- 257 St Sixtus II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1125 Duke Lotharius of Supplinburg elected king of Germany
- 1146 European leaders outlaw the crossbow, intending to end war for all time
- 1363 Beginning of the Battle of Lake Poyang; two Chinese rebel leaders Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang are pitted against each other in what was one of the largest naval battles in history during Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty
- 1464 Pietro Barbo elected to succeed Pope Pius II as Pope Paul II
- 1563 Jewish community of Neutitschlin, Moravia, expelled
- 1574 Ram Das becomes the 4th Sikh Guru
Tokugawa Ieyasu Occupies Edo
1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)
William Penn Leaves England
1682 William Penn leaves England to sail to the New World
- 1721 Russian and Swedish sign Treaty of Nystad, ending North Sea War
Jephtha
1751 George Frideric Handel completes oratorio "Jephtha"
- 1757 Battle at Gross Jagerndorf: Russian army beats Prussia [OS=Aug 19]
- 1776 Continental Army evacuates Long Island and falls back to Manhattan, NYC
- 1791 HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day, on her return from her search for the Bounty and the mutineers who had taken her
Jefferson Writes to Banneker
1791 Thomas Jefferson responds to Benjamin Banneker's letter on the issue of slavery writing that "no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition" of blacks "to what it ought to be" [1]
- 1799 Batavian fleet surrenders to British navy during Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland
- 1800 Gabriel Prosser leads a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia
- 1813 Battle of Kulm: French forces defeated by Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance
- 1835 City of Melbourne, Australia, is founded
- 1836 The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
- 1843 1st time African-Americans participate in a national political convention (Liberty Party)
- 1850 Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes a city
- 1860 1st British tram begins operating in Birkenhead
- 1861 John Frémont issues proclamation freeing slaves of Missouri rebels
- 1862 Battle of Altamont-Confederates beat Union forces in Tennessee
Second Battle of Bull Run
1862 Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia, ends with a Confederate victory over Union forces
Meat Inspections Begin
1890 President Benjamin Harrison signed the first U.S. law requiring inspection of meat products
- 1894 British explorer Frederick Lugard begins his expedition to Niger
- 1895 Belgium begins compulsory Roman Catholic education
- 1896 Eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco. Including provinces of Batangas, Rizal, Cavite and Nueva Ecija
- 1897 The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar
- 1900 Last 2,000 British prisoners in Nooitgedagt, South Africa, freed
- 1901 English engineer Hubert Cecil Booth patents the powered vacuum cleaner
- 1904 American runner Thomas Hicks wins marathon gold medal in a time of 3:28:53 over a 40k course at the St. Louis Olympics
Ty Cobb Debuts
1905 Detroit Tigers future Baseball HOF center fielder Ty Cobb makes his MLB debut, doubling off Jack Chesbro in a 5-3 win over the NY Highlanders at Bennett Park, Detroit
- 1905 Pogoro/Ngindo attack Fort Mahenge in German East-Africa
- 1906 Hal Chase becomes 1st NY Yankee to hit three triples in a game
- 1906 NY Highlander Joe Doyle debuts pitching back-to-back shut-outs
- 1909 Burgess Shale fossil site - one of most diverse and best-preserved in the world, discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in Candaian Rocky Mountains (now British Columbia's Yoho National Park)
- 1910 MLB New York Highlanders Tom Hughes pitches 9-1/3 no-hit innings, but loses to Cleveland 5-0 in 11; 1991 rule change removed credit for no-hitter [1]
- 1912 St Louis Brown Earl Hamilton no-hits Detroit Tigers, 5-1
- 1913 Phillies lead Giants 8-6 in top of 9th, fans in bleachers try to distract Giants, Umpire forefeits game to Giants, later overruled
- 1914 1st German plane bombs Paris, 2 killed
Battle of Tannenberg
1914 Battle of Tannenberg (WWI) in East Prussia ends in destruction of the Russian Second Army with 122,000-170,000 killed, injured or captured by the German 8th Army led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff
- 1919 Ernst Toller's "Die Wandlung" premieres in Berlin
Reichsmark Introduced
1924 The Rentenmark is replaced by the Reichsmark as legal tender in Germany, during Hans Luther's tenure as Minister of Finance.
- 1925 6th Iron pilgrim at Diksmuide Belgium
Hobbs Scores 316
1926 Jack Hobbs scores 316 not out at Lord's (Surrey v Middlesex)
Nehru Requests Independence
1928 Jawaharlal Nehru requests independence of India
Göring Elected President
1932 Hermann Goering elected President of the German Reichstag
- 1933 Air France forms from five French airlines
Salazar Forms Secret Police
1933 Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar forms secret police (PIDE)
- 1939 6th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: NY Giants 9, All-Stars 0 (81,456)
- 1939 General Reijnders appointed supreme commander of Dutch army
Yamamoto Takes Command
1939 Isoroku Yamamoto appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Imperial Navy combined fleet
- 1939 NY Yankee Atley Donald pitches a baseball a record 94.7 mph (152 kph)
- 1939 Poland mobilizes for war
- 1941 St Louis Card Lon Warneke no-hits Cincinnati Reds, 2-0
British Nuclear Program Approved
1941 Winston Churchill approves a nuclear program (Tube Alloys), first national leader to do so
Shostakovich's 9th Symphony
1945 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 9th Symphony
- 1945 Hong Kong liberated from Japanese control
MacArthur Lands in Japan
1945 US General Douglas MacArthur lands in Japan
- 1949 Roly Jenkins (Worcs v Surrey) takes his 2nd hat-trick of the game
- 1949 WTVN (now WSYX) TV channel 6 in Columbus, OH (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1951 US & Philippines sign mutual defense pact
- 1954 BC Lions play franchise's first CFL game in Vancouver; lose to Saskatchewan Roughriders, 17-0
- 1954 Hurricane Carol kills 68 on the US East Coast
- 1956 Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens in Louisiana, longest continuous bridge in the world
- 1956 USSR performs nuclear test (atmospheric tests)
- 1956 White mob prevents enrollment of blacks at Mansfield High School, Texas
- 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Longest Filibuster in History Ends
1957 US senator Strom Thurmond speaks 24hrs 27m against civil rights
- 1958 US performs nuclear test at S Atlantic Ocean
- 1960 Boston 2nd baseman Pete Runnels goes 6-for-7
- 1960 East Germany imposes a partial blockade on West Berlin
- 1960 US women's 4 x 100m medley relay team swims world record 4:41.1 to beat Australia and win the gold medal at the Rome Olympics; Lynn Burke, Patty Kempner, Carolyn Schuler & Chris von Saltza
- 1961 James Benton Parsons is confirmed as 1st African American judge of a US District Court
- 1961 Last Spanish troops leave Morocco
Fisher Walks 12 Angels
1961 Oriole Jack Fisher walks 12 LA Angels in a 9 inning game
- 1961 USSR says it will resume nuclear testing
- 1962 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war
- 1963 Compact audio cassette first introduced by Philips at the Radio Exhibition in Berlin, Germany [1]
- 1963 Hotline communication link between the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the Kremlin in Moscow installed. Often known as the "red telephone" no phones were ever used, relying instead on Teletype equipment, fax machines and most recently secure email.
- 1964 Electric designer Norman Manley records back-to-back holes-in-one on the 7th & 8th holes at Del Valle in Saugus, California; Guinness BWR' best
Casey Stengel Retires
1965 Casey Stengel announces his retirement after 55 years in baseball
- 1965 Section of Allalin glacier wipes out construction site at Mattmark Dam near Saas-Fee, Switzerland
Dr. Kildare
1966 American medical drama series "Dr. Kildare", starring Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey, ends a five season run on NBC-TV
1st Black Justice
1967 US Senate confirm Thurgood Marshall as the 1st black justice to serve on the Supreme Court
- 1968 1st record released on Apple label in UK is The Beatles single "Hey Jude"
Sky River Rock Festival
1969 3-day 2nd Annual Sky River Rock Festival opens in Tenino Washington - 25,000 attend; performers include: James Cotton; Country Joe and the Fish; Flying Burrito Brothers; Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks; Mississippi Fred McDowelll; Steve Miller Band; and Sons of Champlin
New Orleans Pop Festival
1969 3-day New Orleans Pop Festival opens - 25,000 attend; performers include: Spiral Staircase;. Rex; The Byrds; Janis Joplin: Grateful Dead; Chicago; Dr. John; and Santana
- 1969 3-day Texas International Pop Festival opens in Lewisville, Texas - 125,000 attend; performers include: Chicago Transit Authority; Delaney and Bonnie and Friends; Grand Funk Railroad; Janis Joplin; B.B. King; Led Zeppelin; Nazz; Sam and Dave; Sly and the Family Stone; and Johnny Winter
- 1969 69th US Golf Amateur Championship won by American Steve Melnyk
- 1969 Racial disturbances in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- 1971 WNPI TV channel 18 in Norwood, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1972 American women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Shirley Babashoff, Jane Barkman, Jenny Kemp & Sandy Neilson beats East Germany by just 0.36 to win gold at the Munich Olympics; world record 3:55.19
Olympic Gold
1972 Amidst Olga Korbut mania at the Munich Olympics, Soviet teammate Ludmilla Tourischeva wins the gymnastics individual all-round competition, her 2nd gold medal of the Games
World Record 400m
1972 Australian teenage swimmer Shane Gould with a world record 4:19.04 for the 400m, wins her second of 3 gold medals at the Munich Olympics
- 1972 Japanese breaststroker Nobutaka Taguchi beats American pair Tom Bruce & John Hencken to win the 100m gold medal in world record 1:04.94 at the Munich Olympic Games
One on One
1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "One on One" benefit shows (matinee and evening) for children at Madison Square Garden, New York, his final full concert performance
- 1972 Slalom canoeing is introduced at the Munich Olympics with East Germany winning all 4 events
Music History
1973 Drummer Danny Seiwell quits rock band Wings, which he co-founded with Paul McCartney
Event of Interest
1973 Wang Hongwen takes office as Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong
Film & TV History
1976 Tom Brokaw starts as news anchor of NBC's "The Today Show"
- 1976 Turks & Caicos Islands adopts constitution
- 1979 -Sept 13] Hurricane David, kills 1200 in Florida, Domincana & Dominican Republic
- 1979 1st recorded occurrence of a comet hitting the sun, releases energy equal to one million hydrogen bombs
Cricket History
1979 Cricketer Ian Botham passes 1000 runs and 100 wickets in Tests in his 21st match for England
Sports History
1981 Bill Shoemaker becomes the first jockey to win a $1 million thoroughbred horse race when John Henry takes the inaugural Arlington Million by a nose over The Bart
Event of Interest
1982 PLO leader Yasser Arafat leaves Beirut
- 1983 8th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Challenger 3 launches for a 6-day excursion
- 1983 Guion Bluford becomes 1st African-American astronaut in space
- 1983 Philadelphia TV station WKBS-TV (channel 48) ends broadcasting after surrendering its license to the FCC, the first do so in at least 10 years. Parent company Field Enterprises Inc. was unable to find a buyer. [1]
- 1984 12th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41D): Discovery 1 launches for a 6-day excursion
- 1984 Red Sox Jim Rice grounds into record 33rd double play en route to 36
- 1984 Sotheby's in London begins 2 day auction of rock memorabilla
- 1986 Gelindo Bordin wins Stuttgart marathon (2:10:54)
- 1986 Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report)
- 1986 Yuriy Sedykh of the Soviet Union sets new world hammer throw record 86.74m (284 ft 6 in) in Stuttgart, Germany
- 1987 87th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Billy Mayfair
- 1987 Ben Johnson of Canada runs 100m in world record 9.83 sec
Baseball Record
1987 Kirby Puckett goes 6-for-6 with 2 HRs in Minn 10-6 win over Milwaukee
- 1987 Knuckleballer Charlie Hough on the mound, Rangers catcher Geno Petralli ties the major league record by allowing 6 passed balls
- 1987 Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria sets high jump woman's record 2.09m (6'10½"), one of the most long-standing records in athletics
- 1987 Street Fighter, the first arcade fighting game to introduce special attacks (designed by Takashi Nishiyama), is released
- 1987 Yves Pol of France runs complete marathon backwards (3:57:57)
- 1988 France performs nuclear test
- 1988 Kent Tekulve is 2nd pitcher in majors to appear in 1,000 games
- 1990 Tatarstan announces its sovereignty with the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of the Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic
- 1991 Dan O'Brien sets US decathlon record with 8,812 points
- 1991 Mike Powell of US sets then long jump record at 29' 4½" (8.95m)
- 1991 Tamil Tigers capture Sri Lanka poet Selvi
- 1992 92nd US Golf Amateur Championship won by Justin Leonard
- 1992 David Lewett & Jane Luu discovers comet: "1992 QB1" 64 mil km from Sun
Low
1992 Philip Glass' Symphony No. 1 (Low), based loosely on David Bowie's 1977 album "Low", premieres with the Junge Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, in Munich, Germany
Late Show with David Letterman
1993 "Late Show with David Letterman" debuts on CBS, from the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC; Bill Murray is his first guest, Billy Joel performs
Event of Interest
1993 150,000,000th visitor to the Eiffel Tower
Baseball Record
2006 MLB Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux wins his 330th career game
Voyager 2 Spacecraft
2007 NASA spacecraft Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock, where solar and interstellar winds met (following Voyager 1 in 2004)
- 2012 A blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, China, kills 26 miners with 21 missing
- 2012 Cholera outbreak kills 229 people in Sierra Leone
- 2013 15 people are killed by a liquid ammonia leak at a cold storage plant in Shanghai, China
- 2015 English author Frederick Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal) reveals that he worked for MI6 for more than 20 years
Event of Interest
2015 Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad calls for the removal of then Prime Minister Najib Razak during the second day of street protests
- 2017 Authorities say floods across Bangladesh, Nepal and India have killed more 1200 people and damaged 697,000 houses
Event of Interest
2017 Brazilian court blocks President Michel Temer from abolishing Renca, which would open parts of the Amazon to mining
Hurricane Irma
2017 Hurricane Irma forms near Cape Verde Islands, will go on to become category 5 hurricane and kill at least 102
Event of Interest
2017 Late author Terry Pratchett' unfinished works destroyed by steamroller as per his instructions
- 2018 Argentina's central bank raises interest rates to 60% in attempt to stabilize the peso
- 2019 Outlook for the Great Barrier Reef downgraded to very poor according to official Australian report
- 2019 Second interstellar comet ever detected by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov (later named 2I/Borisov)
- 2020 Global cases of COVID-19 pass 25 million with death toll at 843,000
- 2020 India reports world's highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases at 78,761
- 2021 Algeria becomes the last country to stop selling leaded petrol, ending 99 years of gasoline use worldwide, saving 1.2 million lives a year [1]
- 2021 America ends its longest-ever war of 20 years in Afghanistan as the last military evacuation plane flies out of Kabul
- 2021 China restricts online gaming for under 18s to one hour on Fridays, weekends and holidays ordering companies to enforce this [1]
- 2022 In Jackson, Mississippi', the city's largest water treatment plant fails, leaving 150,000 people without safe running water, closing schools and businesses [1]
- 2022 Ukraine begins a counterattack against Russia in the southern Kherson region [1]
- 2023 Gabon military leaders seize power in a coup, placing President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest in Libreville [1]
- 2023 Hurricane Idalia makes landfall as a category 3 storm in Florida's Big Bend, killing at least two people
- 2023 Largest bombardment of Ukrainian capital Kyiv for months by Russia leaves two dead, as Ukraine also bombards Russian territories with drones [1]
- 2023 More than 100 UK school buildings at risk of collapse told to close, because of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete - days before the new school year [1]
