Events in Sport
- Aug 1 Tour de France: Louison Bobet of France wins by 15' 49" from Ferdinand Kübler, for the second of his 3 consecutive wins
Event of Interest
Aug 7 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
- Aug 10 Sir Gordon Richards retires as a jockey with record 4,870 wins
- Aug 11 BC Lions plays its 1st CFL game, they lose to Montreal Alouettes, 22-0
- Aug 16 "Sports Illustrated" magazine begins publishing
- Aug 22 Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina clinches his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by winning Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten in a Maserati
- Aug 25 Ivan Filin wins Berne marathon (2:25:26.6) (260m)
- Aug 31 Indians beat Yanks 6-1 for record tying 26 wins in August (1931 A's)
- Aug 31 Cincinnati 1st baseman Ted Kluszewski hits 2 HRs in a 9-3 loss v Phillies; 1st Redleg to ever hit 40 MLB HRs, en route to season total 49
Birthdays in Sport
- Aug 2 Sammy McIlroy, Irish soccer star (Manchester United), born in Belfast, United Kingdom
- Aug 3 Gary Peters, English footballer, born in Carshalton, London
- Aug 6 Paul Steigerwald, American sports announcer
- Aug 11 M V Narasimha Rao, Indian cricketer (leg-spin all-rounder 1978-79), born in Secunderabad, India
- Aug 11 Yashpal Sharma, cricketer (Indian right-handed batsman early 80')
- Aug 14 Mark Fidrych, American baseball player (Detroit Tigers) nicknamed "The Bird", born in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 2009)
- Aug 19 Oscar Larrauri, Argentine racing driver
- Aug 20 Quinn Buckner, American College Basketball Hall of Fame point guard (Indiana Uni; Olympic gold 1976; Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers) and coach (Dallas Mavericks), born in Phoenix, Illinois
- Aug 21 Archie Griffin, American College Football Hall of Fame running back (Heisman Trophy 1974-75, Ohio State; NFL: Cincinnati Bengals), born in Columbus, Ohio
- Aug 24 Alain Daigle, French Canadian ice hockey player, born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada
- Aug 25 Gilbert "Gibus" Duclos-Lassalle, French cyclist
- Aug 27 Derek Warwick, race car driver
- Aug 27 John Lloyd, England, tennis star (former husband of Chris Everet)
- Aug 28 Alexander Skvortsov, Russian ice hockey left wing (Olympic gold 1984; World C'ship gold 1979, 81, 83), born in Gorky, Russia (d. 2020)
- Aug 31 Claudell Washington, American baseball outfielder (MLB All Star 1975, 84; World Series 1974; Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2020)