Historical Events in August || Listed by Year

These are some of many widely recognized historic events that occurred during the month of August, listed by year. Dates provided for earlier time events may be approximate. Select another month

3114 BCE, August 11- The mythical start date of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. A a non-repeating base-20 and base-18 calendar used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya. The Long Count calendar identifies a day by counting the number of days passed since the mythical creation date of August 11, 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 on the Julian calendar. The Long Count calendar was widely used on monuments. More

63 BCE, August - The Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) captures Jerusalem, bringing it under Roman control.

30 BCE, August 10 - Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, kills herself on either 10 or 12 August, in Alexandria, when she was 39 years old, following the defeat of her forces against Octavian, the future first emperor of Rome. According to popular belief, she died by allowing an Egyptian cobra to bite her, but others believe she either poisoned herself or was murdered. The location of Cleopatra's tomb is unknown. According to historians Suetonius and Plutarch, the Roman leader Octavian permitted their burial together after he had defeated them. Mark Antony, had stabbed himself with a sword, a few days before on August 1.

29 BCE, August - Octavian (later known as Augustus) celebrates three days of triumph in Rome, marking the end of the Final War of the Roman Republic.

70 CE, Augusr 29 - Jerusalem falls to Roman forces, marking the collapse of the Jewish state.

79, August 24 - Vesuvius, an active volcano in southern Italy, erupts and destroys the cities of Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis and Herculaneum and several other settlements. Although exact toll is unknown, more than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ashes and volcanic gases to a height of 21 miles (33 km). Vesuvius is the only volcano on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because 3 Million people live near enough to be affected by an eruption, with at least 600,000 in the danger zone. There has been Speculation that the eruption happened later than August, based on findings of autumnal fruits and heating braziers discovered in the ruins. More

325, August 25 - The First Council of Nicaea ends. The Council was a meeting of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. It was specifically called to make a decision about Arianism—the belief that God created Jesus, and that Jesus was not eternal or one with God. Arianism was growing in popularity, even among church leaders threatening to tear the church apart. More 

379, August 9 - The Visigoths defeat a large Roman army led by Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, at the Battle of Adrianople (also known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis), in present-day Turkey. The battle was an overwhelming victory for the Visigoths ending with two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens overrun and slaughtered. More

410, August 24 - The Visigoths, led by King Alaric, sack the city of Rome, marking the first time in almost 800 years that the city falls to an enemy force.

1057, August 15 - Malcolm Canmore slains King Macbeth of Scotland at the Battle of Lumphananand. His father, King Duncan I, had been murdered by Macbeth 17 years earlier. Following the battle  Macbeth's stepson, Lulach, was crowned King, before being killed by Malcolm who then recovered the Scottish throne as Malcolm III.  All the kings of Scotland since Malcolm himself and all the kings of England since the accession of Henry II descend from Malcolm and his English wife Margaret, the grandchild of Edmund Ironside.  More

1204, August 1 - The Fourth Crusade concludes with the sack of Constantinople, leading to the division and weakening of the Byzantine Empire.

1209, August 15 - The Massacre at Béziers takes place during the Albigensian Crusade, where the Catholic Crusaders sack the city of Béziers in southern France.

1214, August 24 - The Battle of Bouvines occurs during the Fourth Crusade, where the forces of Philip II of France defeat an alliance of European powers led by Emperor Otto IV.

1227, August 15 - 31  - Genghis Khan, (actually named Borjigin Temujin), the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, dies in Mongolia some time in late August. 1227. At the time of his death, the Mongol Empire was 2.5 times larger by territory than the Roman Empire. A study published in 2003 in The American Journal of Human Genetics suggested that Genghis Khan DNA can be found in one in 200 men today. The cause of his death is shrouded in mystery and it is now believed that it was caused by the bubonic plague.

1248, August 15 - The Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, reaches Egypt and begins the siege of Damietta.

1258, August 29 - The Mongol Empire, under the leadership of Hulagu Khan, captures and sacks the city of Baghdad, leading to the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate.

1261, August 15 - The Byzantine Empire recaptures the city of Constantinople from the Latin Empire, marking the end of the Fourth Crusade.

1270, August 25 - The Eighth Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, departs from Aigues-Mortes, France, with the goal of conquering Tunis.

1281, August 15 - The Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty of China successfully repels a second invasion attempt by the Japanese forces in the Battle of Kōan.

1291, August 1 - Swiss National Day - Alliance against the Holy Roman Empire in 1291.

1291, August 20 - The Siege of Acre ends, resulting in the fall of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the complete expulsion of European Christian forces from the Holy Land.

1305, August 7 - William Wallace, Scottish leader of the resistance against English rule, is captured by English forces near Glasgow.

1314, August 23-24 - The Battle of Bannockburn takes place, where Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat the English army, securing Scottish independence.

1346, August 26 - The Battle of Crécy occurs during the Hundred Years' War, where the
English army, led by Edward III, defeats the French forces.

1350, August 14 - The St. Mary Magdalene's flood devastates the Netherlands, England, and
Germany, causing significant loss of life and destruction.

1396, August 17 - The Battle of Nicopolis takes place, marking the final major crusade of the Middle Ages and resulting in a victory for the Ottoman Empire over an alliance of European forces.

1485, August 22 - The Battle of Bosworth Field. The last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England. The battle was won by an alliance of Lancastrians and disaffected Yorkists. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first English monarch of the Tudor dynasty by his victory and subsequent marriage to a Yorkist princess. His opponent Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed during the battle. Historians consider Bosworth Field battle one of the defining moments of English history. More

1492, August 3 - Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain, with three ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria. Searching for a westerly route to the Far East. Instead, on October 12th, he lands in the Bahamas, thinking it was an outlying Japanese island. More

1498, August 1 - 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". 

1521, August 13 - Spanish conquistador Hernándo Cortés succeeds in bringing about the fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire after over two months of fighting. Cortes' conquests began with Cuba in 1511, Mexico’s Bay of Campeche in 1519, and then deeper into Mexico.

1526, August 29 - Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, defeats the Hungarian forces at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, establishing Ottoman control in the region for over 150 years. Sultan Suleiman I inherited the throne of the Ottoman Empire at the age of 26. He was the only son of Selim I, who conquered Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem and Alexandria. More

1572, August 24 - Thousands of Protestant Huguenots are massacred in France by Catholics, in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. More

1583, August 5 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a British navigator and explorer takes possession of the area around St. John’s harbor, Newfoundland in the name of the Queen. He was later lost at sea in a storm off the Azores on his return trip to England.

1619, August 20 -  First enslaved Africans arrive in Virginia; Two English pirate ships, the Treasurer and White Lion. each carrying 20-30 African slaves land in the Jamestown colony within four days of each other. The slaves had been taken from a Portuguese slave ship, the San Juan Bautista, carrying 350 African slaves in route to Veracruz, Mexico.
Virginia’s first enslaved people spoke Bantu languages, and their homelands were the kingdoms of Ndongo and Kongo. They are the first recorded Africans to arrive in England's mainland American colonies. marking the beginning of what evolved into a legalized system of slavery that lasted two and a half centuries. More

1753, August 4 - George Washington becomes a Master Mason n his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was twenty one years old. More

1776, August 2 - Most of the 55 members of the Continental Congress signed the parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. More

1782, August 7 -  General George Washington announces the Badge of Military Merit. The Badge was designed by Washington in the form of a purple heart, it was intended as a military order for soldiers who exhibited, "not only instances of unusual gallantry in battle, but also extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way". It is believed that only three people received the Badge of Military Merit during the American Revolutionary War, In 1932, the United States War Department  authorized the new Purple Heart Medal, officially considered the "successor decoration" to the Badge of Military Merit. More

1784, August 14 - Russians led by Grigorii Shelikhov established the first permanent Russian outpost in Alaska on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay. More 

1789, August 26 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is adopted in France, laying the groundwork for the French
Revolution.

1791, August 19 - Benjamin Banneker, the son of a free Black American woman and a formerly enslaved African man from Guinea, writes a letter to Thomas Jefferson, then-Secretary of State. On the letter, Banneker criticizes Jefferson’s hypocritical stance on slavery in respectful but unambiguous terms, using Jefferson’s own words to make his case for the abolition of slavery. Jefferson brief  response thanked him for the letter, expressed his ambivalence about slavery ("…no body [sic] wishes more sincerely than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit in your letter, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men") and endorsed Banneker’s accomplishments. More 

1792, August 10 - Louis XVI of France and his wife, Marie-Antoinette are imprisoned and the French monarchy is effectively overthrown, as the French Revolution (1787–99) continues. They were both executed by guillotine in 1793.

1792, August 29 - In one of the worst maritime disasters, 900 men drowned on the British battleship Royal George. A gust of wind allowed water to flood into open gun ports as the ship was being repaired. The ship sank within minutes.

1794, August 26 - President George Washington leads a militia force of 12,950 men towards Western Pennsylvania to subdue the Whiskey Rebellion, warning locals "not to abet, aid, or comfort the Insurgents aforesaid, as they will answer the contrary at their peril." More

1809, August 10 - Ecuador Independence Day - Celebration of the first Ecuadorian patriot uprising against Spanish rule and original proclamation of independence. The movement failed and the leaders of the movement were executed. On 1822 Ecuador won independence from Spain as part of the confederation of Gran Colombia on the decisive Battle of Pichincha. The confederation of Gran Colombia was comprised of what is now the countries of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. On May 13, 1830, Ecuador seceded and became a separate independent republic.

1814, August 24 - During the War of 1812, British forces capture Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House, the Capitol, and other public buildings along with a number of private homes. The burning was in retaliation for the earlier American burning of York (Toronto). Shortly before the arrival of the British forces, an iconic portrait of George Washington is removed from the White House walls, to prevent it being looted by British troops. First lady, Dolley Madison is credited for saving the portrait. The portrait was actually a copy of Gilbert Stuart's original. President Madison served the rest of his term residing at the city’s Octagon House. It was not until 1817 that the newly elected president James Monroe moved back into the reconstructed building.

1821, August 10 - Missouri is admitted into the Union becoming the 24th State

1821, August 24 - Spain recognizes Mexico independence with the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba, Spain finally recognized the independence of the First Mexican Empire. More

1825, August 6 - Bolivia declaration of Independence.

1825, August 25 - Uruguay Independence day from the Empire of Brazil. Declaration of independence and union with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

1833, August 28 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, including in the British colonies of the Caribbean and North America.

1838, Slavery is abolished in Jamaica where it had been introduced in 1509.

1844, August 8 - Brigham Young is chosen to lead the Mormon Church. More 

1846, August 10 - The act establishing the Smithsonian Institution  for "the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge among Men," is passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President James K. Polk. The Institution was founded with funds from the Englishman James Smithson (1765–1829) according to his wishes “under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” A bequest to a country that he had never visited. The Smithsonian Institution is now the world's largest museum, education, and research complex. More

1876, August 1 -  Colorado is admitted into the Union and becomes the 38th State

1856, August 23 - Eunice Newton Foote makes first public scientific mention of the upcoming "Greenhouse effect". Her paper , titled “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays,” was presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Foote' s short paper included a prescient conclusion; “An atmosphere of that gas (Carbon Dioxide) would give to our earth a high temperature,” describing the phenomenon we now call the greenhouse effect, the main cause of climate change. More

1858, August 16 - The first successful transatlantic telegraph line is completed. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom sends a telegraph  to U.S. President James Buchanan. Near-instantaneous communication between Europe and North America. Become a reality.  

1861, August 5 - The Revenue Act is signed by President Lincoln imposing the first federal income tax. The action was prompted by the financial requirements of the Civil War. At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800,and later modified this principle to include a graduated tax. Congress repealed Lincoln’s tax law in 1871, but in 1909 passed the 16th Amendment, which set in place the federal income-tax system used today. Congress ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913. More

1862, August 22 - Abraham Lincoln replies to Horace Greeley's New York Tribune editorial entitled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions". More

1864, August 5 - Battle of Mobile Bay -- Admiral David G. Farragut, leads a fleet of fourteen wooden ships and four ironclads and delivers a much needed victory for the Union and immortalizes the phase "Damn the torpedoes! - Full speed ahead!” Farragut became the first U.S. Navy’s full admiral. At the time of his death in 1870, he had served a total of 59 years in uniform. More

1864, August 22 - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), created in 1863 comes into being as the draft convention submitted to the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick of Armies in the Field, conference is adopted by 12 nations at meeting.  "The ICRC is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence." More 

1865, August 2 - James I. Waddell, Commander of the CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over from the bark Barracouta. More 

1866, August 20 - President Johnson issued a proclamation announcing the end of the American Civil War: "And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America." The proclamation  officially closed a costly, bloody, and deadly chapter in its nation's history that started at Fort Sumter several years and incurred the loss of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. More 

1873, August 24 - Mount of the Holy Cross was first photographed by William Henry Jackson. Stories had circulated for years of a mountain with a large cross etched in its side. Jackson climbed the western slope of the Rocky Mountains with more than 100 pounds of photography equipment and captured his most famous photograph. He later painted the iconic image in watercolor. More 

1875, August 24 -  Matthew Webb, an English  Merchant Marine Captain swimmer and stuntman, becomes the first recorded person to swim the English Channel for sport without the use of artificial aids. Webb swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours., becoming a celebrity. He went on to perform many stunts in public. He died in 1883 trying to swim the Niagara Gorge below Niagara as part of a publicity stunt.

1879, August 28 - Zulu King Cetshwayo, the last king of the independent Zulu nation was captured by the British during the Zulu war and taken into custody. Two years later he was allowed to travel to London and met Queen Victoria. He was permitted to return to South Africa to rule a portion of the former Zulu kingdom in 1883. More 

1880, August14 - The construction of the Cologne Cathedral ( Kölner Dom), the largest Gothic church in northern Europe is finally completed after having been started 642 years earlier in 1248. It is now the city's major landmark. More

1883,  August 26 - Krakatoa eruption. One of the most catastrophic volcanic eruptions in recorded history takes place on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa (Krakatau). The first eruption sends a cloud of gas and debris into the air and it is followed by increasingly powerful explosions culminating in a gigantic blast around 10 am on August 27, sending ash and debris 50 miles into the air blanketing 300,000 square miles (800,000 square kilometers) and plunging the area into darkness for two and a half days. The explosions were heard 2,000 miles away. Tidal waves 120 ft. high killed 36,000 persons on nearby islands, while five cubic miles of earth were blasted into the air up to a height of 50 miles. More

1890, August 6 -  New York executed William Kemmler. It was the first time ever a state used the electric chair to carry out an execution. States have carried out 158 executions by electric chair since 1973. Tennessee was the most recent state to use the electric chair, taking place in 2020. More

1896, August 16 - Gold was discovered in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon Territory, resulting in the Great Klondike Gold Rush. More

1898, August 12 - A cease-fire agreement to stop the hostilities in the Spanish - American War was signed. Spain formally agreed to to the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty. The war officially ended four months later, when the U.S. and Spanish governments signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. More 

1911, August 20 - A telegram reading “This message sent around the world” is sent by the New York Times to test how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world.  it traveled over 28,000 miles and was relayed by 16 different operators. It arrived back at The Times only 16.5 minutes later. The building where the message originated is now called One Times Square and is best known for where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. More

1911, August 21 - The Louvre announces the theft of the Mona Lisa. painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1507. It was recovered two years later in Italy on December 1913. More  

1911, August 29 - Ishi, believed to be the last surviving member of the Native American Yahi Tribe is found outside a slaughterhouse near Oroville. More

1914, August 1 - 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

1914, August 4 - President Woodrow Wilson declared U.S. neutrality as World War erupts .  The conflict eventually became a matter of principles: whether to uphold the freedom of the seas, to make the world safe for democracy in the face of autocracy, or to establish a new world order ensuring permanent peace and governed by rational law. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. More 

1914, August 5 -  The first electric traffic signal is installed in Cleveland, Ohio at the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue. It was shaped like a birdhouse and had just green and red lights, with a buzzer that indicated when the light was about to change. A police officer named Lester Wire came up with the idea that revolutionized traffic engineering. He later sold the patent to General Electric. In 1923, inventor Garrett Morgan patented the three-position traffic signal, which is where we get today’s yellow light. More

1914, August 15 - The Panama Canal had its inaugural passage when the U.S. vessel  USS Ancon, passed through its gates and it opened to traffic, In the 1880s, the French  attempted to build the canal to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. the project  was halted because of poor planning, a breakout of disease among the crew, and financial problems that drove the contractor’s company to bankruptcy in 1889. More

1914, August 15 - Japan issues an ultimatum to Germany demanding the withdraw of its warships from Chinese and Japanese waters and to hand over Tsingtao. This was refused and on  August 23, 1914 Japan declared war on Germany.  More

1914, August 26 - The WW1 Battle of Tannenberg between the Germans and the Russians begins. The German forces, led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, handed Russia a crushing defeat resulting in the destruction of the Russian Second Army, with 120,000-170,000 soldiers killed, injured, or captured by the German 8th Army . More

1916, August  - 27 Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary. and enters WW1 on the side of the Allies. The decision was motivated primarily by the desire to claim the region of Transylvania and its majority ethnic Romanian population from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1917, August 14 - China ends its neutrality and declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I. 

1918, August 30 - Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin is shot by Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Social Revolutionary party. Lenin was seriously wounded but survived the attack which was the third assassination attempt on his life. More

1919, August 11 - Germany's Weimar constitution was passed by the National Assembly. The design of a new Democratic constitution began in late 1918, following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the collapse of the monarchy. The Weimar Republic, Germany's 12-year experiment with democracy, came to an end 12 years later when the Nazis came to power in January 1933 and established a dictatorship. More

1919, August 19 - Afghan Independence Day (Afghan Victory Day) It commemorates the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919

1920, August 18 - The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote is ratified as Tennessee, by a vote of 50 to 49, becomes the 36th State to do so. The deciding vote came from Harry T. Burn, a 24 year old, who supported suffrage but but was under political pressure to vote no. In his pocket was a letter from his mother, Febb Burn, urging him to vote for the amendment. On August 26, the amendment was formally adopted into the Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. More

1923, August 2 -  President Warren G. Harding died suddenly in San Francisco while on a Western speaking tour. He was succeeded the next day by Calvin Coolidge.

1926, August 6 - Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim English Channel. She swam across the Channel in 14 hours and 34 minutes, beating the men's record by two hours. More 

1931, August 25 - A dike along China' Lake Gaoyou is breached during major floods in the Yangtze Valley. The floods covered an area  approximately the size of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut combined. All together the floods which lasted from June to the end of August and flooded areas of central and eastern China including densely populated cities like Wuhan and Nanjing. The death toll of the floods ranges between 422,000 - 4,000,000, depending on the source. The 1931 China flood is known as one of the world's deadliest disasters. More

1934, August 2 - Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader after German President Paul von Hindenburg death. More

1934, August 11 - The first batch of 137 prisoners arrives at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Venetia, California. In 1850, a presidential order set aside the island for possible use as a United States military reservation. and the U.S. Army had used the island for more than 80 years. In 1933, the island was transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice for use by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to open a maximum-security, minimum-privilege penitentiary to deal with the most incorrigible inmates in Federal prisons. More

1934, August 19 -  Hitler becomes President of Germany; 89.9 percent of German voters approved granting Chancellor Adolf Hitler additional powers, including the office of president.

1935. August 14 - President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes. More

1936, August 1 - Hitler declares the Berlin Olympics, the eleventh Olympiad of the modern era, to be open.

1939, August 2 - Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt regarding the possibility of atomic weapons. Six years later, on August 6, 1945, the first Atomic Bomb, developed by the U.S., was dropped on the Japanese port of Hiroshima.

1941, August 12 - FDR and Churchill meet for the first time as leaders of their respective nations on board naval vessels anchored in Placentia Bay, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The document released as a result of the meeting is referred to as "The Atlantic Charter." It was not an official document, but rather a joint statement expressing the war aims of the two countries--one technically neutral and the other at war.  More

1942, August 4 - The United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. An executive order called the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program. This series of diplomatic accords between Mexico and the United States permitted millions of Mexican men to work legally in the United States on short-term labor contracts. The Bracero Program ended  on December 31, 1964. More

1942, August 7 - American forces land on the Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida. on the morning of August 7,1942. After some fierce fighting, the US Marines cleared Tulagi and Florida by August 9. The main forces on Guadalcanal met little resistance on their way inland to secure the airfield at Lunga Point,  Almost immediately, however, Japanese naval aircraft attacked transport and escort ships, and Japanese reinforcements arrived in the area. More 

1942, August 11 - Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr and composer with composer George Antheil were awarded a patent for a  “frequency hopping, spread-spectrum communication system” designed to make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect or jam.
 Lamarr and Antheil donated their patent to the US Navy and never realized any money from their invention which was the simplest version of a radio transmission technique , known today as spread-spectrum technique, which refers to any method that widens the frequency band of a signal. The technique would eventually find its way into other cutting-edge technologies like wireless phones, Global Positioning Systems, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. More

1942, August 19-25 - The Dieppe Raid, an Allied amphibious assault on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France, ends in a heavy defeat and high casualties.

1943, August 1 - 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

1943, August 17 - During World War II in Europe, the Allies completed the conquest of the island of Sicily after 38 days and U.S. General George S. Patton and his 7th Army arrive in Messina several hours before British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery and his 8th Army, completing the Allied conquest of Sicily. There were more than 24,000 American, British, and Canadian casualties on Sicily. More

1944, August 1 - 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

1944, August 23 - Romania King Michael announces that Romania had unilaterally ceased all military actions against the Allies, accepted the Allied armistice offer and joined the war against the Axis powers. As no formal armistice offer had been extended yet, the Red Army occupied most of Romania as enemy territory prior to the signing of the Moscow Armistice of September 12, 1944.

1944, August 25 - Paris is liberated and the four-year Nazi occupation of the city comes to an end as the Free French 2nd Armored division under General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc enters the city and takes the German garrison capturing the German general Choltitz’s prisoner. His captors took Choltitz to French General Leclerc where the men signed a formal surrender document and Paris was finally liberated. German general Dietrich von Choltitz had spared Paris from the destruction ordered by Hitler. More 

1945, August 2 - The Potsdam Conference, held in Potsdam, Germany between the "Big Three: Britain, The Soviet Union and the United States  comes to an end without resolution on key issues. The conference was held to negotiate the terms for the end of World War II. Even though the Allies remained committed to fighting a joint war in the Pacific, mutual distrust stemming from differing views of what a postwar world should look, like led to disagreements on several key issues between the Soviet Union and the West, set the stage for the Cold War. More

1945, August 6 - The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb dropped by the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, detonated about 1,800 ft. above ground, killing over 105,000 persons and destroying the city. Another estimated 100,000 persons later died as a result of radiation effects.

1945, August 8 - Soviet Russia declared war on Japan and sent troops into Japanese-held Manchuria.

1945, August 9 - The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. An American B-29 bomber headed for the city of Kokura, but because of poor visibility then chose a secondary target, Nagasaki. The bomb detonated killing an estimated 70,000 persons and destroying about half the city.

1945, August 14 - Believing that continuation of the war would only result in further loss of Japanese lives, delegates of Emperor Hirohito accepted Allied surrender terms originally issued at Potsdam on July 26, 1945, with the exception that the Japanese Emperor's sovereignty would be maintained. The formal surrender ceremony occurred later, on September 2, 1945, on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1945, August 15 - South Korea and North Korea celebrate this day as their National Liberation Day as the Korean peninsula was freed from Japanese rule.

1945, August 17 - Proclamation of Indonesian Independence from the Empire of Japan and the Netherlands.

1947, August 7 - Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl and five companions sail the Kon-Tiki, raft  from Peru to the islands east of Tahiti. Heyerdahl was interested in demonstrating the possibility that ancient people from the Americas could have colonized Polynesia; to do so, he constructed the raft from locally available balsa logs at Callao, Peru, and in three and a half months traversed some 4,300 miles (6,900 km) of ocean. The Kon-Tiki has been preserved in a museum in Oslo, Norway.

1947, August 14 - Pakistan achieved independence one day prior to Indian independence. India was partitioned, and an East and West Pakistan were created from Muslim majority areas.

1947, August 15, India was declared independent from British colonialism, and the reins of control were handed over to the leaders of the Country. 

1948, August 3 - During a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Whittaker Chambers, American writer and intelligence agent, accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the accusation but was eventually tried and convicted of perjury. More

1949, - The Soviet Union successfully tested their first nuclear device, called RDS-1 or “First Lightning” (codenamed “Joe-1” by the United States), at Semipalatinsk.  As the Cold War intensified, both the Soviet Union and the United States embarked upon efforts to rapidly develop and grow their respective nuclear arsenals. The US launched its hydrogen bomb program in the early 1950s and the USSR followed suit and initiated their own hydrogen bomb program. More

1950, Aug 25 -  President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order putting America’s railroads under the control of the U.S. Army, Truman said that “governmental seizure [of the railroads] is imperative” to protect American citizens as well as “essential to the national defense and security of the nation.” Truman acted in anticipation of an imminent strike by railroad workers, two months after the United Nations, led by the United States, had intervened in Korea to repel an invasion by communist-led North Korea. More 

1951, Aug 30, - The United States and the  Philippines sign a Mutual Defense Treaty. More

1952, August 11 - Hussein was proclaimed king of Jordan succeeding to the throne three months before his 17th birthday. A three-man regency council made up of the prime minister and heads of the Senate and the House of Representatives was appointed until he became 18. He was enthroned on 2 May 1953, the same day that his cousin Faisal II assumed his constitutional powers as king of Iraq. More

1953, August 19 - A U.S. CIA and UK supported coup d'état by the Iranian military topples the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. It favored strengthening the monarchical rule of the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and all but insuring access to Iranian oil by the U.S. and the U.K. Sixty years later, in 2013, the National Security Archive released declassified CIA documents on the United States' role in the controversial operation. Although American and British involvement, had long been public knowledge, the released documents were the CIA's first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup and participated in smoothing over the aftermath. More

1954, August 24 - Congress passed the Communist Control Act of 1954 (CCA) as an amendment to the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 “to outlaw the Communist Party, to prohibit members of Communist organizations from serving in certain representative capacities, and for other purposes.” Many of the CCA provisions impinged upon a number of constitutional rights and were removed over time. More

1957, August 31 -  Malayan Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom.

1958, August 3 - The USS Nautilus, the first U.S. nuclear submarine, reaches the geographic North Pole traveling 1000 miles under sea from Point Barrow, Alaska and then on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe. More 

1959, August 14 - The first satellite image of Earth is captured by Explorer 6. 1959.  The crude picture of the earth’s surface and cloud cover was taken from a distance of 17,000 miles from earth. The photo, received in Hawaii, took nearly 40 minutes to transmit. Explorer 6 was launched on August 7, 1959. More

1959, August 21 - Hawaii is admitted to the union becoming the 50th State.

1960, August 1 -  Benin's Independence day. (Previously Dahomey) Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July creating the independent Republic of Dahomey.

1960, August 3, Niger Independence Day - Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July.

1960, August 5 - Burkina Faso Independence Day. Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July and creation of the independent Republic of Upper Volta. On 4 August 1984, it changed its name to Burkina Faso.

1960, August 7 - Ivory Coast Independence Day Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July

1960, August 11 - Chad's Independence day. Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 12 July

1960, August 15 - Republic of the Congo Independence Day -  Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 12 July.

1960, August 17 - Gabon independence day, officially the Gabonese Republic recognized, ending French colonial rule.

1961, August 13 - East Germany begins to seal off around Berlin. First, a wire barrier was constructed and a few days later the wire was replaced by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long wall of concrete blocks. It hoped this measure would put an end to the mass exodus to Berlin. More

1962, August 4 - Nelson Mandela, Apartheid opponent, was arrested by security police in South Africa. He was tried and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1964, he was retried for sabotage , high treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government He was sentenced to life in prison. A worldwide campaign to free him began in the 1980s and resulted in his release on February 11, 1990, at age 71 after 27 years in prison. In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with South Africa's President F.W. de Klerk for their peaceful efforts to bring a nonracial democracy to South Africa. In April 1994, black South Africans voted for the first time in an election that brought Mandela the presidency of South Africa. More

1962, August 6 - Jamaica achieved independence after centuries of British and Spanish rule.

1962, August 31 - Trinidad and Tobago independence day. Effective date of the Trinidad and Tobago Independence Act 1962.

1963, August 5 - The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. After Senate approval, the treaty that went into effect on October 10, 1963, banned nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. More

1963, August 28 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Over 250,000 persons attended the Civil Rights rally in Washington, D.C. More

1963, August 30 - The hotline between Washington and Moscow came into operation 10 months after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The first implementation used Teletype equipment. It changed to fax machines in 1986 and in 2008 to a secure computer link over which secured messages are exchanged. More

1964, August 2 - The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurs, leading to increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. August 7, 1964 - Following an attack on two U.S. destroyers the U.S. Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting President Lyndon B. Johnson authority "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."

1964, Aug 4 - The bodies of three lynched civil rights workers (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman) were found in Neshoba County, Mississippi. They had been tortured and murdered by the KKK with help from the deputy sheriff near Philadelphia. M in .after disappearing more than a month before. More

1965, Aug 6 -  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act suspended literacy, knowledge and character tests which were designed to keep African Americans from voting in the South. It also authorized the appointment of Federal voting examiners and barred discriminatory poll taxes. Congress renewed the in 1975, 1984 and 1991.

1965, August 9 -  Proclamation of Singapore independence from Malaysia

1965, August 11 – 16: - Six days of riots began in the Watts area of Los Angeles, triggered by an incident between a white member of the California Highway Patrol and an African American motorist. Thirty-four deaths were reported and more than 3,000 people arrested. Damage to property was estimated at $40 million.

1967, August 30 - The U.S. Senate confirms  the appointment of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall became the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. More

1968, August Supreme Court 20 - The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. Although the Soviet Union's action successfully halted the pace of reform in Czechoslovakia, it had unintended consequences for the unity of the communist bloc. More

1969, August 17 - Hurricane Camille made landfall late in the evening along the Mississippi Gulf Coast near Waveland, MS. Camille is one of only four Category 5 hurricanes ever to make landfall in the continental United States. The combination of winds, surges, and rainfalls caused 256 deaths (143 on the Gulf Coast and 113 in the Virginia floods) and $1.421 billion in damage. Three deaths were reported in Cuba. More 

1969, August18 - The Woodstock three day outdoor music festival celebrates its final night. The audience was estimated at more than 450,000 and it was the largest and most memorable of dozens of outdoor music festivals that took place between 1967 and 1969, an era that began with the Monterey Pops Concert, Monterey, California, on June 16-18, 1967, and ended tragically, with the Altamont Racetrack Concert, at Altamont, California, which was marked by violence.

1969, August 30 - North Vietnam's president, Ho Chi Minh response to President Nixon's letter is received at the White House three days before Ho Chi Minh death in Hanoi from a heart attack on September 2, 1969 at the age of 79. More 

1974, August 7 - French high-wire artist Philippe Petit walks between the Twin Towers at 1,350 feet above ground with no net. More

1974, August 9 – Richard M Nixon resigns the presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal. Facing possible impeachment by Congress, he became the only U.S. President ever to resign. Gerald Ford automatically assumed the presidency, taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House and becoming the 38th U.S. President. This made him the only person to become the nation's chief executive without being elected to the presidency or the vice presidency. More

1975, August 3 - A  707 passenger flight chartered by the national airline of Morocco, Royal Air Maroc, flying in heavy fog crashed into a mountain on approach to Agadir Inezgane, Airport in Morocco. All 188 passengers and crew on board were killed. The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error. More

1975, August 8 - The term "Global Warming" is used for the first time in a science publication. The article by geochemist Wallace Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory: "Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" More

1980, August 14-15 - The Solidarity movement in Poland, led by Lech Walesa, signs the Gdansk Agreement with the communist government, marking a significant milestone in the fight for workers' rights. Solidarity opposed Communist rule and was outlawed the following year. Seven years later, the re-legalization of Solidarity occurred and the government agreed to hold partially free parliamentary elections. Solidarity candidates scored stunning victories, paving the way for the downfall of Communism there. More

1981, August 13 -  President Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), the 185-page that fulfilled his campaign promise to cut taxes. The act helped accelerate economic growth but it is blamed for being a major contributor to the growth of Income inequality in the U.S. which is now at heights not seen for a century. More

1983, August 21 - Filipino opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., was assassinated at the Manila airport while leaving his plane. Public outcry ultimately led to the collapse of the government of Ferdinand E. Marcos and the inauguration of Corazon C. Aquino, widow of the slain man, as president.

1985, August 2 -  Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) determined that the cause of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar airplane crash was wind-shear associated with an intense thunderstorm downdraft that occurred at the north end of the airport along runway 17. Today we know this intense, localized downburst as a microburst, a weather phenomenon that was not well understood at the time of the accident. Of the 163 persons aboard, 134 passengers and crewmembers were killed at the scene in addition to one person hit on the ground. Two passengers died more than 30 days after the accident as a result of their injuries. More

1985, August 12 - Japan Air Lines Flight 123 flight from Tokyo to Osaka, Japan crashes in the area of Mount Takamagahara, 62 miles from Tokyo. The Boeing 747  suffered a severe structural failure and decompression 12 minutes into the flight  and crashed 32 minutes later after flying under minimal control for that time. 520 people died in the accident. All four survivors were seriously injured. The root cause of the explosive decompression was attributed to an improperly executed repair to the airplane's aft pressure bulkhead that was completed several years prior to the accident. The crash of Flight 123 is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history. More

1986, August 22 - A volcanic eruption under Lake Nyos in Cameroon caused deadly fumes which killed more than 1,500 persons. More

1987, August 16 -  A DC-9 Super 82 on Northwest Flight 255 crashes minutes aftertakeoff at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan. The flight was headed to California with a Phoenix stopover.  A four-year-old girl was the sole survivor of the accident,156 people died. The crash was caused by pilot error. More 

1987, August 28 - The Ray Brothers’ family home in Arcadia, Florida burns down. It was almost certainly a case of arson fueled by fear and ignorance. The three boys- Ricky, Robert and Randy- were born with hemophilia and were 10, 9 and 8 at the time. They had been diagnosed positive with HIV in 1986 and were not allowed to attend school following their positive test results. Their home was burned to the ground a week after a court ruled the following year that they had every legal right to attend. The Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Program act was enacted by the Health and Human Services Department on November 23, 2001 More

1990, August 2 - Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War and international intervention to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation as President George H.W. Bush orders Operation Desert Shield on August 7, 1990, which was in turn followed by the international coalition against Iraq launched as Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. More 

1990, August 12 - The largest-ever Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is discovered on a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. The 65-million-year-old specimen is dubbed Sue, after its discoverer fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson. South Dakota. More

1991, August 19 - Soviet hardline Communists staged a coup, temporarily removing Mikhail Gorbachev from power. The coup failed within 72 hours as democratic reformer Boris Yeltsin rallied the Russian people. Yeltsin then became the leading power in the country. The Communist Party was soon banned and by December the Soviet Union itself disintegrated. More

1991, August 24 - Ukraine declares independence from the Soviet Union, leading to its dissolution later that year.

1991, August 27 - Moldovia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1991, August 31 - Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan declares independence from the Soviet Union and a democratic government is established. 

1998, August 7 - The U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania are bombed with truck bombs. The terrorist attacks killed 224 people, among them, 12 Americans, and wounded more than 4,500. The U.S. accuses Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, of masterminding the bombings. On August 20, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missiles launched against bin Laden’s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and to a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, believed to be manufacturing and distributing chemical weapons. More

1998, August 17 - The United States launches cruise missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan in
retaliation for the 1998 embassy bombings.

1999, August 17 - The catastrophic magnitude 7.6 Izmit earthquake struck the Kocaeli Province of Turkey, causing extensive damage and approximately 17,000 deaths. Named for the quake’s proximity to the northwestern city of İzmit, It is widely remembered as one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Turkish history. More

2000, August 12 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sinks to the bottom of the Barents Sea while on a naval exercise inside the Arctic Circle. The entire 118-strong crew perished According to the Russian navy, it had not been carrying nuclear warheads. The cause of the disaster remains unknown although it was attributed to an accidental torpedo explosion. The wreck was brought up from the seabed by a Dutch salvage team more than a year after the accident. More

2002, - August 5 - The turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor is lifted out of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Hatteras N.C. The historic warship sank on December 31 1862 during a storm as it was being towed around Cape Hatteras on its way to Beaufort, North Carolina, to join a fleet being assembled for an attack on Charleston. Many of the sailors were rescued, but 16 of its crew members perished, More

2003, August 14 - A major power blackout affects parts of the northeastern and midwestern United States, as well as Ontario, Canada, leaving millions without electricity. More

2005, August 29 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana, causing catastrophic damage and flooding in New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast.  Katrina was one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States. Hurricane Katrina was responsible for 1,833 fatalities and approximately $108 billion in damage in 2005 dollars. More

2006, August 24 - The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the definition of a planet, resulting in the demotion of
Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet."

2008, August 8 - The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics takes place, marking the first time China hosts the Olympic
Games.

2011, August 5 - NASA's Juno spacecraft launches on a mission to study the planet Jupiter

2011, Aug 5 - Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency downgrades the United States debt from its highest rating of AAA to a lesser AA+ rating, marking the first-ever decline of credit worthiness for the U.S. The agency cited America’s $14 trillion outstanding debt and an ineffective political leadership to address the debt reduction. This downgraded rating remains in effect as of January 1, 2023.

2014, August 9 - The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparks protests and civil unrest, leading to a national conversation on racial tensions and police violence in the United States.

2016, August 5-21 - The Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showcasing athletes from around the world.

2017, August 21 - A total solar eclipse, visible across a large portion of the United States, captivates millions of people.

2019, August 5 - India revokes the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed region.

2020, August 4 - A massive explosion at the port of Beirut in Lebanon causes widespread devastation and loss of life.

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