Event of Interest
30 BC Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic
Augustus Caesar
Event of Interest
527 Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire
Justinian I
- 607 Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607)
- 649 Pope Martinus I chosen successor of Theodorus I [or 8/7]
- 860 Peace of Koblenz: Charles the Bald, Louis the German & Lotharius II
- 902 Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya destroys Taormina, Sicily
- 1021 Synod of Pavia: emperor Henry II convicts married priest
- 1086 Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are historically contestable)
- 1177 Peace Treaty of Venice: Emperor Frederik I and Pope Alexander III
- 1203 Alexius IV Angelus appointed co-regent of Byzantium
- 1291 Everlasting League forms, basis of Swiss Confederation (Independence)
- 1485 Henry Tudor's army sails to England (future Henry VII)
Historic Discovery
1498 Christopher Columbus lands on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela)
Christopher Columbus
- 1589 Assassination of French King Henry III by friar Jacques Clément
- 1626 Earl Earnest Casimir conquers Oldenzaal
- 1628 Emperor Ferdinand II demands Austria Protestant convert to Catholicism
- 1664 Battle at St Gotthard: Earl Raimondo Montecucculi beats Ahmed Kiprulu
- 1690 Battle at Staffarda: French army beats Victor Amadeus of Savoy
Event of Interest
1711 Surrounded Tsar Peter the Great flees Azov
Peter the Great
Oxygen Discovered!
1774 Joseph Priestley, English theologian, chemist and author discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state
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- 1780 Sweden declares neutrality
- 1781 British army under general Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, Virginia
- 1785 Caroline Herschel becomes 1st woman to discover a comet
- 1789 US Customs begins enforcing Tariff Act
- 1793 France becomes 1st country to use the metric system
- 1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania
Victory in Battle
1798 Battle of the Nile: British Royal Navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson attacks and decimates the French fleet at Aboukir Bay off the Nile Delta, Egypt
Horatio Nelson
- 1812 Rare tornado hits Westchester County, NY
- 1814 Belgian King Willem I accepts blame in Southern defeat
- 1820 London's Regent's Canal opens.
- 1828 Bolton and Leigh Railway opens to freight traffic.
- 1831 London Bridge opens to traffic
- 1832 The Black Hawk War ends.
- 1834 Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire - Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect
Event of Interest
1836 As part of their homeward journey on the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin returns to Bahia in Brazil
Charles Darwin
- 1838 Apprenticeship system abolished in most of the British Empire. Former slaves no longer indentured to former owners.
- 1840 Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated.
- 1842 Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames opens
- 1842 Lombard Street Riot erupts
- 1852 San Francisco Methodists establish 1st black church, Zion Methodist
- 1855 Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants
- 1861 Brazil recognizes Confederacy
- 1863 Battle of Little Rock, Arkansas; start of Chattanooga campaign
- 1863 Cavalry action near Brandy Station-End of Gettysburg Campaign
- 1867 Blacks vote for 1st time in a US state election in the South (Tennessee)
- 1869 1st voyage down Colorado River
- 1870 Irish Land Act gives rights to tenants of landlords in Ireland
- 1876 Colorado becomes 38th state of the Union
- 1881 US Quarantine Station authorized for Angel Island, San Francisco Bay
- 1883 A papyrus offered to British Museum for £10,000 (forgery)
- 1883 Amsterdam's Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky gets electric lights
- 1883 Inland postal service begins in Great Britain
- 1886 Great Britain annexes Kermadec-Island near New Zealand
Event of Interest
1890 Cecil Rhodes' colonists reach Lundi
Cecil Rhodes
- 1893 Henry Perky patents a machine for the preparation of cereals for food, otherwise known as shredded wheat
- 1893 Henry Perky and William Ford patent shredded wheat
- 1896 George Samuelson completes rowing Atlantic (NY to England)
- 1901 Burials within San Francisco City limits prohibited
- 1902 Building begins on Dutch public housing
- 1902 Mine accident in Wollongong, Australia (100 die)
- 1907 U.S. Army Signal Corps establish a small Aeronautical Division
- 1907 Bank of Italy (later Bank of America) opens 1st branch at 3433 Mission Street, San Francisco
- 1907 First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset
- 1911 Omar N Bradley (18) begins education in West Point
- 1911 Transportation workers begin a major strike in England; part of a wave of industrial unrest
- 1914 British Grand Fleet reaches Scapa Flow
Declaration of War
1914 Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II (WWI) of Russia in WWI
Wilhelm II
Nicholas II
- 1914 France and Germany mobilize their troops at outbreak of WWI
- 1914 Trois Vierges: German 69th infantry regiment enters Luxembourg on outbreak of WWI
- 1916 Hawaii National Park forms
- 1916 Annie Besant founds the India Home Rule League
- 1917 Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, Montana
- 1918 British troops enter Vladivostok
- 1919 Queen Wilhelmina opens 1st Air Fair in Amsterdam
- 1920 Peace of Riga-Independence of Latvia
- 1922 Hendrikus Colijn becomes political editor-in-chief of The Standard
- 1922 In Italy, the socialist 'Alianza del Lavoro' declare a national strike which collapses immediately and fascist forces destroy union and socialist headquarters
- 1925 Shortwave-radio link between Kootwijk and Netherland East-Indies
- 1926 Battles between Druze & French in Damascus
- 1926 Failed assassination on General Primo de Rivera in Barcelona
- 1932 George Washington quarter goes into circulation
- 1933 Death penalty for anti-fascists in Germany
Event of Interest
1933 National Recovery Administration (NRA) is founded with Hugh S. Johnson as its first director
Hugh S. Johnson
- 1936 Benjamin Mays named president of Morehouse College
- 1941 Luftwaffe bombs German 23rd division
- 1941 The first Jeep is produced.
- 1942 German occupier demands listing of all Dutch telephone subscribers
- 1942 Race riots in Harlem, New York
- 1943 Japan declares Burma Independence under U Ba Maw
- 1943 Race riot in Harlem, NYC
- 1943 Sunderland seaplanes sink U-454 & U-383
- 1944 Adam Clayton Powell elected 1st African-American congressman from New York
Event of Interest
1944 Anne Frank's last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested
Anne Frank
- 1944 General Montgomery takes command of 12th & 21st army
- 1944 US 90th division occupies St Hilaire-du-Harcourt
- 1944 US troops enter Tessy-sur-Vir
- 1944 Polish resistance fighters of the Home Army launch the Warsaw Uprising, the largest military effort undertaken by a resistance movement in occupied Europe
- 1945 Japanese city Toyama destroyed by B-29's
Event of Interest
1946 US President Harry Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
Harry Truman
Election of Interest
1951 David Ben-Gurion's Mapai-party wins Israeli parliamentary election
David Ben-Gurion
- 1953 California introduces sales tax (for education)
Event of Interest
1953 Fidel Castro arrested in Cuba
Fidel Castro
- 1953 Northern Rhodesia becomes part of Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- 1954 South African Natives Resettlement Act comes into being, empowers the Government to remove Africans from any area within and next to the magisterial district of Johannesburg
- 1955 1st microgravity research begins
- 1955 Tengku Abdul Rahman forms Malacca government
- 1957 1st commercial building heated by Sun (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
- 1957 US and Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
- 1958 US 1st class postage up to 4 cents (had been 3 cents for 26 years)
- 1958 US atomic submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st transit of North Pole "operation Sunshine"
Historic Publication
1959 Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Sacerdotii nostri primordia
John XXIII
- 1960 Benin (Dahomey) gains independence from France
- 1960 Chubby Checker releases "The Twist"
- 1960 Islamabad declared as the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
- 1961 German DR limits traffic to West Berlin
- 1961 New San Francisco Hall of Justice opens
- 1961 Whitney Young Jr named executive director of National Urban League
- 1962 Failed assassination on President Nkrumah of Ghana
- 1963 Germany FR annexes Elten village
- 1964 ALM (Antillian Airlines) begins operation
- 1966 Charles Whitman wounds 31 and kills 16 at University of Texas
- 1966 Yakubu Gowon becomes Nigerian Head of State after a military coup d'état
- 1967 Izaak Samkalden becomes mayor of Amsterdam
- 1968 Canada begins replacing silver with nickel in coins
- 1968 Cleveland Metroparks begins operating Zoo
- 1968 The coronation is held of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei.
- 1969 Mariner 6 sends close-up photos of Mars
- 1970 EAA Convention moves from Rockford Ill to Oshkosh, Wi
- 1972 1st article exposing Watergate scandal by Bernstein and Woodward in "The Washington Post"
- 1973 H J Witteveen appointed as director of IMF
- 1973 Munson and Fisk get into a brawl at Fenway Park
- 1974 China's People's Liberation Army Navy, put into service ChangZheng 1, their first nuclear-powered submarine
- 1975 38 government leaders signs Helsinki accord
- 1975 Helsinki Pact guaranteeing boundaries, rights signed by 35 nations
- 1975 CSCE Final Act creates the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe
- 1976 Flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon Colo on Route 34, kills 139
- 1977 Former Lockheed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers crashes the news helicopter he was flying in Los Angeles
- 1978 Commandos occupy Iraqi embassy in Paris, 1 dead
- 1979 Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo forms government in Portugal
- 1980 Buttevant Rail Disaster kills 18 and injures dozens of train passengers in Ireland.
- 1981 Poland premier Jagielski resigns
- 1982 H Aaron, F Robinson, T Jackson, & H Chandler inducted in Hall of Fame
- 1982 Heavy Israeli air bombardment on Beirut
- 1985 15.4 cm rainfall at Cheyenne, Wyoming (state record)
Event of Interest
1985 Russian KGB officer Vitaly Yurchenko defects to the US in Rome, naming Americans Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard as KGB agents
Edward Lee Howard
- 1987 Crossbow flight record (2,005 yds 1'9") set by Harry Drake in Nevada
- 1987 Nurse Mary R Stout chosen chairperson of Vietnam Veterans of America
- 1987 In New Zealand, the Maori Language Act comes into force, making te reo Māori an official language of New Zealand; it can now be used in some legal proceedings
- 1987 ArenaBowl I, Pittsburgh Civic Arena: Denver Dynamite beats Pittsburgh Gladiators 45-16, Gary Mullen MVP
- 1988 Deep Rover 1-man research submarine unveiled at Crater Lake, Oregon
- 1988 Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show.
- 1990 Iraq pulls out of talks with Kuwait
- 1990 Soyuz TM-10 launches
- 1992 USA/USSR Around World Air Race begins at Santa Monica
- 1994 99.9°F (37.7°C) in Berlin-Dahlem: record
- 1994 Train crash in Havana Cuba, 6 killed
- 1998 -8] Gay & Lesbian Games #5 open in Amsterdam
- 2000 First patient to receive the Jarvik 2000, the first total artificial heart that can maintain blood flow in addition to generating a pulse
- 2001 An agreement is reached on the position of the minority Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia
- 2001 Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
- 2001 Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office
- 2004 A supermarket fire kills 396 people and injures 500 in Asunción, Paraguay
- 2004 US Open Seniors Golf, Bellerive GC: Peter Jacobson wins by 1 shot from Hale Irwin
- 2007 The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour
Event of Interest
2010 200m x 250m photo mosaic commemorating the life of Filipino President Corazon Aquino is unveiled near Quirino Grandstand at the Luneta Park, Manila
Corazon Aquino
- 2012 Typhoon Saola kills 82 people and displaces over 150,000 in the Philippines, Taiwan and China
Election of Interest
2013 Robert Mugabe continues to maintain power after winning 142 out of 210 seats in the Zimbabwean election
Robert Mugabe
- 2014 USA and UN announce a 72 hour ceasefire between Israel and Palestine, though it quickly breaks down
- 2016 Anthrax outbreak in Yamalo-Nenets, Siberia kills one and infects 8 others, also kills 2,300 reindeer, global warming blamed
- 2017 Christopher A. Wray confirmed at F.B.I. Director by US Senate
- 2017 Bomb blast at Jawadia Shia mosque in Herat, Afghanistan kills about 30
- 2017 Two Venezuelan opposition leaders, Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma re-arrested, revoking their house arrest
- 2018 Swedish crown jewels stolen in heist from Strängnäs Cathedral, Stockholm
August in History
The Strange, Mysterious Story of the Balloon Expedition to the North Pole
The discovery of Swedish engineer S. A. Andrée's tragic, long-lost polar expedition in 1930 led to more questions than answers.
August 5, 1930
A Pill to Cure All Ills
Not well? Take a Beecham’s Pill was often the advice. So popular was it that nobody doubted it’s extravagant claim in the world’s first advertising slogan.
August 6, 1859
Why Mata Hari Was Not the Spy You Thought She Was
The controversial life and death of Mata Hari, the glamorous WWI double agent, executed in 1917, has recently been reassessed in the light of new evidence.
August 7, 1876
Ship Of Gold Sails Into Oblivion
A frigate with more than 150 souls on board, as well as nearly three tons of gold, sailed out of Melbourne on this day – never to be seen again.
August 12, 1853