consistently, according to University of Washington study [1]
- Aug 9 Brazil passes 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, the world's 2nd highest, with over 3 million recorded cases
Election of Interest
Aug 9 Disputed Belarusian presidential election sees long time dictator Alexander Lukashenko officially win 80% of the votes but unofficially lose 60-70% of the votes to main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Sparks widespread protests in Belarus and international condemnation.
- Aug 9 New Zealand marks 100 days without community transmission of COVID-19
- Aug 10 Global COVID-19 cases pass 20 million and is accelerating, 1st 10 million took almost 6 months, 2nd 10 million took just 43 days (Reuters)
- Aug 10 Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announces his government is resigning, less than a week after massive industrial explosions devastated Beirut
- Aug 10 Rare wind storm (derecho) hits the US Midwest flattening cornfields, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity, killing two people
Election of Interest
Aug 11 Belarus's opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya flees the country amid large-scale protests over the country's disputed election results that returned Dictator Alexander Lukashenko to power
COVID-19 Pandemic
Aug 11 President Vladimir Putin in a propaganda stunt announces Russia has become the 1st country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, called “Sputnik V", despite no scientific data being published or phase 3 trials having even begun
- Aug 12 Europe fights a new COVID-19 surge with Germany, France and Spain posting their largest daily infection totals for three months
- Aug 12 UK posts its worst quarterly economic slump on record, -20.4% (Apr-Jun), pushing it into the largest recession worldwide
- Aug 12 Yemen authorities say at least 172 people died in floods caused by torrential rains, which have also destroyed historic buildings in Sanaa, a Unesco World Heritage Site
- Aug 13 Israel strikes historic deal with the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations, Israel suspends plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank
- Aug 13 New details about enormous "Terror Crocodile" (Deinosuchus), the size of a bus, with teeth as big as bananas, that lived during late Cretaceous period (75-84 million years ago) in North America published [1]
- Aug 16 At least 17 people killed in attack on beach resort in Mogadishu, Somalia, by al-Shabab group
- Aug 16 Biggest protests in Thailand in six years as 10,000 people demonstrate in Bangkok for reforms of the government and the monarchy
- Aug 16 Japan's economy, the world's third largest, posts its worst-ever decline, falling 7.8% (April-June quarter)
- Aug 16 Largest-ever demonstration in Belarus as 100,000 people gather in Minsk to protest against controversial election results and regime of Alexander Lukashenko
- Aug 17 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the 1st US college to send students home and convert to online classes after 135 COVID-19 cases detected
Event of Interest
Aug 18 California Governor Gavin Newsom declares state of emergency as 27 fires burn across the state amid a continuing heat wave
- Aug 18 Joe Biden is formally nominated as the Democratic party's presidential candidate during the second night of their 1st ever virtual convention
- Aug 18 Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigns amid a military coup condemned by the UN Security Council
- Aug 19 Apple becomes the 1st US company to be valued at $2 trillion, just 2 years after it reached $1 trillion valuation
- Aug 19 Golfing dinner termed #GolfGatet appearing to flout COVID-19 restrictions, attended by Irish political figures, prompts two politicians to later resign
- Aug 19 Largest floods in 70 years wet the toes of giant 71m Leshan Buddha carved by a river just outside Chengdu, China with 100,000 people evacuated
- Aug 19 US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says he will suspend controversial plan to cut costs until after the election
Event of Interest
Aug 20 Former adviser to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon arrested and charged with fraud over a fundraising campaign to build a wall on the Mexican border
Presidential Convention
Aug 20 Kamala Harris accepts her nomination for vice-president, becoming the 1st US woman of color on a major-party ticket saying "there is no vaccine for racism"
Event of Interest
Aug 20 Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny falls into a coma after a suspected poisoning (later confirmed to be Novichok poisoning)
- Aug 22 13 people die in a stampede at an illegal disco in Lima, Peru, during a police raid to shut it down
- Aug 22 Fires burning in Northern California declared Major Disaster with LNU Lightning Complex Fire (341,243 acres) and SCU Lightning Complex Fire (339,968) among the 3 largest wildfires in state history
- Aug 22 Mexican COVID-19 death toll passes 60,000, world's third highest
- Aug 23 President Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway announces she is stepping away from the White House for family reasons
Event of Interest
Aug 23 US black man Jacob Blake shot and injured by police in front of his children in Kenosha, Wisconsin, prompting violent protests
- Aug 23 US Republican party convention begins by formally renominating Donald Trump for a second presidential term
- Aug 24 First documented case of a person being re-infected with COVID-19 a second time, a Hong Kong man four months after first infection
- Aug 26 At least 100 people killed in flash floods in the city of Charikar, Afghanistan, with 500 houses destroyed
- Aug 26 Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (29) is the youngest to win the International Booker prize for their debut novel "The Discomfort of Evening"
- Aug 27 Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant sentenced to life without parole, for the killing of 51 mosque worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, 1st time the country imposes the sentence [1]
- Aug 27 Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Louisiana near the Texas border as a category 4 storm with 150 mph winds, killing at least 16
Presidential Convention
Aug 27 Mike Pence accepts nomination for vice president at the Republican convention, calling for "law and order" after the shooting of Jacob Blake
- Aug 28 Japanese tech company SkyDrive says it has completed the first manned test flight of a flying car
- Aug 29 Elon Musk unveils pig named Gertrude with coin-sized computer in her brain, part of his Nuralink start-up creating a brain-to-machine interface
- Aug 30 Global cases of COVID-19 pass 25 million with death toll at 843,000
- Aug 30 India reports world's highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases at 78,761
- Aug 31 US cases of COVID-19 pass 6 million with 183,300 deaths with California (699.000), Florida (619,000) recording the most (Johns Hopkins)
Deaths in History
- Aug 1 Rodney H. Pardey, American poker player (2 x World Series of Poker C'ships; World Series of Poker Bracelets 1991, 94), dies of stroke complications at 75
- Aug 3 John Hume, Northern Irish politician (jointly awarded Nobel Peace Prize for Good Friday Agreement), dies at 83 [1]
- Aug 3 Ralph Barbieri, American sports radio personality (KNBR San Francisco; 'The Razor and Mr. T' 1996-2012), dies of Parkinson's disease at 74
- Aug 3 Shirley Ann Grau, American Pulitzer winning author (Keepers of the House), dies at 91
- Aug 5 Aritana Yawalapiti, Brazilian indigenous cacique (leader) of Yawalapiti people, who sought to preserve the Amazon, dies of COVID-19 at 71
- Aug 5 Eric Bentley, British-American critic and writer (In Search of Theater), dies at 103
- Aug 7 Lê Khả Phiêu, Vietnamese leader, General Secretary (1997-2001), dies at 88 [1]
- Aug 12 Marvin Creamer, American mariner, 1st recorded person to sail around the world without navigational instruments, dies at 104
- Aug 14 James R. Thompson, American politician, (longest serving Governor of Illinois, 1977-91), dies at 84
- Aug 19 Slade Gorton, American politician (Sen-R-WA, 1981-87, 1989-2001), dies at 92
- Aug 25 Tim Renton, British politician (Conservative Minister under Thatcher and Major - came up with National Lottery), dies at 88
- Aug 27 David Bryant, English lawn bowler (World Outdoor C'ship singles 1966, 80, 88; 4 x C'wealth Games gold singles), dies at 88
- Aug 27 David Mercer, Welsh television sports presenter (BBC tennis; Eurosports) and tennis umpire (Wimbledon men's final 1984), dies at 70
- Aug 27 Dick Ritger, American ten-pin bowler (Tournament of Champions 1970, 79 runner-up; 20 career PBA Tour titles), dies at 81
- Aug 29 Jürgen Schadeberg, German-born South African photographer who photographed apartheid struggle, dies at 89
- Aug 31 Pranab Mukherjee, Indian politician, 13th President of India (2012-17), dies at 84
Authors
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