Portal:War/Selected anniversaries/August

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Selected anniversaries in August

January • February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November • December

August 1

1664 - The Ottoman Empire is defeated in the Battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
1798 - Battle of the Nile starts between French and British fleets.
1832 - The Black Hawk War ends.
1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
1914 - Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I.
1927 - The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
1944 - Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.

August 2

216 BC - The Romans are defeated at the Battle of Cannae by Hannibal.
1798 - Second Coalition: The Battle of the Nile between French and British navies ends with a British victory.
1916 - World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
1918 - Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.
1943 - PT-109, with future president of the United States Lieutenant John F. Kennedy commanding, sinks.
1945 - World War II: Potsdam Conference, in which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, concludes.
1964 - North Vietnam allegedly fires on a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

August 3

8 - Roman general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus.
881 - Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu, where Louis III of France defeated the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied
1645 - The Second Battle of Nördlingen is fought between the forces of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
1860 - The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.
1914 - First World War: Germany declares war against France.
1916 - First World War: The Battle of Romani is fought between forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
1940 - Second World War: Italy invades British Somaliland.
1972 - U.S. Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

August 4

1265 - The Battle of Evesham of the Second Barons' War is fought in Worcestershire, with the army of future King Edward I of England defeating the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and killing de Montfort and many of his allies. This is sometimes considered the death of chivalry in England.
1578 - Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir - Moroccans defeat Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is defeated and killed in North Africa, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
1704 - During the War of the Spanish Succession an Anglo-Dutch force seizes the rock of Gibraltar.
1824 - Battle of Cos fought between Turks and Greeks.
1873 - Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clash for the first time with the Sioux (near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed).
1914 - World War I: Germany invaded Belgium; in response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States proclaims neutrality.

August 5

642 - Battle of Maserfeld - Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Bernicia
1763 - Pontiac's War - Battle of Bushy Run - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1812 - War of 1812: Tecumseh's Indian force ambushes Thomas Van Horne's 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.

August 6

1862 - American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1914 - Ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea, beginning the First Battle of the Atlantic.
1914 - Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia. World War I begins.
1914 - Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the Franch Foregin Legion, becoming the first American to fight in World War I.
1915 - World War I: The Battle of Sari Bair begins - The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.

August 7

1782 - George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
1789 - The United States War Department is established.
1819 - Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
1942 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - U.S. Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
1945 - President Harry Truman announces the successful bombing of Hiroshima with an atomic bomb while returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
1964 - Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving US President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

August 8

1588 - Battle of Gravelines ends, marking the end of the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England.
1647 - Battle of Dangan Hill - Irish forces are defeated by British Parliamentary forces.
1863 - American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
1918 - World War I: Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines.
1945 - World War II: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.

August 9

48 BC - Roman Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
378 - Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens is killed along with 2/3 of his army.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain - At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
1877 - Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole - A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army.
1945 - World War II: An atomic bomb, codenamed Fat Man, is dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan killing an estimated 70,000-90,000 people.
1967 - Vietnam War: Operation Cochise initiated - United States Marines begin a new operation in the Que Son Valley.

August 10

955 - Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Magyars, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of the West.
1316 - Second Battle of Athenry.
1628 - Swedish warship Regalskeppet Vasa sinks in the Stockholm harbour after only about 20 minutes on her maiden voyage.
1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Wilson's Creek - The war enters Missouri when a band of raw Confederate troops defeat Union forces in the southwestern part of the state.
1905 - Russian and Japanese peace negotiations begin in Portsmouth.
1913 - Second Balkan War ends: Delegates from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the war.
1920 - World War I: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sevres which divides up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.
1944 - World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.

August 11

480 BC - Persians under Xerxes defeat Spartans under King Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fought to the last man.
1898 - American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.
1918 - World War I - Battle of Amiens ends.
1972 - Last United States ground combat unit departs South Vietnam

August 12

1099 - The First Crusade concluded with a decisive victory in the Battle of Ascalon over Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah.
1121 - The Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi at the Battle of Didgori.
1332 - Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar routed by Edward Balliol.
1854 - Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon is executed by shooting, in regard to the Battle of Guaymas.
1914 - World War I - Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary; British Empire countries automatically included.
1914 - World War I: Beginning of the Battle of Cer between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
1953 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project proceeded with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.

August 13

1415 - Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England lands at Chef-en-Caux, France with 8000 men.
1516 - Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain signed. In it, Francis recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
1521 - Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés
1704 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.
1918 - Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw begins, lasts till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
1937 - Battle of Shanghai begins.
1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain begins - The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.

August 14

1385 - 1383-1385 Crisis: Castilians are defeated by Portuguese at the Battle of Aljubarrota.
1598 - Irish under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, destroy English force at the Battle of the Yellow Ford.
1842 - Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
1900 - A joint European-Japanese-United States force occupies Beijing, in campaign to end the Boxer Rebellion in China.
1912 - United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya resigned three years earlier.
1945 - Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).

August 15

778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in which Roland is killed.
1309 - The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquartes on the island, and rename themselves as the Knights of Rhodes.
1599 - First Battle of Curlew Pass won by Irish forces.
1942 - World War II: Operation Pedestal - The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island defenses.
1944 - World War II: Operation Dragoon - Allied forces land in southern France.

August 16

1777 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bennington - British forces are defeated by American troops.
1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
1812 - War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
1914 - World War I: Battle of Cer begins.
1915 - World War I: Should victory be achieved over the Central Powers, the Triple Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia: the Austro-Hungarian territories of Baranja, Srem, Slavonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the eastern 2/3 of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to the city of Bar).

August 17

1863 - American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter. Bombardment will not end until December 31, 1863.
1864 - American Civil War: Confederate forces defeated Union troops at the Battle of Gainesville.
1914 - World War I: The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf at the Battle of Stalluponen.
1943 - World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.
1943 - World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

August 18

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern - Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Weldon Railroad.
1965 - Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins - United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.
1966 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan occurs, when a patrol of Royal Australian Regiment encounter the Viet Cong.

August 19

1388 - Battle of Otterburn, border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England.
1504 - Battle of Knockdoe.
1782 - Battle of Blue Licks: the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Lord Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
1812 - War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia.
1942 - World War II: Operation Jubilee - The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an allied forces amphibious assault on Dieppe, France.

August 20

636 - Battle of Yarmuk: Arab forces led by Khalid bin Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
917 - Battle of Anchialus: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria invades Thrace and drives the Byzantines out.
1794 - Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.
1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
1944 - The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.

August 21

1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192).
1680 - Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
1852 - Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
1968 - Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.

August 22

1485 - The Battle of Bosworth Field decisively ends the Wars of the Roses
1717 - Spanish troops land on Sardinia
1791 - Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue
1798 - French troops land in Kilcummin, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion
1864 - Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention. The Red Cross is formed.
1914 - World War I: In Belgium, British and German troops clash for the first time in the war.
1941 - World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad
1942 - World War II: Brazil declares war on the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan)

August 23

1328 - Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
1793 - French Revolution: a levée en masse was decreed by the National Convention.
1813 - At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
1864 - The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
1866 - Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.
1914 - Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
1939 - World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, Baltic states, Finland and Poland are divided between the two nations.
1940 - World War II: The Germans start bombing London.
1942 - World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

August 24

49 BC - Julius Caesar's general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio is slain in battle.
410 - The Visigoths under Alaric begin to pillage Rome for three days.
1511 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of Malacca.
1814 - British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
1821 - The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
1914 - World War I: German troops capture Namur.
1942 - World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryujo is sunk and US carrier Enterprise heavily damaged.
1944 - World War II: French and Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
1949 - The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.

August 25

1537 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1580 - Battle of Alcantara: Spain defeats Portugal.
1758 - Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, started on August 13, now ends. The Red Army is defeated.
1942 - World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
1942 - World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.
1944 - World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.

August 26

55 BC - Julius Caesar invades Britain.
1071 - Battle of Manzikert: the Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert.
1278 - Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in Moravia.
1346 - Hundred Years' War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
1862 - American Civil War: the Second Battle of Bull Run begins.
1914 - World War I: Germans defeat Russians in Battle of Tannenberg.
1914 - World War I: the British Expeditionary Force briefly checks the German advance at Le Cateau.

August 27

479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea. Along the with the Greek victory on the same day in the Battle of Mycale, the Persian invasion of Greece ended.
410 - Visigoth sack of Rome ends after three days.
1776 - Battle of Long Island: in present day Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
1798 - Battle of Castlebar.
1813 - Napoleon defeats the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
1828 - The Russians defeat the Turks at the Battle of Akhalzic.
1896 - Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (9:02 to 9:40) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.

August 28

489 - Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
1542 - Reinforced with at least 600 arquebusiers and cavalry, Imam Ahmad Gragn attacks the Portuguese camp in the Battle of Wofla. The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama captured and afterwards executed.
1849 - After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
1914 - The British fleet beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
1916 - Germany declares war on Romania; Italy declares war on Germany.