Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click here to purge the cache for this page.
| << | Selected anniversaries for August | >> | ||||
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2006 day arrangement |
||||||
[edit] Selected anniversaries for August
August 1: Emancipation Day in Trinidad and Tobago, National Day in Switzerland
- 1774 - Joseph Priestley (pictured) discovered oxygen, corroborating the prior discovery of this chemical element by Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- 1907 - The Scouting movement began with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island in Dorset, England.
- 1927 - The Nanchang Uprising in China marked the first major hostilities in the Chinese Civil War.
- 1944 - The Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation began in Poland.
- 1981 - MTV made its debut with the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
Recent days: July 31 – July 30 – July 29
August 2: Tisha B'Av in Judaism (begins at sunset, 2006)
- 216 BC - Second Punic War: Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal (bust pictured) destroyed a Roman army at the Battle of Cannae.
- 1870 - Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opened in London.
- 1903 - The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire carried out the Ilinden Uprising.
- 1934 - Adolf Hitler became Führer of Nazi Germany.
- 1990 - Iraq invaded Kuwait, triggering the Gulf War.
Recent days: August 1 – July 31 – July 30
August 3: Independence Day in Niger (1960)
- 435 - Nestorius, the originator of Nestorianism, was exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
- 1916 - Sir Roger Casement was hanged for his role in the Easter Rising in Ireland.
- 1923 - Calvin Coolidge (pictured) was inaugurated as the 30th President of the United States, succeeding Warren G. Harding.
- 1940 - World War II: Approximately 175,000 Italian troops invaded British Somaliland, beginning the East African Campaign.
- 1948 - Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a communist and a Soviet spy.
Recent days: August 2 – August 1 – July 31
- 1578 - King Sebastian I (pictured) disappeared in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, leading to a dynastic crisis in Portugal.
- 1790 - A newly passed tariff act in the United States established the Revenue Cutter Service.
- 1903 - Pope St. Pius X elected 258th successor of Saint Peter
- 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 German invasion of Belgium.
- 1964 - Gulf of Tonkin Incident: Two destroyers of the U.S. Navy were reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- 1983 - A coup d'état led by Blaise Compaoré made Thomas Sankara President of Upper Volta.
Recent days: August 3 – August 2 – August 1
August 5: Independence Day in Burkina Faso (1960), Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day in Croatia.
- 642 - Penda of Mercia defeated and killed Oswald of Northumbria in the Battle of Maserfield, becoming the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers of the time.
- 1100 - Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
- 1858 - Cyrus West Field (pictured) and colleagues completed the first transatlantic telegraph cable.
- 1861 - The U.S. government issued its first income tax: 3% of all incomes over 800 dollars (later rescinded in 1872).
- 1995 - Operation Storm: Croatian forces recovered the town of Knin from the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Recent days: August 4 – August 3 – August 2
August 6: Independence Day in Bolivia (1825) and Jamaica (1962)
- 1806 - The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved when Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, was forced to abdicate.
- 1890 - William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in an electric chair.
- 1945 - World War II: Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress of the U.S. Army Air Force, dropped an atomic bomb named Little Boy (pictured) on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 80,000 people.
- 1966 - Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan became emir and ruler of Abu Dhabi.
- 1991 - Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for a "World Wide Web."
Recent days: August 5 – August 4 – August 3
August 7: Independence Day in Côte d'Ivoire (1960); Civic Holiday in Canada, Emancipation Day in various Caribbean countries (2006).
- 1679 - Le Griffon, a brigantine by René-Robert de LaSalle, became the first sailing ship to navigate the Great Lakes.
- 1782 - The Badge of Military Merit (pictured), the original Purple Heart, was established as a military decoration in the Continental Army.
- 1947 - An expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean in 101 days on his raft, Kon-Tiki.
- 1965 - Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman of the Federation of Malaysia demanded that Singapore withdraw from the federation, choosing to "sever ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government."
- 1998 - The bombing of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya killed 224 people and injured over 4,500.
Recent days: August 6 – August 5 – August 4
August 8: Ghost Festival in the Chinese calendar (2006); Father's Day in Taiwan; birthday of Ali and Father's Day in Iran (2006).
- 1876 - Thomas Edison received a patent for his mimeograph machine.
- 1938 - Holocaust: Construction of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-occupied Europe, began.
- 1946 - The first prototype of the B-36 Peacemaker, the first nuclear weapon delivery vehicle to be mass-produced, flew for the first time.
- 1967 - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand founded the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
- 1991 - The Warsaw radio mast (pictured), the tallest structure ever built, collapsed.
Recent days: August 7 – August 6 – August 5
August 9: National Day for Singapore (1965), Raksha Bandhan in Hinduism (2006), National Women's Day in South Africa.
- 378 - A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens was destroyed by the Visigoths in the Battle of Adrianople.
- 1173 - The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
- 1942 - The British Raj arrested Mahatma Gandhi and various leaders of the Congress Party, beginning the suppression of the Quit India Movement.
- 1945 - World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb named Fat Man, devastating Nagasaki, Japan (pictured).
- 1974 - The Watergate scandal: Richard Nixon became the first president of the United States to resign from office.
Recent days: August 8 – August 7 – August 6
August 10: Independence Day in Ecuador, International Biodiesel Day
- 1792 - French Revolution: Insurrectionists in Paris stormed the Tuileries Palace (pictured), effectively ending the French monarchy until it was restored in 1814.
- 1809 - History of Ecuador: After nearly three centuries of Spanish rule, the first cry for independence was heard in Quito.
- 1846 - Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the Congress of the United States.
- 1920 - Representatives of Sultan Mehmed VI signed the Treaty of Sèvres, recognizing the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I.
- 1990 - The Magellan space probe reached Venus.
Recent days: August 9 – August 8 – August 7
August 11: Independence Day in Chad (1960)
- 3114 BC - The current era in the Maya Long Count Calendar began.
- 480 BC - Spartan hoplites under Leonidas I, along with Thespians under Demophilus, fought to the last man in the Battle of Thermopylae, losing to a large Persian invasion force led by Xerxes I.
- 1919 - The Weimar Republic adopted its constitution.
- 1970 - A trademark application for the word "spork" was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- 1987 - Alan Greenspan (pictured) became Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Recent days: August 10 – August 9 – August 8
August 12: Mother's Day in Thailand; International Youth Day.
- 1099 - The First Crusade concluded with the Battle of Ascalon and Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah retreating to Egypt.
- 1121 - Forces led by David the Builder (pictured) decisively won the Battle of Didgori, driving Ilghazi and the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia.
- 1851 - Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.
- 1877 - Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars.
- 1953 - History of nuclear weapons: The first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, Joe 4, was detonated at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR.
Recent days: August 11 – August 10 – August 9
August 13: Independence Day for the Central African Republic (1960)
- 1521 - Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc was captured and the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán fell to forces led by Conquistador Hernán Cortés after an extended siege.
- 1704 - England, Austria and the United Provinces defeated France and Bavaria in the Battle of Blenheim, a pivotal event of the War of the Spanish Succession.
- 1913 - Harry Brearley developed stainless steel.
- 1937 - World War II: The Battle of Shanghai, the first major battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War, broke out.
- 1961 - Construction of the Berlin Wall, a long barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany, began.
Recent days: August 12 – August 11 – August 10
August 14: Independence Day for Pakistan (1947)
- 1248 - The foundation stone of the Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, was laid. Construction eventually completed in 1880.
- 1385 - Forces under João I defeated the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota , ending the 1383–1385 Crisis in Portugal.
- 1842 - Seminole Indians were forced from Florida to Oklahoma, ending the Second Seminole War.
- 1941 - After a secret meeting aboard warships in a secure anchorage near Argentia, Newfoundland, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt (pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter.
- 1980 - Lech Wałęsa and colleagues at Gdańsk Shipyard began strike actions, which subsequently led to the founding of the Solidarity movement in Poland.
Recent days: August 13 – August 12 – August 11
August 15: Victory over Japan Day (1945); Independence Day in North Korea & South Korea (1945), India (1947), and Congo (1960); Flooding of the Nile in Egypt.
- 778 - A Frankish army led by Roland was defeated in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, a tale retold in the Old French epic poem The Song of Roland.
- 1534 - Ignatius of Loyola (pictured) and six others at Montmartre near Paris took the vows that led to the establishment of the Society of Jesus.
- 1914 - The Panama Canal opened to traffic, providing a short-cut from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
- 1945 - World War II: The Gyokuon-hōsō was broadcast in Japan, announcing the unconditional surrender of the Japanese military.
- 1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Festival in Bethel, New York began.
Recent days: August 14 – August 13 – August 12
August 16: Krishna Janmaashtami (Hinduism, 2006); Children's Day in Paraguay.
- 1777 - American Revolutionary War: The New Hampshire Militia led by John Stark (pictured) routed British and German troops under Friedrich Baum in the Battle of Bennington.
- 1819 - Cavalry charged into a crowd, turning a public meeting in Manchester, England into the Peterloo Massacre.
- 1896 - A group led by Skookum Jim Mason discovered gold near Dawson City, Yukon, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
- 1960 - Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m), setting records for: high-altitude jump, free-fall height, and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.
- 1962 - The Beatles fired drummer Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr.
Recent days: August 15 – August 14 – August 13
August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945), Gabon (1960)
- 1807 - Robert Fulton started the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
- 1896 - Bridget Driscoll became the first person to be killed in a petrol-driven car accident.
- 1914 - World War I: Ignoring orders to retreat, Hermann von François (pictured) led a successful counterattack defending East Prussia in the Battle of Stalluponen and scored the first German victory in the Eastern Front.
- 1962 - East German border guards shot and killed Peter Fechter as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.
- 1988 - President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan was killed in a plane crash.
- 1989 - Date of birth of Yibo Wu, Canada, major contributor and researcher the hydrocephalus disease. He was born in his native land of China at the Shanghai's First People's Hospital.
Recent days: August 16 – August 15 – August 14
- 293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to Venus was founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica.
- 1572 - French Wars of Religion: Marguerite de Valois (pictured) was married to Huguenot King Henry of Navarre, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics in France.
- 1868 - Pierre Janssen discovered helium while analyzing the chromosphere during a total eclipse of the sun. This was the first element detected in space before being found on Earth.
- 1941 - The T-4 Euthanasia Program in Nazi Germany was temporarily halted due to public resistance.
- 1966 - Vietnam War: A company of the Royal Australian Regiment fought a much larger North Vietnamese unit in the Battle of Long Tan.
Recent days: August 17 – August 16 – August 15
August 19: Afghan Independence Day; National Aviation Day in the United States.
- 1848 - California Gold Rush: The New York Herald reported news to the East Coast of the United States that a gold rush was on in California.
- 1942 - World War II: Allied forces raided Dieppe, France in the Dieppe Raid.
- 1953 - Operation Ajax: The government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran was overthrown.
- 1960 - Russian space dogs Belka and Strelka (pictured) began to orbit the Earth aboard the Korabl-Sputnik-2 spacecraft.
- 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev was announced as "ill and had been relieved of his state post as President" in a failed Soviet coup attempt.
Recent days: August 18 – August 17 – August 16
August 20: St. Stephen's Day in Hungary
- 636 - Arab 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 and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
- 917 - Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle of Anchialus.
- 1882 - The "1812 Overture," an orchestral work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (pictured), was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
- 1968 - At least 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia, abruptly ending a period of political liberalization known as "Prague Spring".
- 1991 - Estonia regained its independence in the Singing Revolution, breaking away from the Soviet Union.
Recent days: August 19 – August 18 – August 17
August 21: Ninoy Aquino Day in the Philippines.
- 1772 - A bloodless coup led by Gustav III was completed with the adoption of a new Instrument of Government.
- 1831 - Nat Turner led a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia.
- 1911 - Mona Lisa (pictured), an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris.
- 1976 - Operation Paul Bunyan was carried out in response to the Axe Murder Incident in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, almost triggering a second Korean War.
- 1986 - A limnic eruption from Lake Nyos in Cameroon killed up to 1,800 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby villages.
Recent days: August 20 – August 19 – August 18
- 1485 - The Battle of Bosworth Field decisively ended the Wars of the Roses.
- 1851 - The yacht America won the first America's Cup near the Isle of Wight, England.
- 1864 - The Red Cross movement led by Henry Dunant (pictured) officially began when twelve European nations signed the First Geneva Convention.
- 1910 - Korea was annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.
- 1989 - Nolan Ryan struck out Rickey Henderson, becoming the first pitcher in Major League Baseball to record 5000 strikeouts.
Recent days: August 21 – August 20 – August 19
- 1305 - After a show trial, William Wallace (pictured), leader of the Scottish resistance against England, was executed in Smithfield Market, London.
- 1866 - Prussia defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War, and dissolved the German Confederation.
- 1939 - The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty between the Soviet Union and the German Third Reich, was signed in Moscow.
- 1944 - King Michael dismissed the pro-Nazi government of General Ion Antonescu, putting Romania on the side of the Allies for the remainder of World War II.
- 1989 - Baltic Way: Approximately two million people joined their hands to form an over 600 km long human chain across the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet republics during the Singing Revolution.
Recent days: August 22 – August 21 – August 20
August 24: Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)
- 79 - Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae with volcanic ash.
- 410 - The Visigoths under Alaric I sacked Rome.
- 1572 - St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre: a massacre of Huguenots began. An estimated 70,000 people were killed in France in the following weeks.
- 1821 - The Treaty of Córdoba was signed, ratifiying the Plan de Iguala and concluding Mexico's War of Independence from Spain.
- 1954 - President Getúlio Vargas of Brazil (pictured) shot himself to death in the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro.
Recent days: August 23 – August 22 – August 21
August 25: Independence Day in Uruguay (1825)
- 1814 - Washington, D.C. was burnt down during the War of 1812.
- 1835 - The New York Sun perpetrated the Great Moon Hoax.
- 1912 - The Kuomintang was founded by Sung Chiao-jen and Dr. Sun Yat-sen (pictured) in Guangdong, China.
- 1920 - In the Polish-Soviet War, the Battle of Warsaw ended with a Russian defeat.
- 1989 - The Voyager 2 spacecraft reached Neptune, the last planet it could visit before leaving the solar system.
Recent days: August 24 – August 23 – August 22
- 1071 - Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan captured Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV in the Battle of Manzikert.
- 1346 - Hundred Years' War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights was established in the Battle of Crécy.
- 1789 - French Revolution: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was approved by the National Constituent Assembly at Versailles.
- 1839 - The slave-held Amistad landed off Long Island in the U.S. state of New York.
- 1883 - The volcanic eruption of Krakatoa (pictured) generated disastrous tsunamis, destroying many settlements on Java and Sumatra in Indonesia and killing 36,000 people.
Recent days: August 25 – August 24 – August 23
August 27: Ganesh Chaturthi in Hinduism, Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2006); Independence Day for Moldova (1991).
- 1776 - British forces led by William Howe (pictured) defeated the Continental Army under George Washington in the Battle of Long Island.
- 1896 - Zanzibar surrendered within an hour after the Anglo-Zanzibar War broke out.
- 1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, was signed by 60 nations.
- 1939 - Experimental jetplane Heinkel He 178 became the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power.
- 1985 - The Nigerian government of Muhammadu Buhari was overthrown by Ibrahim Babangida.
Recent days: August 26 – August 25 – August 24
- 475 - Flavius Orestes took control of Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire, forcing Emperor Julius Nepos to flee.
- 1565 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (pictured) founded St. Augustine in Spanish Florida, the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the continental United States.
- 1845 - The first issue of Scientific American was published.
- 1850 - The romantic opera Lohengrin by Richard Wagner was first performed in Weimar, Germany.
- 1963 - Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
Recent days: August 27 – August 26 – August 25
August 29: Feast day for the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner (Christianity)
- 1533 - Emperor Atahualpa was executed by Conquistadors in Cajamarca during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
- 1756 - Frederick II of Prussia (pictured) launched an invasion of Saxony, starting the Seven Years' War.
- 1907 - The Quebec Bridge, the longest cantilever bridge span in the world, collapsed during construction, killing 75 workers.
- 1944 - Slovak troops turned against the pro-Nazi regime of Jozef Tiso and the German Wehrmacht, starting the Slovak National Uprising.
- 2005 - Storm surges of Hurricane Katrina caused multiple breaches in levees around New Orleans, flooding most of the city.
Recent days: August 28 – August 27 – August 26
August 30: St. Rose of Lima's Day in Peru; Victory Day in Turkey.
- 1800 - Gabriel Prosser attempted a slave rebellion in Virginia, United States.
- 1813 - Napoleonic Wars: French General Dominique Vandamme and thousands of his soldiers were captured in the Battle of Kulm by forces of the Sixth Coalition under Field Marshal Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (pictured).
- 1862 - American Civil War: James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson led their Confederate troops to a decisive victory in the Second Battle of Bull Run.
- 1992 - Michael Schumacher won his first Formula One race at the Belgian Grand Prix.
- 1999 - The people of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.
Recent days: August 29 – August 28 – August 27
August 31: Independence Day for Malaysia (1957), Trinidad and Tobago (1962), Kyrgyzstan (1991)
- 1876 - Abdul Hamid II (pictured) became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother Murad V was deposed.
- 1888 - In Victorian London, Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim.
- 1920 - Polish forces, led by their cavalry, defeated the Bolshevik Red Army in the Battle of Komarów.
- 1986 - After a collision with a freighter, Soviet ocean liner Admiral Nakhimov sank in the Black Sea within 7 minutes, killing 398 on board.
- 1992 - Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo after a multi-party presidential election, ending a long history of one-party Marxist rule.
Recent days: August 30 – August 29 – August 28
