- Aug 2 Jeff Blatnick becomes first American to win a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Los Angeles Olympics, Blatnick was in remission for Hodgkin’s disease
- Aug 2 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Aug 3 17-year-old Australian swimmer Jon Sieben stages a withering finish to upset hot favourite Michael Gross of West Germany in 200m butterfly at Los Angeles Olympics, world record (1:57.04)
- Aug 3 Bomb attack on Madras India airport, 32 killed
- Aug 3 Mary Lou Retton scores 10 for final vault to win the individual all-round competition in Los Angeles and become first American woman to win an Olympic gymnastics medal
- Aug 3 Mexicans Ernesto Canto and Raúl González take the gold and silver medals in the 20k walk at the Los Angeles Olympics
Olympic Gold
Aug 4 American athlete Carl Lewis wins the 100m in 9.9 seconds in Los Angeles, first of 9 Olympic gold medals over 3 Games
- Aug 4 Americans Al Joyner and Mike Conley take the gold and silver medals in the men's triple jump at the Los Angeles Olympics
#1 in the Charts
Aug 4 Prince's "Purple Rain" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 24 weeks
- Aug 4 Republic of Upper Volta becomes Burkina Faso (National Day)
Sports History
Aug 5 American Joan Benoit wins first Olympic marathon for women (2:24:52) ahead of Grete Waitz of Norway at the Los Angeles Games
- Aug 5 American super-hurdler Edwin Moses wins the 400m hurdles gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics, his 105th consecutive race victory
- Aug 5 Evelyn Ashford runs an Olympic 100m record time of 10.97 to beat American teammate Alice Brown in the LA Games final
- Aug 5 The rowing competition at the LA Olympics concludes with Romania dominant in the women's section winning 5 of 6 gold medals; US wins the eights from Romania
- Aug 5 Toronto designated hitter Cliff Johnson hits MLB record 19th career pinch-hit HR in Blue Jays 4-3 win over Baltimore Orioles
- Aug 6 After Americans Roger Kingdom & Greg Foster both equal the Olympic record in 110m hurdles semi's in Los Angeles, Kingdom beats Foster in the final in a new Games record 13.20 seconds
- Aug 6 American athlete Carl Lewis wins long jump (8.54m), his second of 4 gold medals at Los Angeles Olympics
- Aug 7 David Rabe's "Hurlyburly" premieres in NYC
- Aug 7 Harmonica Frank [Floyd], American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player dies of lung cancer and diabetes complications at 75
- Aug 7 Japan beats US, 6-3 in the final of the Los Angeles Olympic baseball demonstration event
- Aug 7 The US collects its first Olympic gold medal in women's basketball history with a 85-55 win over South Korea in the final at the LA Games
- Aug 8 Carl Lewis wins 3rd gold medal of the Los Angeles Olympics joining Kirk Baptiste and Thomas Jefferson in an American sweep of the 200m
Olympic Gold
Aug 8 Future 5-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts of New Zealand wins the Finn Class sailing gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics
Music History
Aug 8 John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "The Rink", based on Terrence McNally's novel, and starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, closes at Martin Beck Theater, NYC, after 204 performances and a Tony Award for Rivera,
- Aug 8 Milwaukee 10-game losing streak ends
- Aug 8 Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco becomes the first female Olympic champion of a Muslim nation, and the first of her country in the 400m hurdles at the Los Angeles Olympics
- Aug 9 Daley Thompson of Great Britain scores 8,797 points to win the Olympic decathlon in Los Angeles; later recognised as a world record
- Aug 9 STS 41-D vehicle again moves out to launch pad
- Aug 9 Valerie Brisco-Hooks beats fellow American Florence Griffith to win the 200m gold at the LA Olympics; completes the 200-400m double
- Aug 10 Famous Mary Decker-Zola Budd collision during 3,000m at the LA Olympics; Decker falls, Budd finishes 7th; Maricica Puică of Romania wins
- Aug 10 Ian Ferguson of New Zealand wins 2 canoeing gold medals in the one day taking the K-1 500 and K-2 500 (with Paul MacDonald) at the LA Olympics; wins K-4 1000 the next day
- Aug 10 Sweden's Agneta Andersson takes out the women's canoeing 500m double at the Los Angeles Olympics with wins in the K-1 and K-2 (with Anna Olsson) events
Olympic Gold
Aug 10 The US beats Spain 96-65 to win the men's basketball gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics; future 'dream team' members Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin feature
- Aug 11 101,799 fans at soccer match Brazil vs France
Olympic Games
Aug 11 A British 1-2 in the 1,500m at the Los Angeles Olympics with Sebastian Coe edging teammate Steve Cram to become the only man to successfully defend his Olympic 1,500m title
- Aug 11 Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens' 1936 feat, winning his 4th Olympic gold medal as part of the US 4 x 100m relay team; world record (37.83)
Sports History
Aug 11 Cincinnati Reds retire Johnny Bench's #5 uniform
Event of Interest
Aug 11 During a radio voice test, US President Reagan jokes he "signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes."
- Aug 11 Future 4-weight world boxing champion Pernell Whitaker wins the lightweight gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics
- Aug 11 Ian Ferguson of New Zealand wins his 3rd canoeing gold medal of the LA Olympics taking out the K-4 1000 a day after victories in the K-1 500 & K-2 500
- Aug 11 Men's choir Maranatha Netherlands forms
- Aug 11 USSR performs (underground) nuclear test
- Aug 12 Braves beat Padres 5-3, features 2 brawls & 19 ejections
- Aug 12 Carlos Lopes of Portugal wins the men's marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2:09:21, an Olympic record that stands for 24 years
Baseball Hall of Fame
Aug 12 Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese, & Luis Aparicio are inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY
- Aug 13 Morocco & Libya sign "Arabic-African Union" treaty
- Aug 14 IBM releases PC DOS version 3.0
- Aug 14 West Indies complete 5-0 series annihilation of England
- Aug 15 The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military
- Aug 16 LA federal jury acquits auto maker John Z DeLorean on cocaine charges
- Aug 16 Largest harness racing purse ($2,161,000-Nihilator wins $1,080,500)
- Aug 16 NASA launches Ampte
- Aug 16 Sunken liner Andrea Doria's safe opened
- Aug 18 Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire
PGA Championship
Aug 19 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Shoal Creek: Lee Trevino wins his 2nd PGA C'ship by 4 shots from Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins
- Aug 19 Republican convention in Dallas, Texas nominates incumbent Ronald Reagan for President
- Aug 22 Evelyn Ashford of US ties world women's mark for 100 m, 10.76 sec
- Aug 22 Last Volkswagen Rabbit produced
Baseball Record
Aug 22 Met pitcher Dwight Gooden becomes 11th rookie to strikeout 200
- Aug 22 Republican convention in Dallas renominates President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush
- Aug 22 The United Democratic Front, an internal coalition of anti-apartheid groups in South Africa, organizes a highly successful boycotts of the Colored and Indian elections to parliament
Golf Record
Aug 24 Pat Bradley sets LPGA record for 9 holes with a 28 during 2nd round of Columbia Savings National at Green Gables CC, Denver, CO
- Aug 25 French airship capsizes
- Aug 25 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Aug 26 Tatyana Kazankina of USSR sets 3k woman record (8:22.62) in Leningrad
- Aug 26 Zdena Silvaha (Cz) throws discus 74.55 m (women's world record)
- Aug 27 US President Ronald Reagan announces 'Teacher in Space' project
- Aug 27 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Aug 27 War Against Indiscipline is launched by the Buhari regime in Nigeria
- Aug 28 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Aug 30 12th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (41D): Discovery 1 launches for a 6-day excursion
- Aug 30 Red Sox Jim Rice grounds into record 33rd double play en route to 36
- Aug 30 Sotheby's in London begins 2 day auction of rock memorabilla
- Aug 31 Pinklon Thomas beats Tim Witherspoon in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists