Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August
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August 1: Emancipation Day in Trinidad and Tobago; Imbolc in the Southern Hemisphere; Swiss National Day in Switzerland
- 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- 1831 – A new London Bridge (pictured), designed by engineer John Rennie, opened. It stood over London's River Thames until American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch bought it in 1968 and subsequently moved it to Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
- 1927 – In the Nanchang Uprising, the first major engagement in the Chinese Civil War, Communist forces seized control over the entire city of Nanchang from the Kuomintang.
- 1944 – World War II: The Polish Home Army began the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw against the Nazi occupation of Poland.
- 1981 – The American cable television network MTV made its debut with the music video for the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
More events: July 31 – August 1 – August 2
- 216 BC – Second Punic War: Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal (bust pictured) defeated a numerically superior Roman army at the Battle of Cannae near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy.
- 1870 – Tower Subway, the world's first underground railway, opened beneath the River Thames in London.
- 1903 – The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire carried out the Ilinden Uprising.
- 1934 – Gleichschaltung: Chancellor Adolf Hitler became Führer, making him both the head of state and the head of government of Nazi Germany.
- 1990 – Iraq invaded Kuwait, overrunning the Kuwaiti military within two days, and eventually sparking the outbreak of the Gulf War seven months later.
More events: August 1 – August 2 – August 3
August 3: Independence Day in Niger (1960); Flag Day in Venezuela
- 435 – Nestorius, the originator of Nestorianism, was exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
- 1916 – Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement was hanged at London's Pentonville Prison for treason for his role in the Easter Rising, a rebellion to win Irish independence from Britain.
- 1923 – Calvin Coolidge (pictured) was inaugurated as the 30th President of the United States, succeeding Warren G. Harding who suffered a fatal heart attack one day earlier.
- 1948 – Before the House Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives, former spy turned government informer Whittaker Chambers accused U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a Soviet spy.
- 1958 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus made the world's first submerged voyage across the North Pole.
- 2005 – President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania was overthrown in a military coup while he was attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.
More events: August 2 – August 3 – August 4
August 4: Civic Holiday in most areas of Canada (2008); Emancipation Day in various Caribbean countries (2008)
- 1578 – King Sebastian I (pictured) disappeared at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir near Ksar-el-Kebir, Morocco, leading to a dynastic crisis in Portugal.
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: A combined Anglo–Dutch fleet under the command of George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles captured Gibraltar from Spain.
- 1790 – A newly passed tariff act in the United States established the Revenue Cutter Service, an armed maritime law enforcement service that was the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard.
- 1892 – The father and stepmother of spinster Lizzie Borden were found murdered in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA, an incident that became a cause célèbre and entered into pop culture and folklore.
- 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Incident: The second of two U.S. Navy destroyers was reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin, sparking the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization for the use of military force in Southeast Asia.
More events: August 3 – August 4 – August 5
August 5: Independence Day in Burkina Faso (1960); Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day in Croatia
- 642 – King Penda of Mercia defeated and killed King Oswald of Northumbria in the Battle of Maserfield.
- 1100 – Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
- 1858 – American businessman and financier Cyrus West Field (pictured) and colleagues completed the first transatlantic telegraph cable, crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Foilhommerum, Valentia Island, Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland.
- 1962 – American actress and model Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood, Los Angeles home. Although it was officially ruled as an overdose of sleeping pills in a "probable suicide", her death has been the subject of murder conspiracy theories since then.
- 2003 – A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, Indonesia, killing twelve people and injuring 150.
More events: August 4 – August 5 – August 6
August 6: Feast of the Transfiguration in Christianity; Independence Day in Bolivia (1825) and Jamaica (1962)
- 1806 – The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved after the last emperor Francis II was forced to abdicate.
- 1890 – At Auburn Prison in the USA, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in an electric chair.
- 1945 – World War II: 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 Nahyan became emir and ruler of Abu Dhabi, succeeding his brother Shaikh Shakhbut Bin-Sultan Al Nahyan who was deposed in a bloodless coup d'état.
- 1991 – British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee suggested a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessible via the Internet, to be called a "World Wide Web".
More events: August 5 – August 6 – August 7
August 7: Qi Xi in the Chinese lunar calendar (2008); Independence Day in Côte d'Ivoire
- 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 over 200 people and injured over 4,500.
More events: August 6 – August 7 – August 8
August 8: Father's Day in Taiwan
- 1786 – Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat became the first people to climb Mont Blanc in the Alps, one of the highest mountains in Europe.
- 1870 – Liberal radicals in Ploieşti, Romania revolted against Romanian Domnitor Carol I, only to be arrested the next day.
- 1876 – Thomas Edison received a patent for his mimeograph machine, a printing machine that was one of the forerunners to the photocopier.
- 1938 – The Holocaust: Construction of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-occupied Europe, began.
- 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 at 646.38 m (2,121 ft), collapsed due to an error in exchanging the guys on the highest stock of the mast.
More events: August 7 – August 8 – August 9
August 9: Tisha B'Av begins at sunset (Judaism, 2008); National Day for Singapore; National Women's Day in South Africa
- 378 – A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens was destroyed by the Goths in the Battle of Adrianople.
- 1173 – The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
- 1945 – World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb named Fat Man, devastating Nagasaki, Japan (pictured).
- 1969 – Followers of cult leader Charles Manson brutally murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in her Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles home.
- 1974 – The Watergate scandal: Richard Nixon became the first (and to date only) President of the United States to resign from office.
More events: August 8 – August 9 – August 10
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 – The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the United States Congress.
- 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, fifteen months after its launch.
More events: August 9 – August 10 – August 11
August 11: Independence Day in Chad (1960)
- 1492 – Roderic Borja was elected pope and became known as Pope Alexander VI.
- 1786 – Captain Francis Light founded the British colony of Penang, renaming it Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne.
- 1828 – William Corder was hanged at Bury St Edmunds, England for murdering Maria Marten at the Red Barn.
- 1919 – The Weimar Republic adopted its constitution.
- 1952 – King Talal of Jordan abdicated due to health reasons and was succeeded by his eldest son Hussein.
- 1987 – Alan Greenspan (pictured) became Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
More events: August 10 – August 11 – August 12
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 decisively won the Battle of Didgori, driving Ilghazi and the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia.
- 1953 – History of nuclear weapons: The first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, Joe 4, was detonated at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR.
- 1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 of 524 on board in the world's worst single-aircraft aviation disaster.
- 1990 – American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus (pictured) near Faith, South Dakota, USA.
More events: August 11 – August 12 – August 13
August 13: Independence Day for the Central African Republic (1960)
- 1704 – Led by the Duke of Marlborough (pictured), the combined forces of England, the Holy Roman Empire, and the United Provinces defeated France and Bavaria in the Battle of Blenheim, one of the turning points of the War of the Spanish Succession.
- 1913 – Harry Brearley developed stainless steel.
- 1961 – Construction of the Berlin Wall, a long barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany, began.
- 2004 – Black Friday: The Maldivian National Security Service cracked down on a peaceful protest in Malé, the capital of the Maldives, causing Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to declare a state of emergency in Malé and nearby islands.
More events: August 12 – August 13 – August 14
August 14: Independence Day for Pakistan (1947)
- 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, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (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.
- 1994 – Leftist revolutionary and mercenary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, was handed over to French agents by his own bodyguards.
- 2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain north of Marathon and Varnava, Greece, killing all 121 on board.
More events: August 13 – August 14 – August 15
August 15: Ghost Festival in the Chinese calendar (2008); Victory over Japan Day; 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.
- 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.
- 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 – The surrender of Japan during World War II: The Gyokuon-hōsō was broadcast in Japan, announcing the unconditional surrender of the Japanese army and naval forces.
- 1947 – The British Raj was partitioned into two sovereign states: the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
More events: August 14 – August 15 – August 16
August 16: Raksha Bandhan (Hinduism, 2008); Tu B'Av (Judaism, 2008); 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, Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
- 1977 – Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll", was found dead on the floor of his bathroom. Although it was officially ruled as a fatal heart attack, many people have claimed to have seen Elvis alive since then.
- 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed after takeoff in Detroit, Michigan, USA, killing all of the crew and passengers except one.
More events: August 15 – August 16 – August 17
August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945) and Gabon (1960)
- 1862 – The Lakotas, an ethnic group of the Sioux Native Americans, attacked settlements along the Minnesota River, sparking the Dakota War of 1862 against the United States.
- 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.
- 1915 – Jewish American Leo Frank was lynched by a mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl, turning the spotlight on antisemitism in the United States.
- 1962 – East German border guards shot and killed Peter Fechter as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.
- 1978 – Double Eagle II became the first hot air balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean, landing in Miserey near Paris six days after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
More events: August 16 – August 17 – August 18
- 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.
- 1590 – John White, the governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returned from a supply trip to England and found his settlement deserted.
- 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.
More events: August 17 – August 18 – August 19
August 19: Afghan Independence Day; National Aviation Day in the United States
- 1942 – World War II: Allied forces unsuccessfully raided the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France in the Dieppe Raid, suffering over 3,000 casualties.
- 1953 – The government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq was overthrown in a coup d'état and was replaced by Fazlollah Zahedi.
- 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.
- 2003 – A car bomb destroyed the United Nations headquarters at Baghdad's Canal Hotel, killing Brazilian diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
More events: August 18 – August 19 – August 20
August 20: St. Stephen's Day in Hungary
- 917 – Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars: Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I (seal pictured) drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle of Anchialus.
- 1794 – American troops defeated the Western Confederacy, a Native American alliance, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the decisive battle of the Northwest Indian War.
- 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition, exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffered its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis.
- 1991 – Estonia regained its independence in the Singing Revolution, breaking away from the Soviet Union.
More events: August 19 – August 20 – August 21
August 21: Ninoy Aquino Day in the Philippines
- 1772 – A bloodless coup d'état led by Gustav III was completed with the adoption of a new Swedish Constitution.
- 1831 – Nat Turner led a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, USA, but it was suppressed about 48 hours later.
- 1911 – Mona Lisa (pictured), an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was recovered two years later.
- 1963 – The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, raided and vandalised Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
- 1968 – The "Prague Spring", a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia, abruptly ended after 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks successfully invaded the country, killing 72 Czechoslovaks and arresting their leader Alexander Dubček.
- 1976 – Operation "Paul Bunyan" was carried out in response to the Axe Murder Incident, almost triggering a second full-scale Korean War over cutting down a 100 ft (30 m) poplar tree in the Joint Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
More events: August 20 – August 21 – August 22
- 1485 – Lancastrian forces under Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond defeated Yorkist forces under Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field, decisively ending the Wars of the Roses.
- 1791 – A slave rebellion erupted in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, starting the Haitian Revolution.
- 1864 – The Red Cross movement led by Henry Dunant (pictured) officially began when twelve European nations signed the First Geneva Convention, establishing the International Committee of the Red Cross.
- 1910 – Korea was annexed by Japan 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.
- 1922 – Irish Civil War: Irish National Army commander-in-chief Michael Collins was assassinated in an ambush while en route through County Cork at the village of Béal na mBláth.
More events: August 21 – August 22 – August 23
- 1305 – After a show trial, William Wallace (pictured), leader of the Scottish resistance against England during the Wars of Scottish Independence, was executed in Smithfield Market, London.
- 1839 – As it prepared for war against China's Qing Dynasty, an ensuing conflict that became known as the First Opium War, Britain captured the southeast Asia port of Hong Kong.
- 1927 – After a controversial trial, and despite worldwide protests, Italian-born American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed via electrocution in Massachusetts for the charge of murder and theft.
- 1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a 10-year, mutual non-aggression treaty that was eventually broken when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union two years later.
- 1989 – Baltic Way: Approximately two million people joined their hands to form an over 600 km (373 mi) long human chain across the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet republics during the Singing Revolution.
More events: August 22 – August 23 – August 24
August 24: Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)
- 79 – The volcano Mount Vesuvius (pictured) east of Naples, Italy erupted, burying the towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae; and at least 1,500 people with volcanic ash.
- 1572 – The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots, began, lasting for several months and resulting in an estimated tens of thousands deaths across France.
- 1942 – World War II: The United States aircraft carrier Saratoga sunk the Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons near Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands, helping to lead to an Allied powers victory.
- 2006 – The International Astronomical Union redefined the term "planet", reclassifying Pluto as a dwarf planet.
More events: August 23 – August 24 – August 25
August 25: Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2008); Independence Day in Uruguay
- 1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, currently the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, was formed by Royal Charter from King Henry VIII.
- 1609 – Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (pictured) demonstrated his first telescope, a device that became known as a terrestrial or spyglass refracting telescope, to Venetian lawmakers.
- 1875 – Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England to Calais, France in less than 22 hours.
- 1920 – Polish forces under Józef Piłsudski successfully forced the Russians to withdraw from Warsaw at the Battle of Warsaw, the decisive battle of the Polish-Soviet War.
- 1945 – About ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by a portion of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
More events: August 24 – August 25 – August 26
- 1071 – Byzantine-Seljuk wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan captured Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert (pictured).
- 1346 – Hundred Years' War: English forces established the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights at the Battle of Crécy.
- 1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1789 – French Revolution: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, defining a set of individual and collective rights of the people, was approved by the National Constituent Assembly at Versailles.
- 1968 – The U.S. Democratic Party's National Convention began at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, sparking four days of peaceful–to–violent clashes between anti–Vietnam War protesters and police.
More events: August 25 – August 26 – August 27
August 27: Independence Day for Moldova (1991)
- 1776 – British forces led by William Howe defeated the Continental Army under George Washington at the Battle of Long Island in Brooklyn, New York, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War.
- 1883 – Four enormous explosions from the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa (pictured) generated disastrous tsunamis that destroyed many settlements on Java and Sumatra in Indonesia.
- 1896 – The Anglo-Zanzibar War set the record for the shortest war in recorded history when Zanzibar surrendered less than an hour after the conflict broke out with British forces destroying the Beit al Hukum palace.
- 1928 – Over sixty nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy.
- 1939 – Flown by German test pilot Erich Warsitz, experimental jetplane Heinkel He 178 became the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power.
More events: August 26 – August 27 – August 28
August 28: Krishna Janmashtami (Hinduism, 2008)
- 1565 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in Spanish Florida, the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the continental United States.
- 1640 – Bishops' Wars: Scottish Covenanter forces led by Alexander Leslie defeated Charles I's English army at the Battle of Newburn near Newburn, England.
- 1845 – The first issue of the popular-science magazine Scientific American was published, currently the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.
- 1850 – German composer Richard Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin, featuring the Bridal Chorus, was first performed under the direction of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in Weimar, Germany.
- 1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr. (pictured) delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., describing his desire for a future where blacks and whites would coexist harmoniously as equals.
More events: August 27 – August 28 – August 29
August 29: Feast day for the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Christianity)
- 1533 – Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro executed Inca Emperor Atahualpa in Cajamarca.
- 1756 – As neighboring countries began conspiring against him, Frederick II of Prussia (pictured) launched a preemptive invasion of Saxony, starting the Seven Years' War.
- 1907 – The Quebec Bridge, currently the longest cantilever bridge span in the world at 549 m (1800 ft) connecting Quebec City and Lévis, Quebec, Canada across the St. Lawrence River, collapsed during construction, killing 75 workers.
- 1944 – World War II: Slovak troops turned against the pro-Nazi government of Jozef Tiso and the German Wehrmacht, starting the two-month long Slovak National Uprising.
- 2005 – Storm surges of Hurricane Katrina caused multiple breaches in levees around New Orleans, flooding about 80 percent of the city and many neighboring areas for weeks.
More events: August 28 – August 29 – August 30
August 30: St. Rose of Lima's Day in Peru; Victory Day in Turkey
- 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).
- 1835 – European settlers landing on the north banks of the Yarra River in Southern Australia founded the city of Melbourne.
- 1862 – American Civil War: James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson led their Confederate troops to a decisive victory against Major General John Pope's Union Army at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Prince William County, Virginia.
- 1918 – Fanny Kaplan shot and wounded Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, helping to spark the Red Terror in the Soviet Union, a repression against Socialist-Revolutionary Party members and other political opponents.
- 1999 – The people of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a United Nations-supervised referendum.
More events: August 29 – August 30 – August 31
August 31: Ramadan begins at sunset (Islam, 2008); Independence Day in Malaysia (1957), Trinidad and Tobago (1962) and Kyrgyzstan (1991)
- 1876 – Abdul Hamid II (pictured) became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother Murad V was deposed.
- 1888 – Mary Ann Nichols' body was found on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, London, allegedly the first victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
- 1986 – After a collision with a freighter, the Soviet ocean liner Admiral Nakhimov sank in the Tsemes Bay area of the Black Sea within 7 minutes, killing over 400 on board.
- 1992 – The one-party Marxist rule in the Republic of the Congo officially ended when Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as its president after a multi-party election.
- 1997 – Princess Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul were killed in a high speed car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris.
More events: August 30 – August 31 – September 1
Selected anniversaries/On this day archive
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