By Day: Historical Events on August 1st

The Fourth Crusade concludes with the sack of Constantinople, leading to the division and weakening of the Byzantine Empire.

Swiss National Day - Alliance against the Holy Roman Empire in 1291.

Explorer Christopher Columbus lands on South America at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. He Thinking it was an island, he claims it for Spain and christened it "Isla Santa".

Slavery is abolished in Jamaica where it had been introduced in 1509.

Colorado is admitted into the Union and becomes the 38th State

World War I starts. Germany declares war on Russia on August 1 and on France on August 3. Austria-Hungary, with German encouragement, had declared war on Serbia on 28 July. Russia's support of Serbia brought France into the conflict. Germany's violation of Belgian neutrality and British fears of German domination in Europe brought Britain and its empire into the war on 4 August. More

Hitler declares the Berlin Olympics, the eleventh Olympiad of the modern era, to be open.

A race riot takes place in Harlem, New York City, lasting two days, after a white police officer, James Collins, shot and wounded Robert Bandy, an African American soldier; and rumors circulated that the soldier had been killed. More

The Warsaw Uprising starts. The Polish Home Army), a non-Communist underground resistance movement, led by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, takes action to liberate the city from the German occupation and reclaim Polish independence, encouraged by the appearance of the Soviet Red Army along the east bank of the Vistula River. and the perceived weakness of the German military. However the Red army made no efforts to aid the rebels in Warsaw and by October 2, 1944, the Germans had suppressed the uprising, deporting civilians to concentration and forced-labor camps and reducing Warsaw to ruins. After the Germans eventually left, the Red Army came into Warsaw and established a Communist regime. More

Benin's Independence day. (Previously Dahomey) Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July creating the independent Republic of Dahomey.