Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August
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| << | Selected anniversaries for 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)
Robert Baden-Powell
- 902 – Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, the Aghlabids captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
- 1715 – Introduced during a time of civil disturbance in Great Britain, the Riot Act came into force, authorising authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled.
- 1907 – Robert Baden-Powell (pictured) held the first Scout camp at Brownsea Island in Dorset, England, beginning the Scouting movement.
- 1981 – At 12:01 AM (ET), "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles became the first music video broadcast on the American cable television network MTV.
- 2004 – Nearly 400 people died in a supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay, when exits were locked to prevent people from stealing merchandise.
Æthelwold of Winchester (d. 984) · Maria Mitchell (b. 1818) · Alan Moore (b. 1914)
August 2: Republic Day in Macedonia
Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
- 216 BC – Second Punic War: Outnumbered Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated a Roman army, near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy.
- 1790 – The first United States Census was conducted, with the United States residential population enumerated to be 3,929,214.
- 1914 – World War I: Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (pictured), and Prime Minister Paul Eyschen surrendered to the invading German army and the nation remained occupied for the rest of the war.
- 1932 – At the California Institute of Technology, Carl David Anderson proved the existence of antimatter when he discovered the positron.
- 1990 – Iraq invaded Kuwait, overrunning the Kuwaiti military within two days, and eventually sparking the outbreak of the Gulf War seven months later.
Bertha Lutz (b. 1894) · Betsy Bloomingdale (b. 1922) · Jean-Pierre Melville (d. 1973)
Jesse Owens
- 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: An eight-day siege of a fortified outbuilding occupied by 68 people by a force of over 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.
- 1913 – A strike in Wheatland, California, orchestrated by agricultural workers degenerated into a riot, becoming one of the first major farm labor confrontations in California.
- 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 at the Olympics.
- 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.
Thomas Francis Meagher (b. 1823) · George Inness (d. 1894) · Nadia Ali (b. 1980)
August 4: Constitution Day in the Cook Islands (1965)
Capture of Gibraltar
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: A combined Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles captured Gibraltar (pictured) from Spain.
- 1783 – An 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 – A second U.S. Navy destroyer was reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading Congress to authorize the use of military force in Southeast Asia.
- 1995 – The Croatian Army initiated Operation Storm, the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and the largest European land battle since the Second World War.
Henry I of France (d. 1060) · John Venn (b. 1834) · David Lange (b. 1942)
August 5: Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders in Croatia
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Marilyn Monroe
- 1278 – King Alfonso X of Castile was forced to abandon the Siege of Algeciras, the first of many on the city during the Spanish Reconquista.
- 1600 – Scottish nobleman John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, was killed during what was most likely a failed attempt to kidnap King James VI.
- 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.
- 1916 – First World War: The British Empire's Sinai and Palestine Campaign began with a victory in the Battle of Romani.
- 1962 – Actress and model Marilyn Monroe (pictured) 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.
Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (d. 1799) · Ivar Aasen (b. 1813) · Soichiro Honda (d. 1991)
Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi
- 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 (9.7 km) east of Fort Stanwix, New York.
- 1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, outlawing literacy tests and other discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for widespread disfranchisement of African Americans.
- 1997 – On approach to Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam, Korean Air Flight 801 crashed into a hill, killing 228 of the 254 people aboard.
- 2008 – Mauritanian President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi (pictured) was ousted from power by a group of high-ranking generals that he had dismissed from office several hours earlier.
- 2011 – Following the killing of a man by the Metropolitan Police of London, thousands of mostly young males rioted in several London boroughs and in cities and towns across England.
James Henry Greathead (b. 1844) · William McCrea (b. 1948) · Vera Farmiga (b. 1973)
Le Griffon
- 768 – The papacy of Stephen III, who convened the Lateran Council of 769, began.
- 1679 – Le Griffon (pictured), a barque built by René-Robert de La Salle, began its journey to be the first sailing ship to navigate the upper Great Lakes.
- 1933 – Iraqi troops slaughtered 600–3,000 Assyrians during the Simele massacre in the Dahuk and Mosul districts.
- 1998 – Car bombs exploded simultaneously at the American embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 4,000 others.
- 2008 – Fighting between the Georgian and South Ossetian separatist forces escalated to the six-day Russo-Georgian War.
Jin Shengtan (d. 1661) · Huntley Wright (b. 1868) · Rebecca Kleefisch (b. 1975)
Uraniborg
- 1264 – Reconquista: In the early stages of the Mudéjar revolt of 1264–1266, Muslim rebels captured the alcázar of the city of Jerez, holding it for about two months.
- 1576 – The cornerstone of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's observatory Uraniborg (pictured) was laid on the island of Hven.
- 1918 – The Battle of Amiens began in Amiens, France, marking the start of the Allied Powers' Hundred Days Offensive through the German front lines that ultimately led to the end of World War I.
- 1988 – A series of marches, demonstrations, protests, and riots, which became known as the 8888 Uprising, began against the one-party state of the Burma Socialist Programme Party.
- 2008 – A EuroCity train en route to Prague struck a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the track near Studénka station and derailed, killing 8 people and injuring 64 others.
Seo Hui (d. 998) · James Tissot (d. 1902) · Esther Williams (b. 1921)
August 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples; National Women's Day in South Africa
Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki
- 1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1945 – World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped a "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan (pictured).
- 1956 – An estimated 20,000 women marched on Pretoria, South Africa, to protest the introduction of the Apartheid pass laws for black women in 1952.
- 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.
- 2001 – A suicide bomber attacked a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, killing 15 people and wounding 130 others.
Michael the Brave (d. 1601) · Eileen Gray (b. 1878) · Philip Larkin (b. 1922)
Louvre Pyramid
- 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 (Louvre Pyramid pictured), today the world's most visited museum, officially opened in Paris with an exhibition of 537 paintings and 184 objets d'art.
- 1897 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann discovered an improved way of synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).
- 1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdrew its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central modern-day Vietnam.
- 1988 – Japanese American internment: The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 became law, authorizing US$20,000 in reparations to each surviving internee.
Madeleine of Valois (b. 1520) · Suzanne Collins (b. 1962) · Jennifer Paterson (d. 1999)
August 11: Independence Day in Chad (1960)
DJ Kool Herc
- 106 – The region of Dacia, comprising parts 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.
- 1952 – King Talal of Jordan was forced to abdicate due to health reasons and was succeeded by his eldest son Hussein.
- 1973 – At a party in the recreation room of a New York City apartment building, DJ Kool Herc (pictured) began rapping during an extended break, laying the foundation for hip-hop music.
- 2012 – At least 306 people were killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.
Hamnet Shakespeare (buried 1596) · William W. Chapman (b. 1808) · Jacqueline Fernandez (b. 1985)
A quagga in London Zoo
- 1099 – The First Crusade concluded with the Battle of Ascalon and Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah retreating to Egypt.
- 1883 – The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at the Natura Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
- 1914 – World War I: Despite the Belgian victory in the Battle of Halen, they were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of Belgium.
- 1948 – About 600 unarmed Pashtuns in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, protesting the arrests of the leaders of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement, were massacred by police and militia forces.
- 1990 – American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota, U.S.
Abraham Zacuto (b. 1452) · Lord Castlereagh (d. 1822) · George Soros (b. 1930)
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Opha May Johnson
- 554 – As a reward for over 60 years of service to the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian I granted Liberius extensive estates in Italy.
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough led Allied forces to a crucial victory in the Battle of Blenheim.
- 1868 – A major earthquake near Arica, Peru (now in Chile), caused an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami caused considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
- 1918 – Opha May Johnson (pictured) became the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
- 1977 – Members of the UK's far-right National Front party (NF) clashed with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.
Al-Muktafi (d. 908) · George Grove (b. 1820) · Jules Massenet (d. 1912)
August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)
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Roosevelt and Churchill aboard USS Augusta (CA-31)
- 1842 – American Indian Wars: American general William J. Worth declared the Second Seminole War to be over.
- 1901 – Gustave Whitehead allegedly made a successful powered flight of his Number 21 aircraft in Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S.; if true, this predates the Wright brothers by two years.
- 1941 – After a secret meeting in Newfoundland, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (both pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post-World War II world despite the fact that the United States had yet to enter the war.
- 1973 – The current Constitution of Pakistan came into effect.
- 2010 – The inaugural Youth Olympic Games opened in Singapore for athletes between 14 and 18 years old.
Doc Holliday (b. 1851) · Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (b. 1892) · Hugh Trumble (d. 1938)
August 15: Independence Day in India (1947)
Syngman Rhee
- 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.
- 1907 – Raphael Morgan was ordained as what is believed to be the first Black Orthodox clergyman in America.
- 1948 – The Republic of Korea was established with Syngman Rhee (pictured) as its first president.
- 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.
Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos (d. 1022) · Charles Comiskey (b. 1859) · Rosalía Mera (d. 2013)
Ringo Starr
- 1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeated French cavalry, who were then forced to retreat.
- 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrendered Fort Detroit without a fight to a combined British–Native American force.
- 1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hit Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,882 people.
- 1962 – The Beatles fired drummer Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr (pictured).
- 2015 – Suicide bombers assassinated Pakistani politician Shuja Khanzada and killed at least 21 others at his home.
- 2018 RUSSELL Morrison retires from football after 22 seasons with Oxley United.
John II of Trebizond (d. 1297) · Ramakrishna (d. 1886) · Angela Bassett (b. 1958)
August 17: Qixi Festival (Chinese calendar, 2018); Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)
Battle of Verneuil
- 1424 – Hundred Years' War: The allied English–Burgundian force gained a strategically important victory in the bloody Battle of Verneuil (pictured) in Normandy, France.
- 1560 – The Scottish Parliament approved a Protestant confession of faith to initiate the Scottish Reformation and disestablish Catholicism as the national religion.
- 1916 – World War I: Romania signed a secret treaty with the Entente Powers to enter the war in return for territorial considerations.
- 1945 – Animal Farm, George Orwell's satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published.
- 2008 – Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Summer Olympics, setting the record for the most golds won by an individual in a single games.
Matthew Boulton (d. 1809) · Gene Stratton-Porter (b. 1863) · Korrie Layun Rampan (b. 1953)
Margaret of Valois
- 1572 – French Wars of Religion: Margaret of Valois (pictured) married Huguenot King Henry of Navarre, in an attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.
- 1868 – Astronomer Pierre Jules Janssen discovered helium while analysing the chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.
- 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in America.
- 1948 – Australia won the fifth Test of the 1948 Ashes series, becoming the first Test cricket team to go undefeated in England, earning them the nickname "The Invincibles".
- 2008 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigned under impeachment pressure.
Knut Alvsson (d. 1502) · Baji Rao I (b. 1700) · Ruth Norman (b. 1900)
Fire damage at Cinema Rex
- 1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands to begin the Jacobite rising of 1745.
- 1964 – Over 17,000 fans saw the Beatles on the opening date of the group's first nationwide U.S. tour.
- 1978 – The Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, was set on fire (damage pictured), leading to the death of at least 420 people.
- 1991 – A Hasidic man accidentally struck two Guyanese immigrant children with his car in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, initiating three days of rioting.
- 2005 – Thunderstorms in southern Ontario, Canada, spawned at least three tornadoes that caused over C$500 million in damage.
Edward Boscawen (b. 1711) · Gustave Caillebotte (b. 1848) · Linus Pauling (d. 1994)
August 20: Day of Arafah (Islam, 2018); Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia (1991); St. Stephen's Day in Hungary
Yellowstone fires
- 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.
- 1909 – Pluto was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
- 1950 – Korean War: United Nations forces repelled an attempt by North Korea to capture the city of Taegu.
- 1988 – Fires (pictured) in the United States' Yellowstone National Park ravaged more than 150,000 acres (610 km2), the single-worst day of the conflagration.
Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (d. 1651) · Rudolf Bultmann (b. 1884) · Mika Yamamoto (d. 2012)
August 21: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2018)
Nat Turner woodcarving
- 1140 – Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeated an army led by Jin dynasty general Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars.
- 1831 – Nat Turner (pictured) led a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, U.S., which was suppressed about 48 hours later.
- 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.
- 1993 – NASA lost contact with its Mars Observer spacecraft, three days before orbital insertion.
- 2015 – Passengers subdued an attacker in a train heading from Amsterdam to Paris, resulting in four injuries, including the attacker himself.
John Claypole (b. 1625) · John MacCulloch (d. 1835) · Eve Torres (b. 1984)
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) · Bill Woodfull (b. 1897) · Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (b. 1934)
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: Raksha Bandhan (Hinduism, 2018); Heroes' Day/Herero Day in Namibia; 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)
August 27: National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2018)
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) · Jack Kirby (b. 1917)
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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)
August 30: Eid al-Ghadeer (Shia Islam, 2018)
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)
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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Selected anniversaries/On this day archive – All
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