- Aug 1 Commandos occupy Iraqi embassy in Paris, 1 dead
- Aug 3 11th Commonwealth Games open in Edmonton, Canada
- Aug 5 New Orleans Saints beat Philadelphia Eagles 14-7 in an NFL exhibition at Mexico City's Olympic Stadium
- Aug 5 The first all-seater stadium is opened in Aberdeen, Scotland; Aberdeen & London club Tottenham Hotspurs play a friendly to inaugurate the Pittodrie Stadium
PGA Championship
Aug 6 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: John Mahaffey recovers from 7 down with 14 to play to force playoff; beats Tom Watson & Jerry Pate on 2nd hole
- Aug 7 Eddie Mathews, Addie Joss and Larry MacPhail are inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY
- Aug 11 Legionnaire's disease bacteria isolated in Atlanta
- Aug 12 Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
- Aug 12 China & Japan sign peace treaty
- Aug 12 International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft launched - to study solar wind
- Aug 12 NFL New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley suffers a spinal cord injury leaving him with incomplete quadriplegia from a hit by Oakland Raiders Jack Tatum, in a pre-season exhibition game
- Aug 13 Bomb attack in Beirut, 175 killed
- Aug 15 US House of Representatives approves (233-169), 39-month extension for ERA
- Aug 17 1st successful crossing of the Atlantic by balloon (3 Americans)
- Aug 18 Memphis Tenn settles with striking police officers & firefighters
- Aug 19 422 die in an arson fire at a movie theater in Iran
- Aug 20 Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al Airline bus in London
- Aug 20 Mark Vinchesi of Amherst Mass keeps a frisbee aloft 15.2 seconds
- Aug 21 1st gay theme telefilm - Matlovich vs US Air Force
- Aug 22 Left-wing Sandinistas revolutionaries occupy National Palace in Managua, Nicaragua
- Aug 23 Iranian students occupies Iranian embassy at Wassenaar
- Aug 24 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Aug 25 MLB baseball umpires stage a 1 day strike
- Aug 26 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice becomes Pope John Paul I
- Aug 26 Soyuz 31 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 East German) to Salyut 6
- Aug 27 Dutch cyclist Gerrie Knetemann wins UCI Road World C'ship from Francesco Moser of Italy and Dane Jorgen Marcussenin in Nürburg, West Germany
Baseball Record
Aug 27 MLB Cincinnati Reds Joe Morgan is 1st to hit 200 HRs & have 500 stolen bases
- Aug 27 MLB New York Yankees pitcher Catfish Hunter's 6-2 win gives him a perfect 6-0 record in month of August
- Aug 28 Donald Vesco rode 21'-long Kawasaki motorcycle at 318.598 mph
- Aug 28 Ja'afar Sharif-Emami appointed premier of Iran
- Aug 29 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- Aug 29 USTA National Tennis Center opens in Flushing NY
- Aug 31 Constitution adopted by Sri Lanka
Trial of Interest
Aug 31 Emily & William Harris plead guilty to 1974 kidnapping of American publishing heiress Patty Hearst
- Aug 31 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists