Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2019 day arrangement | ||||||
August 1: Lughnasadh/Imbolc (Gaels and neopagans in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively)
Herman Melville
- 527 – Upon the death of Justin I, his nephew and adopted son Justinian I became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1842 – Three days of rioting erupted after a parade in Philadelphia, celebrating the end of slavery in the West Indies, was attacked by a mob.
- 1971 – The Concert for Bangladesh, a pair of benefit concerts organised by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison for refugees of the Bangladesh genocide, was held at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York.
- 1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discovered the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, North West England.
- 2009 – A shooting at the Israeli LGBT Association building in Tel Aviv resulted in the deaths of two people.
Adhemar of Le Puy (d. 1098) · Herman Melville (pictured, b. 1819) · Kurmanbek Bakiyev (b. 1949)
August 2: Republic Day in North Macedonia
- 338 BC – A Macedonian army overcame the combined forces of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea (memorial statue pictured), securing Macedonian hegemony over the majority of Ancient Greece.
- 216 BC – Second Punic War: Outnumbered Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated a Roman army, near the town of Cannae, Apulia, in southeast Italy.
- 1916 – An explosion, blamed on Austro-Hungarian saboteurs, sank the Italian dreadnought Leonardo da Vinci.
- 1939 – Leo Szilard wrote a letter, signed by Albert Einstein and addressed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning that Germany may develop atomic bombs, leading to the U.S. establishing the Manhattan Project.
- 1989 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Indian Peace Keeping Force began a massacre that led to the deaths of 64 minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians over a two-day period in Valvettithurai, Sri Lanka.
Andrew Barton (d. 1511) · Jack L. Warner (b. 1892) · Bertha Lutz (b. 1894)
August 3: Feast day of W. E. B. Du Bois (pictured) in The Episcopal Church
W. E. B. Du Bois
- 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: An eight-day siege of a fortified outbuilding occupied by 68 people by a force of more than 10,000 ended when a relief party dispersed the besieging forces.
- 1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaimed a republic, which existed for only ten days before Ottoman forces destroyed the town.
- 1929 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, believed likely to be the messianic "World Teacher" by Charles Webster Leadbeater, shocked the Theosophy movement by dissolving the Order of the Star, the organisation established to support him.
- 1940 – World War II: Italy began an invasion of British Somaliland and captured the region in 16 days.
- 2005 – President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya was overthrown in a military coup while he was attending the funeral of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
Empress Dowager Cao (d. 925) · Christopher Anstey (d. 1805) · Alexander Mair (d. 1969)
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- 1265 – Second Barons' War: Royal forces under Prince Edward defeated baronial forces under Simon de Montfort, at the Battle of Evesham near Evesham, Worcestershire.
- 1783 – A climactic eruption of Mount Asama, one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, killed roughly 1,400 people and exacerbated a famine, resulting in another 20,000 deaths.
- 1914 – World War I: Adhering to the terms in the 1839 Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium.
- 1964 – The National Security Agency falsely claimed that a U.S. Navy destroyer (pictured) was attacked a second time by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force.
- 2007 – An airport police officer discovered a suitcase containing US$800,000 as it went through security at Jorge Newbery Airfield, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina.
Peter de Montfort (d. 1265) · Laura Knight (b. 1877) · Jessica Mauboy (b. 1989)
August 5: Constitution Day in the Cook Islands (1965); Victory Day in Croatia (1995)
Guangwu depicted in Sancai Tuhui
- AD 25 – Guangwu (pictured) claimed the throne as emperor of the Han dynasty, after Wang Mang, who had seized the throne himself and proclaimed the Xin dynasty, died when peasant rebels besieged Chang'an.
- 1689 – Beaver Wars: Aggravated by increased French incursions into their territory, a large force of Mohawk warriors substantially destroyed the settlement of Lachine, New France.
- 1772 – Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Austria began the First Partition of Poland, whose primary motive was to restore the regional balance of power in Eastern Europe.
- 1888 – Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip, driving 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz Patent-Motorwagen.
- 1949 – A magnitude 6.4 Ms earthquake struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people.
Euthymius I of Constantinople (d. 917) · Tom Thomson (b. 1877) · Pete Burns (b. 1959)
Meteorite fragment ALH84001
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Oriskany, one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the war, was fought about 6 mi (10 km) east of Fort Stanwix, New York.
- 1991 – British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee first posted files describing his ideas for a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessible via the Internet, to be called a "World Wide Web".
- 1996 – A team of researchers led by NASA scientists announced that the meteorite known as ALH84001 (pictured), discovered in the Allan Hills of Antarctica, may contain evidence of life on Mars, but further tests were inconclusive.
- 2013 – An explosion in Rosario, Argentina, caused by a large gas leak collapsed a nearby building and led to the deaths of 22 people.
Stephen V of Hungary (d. 1272) · George Kenney (b. 1889) · Jennie de la Montagnie Lozier (d. 1915)
August 7: Qixi Festival (traditional Chinese, 2019)
Alice Huyler Ramsey with her Maxwell automobile
- 768 – The papacy of Stephen III, who convened the Lateran Council of 769, began.
- 1461 – Ming general Cao Qin staged a failed coup against the Emperor Yingzong.
- 1909 – Fifty-nine days after leaving New York City with three passengers, Alice Huyler Ramsey (pictured) arrived in San Francisco to become the first woman to drive an automobile across the contiguous United States.
- 1914 – World War I: France launched its first attack of the war in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the province of Alsace from Germany.
- 1944 – IBM presented the first program-controlled calculator to Harvard University, after which it became known as the Mark I.
Hugh Foliot (d. 1234) · Art Houtteman (b. 1927) · Peter Jennings (d. 2005)
- 1264 – Reconquista: In the early stages of the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, Muslim rebels captured the alcazar of the city of Jerez, holding it for about two months.
- 1919 – The Third Anglo-Afghan War ended with the United Kingdom signing a treaty recognising the independence of the Emirate of Afghanistan.
- 1969 – At a zebra crossing in London (pictured), photographer Iain Macmillan took the photo that was used for the cover of the Beatles' album Abbey Road.
- 2009 – Nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River near Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey.
- 2014 – The World Health Organization declared the Western African Ebola virus epidemic, which began in December 2013, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield (b. 1874) · Sophia Duleep Singh (b. 1876) · Ernest Lawrence (b. 1901)
August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples; National Women's Day in South Africa
Leaning Tower of Pisa
- 1173 – Construction began on a campanile that would eventually be known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa (pictured).
- 1944 – The United States Forest Service authorized the use of Smokey Bear as its mascot to replace Bambi.
- 1974 – On the verge of impeachment and removal from office amidst the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first president of the United States to resign his office.
- 2001 – A suicide bomber attacked a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, killing 15 people and wounding 130 others.
- 2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American man, was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, resulting in widespread protests and unrest.
Annie Malone (b. 1869) · Ernst Haeckel (d. 1919) · Jason Heyward (b. 1989)
August 10: Day of Arafah (Islam, 2019)
The Hungarian Battle of Lechfeld 955,
a 1860 painting by Michael Echter
a 1860 painting by Michael Echter
- 955 – Forces under Otto I were victorious at the Battle of Lechfeld (depicted) near present-day Augsburg, Germany, holding off the incursions of the Magyars into Central Europe.
- 1792 – French Revolution: Insurrectionists in Paris stormed the Tuileries Palace, effectively ending the French monarchy until it was restored in 1814.
- 1864 – After Uruguay's governing Blanco Party refused Brazil's demands, José Antônio Saraiva announced that the Brazilian military would exact reprisals, beginning the Uruguayan War.
- 1966 – The Heron Road Bridge in Ottawa, Canada, collapsed during its construction, killing nine workers.
- 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 a victims' rights advocate and helping to spur the formation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Al-Wathiq (d. 847) · William Lowndes Yancey (b. 1814) · Alfred Döblin (b. 1878)
August 11: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2019); Tisha B'Av (Judaism, 2019); Independence Day in Chad (1960)
Tupolev Tu-134A similar to both aircraft in the 1979 collision
- 1786 – Francis Light founded George Town, the first British settlement in Southeast Asia and the capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang.
- 1929 – The first Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, the oldest and largest African-American parade in the United States, was held in Chicago.
- 1979 – Two Aeroflot passenger jets (similar aircraft pictured) collided in mid-air near Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Ukrainian SSR, killing all 178 people on both aircraft.
- 1999 – Ken Levine's System Shock 2 was released to mediocre sales, but was critically acclaimed and highly influenced subsequent first-person shooter game design.
Guttorm of Norway (d. 1204) · James B. Longacre (b. 1794) · Pablo Sandoval (b. 1986)
Cover of the 1945 Princeton edition of the Smyth Report
- 1099 – The First Crusade concluded with the Battle of Ascalon and Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah retreating to Egypt.
- 1914 – World War I: Belgian forces were victorious in Halen but were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of their kingdom.
- 1945 – An official administrative history (cover pictured) of the Manhattan Project, written by American physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth, was released just days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer, the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform, was introduced.
Jænberht (d. 792) · Abraham Zacuto (b. 1452) · Maurice Fernandes (b. 1897)
Flag of Japan with dimensions
- 582 – On his deathbed, the Roman emperor Tiberius II Constantine named Maurice his successor.
- 1650 – General George Monck founded "Monck's Regiment of Foot", the predecessor to the Coldstream Guards, the oldest regiment in the British Regular Army in continuous active service.
- 1898 – Spanish–American War: After a mock battle for Manila, the Spanish commander surrendered to the United States in order to keep the city out of the hands of Filipino rebels.
- 1999 – The Act on National Flag and Anthem was adopted in Japan, formally establishing the flag of Japan (design illustrated) as the national flag and "Kimigayo" as the national anthem.
- 2004 – Hurricane Charley struck the U.S. state of Florida, just 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie inflicted its own damage to the state.
Maximus the Confessor (d. 662) · Tigran Petrosian (d. 1984) · Tim Richmond (d. 1989)
August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)
Defeat of the Villasur expedition depicted on buffalo hide
- 1720 – The Spanish Villasur expedition, intended to slow the progress of French influence on the Great Plains of North America, ended in failure when it was ambushed (depicted) by a Pawnee and Otoe force.
- 1973 – The current Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan came into effect.
- 1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in London, the first in its record-breaking run in cinemas, which continues in limited release.
- 2007 – Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi communities of Qahtaniya and Jazeera, Iraq, killing an estimated 796 people and wounding 1,562 others.
- 2018 – The Ponte Morandi bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy, killing 43 people.
Qian Hongzuo (b. 928) · Pieter Coecke van Aelst (b. 1502) · Mila Kunis (b. 1983)
August 15: Raksha Bandhan (Hinduism, 2019); Independence Day in India (1947)
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14th-century painting of Michael VIII
- 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.
- 1261 – Michael VIII Palaiologos (depiction shown) was crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.
- 1915 – The New York World revealed that Germany had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the Allied war effort and diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production.
- 1944 – World War II: Allied forces began their invasion of southern France.
- 1998 – A car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army killed 29 people and injured approximately 220 others in Omagh, Northern Ireland.
Richard de Vere (b. 1385) · Gerty Cori (b. 1896) · Stephen Breyer (b. 1938)
August 16: Tu B'Av (Judaism, 2019)
Depiction of the 1819 massacre, published by Richard Carlile
- 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.
- 1819 – In Manchester, England, around 15 people were killed and 400 to 700 others injured when cavalry charged into a crowd (depiction shown) who were demanding the reform of parliamentary representation.
- 1891 – San Sebastian Church in Manila, the only all-steel church in Asia, was officially consecrated.
- 1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hit Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,882 people.
- 2009 – At the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Usain Bolt ran the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds, breaking his own record set a year earlier.
Marianos Argyros (d. 963) · George Meany (b. 1894) · Georgette Heyer (b. 1902)
August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)
Miles Davis
- 986 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: The Bulgarians defeated Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with Emperor Basil II barely escaping.
- 1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis (pictured), one of the best selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time, was released.
- 1969 – Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi coast of the United States, killing 259 people and causing $1.42 billion in damages.
- 1999 – A 7.6 Mw earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving more than 250,000 homeless.
- 2009 – A turbine at Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia broke apart violently, flooding the power station, causing widespread power failures and killing 75 people.
Li Shouzhen (d. 949) · Matthew Boulton (d. 1809) · Dawn Mabalon (b. 1972)
Phobos
- 684 – Second Fitna: Umayyad partisans defeated the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr and cemented Umayyad control of Syria.
- 1612 – The trial of the Pendle and Samlesbury witches, among the most famous of England's witch trials, began at the assizes in Lancaster.
- 1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos (pictured), the larger of Mars's two moons, six days after discovering Deimos, the smaller one.
- 1964 – Hildegard Trabant was killed while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall, making her the only escapee killed at the wall with a record of loyalty to East Germany.
- 1989 – Leading Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán was assassinated during a public demonstration in the town of Soacha, Cundinamarca.
Agneta Horn (b. 1629) · Maria Ulfah Santoso (b. 1911) · Edward Norton (b. 1969)
August 19: Eid al-Ghadir (Shia Islam, 2019)
Bonnie Prince Charlie
- 1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie (pictured) raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands, beginning the Jacobite rising of 1745.
- 1934 – A referendum supported the recent merging of the posts of Chancellor and President of Germany, consolidating Adolf Hitler's assumption of supreme power.
- 1964 – More than 17,000 fans saw the Beatles at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, on the opening date of the group's first nationwide U.S. tour.
- 2002 – Chechen separatists brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 with a man-portable air-defense system, killing 127 people in the single deadliest helicopter crash in history.
- 2017 – Around 250,000 farmed non-native Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the wild near Cypress Island, Washington.
Tom Wills (b. 1835) · Gene Roddenberry (b. 1921) · Clay Walker (b. 1969)
August 20: Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia (1991); St. Stephen's Day / State Foundation Day in Hungary
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Mercedes-Benz O305 bus on the O-Bahn
- 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.
- 1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British and Creek abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
- 1920 – The American Professional Football Association, a predecessor of the National Football League, was founded.
- 1988 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding another twenty-eight.
- 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 (example pictured) travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) at maximum speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).
Henry Every (b. 1659) · Phil Lynott (b. 1949) · Amy Adams (b. 1974)
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas
- 1689 – Jacobite risings: Jacobites supporting James VII of Scotland clashed with a regiment of Covenanters supporting William of Orange, in the streets of Dunkeld.
- 1858 – The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas (both pictured), candidates for an Illinois seat in the U.S. Senate, was held in Ottawa.
- 1944 – World War II: A combined Canadian–Polish force captured the strategically important town of Falaise, France, in the final offensive of the Battle of Normandy.
- 1963 – The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces raided and vandalised Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving hundreds dead.
- 1969 – An Australian tourist set the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on fire, a major catalyst of the formation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Baldwin II of Jerusalem (d. 1131) · Emily Tinne (b. 1886) · Emma Mashinini (b. 1929)
Signing of the First Geneva Convention
- 1642 – King Charles I raised the royal standard at Nottingham, marking the beginning of the First English Civil War.
- 1864 – Under the leadership of Henry Dunant and the International Red Cross Committee, twelve European nations signed the First Geneva Convention (signing pictured), establishing the rules for protection of the victims of armed conflicts.
- 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.
- 1985 – A fire broke out on British Airtours Flight 28M, causing 55 deaths mostly due to smoke inhalation and bringing about changes to make aircraft evacuation more effective.
- 2012 – A series of ethnic clashes between the Orma and Pokomo tribes of Kenya's Tana River District resulted in the deaths of at least 52 people.
Luca Marenzio (d. 1599) · Claude Debussy (b. 1862) · Dorothy Parker (b. 1893)
August 23: Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism/Black Ribbon Day in Canada, parts of the European Union, Georgia, and the United States
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German tanks and soldiers in the Battle of Kursk
- 1514 – Ottoman forces defeated the Safavids at the Battle of Chaldiran, gaining control of eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq.
- 1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departed from London.
- 1921 – The Royal Navy's R-38, the world's largest airship at the time, was destroyed by a structural failure while in flight over Hull, killing 44 of the 49 crew aboard.
- 1943 – Second World War: The decisive Soviet victory in the Battle of Kursk (German tanks and soldiers pictured) gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.
- 2011 – A 5.8 MW earthquake struck the Piedmont region of Virginia, and was felt by more people than any other quake in U.S. history.
Radagaisus (d. 406) · Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1498) · Keith Moon (b. 1946)
August 24: Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)
Goodison Park
- 410 – Rome was sacked for the first time in approximately 800 years, by the Visigoths under Alaric I.
- 1812 – Peninsular War: Seeing that his army was in danger of being cut off, French commander Jean-de-Dieu Soult retreated from Cádiz, Spain, ending a 30-month siege.
- 1892 – Goodison Park (pictured in 2006) in Liverpool, England, one of the world's first purpose-built football grounds, opened.
- 1941 – Adolf Hitler ordered the suspension of the T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and disabled, although killings continued in secret for the remainder of the war.
- 1992 – Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida, the third most intense Category 5 system to hit the United States during the 20th century.
Zhang Ye (d. 948) · Harry Hooper (b. 1887) · Jean-Michel Jarre (b. 1948)
August 25: Independence Day in Uruguay (1825)
Rings of Neptune
- 1758 – Seven Years' War: Prussian forces engaged the Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf in present-day Sarbinowo, Poland.
- 1875 – Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, completing the journey in approximately 21 hours and 40 minutes.
- 1941 – Second World War: Soviet, British and other Commonwealth armed forces invaded Iran to secure oil fields and ensure Allied supply lines for the USSR.
- 1989 – The Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune and provided definitive proof of the existence of the planet's rings (pictured).
- 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company were killed when their overloaded aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas.
Gennadius of Constantinople (d. 471) · Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (b. 1741) · Velma Caldwell Melville (d. 1924)
August 26: Eid al-Mubahalah (Islam, 2019), Heroes' Day/Herero Day in Namibia; National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2019); Women's Equality Day in the United States
Bomb explosion at Harvey's Resort Hotel
- 1071 – Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan captured Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert.
- 1928 – At a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, a woman found the remains of a snail in her bottle of ginger beer, giving rise to the landmark civil action case Donoghue v Stevenson.
- 1968 – The U.S. Democratic Party's National Convention opened in Chicago, sparking four days of clashes between anti-Vietnam War protesters and police.
- 1980 – Three men planted a bomb (explosion pictured), which the FBI later described as the most complex improvised explosive device ever created, at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, U.S.
- 2008 – After a ceasefire was reached in the Russo-Georgian War, Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Arnold Fothergill (b. 1854) · Katherine Johnson (b. 1918) · Frederick Reines (d. 1998)
Stevie Ray Vaughan
- 1776 – British forces led by William Howe defeated the American Continental Army under George Washington at the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War.
- 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeated the Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Mauritius.
- 1928 – The first three of over sixty nations signed the Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy.
- 1990 – American musician Stevie Ray Vaughan (pictured), one of the most influential guitarists in the revival of blues in the 1980s, was killed in a helicopter crash.
- 2003 – Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing within approximately 55,758,000 kilometres (34,650,000 mi).
Josquin des Prez (d. 1521) · Rebecca Clarke (b. 1886) · Shi Jianqiao (d. 1979)
243 Ida and its moon
- 1619 – Ferdinand II, the King of Bohemia and Hungary, was unanimously elected as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833, officially abolishing slavery in most of the British Empire, received royal assent.
- 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 allegedly flirting with a white woman, energizing the nascent American civil rights movement.
- 1993 – 243 Ida (pictured) became the first asteroid found to have a moon when it was visited by NASA's Galileo probe.
He Gui (d. 919) · Edward Burne-Jones (b. 1833) · Shania Twain (b. 1965)
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Daniel Shays
- 1350 – Hundred Years' War: Led by King Edward III, an English fleet of 50 ships captured at least 14 Castilian ships and sank several more in the Battle of Winchelsea.
- 1786 – Led by Daniel Shays (pictured), disgruntled farmers in Western Massachusetts, U.S., angered by high tax burdens and disenfranchisement, started Shays' Rebellion.
- 1842 – Britain and China signed the Treaty of Nanking, an "unequal treaty" to end the First Opium War, in which the island that is now the site of Hong Kong was ceded to Britain.
- 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.
Basil I (d. 886) · Juan Bautista Alberdi (b. 1810) · Ingrid Bergman (b. 1915; d. 1982)
The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Francesco Hayez
- 70 – First Jewish–Roman War: The Siege of Jerusalem ended when Romans entered and sacked the Lower City, destroying the Second Temple (depicted).
- 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.
- 1813 – Creek War: A force of Creeks belonging to the Red Sticks faction killed hundreds of settlers in Fort Mims in Alabama.
- 1981 – President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran were assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
- 2014 – Prime Minister of Lesotho Tom Thabane fled to South Africa, claiming that the army had launched a coup d'état.
Hervey le Breton (d. 1131) · Agoston Haraszthy (b. 1812) · Marcelo H. del Pilar (b. 1850)
August 31: Independence Day in Malaysia (1957)
Interior view of Kinetoscope with peephole viewer
- 1888 – The body of Mary Ann Nichols was found in Buck's Row, London, allegedly the first victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
- 1897 – Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the Kinetoscope (pictured), a precursor to the movie projector.
- 1941 – During World War II a detachment of Chetniks captured the town of Loznica in German-occupied Serbia.
- 1978 – Musa al-Sadr, the Iranian-born Shia cleric and then religious leader of Lebanon, disappeared during an official visit to Libya.
- 1998 – North Korea claimed to have successfully launched Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite, although no objects were ever tracked in orbit from the launch.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ta'i (d. 894) · Agnes Bulmer (b. 1775) · Van Morrison (b. 1945)
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