Today's Historical Events
Event of Interest
1418 Competition announced to design dome of Florentine cathedral, main competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi (supported by Cosimo de Medici)
Cosimo de Medici
- 1541 A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the ancient Japanese province of Higo (modern day Kumamoto Prefecture). (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1541)
- 1564 Spanish king Philip II joins Council of Trente
- 1587 Saul Wahl is elected King of Poland, according to legend.
- 1605 Spanish army under of general Spinola conquers Lingen
- 1612 Pendle Witch trial begins with 10 people acussed of witchcraft in Lancaster, England, key witness 9 year-old boy
- 1634 Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
- 1636 The Covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts is first signed.
- 1674 Jean Racine's "Iphigénie" premieres in Versailles
- 1686 Giovanni Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus
Event of Interest
1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great arrives in Zaandam
Peter the Great
- 1700 Swedish, English & Dutch army lands on Seeland, Denmark
- 1735 Evening Post begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
- 1737 First public admittance to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris
- 1759 -19] 2nd sea battle of Lagos: England vs France
- 1769 A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy, ignites 90 tonnes of gunpowder, killing 3,000 people
- 1795 Curacao governor De Veer sends militia to stop rebellious slaves
- 1817 60-70ft sea serpent sightings reported offshore in Gloucester, Massachusetts
- 1835 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
Historic Expedition
1838 United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departs for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica
Charles Wilkes
- 1840 American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
- 1840 French colony established in Akaroa, South Island of New Zealand
- 1846 General Stephen W Kearney's US forces capture Santa Fe, New Mexico
- 1848 Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas
- 1858 Netherlands & Japan sign trade agreement
Event of Interest
1862 General Lee's adjutant Major Stuart captured
Robert E. Lee
- 1862 Sioux Indians begin uprising in Minnesota (it is later crushed)
- 1864 6th day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia: Confederate assault
- 1864 Battle of Petersburg: Battle of Weldon Railroad day 1 of a 3 day battle
- 1868 French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
- 1870 Battle at Gravelotte Privat: Prussia beat France, 32,000 casualties
- 1872 1st mail-order catalog issued by A M Ward
- 1873 1st ascent of Mount Whitney, California (14,494')
- 1886 Carr Baker Neel & Samuel Neel win US Lawn Tennis Association doubles
- 1891 Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die
- 1894 US Congress creates Bureau of Immigration
- 1896 Adolph Ochs (39) buys NY Times
First Labour Government
1904 Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid
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Event of Interest
1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.
William Howard Taft
Event of Interest
1914 US President Woodrow Wilson issues "Proclamation of Neutrality"
Woodrow Wilson
- 1915 Braves Field opens in Boston to see Braves beat Cards 3-1
- 1917 Dutch Naval Air Force forms (MLD)
- 1917 A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
- 1919 Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago, Illinois
- 1920 1st class cricket debut of Walter Hammond
- 1920 22 year old representative Harry T. Burn is deciding vote in Tennessee's and thus America's ratification of the 19th Amendment to the constitution allowing women's suffrage after letter from his mother
- 1922 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: 20-year old US Open champion Gene Sarazen defeats Emmet French, 4 & 3 in the final
Tennis Open
1923 37th U.S. Women's National Championship: Helen Wills Moody beats Molla Bjurstedt Mallory (6-2, 6-1)
Helen Wills Moody
- 1923 Australasian Championships Women's Tennis, Brisbane: Margaret Molesworth retains title; beats Esna Boyd 6-1, 7-5
- 1923 Australasian Championships Men's Tennis, Brisbane: Pat O'Hara Wood wins his 2nd Australasian title; beats fellow Australian Bert St John 6-1, 6-1, 6-3
- 1924 France begins withdrawing troops from the Ruhr
- 1925 Belgium & US sign treaty about war debts
- 1925 Cardinal Mercier warns Belgians against socialism/liberalism
- 1926 England regain Ashes with 5th Test Cricket win, to take series 1-0
- 1926 Weather map televised for 1st time
- 1930 Eastern Airlines begins passenger service
Event of Interest
1931 Lou Gehrig hitless in Detroit, his 1,000th consecutively played game
Lou Gehrig
World Record
1934 Don Bradman (244) and Bill Ponsford (205 no) put on 451 in world record partnership for Australia on Day 1 of 5th Test win against England at the Oval; Ponsford out for 266
Donald Bradman
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1940 Battle of Britain - 'The hardest day" Luftwaffe lose 69 aircraft, the RAF 68 in largest ever air battle
- 1941 German concentration camp Amersfoort opens
- 1941 Phillies commit 8 errors in a baseball game
- 1942 Carlson's Raiders land on Makin, Gilbert islands, kill 350 Japanese
- 1943 Carl Hubbell wins his 253rd & final game, all with Giants
- 1943 Final convoy of Jews from Salonika, Greece, arrives at Auschwitz
- 1943 Otto Skorzeny's Heinkel-111 shot down at Sardinia
Event of Interest
1944 Chartres freed by US 3rd Army forces during WWII led by General George S. Patton
George S. Patton
- 1946 Golf Writers Associaton of America forms
- 1947 Naval torpedo & mine factory explodes at Cadiz, Spain killing 300
- 1949 Hungary adopts constitution
- 1949 Ralph Flanagan & his orchestra records "You're Breaking My Heart"
- 1950 Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.
- 1951 Cricket 1st-class debut of Raymond Illingworth
- 1954 James E. Wilkins is 1st black to attend a US cabinet meeting
- 1955 -19] Hurricane Diane, kills 400 in US
- 1955 46.1 cm rainfall at Westfield, Massachusetts (state record)
- 1955 Sjukri al-Quwatli re-elected president of Syria
- 1956 Cincinnati Reds (8) & Cubs (2) combine to hit 10 HRs in a 9 inning game
#1 in the Charts
1956 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reaches #1
Elvis Presley
Event of Interest
1958 Fidel Castro makes a speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde
Fidel Castro
Boxing Title Fight
1958 Floyd Patterson TKOs Roy Harris in 13 for heavyweight boxing title
Floyd Patterson
- 1958 United Kingdom issues regional stamps (N Ireland, Scotland & Wales)
- 1958 Perez Prado "Mambo King" receives one of the 1st gold records
- 1958 TV game show scandal investigation starts
- 1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
- 1958 Verne Gagne beats Edouard Carpentier in Omaha, to become NWA champ
- 1959 Branch Rickey resigns as Pirates' CEO to be President of Continental League
- 1960 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Richardson, Texas
- 1960 The Beatles give their 1st public performance at the Indra Club in Hamburg
- 1960 Lew Burdette pitches to just 27 for a 1-0 no-hitter against Phillies
- 1962 Peter, Paul & Mary release their first hit "If I Had a Hammer"
- 1963 James Meredith becomes the 1st black graduate from University of Mississippi
- 1964 Beatles arrive in San Francisco, 2nd US visit
- 1964 Charles Helu elected president of Lebanon
- 1964 South Africa banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies
- 1964 USSR launch 3 Kosmos satellites
Event of Interest
1965 Hank Aaron loses a HR, because he hit it out of batter's box
Hank Aaron
Event of Interest
1969 Mick Jagger accidentally shot while filming "Ned Kelly"
Mick Jagger
Woodstock Music and Art Fair
1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair closes with Jimi Hendrix / Band of Gypsys as the final act
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Event of Interest
1971 New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake announces in Parliament that New Zealand’s combat force would be withdrawn from Vietnam before the end of the year, coinciding with a similar announcement by the Australian government
Keith Holyoake
Event of Interest
1972 Police fine Paul & Linda McCartney ś800 in Sweden cannabis possession
Linda McCartney
- 1972 4th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at El Cortez Hotel
- 1973 Drummer Gene Krupa plays for the final time with the Benny Goodman Quartet
- 1973 Hank Aaron's record 1,378 extra base hit surpasses Stan Musial record
- 1976 USSR's Luna 24 soft-lands on Moon
Murder of Interest
1976 Korean axe murder incident: 2 US soldiers tasked with cutting down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers are killed by North Koreans claiming it was planted by Kim Il-sung in the Korean Demilitarized Zone
Kim Il-sung
- 1977 2 girls are killed by a runaway car outside of Graceland
- 1977 Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton throws his NL record tying 5th one-hitter
- 1977 South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko is arrested at a roadblock (dies of police beating 12 September)
- 1978 Memphis Tenn settles with striking police officers & firefighters
Event of Interest
1979 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini demands Saint War against Kurds
Ayatollah Khomeini
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Event of Interest
1980 KC Royals' George Brett, batting avg reach .400
George Brett
- 1981 "My Fair Lady" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 119 performances
Event of Interest
1981 Jerry Lewis appears on "Donahue" to defend Telethons
Jerry Lewis
- 1982 Longest baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago IL, ends after 22 innings - before LA Dodgers beat Cubs 2-1 (game started Aug 17th)
- 1982 Japanese election law is amended to allow for proportional representation.
- 1983 Hurricane Alicia battered Houston & Galveston, Texas
- 1983 Samantha Druce, age 12y 119d becomes the youngest woman to swim English Channel
- 1983 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1983 Royals defeat Yanks, 5-4, completing "pine-tar" game (12 minutes). Hal McRae strikes out & Dan Quisenberry retires Yankees in order
- 1984 Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire
- 1985 Suisei Launch (Halley's Comet Flyby)
- 1986 Crockett's Tavern opens in Fort Wilderness
- 1986 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Philadelphia PA on WYSP 94.1 FM
- 1986 Jim Kelly signs with NFL Buffalo Bills ($75 million for 5 years)
- 1986 John Tesh's 1st appearance on Entertainment Tonight
- 1986 WYSP-FM Philadelphia begins simulcasting Howard Stern Show
- 1987 Houston Oiler Earl Campbell, retires from NFL
- 1987 Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
- 1987 Philip Rush of NZ, set record for triple crossing English Channel his time 28:21, 10 hours faster than 1st man to do it
- 1987 Straatsburg: Manuela Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Anke Mohring and Heike Friedrich swims female world record 4x200m freestyle (7:55.47)
- 1988 FDA approves Minoxidil as a hair loss treatment
- 1988 Largest house (130 rooms) on Long Island sold for $22 million
- 1988 Republican Convention in New Orleans select Bush-Quayle ticket
- 1989 Arturo Barrios of Mexico sets 10K record (27:08.23) in Berlin
- 1989 Bucky Dent replaces Dallas Green as NY Yankee manager
- 1989 Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
- 1989 ArenaBowl III, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Detroit Drive beats Pittsburgh Gladiators 39-26, George LaFrance MVP
- 1991 Hurricane Bob hits NC with 115 MPH wind
- 1991 Pan American games close in Havana
- 1992 "Real Inspector Hound" opens at Criterion NYC for 61 performances
- 1993 Historical Kapelbrug in Luzern Switzerland, destroyed by fire
- 1994 5.6 earthquake in Algeria, kills 171
- 1994 15th Commonwealth Games open in Victoria, Canada
- 1995 Cards reliever Tom Henke earns his 300th career save
- 1996 British Open Women's Golf, Woburn, Duke's Course: Emilee Klein wins by 7 strokes ahead of fellow Americans Amy Alcott and Penny Hammel
- 1996 Record 6,654 tap at Macy's Tap-o-mania in NYC
- 2000 A Federal jury finds the US Environmental Protection Agency guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the No FEAR Act.
PGA Championship
2002 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Hazeltine National GC: American Rich Beem wins his first major title by 1 stroke from Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Golf Tournament
2002 Canadian Open Women's Golf, Summerlea GC: Meg Mallon wins by 3 from Michelle Ellis, Rosie Jones, Catriona Matthew & Michele Redman
Meg Mallon
- 2004 Shot put event at the Athens Olympics held in Ancient Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games; first time women ever compete in venue; Yumileidi Cumbá of Cuba wins women's gold; American Adam Nelson men's gold
- 2004 US women's 4 × 200m freestyle relay team of Natalie Coughlin, Carly Piper, Dana Vollmer & Kaitlin Sandeno smash long-standing world record set by GDR in 1987 to win gold at the Athens Olympics (7:53.42)
- 2004 Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima wraps up the 100/200m breaststroke double at the Athens Olympics when he wins the 200m in 2:09.44, an Olympic record
- 2004 Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband wins the coveted 100m freestyle gold medal in 48.17 ahead of Roland Schoeman of South Africa at the Athens Olympics
- 2005 Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killings in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
- 2005 Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people.
- 2008 President Of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf resigned due to pressure from opposition.
- 2008 Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva sets a new world record of 5.05m to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics; her 24th world record
- 2008 An American 1-2-3 in the 400m hurdles at the Beijing Olympics; Angelo Taylor wins gold in 47.25 ahead of Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson
- 2008 Emulating the Chinese women, the men win the team table tennis gold medal at the Beijing Olympics without losing a match; win all 10 singles and all 5 doubles matches
- 2008 Belarus weightlifter Andrei Aramnau breaks 3 world records, for the snatch, clean & jerk, and total, on the way to winning the men's 105kg gold medal at the Beijing Olympics
- 2011 The "West Memphis Three" are released from prison after 18 years in imprisonment
- 2012 Al-Qaeda militants kill 14 people in an attack in Aden, Yemen
- 2012 NATO air strikes kill at least 13 militants in Afghanistan
- 2013 6 people are killed by a bomb blast on a bus in West Bengal, India
- 2013 Solheim Cup Women's Golf, Colorado GC: Europe retain Cup for the first time in record winning margin 18-12; Sweden's Caroline Hedwall becomes first player to win 5 matches in a single competition
Olympic Gold
2016 Jamaica's Usain Bolt wins the gold medal in the men's 200m for the 3rd successive Summer Olympics, recording a time of 19.78 in Rio de Janeiro
Usain Bolt
- 2016 Ukranine canoeist Yuriy Cheban sets an Olympic record 39.279 to win the men's C-1 200m gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; retains title he won in London 2012
- 2016 New Zealand's 2017 America's Cup winning helmsman Peter Burling teams with Blair Tuke to win the gold medal in the 49er class sailing at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
- 2016 Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee records time of 1:45.01 to retain his Olympic men's triathlon title at the Rio de Janeiro Games; 0:06 in front of second-place finisher, brother Jonathan Brownlee
Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
2017 Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes
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Event of Interest
2017 White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is fired by US President Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas
2018 Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and American singer Nick Jonas confirm their engagement with an engagement party in Mumbai, India
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- 2018 Archaeologists confirm first-ever cheese found from Ancient Egypt 3,200 years old in tomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis
Election of Interest
2018 Imran Khan becomes the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan after gaining the support of independent members after his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the most votes but not a majority in the general election
Imran Khan
- 2018 Australian mare Winx wins her Australasian record 26th consecutive race, the re-named Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick in Sydney; 19th Group One win for thoroughbreds
Articles on Events in August
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, 1853America's Last Public Hanging
The last man to be publicly hanged in the United States met his fate on this day in history. It was a squalid affair watched by about 10,000 people.
August 14, 1936First Faltering Steps of Jane Eyre
With hope, pride – and some subterfuge – Charlotte Brontë sent her hefty manuscript of Jane Eyre to publishers in London on this day, then crossed her fingers.
August 15, 1847A Kiss For Adolf Hitler
A woman spectator leaned over and kissed Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games on this day. Hitler pretended to be amused, but his guards were to suffer.
August 15, 1936
