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Suggest pagesWikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Selected anniversaries/On this day archive
January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December
Recent changes to Selected anniversaries – Selected anniversaries editing guidelines
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2013 day arrangement |
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August 1: Lughnasadh (Northern Hemisphere); Imbolc (Southern Hemisphere); Siyum HaShas (Judaism, 2012); Lammas in England and Scotland;
- 527 – Upon the death of Justin I, Justinian the Great became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley (pictured) discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- 1834 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force, officially abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire.
- 1966 – Charles Whitman climbed the University of Texas at Austin tower and went on a shooting spree at the school, killing 10 with sniper fire before being shot and killed by police.
- 2009 – A shooting attack at the Gay and Lesbian Association building in Tel-Aviv, Israel, resulted in the deaths of two people.
More anniversaries: July 31 – August 1 – August 2
August 2: Raksha Bandhan (Hinduism, 2012); Day of the Republic in the Republic of Macedonia
- 461 – Unpopular among the senate aristocracy for his reform efforts, Roman emperor Majorian was deposed and executed five days later.
- 1830 – His hand forced by the recent July Revolution, Charles X of France abdicated the throne in favor of his grandson, Henry.
- 1876 – American lawman Wild Bill Hickok (pictured) was murdered during a poker game in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
- 1932 – At the California Institute of Technology, Carl David Anderson proved the existence of antimatter when he discovered the positron.
- 1980 – A terrorist bomb exploded at a railway station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.
- 1990 – Iraq invaded Kuwait, overrunning the Kuwaiti military within two days, and eventually sparking the outbreak of the Gulf War seven months later.
More anniversaries: August 1 – August 2 – August 3
August 3: Independence Day in Niger (1960); Flag Day in Venezuela
- 1852 – The first Harvard–Yale Regatta—the first intercollegiate sports event in the United States—was held on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
- 1916 – Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement was hanged at London's Pentonville Prison for treason for his role in the Easter Rising, a rebellion to win Irish independence from Britain.
- 1929 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, believed to likely be the messianic "World Teacher", shocked the Theosophy movement by dissolving the Order of the Star, the organisation established to support him.
- 1936 – African American athlete Jesse Owens (pictured) won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Summer Olympics, dashing Nazi leaders' hopes of Aryan domination.
- 1948 – Before the House Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives, former spy turned government informer Whittaker Chambers accused U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a Soviet spy.
- 2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Mayor of Tehran, began his term as the sixth President of Iran.
More anniversaries: August 2 – August 3 – August 4
August 4: Tu B'Av (Judaism, 2012); Constitution Day in the Cook Islands (1965)
- 1265 – Second Barons' War: Royal forces under Prince Edward defeated Baronial forces under Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester at the Battle of Evesham near Evesham, Worcestershire.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French Army of Italy under Napoleon crushed an Austrian brigade in the Battle of Lonato.
- 1974 – A bomb placed by a neo-fascist group exploded on a train of the Ferrovie dello Stato while on the Bologna–Florence railway.
- 1984 – Exactly a year after he came to power in the Republic of Upper Volta through a military coup, President Thomas Sankara changed its name to Burkina Faso (flag pictured).
- 1991 – An explosion on the Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos ruptured its hull, causing it to sink off the east coast of South Africa, but all 571 people on board were saved.
- 2007 – Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovered a suitcase containing US$800,000 as it went through an x-ray machine in Buenos Aires, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as "Maletinazo".
More anniversaries: August 3 – August 4 – August 5
August 5: Independence Day in Burkina Faso (1960); Emancipation Day in various Caribbean countries (2012); International Beer Day
- 641 or 642 – King Penda of Mercia defeated and killed King Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfield, traditionally believed to have been fought in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.
- 1888 – Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip, going 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz Patent-Motorwagen (pictured), returning the next day.
- 1916 – First World War: The British Empire's Sinai and Palestine campaign began with a victory in the Battle of Romani.
- 1949 – A magnitude 6.8 ML earthquake struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people.
- 1962 – Actress and model Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, an event that has become the center of one of the most debated conspiracy theories.
More anniversaries: August 4 – August 5 – August 6
August 6: Feast of the Transfiguration (Gregorian calendar); Independence Day in Bolivia (1825) and Jamaica (1962); Civic Holiday in most areas of Canada (2012)
- 1506 – Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars in the Battle of Kletsk.
- 1930 – New York City judge Joseph Force Crater mysteriously disappeared, eventually earning him the title of "The Missingest Man in New York".
- 1956 – DuMont, one of the world's first television networks, aired its last program.
- 1962 – Jamaica gained full independence from the United Kingdom, more than 300 years after the English captured it from Spanish colonists in 1655.
- 1991 – British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee (pictured) first posted files describing his ideas for a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessible via the Internet, to be called a "World Wide Web".
- 2008 – Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was ousted from power by a group of high-ranking generals that he had dismissed from office several hours earlier.
More anniversaries: August 5 – August 6 – August 7
August 7: Assyrian Martyrs Day (1933); Independence Day in Ivory Coast (1960)
- 1461 – Ming Chinese general Cao Qin staged a failed coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
- 1782 – The Bronze Horseman, an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was unveiled.
- 1933 – An estimated 3,000 Assyrians were slaughtered by Iraqi troops during the Simele massacre in the Dahuk and Mosul districts.
- 1938 – Prisoners from Dachau concentration camp were sent to begin construction of Mauthausen (entrance pictured), which would later be part of one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-occupied Europe.
- 1944 – IBM presented the first program-controlled calculator to Harvard University, after which it became known as the Mark I.
- 1978 – Two years after the discovery of toxic waste that had been negligently disposed of, U.S. President Jimmy Carter declared a federal health emergency in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York.
- 1999 – The Chechnya-based Islamist militia group Islamic International Brigade invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan in support of the Shura of Dagestan separatist movement.
More anniversaries: August 6 – August 7 – August 8
August 8: Father's Day in Taiwan
- 1786 – Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat completed the first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc (pictured) in the Alps, an act considered to be the birth of modern mountaineering.
- 1929 – German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin embarked on a flight to circumnavigate the world.
- 1942 – Following a speech by Mohandas K. Gandhi, the All India Congress Committee passed the Quit India Resolution, calling for the immediate independence of India from the United Kingdom.
- 1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan took the photo that was used for the cover of the Beatles album Abbey Road, one of the most famous album covers in recording history.
- 1988 – The 8888 Uprising, a series of marches, demonstrations, protests, and riots against the one-party state of the Burma Socialist Programme Party in Burma, began.
- 2010 – A massive mudslide of 1.8 million cubic metres (2,400,000 cu yd) of mud and rocks in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, killed 1,471 people.
More anniversaries: August 7 – August 8 – August 9
August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous People
- 1173 – The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
- 1862 – American Civil War: After nearly being driven from the field in the early part of the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Confederate troops counterattacked and achieved a victory.
- 1945 – World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb named "Fat Man", devastating Nagasaki, Japan (mushroom cloud pictured).
- 1965 – Malaysia expelled the state of Singapore from its federation due to heated ideological conflict between their respective ruling parties.
- 1988 – Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in ice hockey history.
- 2006 – British police arrested 24 people for conspiring to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada.
More anniversaries: August 8 – August 9 – August 10
August 10: Krishna Janmashtami (Hinduism, 2012)
- 1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: England and a combined Franco-Breton fleet engaged in the Battle of Saint-Mathieu, during which an explosion destroyed each navy's most powerful ship (pictured).
- 1755 – The first wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians from the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces by the British began with the Bay of Fundy Campaign at Chignecto.
- 1793 – The Louvre officially opened in Paris with an exhibition of 537 paintings.
- 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The first major confrontation between modern steel battleship fleets took place in the Battle of the Yellow Sea.
- 1944 – The German Army Detachment "Narwa" prevented the Soviet Leningrad Front from capturing the strategically important Narva Isthmus in Estonia.
- 1981 – The severed head of kidnapped six-year-old Adam Walsh was found in a canal in Vero Beach, Florida, prompting his father John to become an advocate for victims' rights, helping to spur the formation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
- 1990 – NASA's Magellan space probe reached Venus, fifteen months after its launch.
More anniversaries: August 9 – August 10 – August 11
August 11: Independence Day in Chad (1960)
- 3114 BC – The epoch of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, a non-repeating, vigesimal calendar used by the Maya civilization and several other Mesoamerican cultures, occurred.
- 106 – The region of Dacia, comprising regions of modern Romania, became a province of the Roman Empire.
- 1492 – The first papal conclave held in the Sistine Chapel elected Roderic Borja as Pope Alexander VI to succeed Pope Innocent VIII.
- 1786 – Captain Francis Light founded the British colony of Penang, beginning more than a century of British involvement in Malaya.
- 1952 – King Talal of Jordan abdicated due to health reasons and was succeeded by his eldest son Hussein (pictured).
- 1965 – Violent race riots began in Watts, Los Angeles, California, lasting for six days and leaving 34 people dead and 1,032 others injured.
- 1973 – At a party in the recreation room of a New York City apartment building, DJ Kool Herc began rapping during an extended break, laying the foundation for hip-hop music.
More anniversaries: August 10 – August 11 – August 12
- 30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
- 1121 – Forces led by David the Builder decisively won the Battle of Didgori, driving Ilghazi and the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia.
- 1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars.
- 1944 – After a week of indiscriminate killing of civilians in Wola, Warsaw, Poland, SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski ordered that any remaining Poles be sent to labour or concentration camps.
- 1950 – Korean War: Members of the North Korean People's Army executed 75 captured U.S. Army prisoners of war.
- 1990 – American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus (pictured) ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota, US.
More anniversaries: August 11 – August 12 – August 13
August 13: Qixi Festival in the Chinese calendar (2013)
- 1521 – After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés captured Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.
- 1868 – A major earthquake near Arica, Peru, caused an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami caused considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
- 1906 – The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment were accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all were later dishonorably discharged.
- 1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized the construction of facilities that would house the Manhattan Project.
- 2004 – Hurricane Charley struck the U.S. state of Florida (damage pictured), just 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie inflicted its own damage to the state.
- 2010 – After having been boarded by Canadian authorities, the MV Sun Sea docked and the 492 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee claimants on board were placed into detention.
More anniversaries: August 12 – August 13 – August 14
August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)
- 1842 – American Indian Wars: American general William J. Worth declared the Second Seminole War to be over.
- 1888 – A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost Chord (audio clip right), one of the first recordings of music ever made, was played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London.
- 1987 – The Australian Federal Police raided the compound owned by the Santiniketan Park Association and freed a number of children who had been held there illegally.
- 1994 – International fugitive Carlos the Jackal, wanted for a number of terrorist attacks in Europe, was handed over to French agents by Sudanese officials.
- 2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain north of Marathon and Varnava, Greece, killing all 121 people on board.
- 2010 – The inaugural Youth Olympic Games opened in Singapore for athletes between 14 and 18 years old.
More anniversaries: August 13 – August 14 – August 15
August 15: Victory over Japan Day; Feast of the Assumption in Christianity; Independence Day in the Congo (1960) and India (1947); Liberation Day in South Korea (1945)
- 718 – Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege of Constantinople, causing the caliphate to give up its goal of conquering the Byzantine Empire.
- 1511 – Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city of Malacca, giving Portugal control over the Strait of Malacca, through which all sea-going trade between China and India was concentrated.
- 1812 – War of 1812: Potawatomi warriors destroyed the United States Army's Fort Dearborn (pictured) in what is now Chicago, Illinois, and captured the survivors.
- 1942 – World War II: The tanker SS Ohio reached Malta, as part of an operation to deliver much needed supplies during the Siege of Malta.
- 1963 – President Fulbert Youlou was overthrown in the Republic of Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
More anniversaries: August 14 – August 15 – August 16
August 16: Children's Day in Paraguay
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans, led by General John Stark, routed British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
- 1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian in Manila, the only all-steel church in Asia, was officially consecrated.
- 1896 – A group led by Skookum Jim Mason (pictured) discovered gold near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: A 10,000-strong column of soldiers led by Lord Kitchener broke a 13-day siege of a small garrison.
- 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, US, killing all of the crew and passengers except one.
- 2009 – Y. E. Yang won the 2009 PGA Championship to become the first Asian-born golfer to win a men's major golf championship.
More anniversaries: August 15 – August 16 – August 17
August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)
- 1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, the world's first commercially successful paddle steamer, went into service on the Hudson River in New York.
- 1945 – Animal Farm, George Orwell's satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published.
- 1950 – Korean War: A North Korean Army unit massacred 42 American prisoners of war so that they would not slow the North Koreans down (memorial pictured).
- 1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, one of the best selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time, was released.
- 1998 – U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
- 2009 – A turbine at Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, broke apart violently, flooding the power station, causing widespread power failures, and killing 75 people.
More anniversaries: August 16 – August 17 – August 18
- 1783 – An unusually bright meteor procession blazed across the night sky over Great Britain.
- 1864 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Globe Tavern, Union forces attempted to sever the Weldon Railroad during the Siege of Petersburg.
- 1868 – Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium while analyzing the chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.
- 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment (authors Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony pictured) to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in America.
- 1966 – Vietnam War: Members from D Company of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment were surrounded and attacked on all sides by a much larger Viet Cong unit at the Battle of Long Tan, but held them off for several hours until reinforcements arrived.
- 1989 – Leading Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was assassinated during a public demonstration in the town of Soacha, Cundinamarca.
More anniversaries: August 17 – August 18 – August 19
August 19: Eid ul-Fitr (Islam, 2012); Feast of the Transfiguration (Julian calendar); Independence Day in Afghanistan (1919)
- 1612 – The "Samlesbury witches", three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, were accused of practising witchcraft in one of the most famous witch trials in English history.
- 1812 – War of 1812: American Navy frigate USS Constitution defeated British Royal Navy frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earning her nickname "Old Ironsides".
- 1929 – The highly influential American radio comedy show Amos 'n' Andy (stars Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll pictured) made its debut.
- 1942 – Second World War: Allied forces suffered over 3,000 casualties when they unsuccessfully raided the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France.
- 2003 – A Hamas suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded over 130 others on a crowded public bus in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in Jerusalem.
More anniversaries: August 18 – August 19 – August 20
August 20: Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia (1991); St. Stephen's Day in Hungary
- 636 – Rashidun forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid took control of Syria and Palestine in the Battle of Yarmouk, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests after the death of Muhammad.
- 1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg.
- 1882 – The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
- 1988 – Fires in the United States' Yellowstone National Park destroyed more than 150,000 acres (610 km2), the single-worst day of the conflagration.
- 1989 – The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was completed, becoming the world's longest and fastest guided busway with buses travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) at maximum speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph) (example pictured).
- 2008 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take off from Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.
More anniversaries: August 19 – August 20 – August 21
August 21: Ninoy Aquino Day in the Philippines
- 1689 – Jacobite risings: Jacobite clans supporting the deposed king James VII of Scotland clashed with a government regiment of Covenanters supporting William of Orange, in the streets around Dunkeld Cathedral, Dunkeld, Scotland.
- 1858 – The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, candidates for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate, was held in Ottawa, Illinois.
- 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army lost the Battle of the Tenaru, the first of its three major land offensives during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
- 1986 – A limnic eruption of a cloud of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos (pictured) in Cameroon killed up to 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby villages.
- 1992 – United States Marshals engaged a fugitive in a shootout at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, beginning a twelve-day siege.
More anniversaries: August 20 – August 21 – August 22
August 22: Feast Day of the Queenship of Mary (Roman Catholic Church); Madras Day in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
- 1639 – The East India Company bought a small strip of land on what is today Chennai, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, from the King of the Vijayanagara Empire, Peda Venkata Raya.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold used a ruse to convince the British that a much larger force was arriving, causing them to abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix (reconstructed fort pictured).
- 1910 – Japan annexed Korea with the signing of the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
- 1944 – World War II: Wehrmacht infantry carried out an assault operation against the civilian residents of nine villages located in the Amari Valley on the Greek island of Crete.
- 2006 – Pulkovo Airlines Flight 612 crashed near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.
More anniversaries: August 21 – August 22 – August 23
Day of the National Flag in Ukraine
- 1305 – After a show trial, William Wallace (pictured), leader of the Scottish resistance against England during the Wars of Scottish Independence, was executed in London's Smithfield Market.
- 1572 – The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots, began, lasting for several months and resulting in an estimated tens of thousands deaths across France.
- 1896 – Andrés Bonifacio and his Katipunan comrades in modern-day Quezon City rose up in revolt against Spanish rule, marking the beginning of the Philippine Revolution.
- 1943 – World War II: The decisive Soviet victory in the Battle of Kursk gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.
- 2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who had been abducted at the age of 10 in Vienna, escaped from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil after eight years in captivity.
- 2007 – The skeletal remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Anastasia were found near Yekaterinburg, Russia.
More anniversaries: August 22 – August 23 – August 24
August 24: Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)
- 49 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Forces loyal to Julius Caesar led by Gaius Scribonius Curio were crushingly defeated by Pompeian Republicans under Publius Attius Varus and King Juba I of Numidia.
- 1456 – The oldest known version of the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book produced on a printing press, was completed.
- 1821 – The Treaty of Córdoba was signed in Córdoba, Veracruz, ratifying the Plan of Iguala and concluding Mexico's War of Independence from Spain.
- 1942 – World War II: Bombers from the United States aircraft carrier Saratoga sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō near Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands, helping to lead to an Allied victory.
- 1992 – Hurricane Andrew (pictured) made landfall in South Florida, the third most powerful Category 5 system to hit the United States during the 20th century.
More anniversaries: August 23 – August 24 – August 25
August 25: Independence Day in Uruguay (1825)
- 1248 – Ommen in the Netherlands received city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht, after the town was pillaged at least twice by a local robber baron.
- 1580 – War of the Portuguese Succession: The army of the pretender to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato (pictured), was routed in the Battle of Alcântara, ending his short-lived reign.
- 1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland entered into a military alliance for mutual assistance in case of military invasion by "a European Power".
- 1942 – Second World War: Japanese forces attacked the Australian base at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea.
- 1945 – Armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed American military intelligence officer and Baptist missionary John Birch as he was leading a mission to reach Allied personnel in a Japanese prison camp.
More anniversaries: August 24 – August 25 – August 26
August 26: Women's Equality Day in the United States
- 1346 – Hundred Years' War: English forces established the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights at the Battle of Crécy.
- 1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1810 – Juan José Castelli ordered the execution of Santiago de Liniers, during the Argentine War of Independence.
- 1883 – A massive eruption destroyed the volcanic island of Krakatoa (pictured), injecting enough sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 °C (2.2 °F) over the next year.
- 1968 – The U.S. Democratic Party's National Convention began at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, sparking four days of clashes between anti–Vietnam War protesters and police.
- 1977 – The National Assembly of Quebec declared French to be the only official language of Quebec.
More anniversaries: August 25 – August 26 – August 27
August 27: Independence Day in Moldova (1991); National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2012)
- 1832 – Black Hawk (pictured), leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrendered to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.
- 1927 – Five Canadian women filed a petition to ask the Supreme Court of Canada, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons," to which the court eventually replied that it does not.
- 1957 – The Constitution of Malaya came into force, three days before the Federation of Malaya achieved formal independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1979 – In two separate attacks, IRA bombs killed 18 British soldiers near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, and British admiral Louis Mountbatten and three others in County Sligo, Republic of Ireland.
- 2003 – The planet Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years: 55,758,006 kilometres (34,646,419 mi).
- 2003 – The first round of six-party talks to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns as a result of the North Korean nuclear weapons program opened.
More anniversaries: August 26 – August 27 – August 28
August 28: Feast of the Assumption (Julian calendar)
- 1789 – With the first use of his new 1.2 m (3.9 ft) telescope, then the largest in the world, William Herschel discovered a new moon of Saturn, which was later named Enceladus.
- 1845 – The first issue of the popular science magazine Scientific American (cover pictured), currently the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, was published.
- 1901 – Silliman University in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, Philippines, became the first American private school to be founded in the country.
- 1909 – A military coup d'etat against the government of Dimitrios Rallis began in the Goudi neighbourhood of Athens, Greece.
- 1955 – African American teenager Emmett Till was murdered near Money, Mississippi, for flirting with a white woman, energizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.
More anniversaries: August 27 – August 28 – August 29
August 29: Feast day for the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Gregorian calendar)
- 1533 – Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro executed the last independent Inca Emperor Atahualpa in Cajamarca.
- 1786 – Led by Daniel Shays, disgruntled farmers in Western Massachusetts, US, angered by high tax burdens and disenfranchisement, started Shays' Rebellion.
- 1831 – Michael Faraday (pictured) discovered electromagnetic induction, leading to the formation of Faraday's law of induction.
- 1916 – The United States Congress passed the Philippine Autonomy Act, the first formal and official declaration of the US commitment to grant independence to the Philippines.
- 1949 – The Soviet Union successfully conducted its first nuclear weapons test, exploding the 22-kiloton RDS-1.
- 1991 – Italian businessman Libero Grassi was killed by the Sicilian Mafia after taking a public stand against their extortion demands.
More anniversaries: August 28 – August 29 – August 30
August 30: Constitution Day in Kazakhstan (1995); St. Rose of Lima's Day in Peru; Victory Day in Turkey
- 1799 – Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: A squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic surrendered to the Royal Navy without a fight near Wieringen.
- 1836 – Real estate entrepreneurs John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen founded the city of Houston on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou in present-day Texas.
- 1896 – Philippine Revolution: In the Battle of San Juan del Monte, the first real battle of the war, a Katipunan force temporarily captured a powder magazine before being beaten back by a Spanish garrison.
- 1942 – Second World War: Erwin Rommel (pictured) launched the last major Axis offensive of the Western Desert Campaign, attacking the British Eighth Army position near El Alamein, Egypt.
- 1984 – Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage.
- 1992 – German driver Michael Schumacher won his first Formula One race at the Belgian Grand Prix.
More anniversaries: August 29 – August 30 – August 31
August 31: Ghost Festival (Chinese calendar, 2012); Independence Day in Malaysia (1957), Trinidad and Tobago (1962)
- 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Irish rebels, with French assistance, established the short-lived Republic of Connacht.
- 1813 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of San Marcial, the Spanish Army of Galicia under Manuel Alberto Freire turned back Nicolas Soult's last major offensive against Arthur Wellesley's allied army.
- 1939 – Nazi forces, posing as Poles, staged an attack against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany, creating an excuse to invade Poland the next day.
- 1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy (pictured), a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying outsized cargo components, made its first flight.
- 1998 – North Korea claimed to have successfully launched Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite, although no objects were ever tracked in orbit from the launch.
More anniversaries: August 30 – August 31 – September 1
Selected anniversaries/On this day archive
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