Events in History
- 257 St Sixtus II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1125 Duke Lotharius of Supplinburg elected king of Germany
- 1146 European leaders outlaw crossbow, intending to end war for all time
- 1363 Beginning of the Battle of Lake Poyang; two Chinese rebel leaders Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang are pitted against each other in what was one of the largest naval battles in history during Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty
- 1464 Pietro Barbo elected to succeed Pope Pius II as Pope Paul II
- 1481 2 Latvian monarchs executed for conspiracy to Polish king Casimir IV
- 1563 Jewish community of Neutitschlin, Moravia, expelled
- 1574 Ram Das becomes the 4th Sikh Guru
Event of Interest
1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Event of Interest
1682 William Penn leaves England to sail to the New World
William Penn
- 1721 Russian and Swedish sign Treaty of Nystad, ending North Sea War
- 1757 Battle at Gross Jagerndorf: Russian army beats Prussia [OS=Aug 19]
- 1776 Continental Army evacuates Long Island and falls back to Manhattan, NYC
- 1791 HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day, on her return from her search for the Bounty and the mutineers who had taken her
Event of Interest
1791 Thomas Jefferson responds to Benjamin Banneker's letter on the issue of slavery
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Banneker
- 1799 Batavian fleet surrenders to British
- 1800 Gabriel Prosser leads a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia
- 1813 Battle of Kulm: French forces defeated by Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
- 1835 Melbourne, Australia is founded
- 1836 The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
- 1843 1st time African-Americans participate in a national political convention (Liberty Party)
- 1850 Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes a city
- 1860 1st British tram opens (Birkenhead)
- 1861 John Frémont issues proclamation freeing slaves of Missouri rebels
Second Battle of Bull Run
1862 Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia ends with a Confederate victory over Union forces
Learn More
Event of Interest
1890 President Benjamin Harrison signed the first U.S. law requiring inspection of meat products
Benjamin Harrison
- 1894 British explorer Frederick Lugard's expedition to Niger
- 1895 Belgium begins compulsory Roman Catholic education
- 1896 Eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco. Including provinces of Batangas, Rizal, Cavite and Nueva Ecija
- 1897 The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.
- 1900 Last 2,000 British prisoners in Nooitgedagt, South Africa, freed
- 1901 English engineer Hubert Cecil Booth patents the powered vacuum cleaner
- 1905 Pogoro/Ngindo attack Fort Mahenge German East-Africa
- 1906 NY Highlander Joe Doyle debuts pitching back-to-back shut-outs
- 1909 Burgess Shale fossils discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott
- 1914 1st German plane bombs Paris, 2 killed
Victory in Battle
1914 Battle of Tannenberg (WWI) ends in destruction of Russian 2nd Narev army, ca. 170,000 killed or injured, German victory on Eastern Front
Erich Ludendorff
Assassination Attempt
1918 Fanya Kaplan attempts but fails to assassinate Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia
Vladimir Lenin
Event of Interest
1928 Jawaharlal Nehru requests independence of India
Jawaharlal Nehru
Election of Interest
1932 Hermann Goering elected Chairman of the Reichstag
Hermann Goering
Event of Interest
1939 Isoroku Yamamoto appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese fleet
Isoroku Yamamoto
- 1939 Poland mobilizes
Event of Interest
1941 Winston Churchill approves a nuclear programme (Tube Alloys), first national leader to do so
Winston Churchill
Event of Interest
1945 General Douglas MacArthur lands in Japan
Douglas MacArthur
- 1945 Hong Kong liberated from Japanese control
- 1949 Roly Jenkins (Worcs v Surrey) takes his 2nd hat-trick of the game
- 1951 US & Philippines sign mutual defense pact
- 1954 Hurricane Carol kills 68 on the US East Coast
- 1956 USSR performs nuclear test (atmospheric tests)
- 1956 White mob prevents enrollment of blacks at Mansfield High School, Texas
- 1956 Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens in Louisiana, longest continuous bridge in the world
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1957 US senator Strom Thurmond speaks 24hrs 27m against civil rights
- 1958 US performs nuclear test at S Atlantic Ocean
- 1960 East Germany imposes a partial blockade on West Berlin
- 1961 James Benton Parsons is confirmed as 1st African American judge of a US District Court
- 1961 Last Spanish troops leave Morocco
- 1961 USSR says it will resume nuclear testing
- 1962 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
- 1963 Hotline communication link between the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the Kremlin in Moscow installed. Often known as the "red telephone" no phones were ever used, relying instead on Teletype equipment, fax machines and most recently secure email.
- 1964 Electric designer Norman Manley records back-to-back holes-in-one on the 7th & 8th holes at Del Valle in Saugus, California; Guinness BWR' best
- 1965 Section of Allalin glacier wipes out construction site at Mattmark Dam near Saas-Fee, Switzerland
Event of Interest
1967 US Senate confirm Thurgood Marshall as 1st black justice
Thurgood Marshall
- 1969 25,000 attend 2nd Annual Sky River Rock Festival, Tenino Wash
- 1969 Racial disturbances in Fort Lauderdale Florida
- 1974 Express train runs at full speed into Zagreb, Yugoslavia, rail yard killing 153
- 1974 Launching of 1st Dutch satellite, ANS, from Vandenberg
- 1974 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1975 KTW-AM in Seattle, Washington changes call letters to KYAC (now KKFX)
- 1976 Turks & Caicos Islands adopts constitution
- 1979 -Sept 13] Hurricane David, kills 1200 in Florida, Domincana & Dominican Republic
- 1979 1st recorded occurrence of a comet hitting the sun, releases energy equal to one million hydrogen bombs
Event of Interest
1982 PLO leader Yasser Arafat leaves Beirut
Yasser Arafat
- 1983 8th Space Shuttle Mission-Challenger 3-launched (6 days)
- 1983 Guion Bluford becomes 1st African-American astronaut in space
- 1984 12th Space Shuttle Mission (41-D)-Discovery 1-launched (6 days)
- 1984 Sotheby's in London begins 2 day auction of rock memorabilla
- 1986 Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report)
- 1987 Ben Johnson of Canada runs 100m in world record 9.83 sec
- 1988 France performs nuclear test
- 1990 Tatarstan announces its sovereignty with the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of the Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic
- 1991 Tamil Tigers capture Sri Lanka poet Selvi
- 1992 David Lewett & Jane Luu discovers comet: "1992 QB1" 64 mil km from Sun
Gustave Eiffel
Birthdays in History
Peter the Cruel
1334 Peter the Cruel, Spanish King of Castile and Leon (1350-69), born in Burgos, Spain (d. 1369)
Peter the Cruel
- 1609 Artus Quellinus, Flemish sculptor (Amsterdam townhall), born in Antwerp (d. 1668)
- 1705 David Hartley, English philosopher and Founder of the Associationist School of Psychology, born in Halifax, Yorkshire, England (d. 1757)
- 1720 Samuel Whitbread, English brewer and Member of Parliament, born in Cardington, Bedfordshire (d. 1796)
- 1748 Jacques-Louis David, French Neoclassical painter (Death of Marat), born in Paris (d. 1825)
- 1772 Henri de La Rochejacquelin, French Royalist Army leader, born in Mauléon, Kingdom of France (d. 1794)
Mary Shelley
1797 Mary Shelley, English author (Frankenstein), born in London, England (d. 1851)
Mary Shelley
- 1805 Michael Sars, Norwegian zoologist, born in Bergen, Norway (d. 1869)
- 1808 Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, Mother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, born in Munich (d. 1892)
- 1813 Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria, eldest daughter of Ludwig I of Bavaria, born in Augsburg, Germany (d. 1862)
- 1818 Alexander H. Rice, American businessman and politician, 30th Governor of Massachusetts (1876-78), born in Newton, Massachusetts (d. 1895)
- 1821 Anita Garibaldi, Brazilian warrior; Garibaldi's wife (War of Tatters), born in Laguna, Santa Catarina, Brazil (d. 1849)
- 1837 Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, US 1st Lady (1881-85), born in Culpeper Court House, Virginia (d. 1880)
- 1839 Gulstan Ropert, French Roman Catholic prelate, born in Kerfago, Brittany, France (d. 1903)
- 1842 Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia, Eldest child of Alexander II of Russia, born in Catherine Palace, Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, Russia (d. 1849)
- 1844 Friedrich Ratzel, German social-geographer (Lebensraum), born in Karlsruhe, Germany (d. 1904)
- 1848 Andrew Onderdonk, American railway contractor (Canadian Pacific Railway), born in NYC, New York (d. 1905)
- 1849 J. M. Dent, British publisher, born in Darlington, England (d. 1926)
- 1852 Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff, Dutch physical chemist (Nobel 1901), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1911)
- 1856 Carle David Tolmé Runge, German mathematician and physicist, born in Bremen, Germany (d. 1927)
- 1860 Isaac Levitan, Russian classical painter, born in Kybartai, Lithuania (d. 1900)
- 1863 Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Russian photographer and chemist, born in Muron, Russia (d. 1944)
- 1866 Georges Minne, Belgian sculptor, born in Ghent, Belgium (d. 1941)
- 1870 Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, Firstborn daughter of King George I and Queen Olga of Greece, born in Corfu, Greece (d. 1891)
Ernest Rutherford
1871 Ernest Rutherford [1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson], New Zealand physicist and father of nuclear physics (Nobel 1908), born in Brightwater, New Zealand (d. 1937)
Ernest Rutherford
- 1878 Paul Hazard [Paul-Gustave-Marie-Camille Hazard], French critic and literature historian, born in Nordpeene, France (d. 1944)
- 1882 Meijer de Hond, Dutch rabbi and writer, born in Amsterdam (d. 1943)
- 1883 Theo Van Doesburg [Christian Emil Marie Küpper], Dutch painter and architect (Style), born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1931)
- 1884 Theodor Svedberg, Swedish chemist, worked with colloids (Nobel 1926), born in Fleräng, Valbo, Gävleborg, Sweden (d. 1971)
- 1887 Adam Kuckhoff, German writer and resistance fighter, born in Aachen, Germany (d. 1943)
- 1893 Huey Long, American politician (40th Governor of Louisiana), born in Winnfield, Louisiana (d. 1935)
- 1900 Franklin Clark Fry, American minister (Lutheran World Relief), born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (d. 1968)
- 1901 John Gunther, American author and host (John Gunther's High Road), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1970)
- 1901 Roy Wilkins, American civil rights activist and longtime executive director of NAACP, born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 1981)
- 1906 Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, British historian, born in London (d. 2002)
- 1907 John Mauchly, American physicist who with J. Presper Eckert, designed the first general purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), born in Cincinnati, Ohio
- 1908 Leonor Fini, Argentine artist, born in Buenos Aires (d. 1996)
- 1909 Barry Appleby, British cartoonist (The Gambols), born in Birmingham (d. 1996)
- 1912 Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist (Nobel 1952), born in Taylorville, Illinois (d. 1997)
- 1912 Nancy Wake, New Zealand-born World War II secret agent (Special Operations Executive), born in Wellington, New Zealand (d. 2011)
- 1913 Thomas F. Torrance, Scottish Protestant theologist, born in Chengdu, Sichuan, China (d. 2007)
- 1915 Liesbeth Saijers, Dutch sculptor (d. 1992)
- 1916 John Thoday, British geneticist, born in Chinley, Derbyshire (d. 2008)
- 1916 Kenneth Keith, Lord Keith of Castleacre, English banker, born in Castle Acre, England (d. 2004)
- 1917 Denis Healey, English politician (Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer), born in London, (d. 2015)
- 1919 Maurice R. Hilleman, American microbiologist who developed over 36 vaccines including measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia, born in Miles City, Montana (d. 2005)
- 1920 Ben Cami, Flemish writer and poet (Rose from Mud), born in Durham, England (d. 2004)
- 1922 Lionel Murphy, Australian politician, born in Kensington, New South Wales, Australia (d. 1986)
- 1923 Barbara Mary Ansell, UK founder of paediatric rheumatology, born in Warwick, England (d. 2001)
- 1923 Charmian Clift, Australian writer and essayist, born in Kiama, New South Wales, Australia (d. 1969)
- 1925 Laurent de Brunhoff, French writer and illustrator (Babar the Elephant), born in Paris
- 1927 Geoffrey Beene, American fashion designer (8 Coty Awards), born in Haynesville, Louisiana (d. 2004)
- 1930 Warren Burger, American author (The Midas Touch)
Warren Buffett
1930 Warren Buffett, American business magnate (world's wealthiest person in 2008), born in Omaha, Nebraska
Warren Buffett
- 1931 Carrie Saxon Perry, 1st African-American mayor of a major US city (Hartford CT), born in Hartford, Connecticut
- 1931 John Leonard Swigert Jr., American astronaut (Apollo 13), born in Denver, Colorado (d. 1982)
- 1935 Sylvia Earle, American marine biologist, born in Gibbstown, New Jersey
- 1936 Fabrizia Ramondino, Italian author, born in Naples, Italy (d. 2008)
- 1942 Jonathan Aitken, English politician (Conservative MP), born in Dublin, Ireland
- 1943 Altovise Davis [née Gore], American entertainer, and final wife of Sammy Davis, Jr., born in Charlotte, North Carolina (d. 2009)
- 1946 Anne-Marie of Greece, Danish princess and daughter of Frederik IX, born in Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark
- 1947 Allan Rock, Canadian politician and diplomat, born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- 1949 Ted Ammon, American financier and investment banker, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 2001)
- 1949 Don Boudria, Canadian politician (MP for Glengarry–Prescott–Russell), born in Hull, Quebec, Canada
- 1950 Antony Gormley, British sculptor (Angel of the North), born in London, England
- 1953 Ron George, American politician (Member of the Maryland House of Delegates), born in Syracuse, New York
- 1954 Gerard Hadders, Dutch postage stamp designer (1991 children stamp), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands
Alexander Lukashenko
1954 Alexander Lukashenko, 1st and only President of Belarus, born in Kopys, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Alexander Lukashenko
- 1958 Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist and human rights activist, born in NYC, New York (d. 2006)
- 1960 Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, Medal of Honor recipient, born in Lincoln, Maine (d. 1993)
- 1962 Alexander Litvinenko, Russian KGB officer, born in Voronezh, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (d. 2006)
- 1973 Amy Sherald, American painter (portrait of Michelle Obama), born in Columbus, Georgia
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
1846 Author and Christian pioneer Ellen G. White (18) weds preacher James Springer White (25) in Portland, Maine
Ellen G. White
- 1953 Future NYC mayor David Dinkins marries Joyce Burrows in NYC
- 2003 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
- 2005 "Squeeze" band founder Jools Holland (47) weds sculptor Christabel McEwen at St. James Church in Cooling, Kent, England
Wedding of Interest
2006 Billionaire Warren Buffett (76) weds longtime companion Astrid Menks (60) in Omaha
Warren Buffett
Deaths in History
- 1580 Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy/governor of Netherlands, dies
- 1619 Shimazu Yoshihiro, Japanese samurai and warlord, dies at 84
- 1666 Benedictus Carpzovius [Benedikt Carpzov], German lawyer, dies at 71
- 1751 Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (b. 1661)
- 1809 Ignacy Potocki, Polish Foreign Minister (constitution), dies
- 1844 Francis Baily, English astronomer and describer of "Baily's Beads" during solar eclipse, dies at 70
- 1855 Feargus O'Connor, Leader of English Chartists, dies at 61
- 1856 Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b. 1811)
- 1856 John Ross, British naval officer and explorer, dies at 79
- 1862 Charles Bernard Desormes, French Physicist and Chemist (carbon monoxide and carbon disulphide compositions), dies at 91
- 1877 Raphael Semmes, American Rear Admiral (Confederate Navy), dies at 67
- 1879 John B Hood, confederate general (lost Atlanta), dies at 48
- 1886 Ferris Jacobs, Jr., American military officer and politician (US Representative from New York 1881-83), dies at 50
- 1896 Alexei Lobanov-Rostovsky, Russian statesman (b. 1824)
- 1903 Vicente Fidel López, Argentine historian (Historia the Chile), dies at 87
- 1906 Hans Auer, Swiss-Austrian architect, dies at 59
- 1908 Alexander P. Stewart, American Lieutenant General (Confederate Army), dies at 86
- 1910 Albert Vandal, French earl/historian (Napoleon), dies at 57
- 1914 Adrian H Stewart, British lieutenant, dies in battle in Cameroon at 26
- 1914 Alexander Samsonov, Russian general, commits suicide after Russian defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg at 54
- 1917 Uritsky, leader of Petrogradse Czech, dies
- 1919 Jóhann Sigurjónsson, Icelandic writer (Dr Rung), dies at 39
- 1928 Wilhelm Wien, German physicist (laws of motion, Nobel 1911), dies at 64
- 1932 Willem Marinus van Rossum, Dutch cardinal and prefect of Propaganda Fide, dies at 77
- 1934 Earnest L Wolzogen, German writer (That tolle Komtess), dies at 79
- 1935 Henri Barbusse, French novelist (Le feu), dies at 62
- 1938 Max Factor, Polish-American make-up artist, inventor and founder of cosmetics manufacturer Max Factor & Company, dies at 60
J. J. Thomson
1940 J. J. Thomson, English physicist who discovered the electron (Nobel 1906), dies at 83
J. J. Thomson
- 1941 Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish engineer and physicist, dies at 67
- 1943 A[braham] Merritt, American sci-fi author (The Moon Pool, Burn Witch Bun), dies from a heart attack at 58
- 1943 Eustáquio van Lieshout, Dutch priest and missionary in Brazil, dies at 52
- 1944 Morten Nielsen, Danish resistance fighter, dies
- 1946 Grigory Semyonov, Russian counter-revolutionary (executed) (b. 1890)
- 1950 Ralph Hancock, Welsh garden designer (Rockefeller Center), dies at 57
- 1963 Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy, dies of acute liver failure at 52
- 1970 Anna Casati, Italian marchesa, murdered at 41
- 1974 Abraham Schierbeek, Dutch biologist (Leeuwenhoek), dies at 87
- 1981 Mohammad-Ali Rajai, President of Iran (1981), assassinated by a bomb at 48
- 1985 Taylor Caldwell [Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell], Anglo-American novelist (Dynasty of Death, Dear and Glorious Physician), dies at 84
- 1988 Albert F. Frey-Wyssling, Swiss botanist and pioneer of submicroscopic morphology and the discipline of molecular biology, dies at 87
- 1989 Seymour Krim, American journalist, essayist, and literary critic (b. 1922)
- 1989 Dorothy Schiff, American owner and publisher (NY Post), dies at 86
- 1991 Hans Koetsier, Dutch sculptor artist (KLM-Schiphol), dies at 61
- 1991 Jean Tinguely, Swiss sculptor artist (moving objects), dies at 66
- 1995 Dame Pattie Maie Menzies, Australian, dies at 96
- 1995 Fischer S Black Jr, American financial Theorist, dies at 57
- 1996 José Toribio Merino, Chilean admiral (one of the principal leaders of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état), dies at 80
- 1999 Raymond Poïvet, French comics artist (b. 1910)
- 2001 Ivor Spencer-Thomas, English farmer, entrepreneur and inventor, dies at 94
- 2003 Donald Davidson, American philosopher (b. 1917)
- 2004 Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (dirty-snowball theory), dies at 97
- 2004 Indian Larry, American motorcycle builder and stuntman (b. 1949)
- 2005 James H. Scheuer, American politician (Rep-D-NY, 1965-73, 75- 93), dies of heart and kidney failure at 85
- 2006 Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian novelist (Palace Walk, Sugar Street) and first Arabic writer to win a Nobel Prize (1988), dies at 94
- 2006 Robin Cooke, Baron Cooke of Thorndon, New Zealand jurist and member of the British House of Lords (b. 1926)
- 2007 Michael Jackson, British beer and whiskey author/expert. (b. 1942)
- 2007 Charles Vanik, American politician (b. 1918)
- 2007 Augustine Harris, British Bishop of Middlesbrough, dies at 89
Seamus Heaney
2013 Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and playwright (Nobel Prize in Literature 1995), dies at 74
Seamus Heaney