Music Recording
Aug 1 Aretha Franklin's 1st recording session for Columbia Records in NYC
- Aug 1 Benin (Dahomey) gains independence from France
- Aug 1 Islamabad declared as the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
- Aug 2 Baseball's new Continental League formally disbands without ever having played a game after established MLB promise of expansion including New York City achieved the owners' desired effect; on August 2, 1960, the Continental League formally disbanded.
- Aug 3 For the only time in MLB history teams exchange managers as Detroit trades Jimmy Dykes (44-52) for Cleveland's Joe Gordon (49-46)
- Aug 3 Lee Petty and his sons, Richard & Maurice race against each other for the first and only time at Dixie Speedway in Birmingham, Alabama; Richard 2nd, Lee 3rd
- Aug 3 Niger gains independence from France
- Aug 3 Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL) beat Toronto Argonauts (CFL) 43-16 in exhibition game at CNE Stadium in Toronto
- Aug 4 Rocket propelled USAF research aircraft sets record at 2,150 MPH
- Aug 5 Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) declares independence from France
The Twist Dance Craze
Aug 6 Chubby Checker performs his version of Hank Ballard's "The Twist" on "The Dick Clark Show", starting a worldwide dance craze
- Aug 6 The UN Security Council lay down rules which would allow UN forces to enter Congo
Golf Tournament
Aug 7 Arnold Palmer's 20th PGA Tour win; rallies from a 5-stroke deficit to enter a playoff, then beats Jack Fleck and Bill Collins to win the Insurance City Open
- Aug 7 Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) gains independence from France
- Aug 7 Students stage kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches
- Aug 8 "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" hits #1
- Aug 8 Charges against 53 of the 76 Africans detained after the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa are dropped
- Aug 8 South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
- Aug 9 Race riot in Jacksonville, Florida
- Aug 10 Discoverer 13 launched into orbit; returned 1st object from space
Psycho
Aug 10 Los Angeles premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh
Sports History
Aug 12 Ralph Boston of US, sets then long jump record at 8.21m
- Aug 12 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to an altitude of 41,600 m
- Aug 13 Central African Republic & Chad proclaim independence from France
- Aug 13 USSR withdraws advisors from China
- Aug 14 Australian driver Jack Brabham clinches his second consecutive F1 World Drivers Championship by winning the Portuguese Grand Prix at Boavista
- Aug 14 UN peace-keeping troops deployed to the Republic of Congo
- Aug 15 CFL's Calgary Stampeders move into McMahon Stadium
- Aug 15 Chicago Bears beat NY Giants 16-7 in Toronto (NFL expo)
- Aug 15 Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declares Independence from France
- Aug 15 UFO is sighted by 3 California patrolmen
- Aug 16 Britain grants independence to crown colony of Cyprus
- Aug 16 Joseph Kittinger parachutes from balloon at 31,330 m (84,700')
- Aug 16 Republic of Congo (Zaire, Dem Rep of Congo) forms
Show Trial of Francis Gary Powers
Aug 17 Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow
- Aug 17 Gabon gains independence from France (National Day)
- Aug 17 Indonesia drops diplomatic relations with Netherlands
- Aug 18 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Richardson, Texas
- Aug 18 Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at County Stadium, Milwaukee
- Aug 18 The Beatles give their 1st public performance at the Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany
- Aug 19 American CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident); sentence to 3 years in prison plus 7 in a labor camp, he served 17 months before being exchanged for a captured Soviet KGB spy
- Aug 19 Soviet Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 2 rats, 40 mice, 1 rabbit and fruit flies into space, 1st animals to return alive from orbit
- Aug 19 The first commercial atomic energy reactor, owned by the Yankee Atomic Electric Company, achieves a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Rowe, Deerfield River, Massachusetts
- Aug 20 Senegal breaks from Mali federation, declaring independence
- Aug 20 USSR recovers 2 dogs, 1st living organisms to return from space
Baseball Record
Aug 22 Gil Hodges set NL right handed HR record with #352
- Aug 23 World's largest frog (3.3 kg) caught (Equatorial Guinea)
- Aug 24 -127°F (-88°C), Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
- Aug 24 21st Venice Film Festival: "Tomorrow Is My Turn" directed by Andre Cayatte wins Golden Lion
- Aug 24 60 people die when a bus plunges off bridge into Turvo River, Brazil
- Aug 25 AFL begins placing players names on back of their jerseys
Event of Interest
Aug 25 Demonstrations against Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba
- Aug 25 XVII Summer Olympic Games open in Rome, Italy
- Aug 27 Anita Lonsbrough swims world/olympic record 200m (2:49.5)
- Aug 27 Australian swimmer John Devitt controversially wins the 100m freestyle gold medal at the Rome Olympics; recorded same time 55.2 as silver medallist American Lance Larson
- Aug 27 British swimmer Anita Lonsbrough sets 200m breaststroke world record 2:49.5 to beat German pair Wiltrud Urselmann & Barbara Göbel for the gold medal at the Rome Olympics
- Aug 28 White Sox Ted Kluzewski's 3-run HR is disallowed as umpire called time
Olympic Gold
Aug 29 Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser wins blue ribband 100m freestyle gold medal at the Rome Olympics; retains title won in Melbourne 1956; will win unprecedented 3rd consecutive 100m gold in Tokyo 1964
- Aug 29 Italy wins cycling team pursuit and Sante Gaiardoni takes the sprint gold medal at the Rome Olympics; Italy wins all 4 track events and road team time trial to thoroughly dominate sport
- Aug 29 Jordan premier Hazza-el-Madjali deadly injured at bomb attack
Olympic Gold
Aug 29 Swedish canoeists Gert Fredriksson and Sven-Olov Sjödelius win the K2-1,000m in 3:34.73 at the Rome Olympics; Fredriksson's 6th gold medal in 4 Olympic Games
- Aug 30 Boston 2nd baseman Pete Runnels goes 6-for-7
- Aug 30 East Germany imposes a partial blockade on West Berlin
- Aug 30 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
- Aug 31 Agricultural Hall of Fame forms
- Aug 31 US sweeps the medals in the shot put at the Rome Olympics; Bill Nieder wins gold with 19.68m, ahead of countrymen Parry O'Brien and Dallas Long
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists