- Aug 1 ALM (Antillian Airlines) begins operation
- Aug 1 Beatles' single "A Hard Day's Night" goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks
- Aug 1 Dan 'Big Daddy' Garlits becomes first drag racer to run the 1/4 mile at over 200mph (201.34mph at Island Dragway, New Jersey)
- Aug 2 Dutch government gives Indonesia export guarantees
- Aug 2 North Vietnam fires at US Navy destroyer USS Maddox in what becomes known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident which would eventually escalate US involvement in the Vietnam War
- Aug 2 Race riot in Jersey City, New Jersey
- Aug 4 Bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam
- Aug 4 North Vietnam purportedly engage US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin for a second time, resulting in US Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting authority to assist any Southeast Asian facing "communist aggression"; later investigation deemed the second attack never happened as shipboard communications were misinterpreted
- Aug 5 Beatles record a cover of Little Willie John's "Leave My Kitten Alone"; not released until 1995's "Anthology 1"
- Aug 5 Congo rebellion: Christopher Gbenye and Pierre Mulele conquer Stanleyville
- Aug 5 US begins bombing North Vietnam in response to the real and imagined attacks on US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin
- Aug 6 Prometheus, the world's oldest tree aged at least 4,862 years old, is accidentally cut down in Nevada, USA
- Aug 7 31st NFL Chicago College All-Star Game: Chicago 28, All-Stars 17 - 65,000 at Soldier Field
- Aug 7 Turkey begins air attack on Greek Cypriots
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Aug 7 US Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution granting US President Lyndon Johnson authority to assist any Southeast Asian facing "communist aggression"; he uses it to openly bring US into Vietnam conflict
- Aug 8 1st Rolling Stones concert in Netherlands at The Kurhaus of Scheveningen, in The Hague
- Aug 8 Dutch Opera forms in Amsterdam
- Aug 8 N. Richard Nash, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones' musical "110 in the Shade", based on Nash's drama "The Rainmaker", closes at Broadhurst Theater, NYC after, 330 performances
- Aug 9 Bunning continues pitching perfectly to NY Mets until 2 outs in 5th, when Joe Christopher beats out a bunt. He totals 15 innings
- Aug 10 WJSP TV channel 28 in Columbus, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Aug 11 Race riot in Paterson, New Jersey
- Aug 11 US premiere of The Beatles' debut film "A Hard Day's Night" in New York City
Baseball Record
Aug 12 Mickey Mantle switch-hits HR record 10th & final time in a game with one going up 502 feet
World Record
Aug 15 American long jumper Ralph Boston sets then world record 27' 3½" (8.31m) at Kingston, Jamaica
- Aug 15 Fred Trueman takes 300th Test Cricket wicket (Neil Hawke)
Sports History
Aug 15 Mayor Richard M. Daley declares "Ernie Banks Day" in Chicago
- Aug 15 MLB Philadelphia Phillies turn triple-play in 8-1 over Mets at Shea Stadium, NYC
- Aug 15 Race riot in Dixmoor, Illinois - a suburb of Chicago
- Aug 15 WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio first airs "The Big 5 Show", a teen dance and music program later syndicated as "Upbeat"
- Aug 16 Mildred Sampson of New Zealand runs female world marathon record 3:19:33 in Auckland, New Zealand
Sports History
Aug 16 St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood gets 8 straight hits in a doubleheader split against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium
- Aug 17 Boycott scores his 1st Test Cricket century, 113 v Aust at the Oval
- Aug 18 Charles Helu elected president of Lebanon
- Aug 18 South Africa banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies
- Aug 18 The Beatles arrive in San Francisco, California on their second US visit, and first cross-country tour, encompassing 32 shows in 25 cities over 31 days
- Aug 18 USSR launch 3 Kosmos satellites
- Aug 19 Communication satellite Syncom 3 launched
Sports History
Aug 20 New York Yankees player Phil Linz plays harmonica on bus despite manager Yogi Berra's orders
- Aug 20 Rex Sellers bowls 5-1-17-0 v India in only Test Cricket innings
- Aug 20 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion
Is This America?
Aug 22 Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer speaks at the US Democratic National Convention about her terrifying experiences with voter registration as a Black woman in Mississippi [1]
- Aug 22 Guinee, Liberia & Ivory Coast form joint market
- Aug 22 Supreme's "Where Did Our Love Go" reaches #1
- Aug 23 St Louis Cardinals are 11 games back in NL; go on win Baseball World Series, 4-3 v New York Yankees
- Aug 25 Singapore limits imports from Netherlands due to Indonesian aggression
- Aug 26 Italian Communist Party selects Luigi Longo as chairman
- Aug 26 LBJ nominated at Democratic convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Aug 27 25th Venice Film Festival: "Red Desert" directed by Michelangelo Antonioni wins Golden Lion
Mary Poppins
Aug 27 Walt Disney's musical film "Mary Poppins" directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California; wins 5 Academy Awards
- Aug 28 Race riot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sparked by police reaction to domestic dispute fueled traffic tie-up; riot and looting continues for 3 days, with 2 killed, hundreds injured and $4M of damage in the city's North Philadelphia neighborhood
- Aug 28 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Aug 28 US weather satellite Nimbus 1 launched
Blues for Mister Charlie
Aug 29 James Baldwin's stage drama "Blues for Mister Charlie", directed by Burgess Meredith, closes at the ANTA Playhouse, NYC, after 148 performances
- Aug 29 On Elston Howard Night, NY Yankees Mickey Mantle ties Babe Ruth's career strikeout record (1,330)
A Funny Thing
Aug 29 Stephen Sondheim's musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", starring Zero Mostel, and Jack Gilford, closes at Alvin Theater, NYC, after 965 performances and 6 Tony Awards
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists