- 322 BC Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great
- 626 Battle at Constantinople: Slavic/Persians/Avarenvloot defeated
- 768 Stephen III [IV] begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 936 Otto I the Great becomes King of Germany
- 1409 Council of Pisa closes
- 1428 Valais witch trial proceedings begin in Valais Canton, Switzerland, first organized witch trials
- 1461 Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor
- 1479 Battle of Guinegate: Emperor Maximilian I vs King Louis XI
- 1485 Henry Tudor's (Henry VII to be) army lands in Milford Haven, South Wales
Event of Interest
1573 Francis Drake's fleet returns to Plymouth after a year spent raiding for Spanish treasure
Francis Drake
- 1575 Spanish troops conquer Oudewater, almost all inhabitants died
Event of Interest
1606 Possible first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace for King James I
William Shakespeare
James I and VI
Event of Interest
1620 Astronomer Johannes Kepler's mother arrested for witchcraft
Johannes Kepler
- 1620 Battle at Ponts-the-Ce, Poitou: French king Louis XIII defeats his mother Marie de Medici
- 1710 Sidney, 1st Earl of Godolphin resigns as English minister of Finance
- 1714 The Battle of Gangut: the first important victory of the Russian Navy during the Great Northern War against Sweden
- 1750 Slave uprising on Curacao
- 1760 Ft Loudon, Tennessee surrenders to Cherokee Indians
Event of Interest
1782 George Washington creates the Purple Heart medal (original name Badge of Military Merit) as commander of the Continental Army
George Washington
- 1789 US Congress creates the Department of War and the United States Lighthouse Establishment
Napoléon Bonaparte
- 1814 Pope Pius VII reinstates the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
- 1819 Battle of Boyacá; Bolívar defeats Spanish in Colombia
- 1820 1st potatoes planted in Hawaii
- 1864 Battle of Moorefield, West Virginia
- 1879 The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
- 1882 Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of east Kentucky feud, 100 wounded or die
- 1884 Germany annexes Angra Pequena (Southwest-Africa)
- 1885 Five German warships anchor off Zanzibar
- 1888 Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia patents revolving door
- 1893 53rd Congress (1893-95) convenes
- 1900 Diamond workers in Amsterdam strike
- 1904 Train derails on bridge in Eden, Colorado, during a flash flood, kills 96
- 1908 The first train to travel the length of New Zealand's North Island 'main trunk line', leaves Wellington
Presidential Convention
1912 Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for US President
Theodore Roosevelt
Event of Interest
1914 Lord Kitchener says "Your country needs you" poster spreads over UK
Horatio Kitchener
- 1914 Russia invades East Prussia
- 1915 WWI: Assault against Russell's Top at Gallipolis, Turkey - 232 Australians are killed
- 1925 League of Nation advises against Turk/Iraqi division of Mosoelgebied
- 1927 Peace Bridge between US and Canada dedicated
- 1927 US rum smuggler Horace Alderman kills 3
- 1929 Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms Dutch government
- 1930 A large mob estimated at 2,000, lynch two young black men Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana
Election of Interest
1930 Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King loses the election to Richard Bedford Bennett of the Conservative Party
Richard Bedford Bennett
Mackenzie King
- 1933 The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.
Event of Interest
1934 US Court of Appeals upheld lower court ruling striking down government's attempt to ban controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses"
James Joyce
Event of Interest
1939 Millionaire Howard Hughes is presented with a Congressional Gold Medal
Howard Hughes
- 1940 Churchill recognizes De Gaulle's French government in exile
- 1940 Largest amount paid for a stamp ($45,000 for 1 1856 British Guiana)
- 1940 Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
- 1941 551 Jews are shot in Kishnev ghetto in Romania
- 1942 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island
- 1942 Dutch resistance bombs Rotterdam railway
- 1942 Transport 16 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
- 1943 Red Army recaptures Bogodukov
- 1944 Anton de Kom arrested by Surinam resistance fighter
- 1944 Canada/Polish offensive direction Falaise: Total Cooperation
- 1944 German counter attack at Avranches fails
- 1944 July 20th Plot trial under Roland Freis in Berlin begins
- 1944 US 3rd Army reaches suburbs of Brest, Brittany
- 1944 IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I)
Event of Interest
1946 1st US commemorative coin of an African American, Booker T. Washington (half dollar)
Booker T. Washington
- 1947 The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST)
Event of Interest
1947 Thor Heyerdahl and his crew of the Kon-Tiki crash into a reef in the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia after 101 days crossing the Pacific Ocean
Thor Heyerdahl
- 1948 1st Dutch government of Beel resigns
- 1950 Police bar white players-Lou Chirban, Stan Mierko and Frank Dyle, from playing in Negro League
- 1951 Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket reaches 1,992 kph
- 1951 US Viking rocket reaches 210 km height (record)
- 1953 Eastern Airlines enters jet age, uses Electra prop-jet
- 1954 Charles Mahoney becomes 1st US black to serve as a full UN delegate
Event of Interest
1954 Englishman Roger Bannister beats Australia’s John Landy in the mile at the Empire Games in Vancouver; first time 2 men run a mile in less than 4 minutes in the same race
Roger Bannister
- 1955 Bar-Ilan University founded in Israel
- 1955 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins selling its first transistor radios in Japan
- 1956 British government sends 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt
- 1956 Dynamite transport explodes in Colombia; about 1200 die
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1957 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957
- 1959 Explorer 6 transmits 1st TV photo of Earth from space
- 1960 Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) gains independence from France
- 1960 Students stage kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches
- 1961 Cosmonaut Gherman Titov circles Earth for a full day in Vostok 2
Event of Interest
1961 Soviet premier Khrushchev predicts USSR economy will surpass US
Nikita Khrushchev
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Event of Interest
1963 Jacqueline Kennedy becomes 1st US First Lady to give birth (Patrick Kennedy) since Mrs Cleveland
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Agreement of Interest
1965 Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore signs a separation agreement with Malaysia, after 2 years of political union
Lee Kuan Yew
- 1966 Race riot in Lansing Michigan
- 1970 Shootout at Marin Courthouse in San Rafael, California, kills 4, including the presiding judge
- 1971 Apollo 15 returns to Earth
- 1971 A Catholic man is shot dead by a British soldier in Belfast
- 1974 Philippe Petit walks tightrope strung between twin towers
- 1976 US Viking 2 goes into Martian orbit after 11-month flight from Earth
- 1976 Scientists in Pasadena, California, announce Viking I found strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars
- 1981 "The Washington Star" ceases all operations after 128 years of publication
- 1983 1st Athletics World Championships open in Helsinki, Finland
- 1983 Some 675,000 AT&T employees strike
- 1984 David Rabe's "Hurlyburly" premieres in NYC
- 1985 Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts
Meeting of Interest
1985 A delegation of the South African Council of Churches meets with President P. W. Botha, following calls by the church for urgent discussions on the causes of unrest, forced removals and the emergency regulations in the country
P. W. Botha
- 1987 5 Central American presidents sign peace accord in Guatemala
- 1987 Javed Miandad becomes first to score 6,000 Test runs for Pakistan as he cracks 260 in drawn 5th Test v England at The Oval
- 1987 Lynne Cox swims 4.3 km from US to USSR in 39°F (4°C) Bering Sea
- 1988 Writers guild ends its 6 months strike
- 1988 Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
- 1988 Angola, Cuba and South Africa allegedly signed a cease fire treaty
- 1989 U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
Operation Desert Shield Begins
1990 US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia beginning Operation Desert Shield
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Event of Interest
1991 Court rules Manuel Noriega, may access some secret US documents
Manuel Noriega
- 1991 Manhattan Cable final day of amnesty to return illegal cable boxes
- 1993 Tropical storm Brett ravages Venezuela, 118 killed
- 1994 1st telephone link between Israel & Jordan
- 1994 Ernesto Samper sworn in as president of Colombia
- 1997 STS 85 (Discovery 23) launches into orbit
- 1997 Ung Huot appointed Cambodia's 1st premier
Historic Publication
2007 "Eclipse" 3rd book in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" is published by Little Brown - initial print run 1 million copies
Stephenie Meyer
- 2008 Georgia launches a military offensive to surround and capture the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, from Russian control, starting the Russo-Georgian War
- 2012 21 people are killed by a gun attack in a church in Okene, Nigeria
- 2012 Heavy rain forces 20,000 people to flee their homes in Manila, Phillipines
- 2012 200,000 people are evacuated from Shanghai in anticipation of Typhoon Haikui
- 2013 11 people are killed by a bombing in Karachi, Pakistan
- 2018 Mendocino Fire becomes the largest recorded fire in California's history at 290,600 acres, overtaking 2017 Thomas Fire
- 2018 Swedish furniture brand Ikea opens its first store in India in Hyderabad
- 2018 Australia's population hits 25 million according to Australian Bureau of Statistics
- 2019 Largest single-state immigration raid in Mississippi as nearly 700 people arrested
- 2019 Wanda Vazquez becomes Puerto Rico's third governor in a week after her predecessor Pedro Pierluisi is removed by the supreme court
- 2019 Bodies of two teenagers at center of huge manhunt and suspected of killing three people on remote British Columbia roads found after apparent suicides
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, 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, 1876Ship 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
