William Wallace Executed
1305 William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
Learn More >>
- 1388 Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England
- 1391 Castilian sailors fire attack Jewish ghetto of Barcelona, 100's killed
- 1399 Battle at Worskla: Tataren beat Russians and Litouwers
- 1420 Duke John VI of Bavaria visits Dutch mystic Lidwina (Christ's bride)
Battle of Interest
1435 Battle at Ponza: king Alfonso V of Aragon captured by Genuezen
- 1543 French and Turkish troops occupy Nice
- 1583 Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for the British crown - first English colony in North America and the beginning of the British Empire
- 1587 Spanish troops conquer Lock
- 1654 French troops occupy Stenay
- 1666 English fleet beats Dutch under Michiel de Ruyter
- 1667 State of Holland obtain Eternal Edict
- 1689 1,500 Iroquois attack the village of Lachine, in New France
Battle of Petrovaradin
1716 Battle of Petrovaradin/Peterwardein: Habsburgs under Eugene of Savoy defeat the Turks in a decisive victory
Learn More >>
- 1745 Jacobite Rising 1745: Jacobite forces capture British company of troops under Captain Scott
- 1763 Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run
- 1772 1st Partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia and Russia is made public
- 1775 1st Spanish ship, San Carlos, enters San Francisco Bay
- 1781 Battle of Dogger Bank (Fourth Anglo-Dutch War): a British strategic victory, although both sides claimed to have won
- 1837 1st ascent of Mt Marcy (5,344') highest in Adirondack, NY
- 1846 Oregon territory divided between US & Britain at 49th parallel
- 1858 Cyrus W Field completes 1st transatlantic telegraph cable
- 1860 Carl IV of Sweden-Norway is crowned King of Norway in Trondheim
- 1861 Union enlistment increases from 3 months to 2 years
- 1861 Naval Engagement at Fernandina, Florida, the USS Vincennes ends rebel blockade
- 1861 US Army abolishes flogging
- 1861 President Lincoln signs the first US personal Income Tax into law (3% of incomes over $800)
- 1862 Battle of Baton Rouge, Lpuisiana
Victory in Battle
1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, won by the Union Army led by Rear Admiral Farragut with the cry "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" (US Civil War)
David Farragut
Statue of Liberty
1884 Cornerstone for Statue of Liberty laid on Bedloe's Island (NYC)
Learn More >>
Event of Interest
1905 First meeting of the Russian and Japanese peace commissioners takes place in US President Theodore Roosevelt's home at Oyster Bay, New York
Theodore Roosevelt
- 1912 Japan's first taxicab service begins in Ginza, Tokyo
- 1914 1st electric traffic light installed in the USA on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio
- 1914 Cuba, Uruguay, Mexico and Argentina proclaim neutrality in WW I
- 1914 Dutch Cort Van de Linden government issues silver bonds as money
Battle of Interest
1914 Battle of Liège: first battle of WWI, massive German assault on forts around Belgium city of Liège led by Erich Ludendorff
Erich Ludendorff
- 1914 Montenegro declares war against Austria-Hungary in World War I
- 1914 US and Nicaragua sign treaty granting canal rights to US
- 1914 Westerschelde leaves due to German invasion in Belgium
- 1915 Warsaw, evacuated by the Russians, is occupied by Germans
- 1915 The Latin-American Conference Convenes in Washington, with representatives from leading South American nations joining the US to discuss conditions in Mexico
- 1917 British troops attack canal of Ypres in Boesinghe, Belgium
- 1917 The entire US National Guard is taken into national service, subject to presidential rather than state control
Event of Interest
1918 World War I: the last German air raid on England occurs, with four Zeppelin airships dropping bombs in the Midlands and North East England
Ferdinand von Zeppelin
- 1921 Treaty of Berlin: US and Germany sign separate peace treaty
- 1924 "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip by Harold Gray is 1st published in the New York Daily News
- 1925 Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge of the Welsh language, which is in danger of dying out
- 1926 French & German trade agreement signed
Harry Houdini
Event of Interest
1932 Clyde Barrow and two associates kill Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C. Moore, the first time the Barrow gang kills a lawman
Clyde Barrow
- 1940 "Acquaintance" blows-up Zandvoortse synagouge
- 1942 British government cancels agreement of Munich
- 1942 German troops cross Kuban River
- 1943 Sicily: 3 US A-36's bomb British headquarter
- 1943 Soviet forces reconquer Orel and Bjelgorod
- 1943 World War II: at around 11 A.M during the Battle of Troina, Mount Etna erupts sending ash and lava miles into the sky
- 1944 US 79th/90th division occupy Laval/Mayenne
- 1944 US troops occupy Vannes, Brittany
- 1944 German forces begin the mass killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish civilians in the Wola district of Warsaw during the uprising
- 1947 Netherlands ceases political action in Indonesia, due to UN pressure
- 1949 6.75 Earthquake hits Quito; about 6,000 die
- 1951 Armed uprising in Ambonezen Camp Middelburg
- 1953 Operation "Big Switch"; Korean War prisoner exchanged at Panmunjom
- 1957 Comic strip "Andy Capp" makes its debut
- 1957 WJZ-TV in Baltimore MD begins radio transmissions
- 1958 Philip Kapleau, Zen teacher, 1st awakening under Yasutani Roshi
- 1959 42.4 cm rainfall in Decatur Co, Iowa (state record)
- 1960 Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) declares independence from France
- 1961 118°F (48°C), Ice Harbor Dam, Washington (state record)
- 1962 1st quasar located by radio
Event of Interest
1962 Nelson Mandela arrested for incitement and for illegally leaving South Africa
Nelson Mandela
- 1962 UN command forbids flights to Katangese airports
- 1963 Britain, USA and USSR sign nuclear test ban treaty
- 1963 Craig Breedlove sets world land speed record of 407.477 mph in Spirit of America at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
- 1964 Congo rebellion: Christopher Gbenye/Pierre Mulele conquer Stanleyville
- 1964 US begins bombing North Vietnam
Event of Interest
1966 Martin Luther King Jr. stoned during Chicago march
Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1966 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1967 Bobby Gentry releases her only hit "Ode to Billy Joe"
- 1967 Pirate Radio Station 333 (Radio Britain) & Radio London close down
- 1969 Mariner 7 flies past Mars
- 1970 Robert Morley's "How the Other Half Loves" premieres in London
- 1970 US Black P. Panther leader Huey Newton freed from jail after two trials ended in hung juries and the district attorney decides against a 4th trial
- 1971 The British Parliament debate the security situation in Northern Ireland
- 1973 Arab terrorists open fire at Athens airport, kill 3 injure 55
- 1973 USSR launches Mars 6
Event of Interest
1974 US President Richard Nixon admits he withheld information about Watergate break-in
Richard Nixon
- 1979 Government of Mauretania signs peace treaty with Polisario
- 1979 Varetta Shankle (Miss), crowned 12th Miss Black America
- 1981 US President Regan fires 11,500 striking air traffic controllers
- 1981 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1982 Stephabue Hix, of Alabama, 18, crowned Miss National Teen-Ager
- 1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1985 Flexible-wing glider altitude record (214,250') set by Larry Tudor
- 1986 Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway sets 5,000m world record (14:37.33) in Stockholm, Sweden
- 1986 US Senate votes for SDI-project ("Star Wars")
- 1986 It's revealed Andrew Wyeth of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, had secretly created 240 drawings and paintings of his neighbor Helga Testorf
- 1988 Mario Biaggi (Rep-D-NY) convicted of racketeering resigns seat
- 1989 NASA Venus probe Magellan launched from Space shuttle, 1st to do so
- 1989 General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista Front winning a majority.
Event of Interest
1992 4 cops in Rodney King beating case indicted on civil rights charge
Rodney King
- 1994 Antonov-12 crashes at Boda, Eastern Siberia, 47 killed
Event of Interest
1995 The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated as the day of victory (Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day) in Croatia.
Franjo Tuđman
- 1997 Korean Air 747 with 331 aboard crashes in Guam, 29 survive
- 1997 Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of world trade center bombing goes on trial
- 1997 Soyuz TM-26 crew of Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov, launched
- 2003 A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
- 2011 Svalbard Polar Bear Attack - a rogue Polar Bear attacks and kills a British schoolboy
- 2011 NASA launches its Juno space probe from Cape Canaveral to orbit and study Jupiter
- 2012 Gunman opens fire on Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin killing six people and committing suicide
- 2012 19 people are killed by Kurdish rebels in Hakk
- 2013 160 people are killed by flash floods across Afghanistan and Pakistan
- 2013 The world's first bovine stem cell lab-grown burger is eaten in London
Event of Interest
2013 Samantha Power becomes the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Samantha Power
Event of Interest
2014 Obama signs The Iron Dome Bill providing $225 million in additional funding for Israel's Iron Dome defense
Barack Obama
Event of Interest
2017 Jamaican sprint super-star Usain Bolt finishes 3rd behind Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman in his final individual race, the 100m at IAAF World Championships in London
Usain Bolt
- 2017 UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on North Korea for its continued missile program
- 2018 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declares "now we are a land of droughts" as 99% of New South Wales affected
- 2018 Vintage Junkers Ju-52 plane crashes near Flims, Switzerland, killing all 20 on board
- 2018 6.9 magnitude earthquake on island of Lombok, Indonesia, kills at least 460 people and displaces 350,000
- 2019 Indian government announces it is changing the status of Indian-controlled Kashmir from a state to a union territory, revoking Article 370 in response to security concerns
- 2019 July 2019 confirmed as world's hottest-ever month recorded according to Europe's Copernicus programe
- 2019 Widespread strike in Hong Kong and demonstrations against Chinese policy towards the territory bring huge disruption, including cancelling 200 flights
- 2019 Australian woman Kerry Robertson confirmed as the first person to use a new assisted dying law to end her life a month earlier in Victoria
- 2019 Brazilian drug dealer Clauvino da Silva tries and fails to escape Rio de Janeiro jail by dressing up as his teenage daughter in silicone mask and wig
August in History
Swimming Pool Diplomacy: Khrushchev, Mao and the Sino-Soviet Split
Diplomacy requires a lot of skill, but not normally the ability to swim. Much to Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev's horror when he met Mao Zedong in 1958.
August 1, 1958The 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, 1930A 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, 1859Why 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
