Event of Interest
Aug 1 Former Lockheed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers crashes the news helicopter he was flying in Los Angeles
Baseball Record
Aug 1 San Francisco Giants 1st baseman Willie McCovey hits NL record 18th MLB career grand slam
- Aug 2 In his comeback Test, England cricket batsman Geoff Boycott is unbeaten on 80 after a 1st innings 107 as England beats Australia by 7 wickets in the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge
- Aug 3 Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 personal computer, within weeks thousands were ordered
- Aug 3 United States Senate Hearing on MKULTRA.
- Aug 4 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Aug 4 US President Carter establishes Department of Energy
- Aug 7 Gary Geld and Peter Udell's musical "Shenandoah", based on the film of the same name, closes at Alvin Theater, NYC, after 1,050 performances and 2 Tony Awards
- Aug 7 Mount Usu volcano in Hokkaido, Japan erupts for the first time in over 30 years
- Aug 8 Maurine Stuart, ordained as Zen priest by Eido Tai Shimano Roshi
- Aug 8 Texas Rangers turn their 1st triple play (vs A's)
- Aug 9 Chris Old completes a century in 37 mins, Yorks v Warwicks
- Aug 9 Military-controlled Government of Uruguay announces the return to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 to democratically elect a President and Congress
- Aug 9 NHL refuses merger of 6 WHA clubs
- Aug 10 About 100 white sympathisers joined evicted black squatters in a protest against the demolition of shanty dwellings outside Cape Town, South Africa
- Aug 10 Phillies & Expos play a doubleheader that ends at 3:23 AM
- Aug 10 Postal employee David Berkowitz arrested in Yonkers NY, accused of being "Son of Sam" 44 caliber killer
- Aug 10 US & Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accord
- Aug 10 USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
- Aug 11 Geoff Boycott scores his 100th FC hundred, v Aust at Headingley
- Aug 12 For 2nd straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen foils a no-hit bid
- Aug 12 High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 (HEAO) is launched into Earth's orbit by NASA
- Aug 12 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric test flight
- Aug 13 1st test glide of space shuttle
- Aug 13 Randy Bachman quits band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they then disband
- Aug 14 77,691 see NY Cosmos beat Fort Lauderdale Strikers 8-3 at Giants Stadium
PGA Championship
Aug 14 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Pebble Beach: Lanny Wadkins wins his only major title in event's 1st sudden-death playoff with Gene Littler
- Aug 15 "Wow" possible alien radio signal from deep space received at "The Big Ear", Ohio State's radio telescope in Delaware
- Aug 15 England regain cricket Ashes by taking a 3-0 series lead over Australia
- Aug 15 Herbert Kappler, head of Nazi police and security services (SS) in Rome during WWII, escapes from prison hospital in Rome
- Aug 16 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Aug 16 Yanks blow 9-4 lead in 9th but beat Chicago 11-10 in bottom of 9th
- Aug 17 Russian nuclear sub "Artika" is 1st to North Pole
- Aug 17 Thomas Wessinghage, Harald Hudak, Michael Lederer and Karl Fleschen walk world record 4x1500m (14:38.8)
- Aug 17 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Aug 18 2 girls are killed by a runaway car outside of Graceland
Baseball Record
Aug 18 Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton throws his NL record tying 5th one-hitter
- Aug 18 South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko is arrested at a roadblock (dies of police beating 12 September)
- Aug 19 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
Voyager 2 Spacecraft
Aug 20 NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn, (later Uranus and Neptune also)
- Aug 21 American water skier Donna Patterson Brice sets women's high speed record 111.11 mph at Long Beach, California
- Aug 23 1st human-powered flight over a mile by Bryan Allen in the Gossamer Condor, designed by Paul MacCready wins the first Kremer prize
- Aug 23 Marxist philosopher Rudolf Bahro imprisoned in German DR
Hockey Hall of Fame
Aug 25 Canadian NHL player Tim Horton posthumously inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame
Music History
Aug 27 John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "Chicago" closes at 46th St Theater, NYC, after 936 performances
- Aug 27 Toby Harrah and Bump Wills hit back-to-back inside-the-park-homers off Yankee Ken Clay at Yankee Stadium, Rangers won 8-2
Baseball Record
Aug 28 Nolan Ryan strikes out 300 batters for 5th straight year
- Aug 28 NY Cosmos defeat Seattle Sounders, 2-1, at Civic Stadium in Portland Ore, winning their 2nd North American Soccer League championship
Baseball History
Aug 28 NY Yankee Ron Guidry faces just 28 men & beats Texas Rangers 1-0
Lust for Life
Aug 29 Iggy Pop releases his second album "Lust for Life", a collaboration with David Bowie
- Aug 31 Aleksandr Fedotov sets aircraft altitude record of 38.26 km (125,524')
- Aug 31 Ian Smith, espousing racial segregation, wins Rhodesian general election with 80% of overwhelmingly white electorate's vote
- Aug 31 Spyros Kyprianou appointed president of Cyprus
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists