Daytime Emmy Awards
Aug 1 12th Daytime Emmy Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for the 6th time
- Aug 1 15.4 cm rainfall at Cheyenne, Wyoming (state record)
- Aug 1 18th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego
KGB Officer Yurchenko Defects
Aug 1 Russian KGB officer Vitaly Yurchenko defects to the US in Rome, naming Americans Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard as KGB agents (later defects back)
- Aug 1 St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Vince Coleman steals 2 bases in 1st inning of 9-8 loss v Cubs to set a NL rookie record 74
- Aug 2 Delta Lockheed L-1011 crashes at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, 137 die
Cricket History
Aug 2 England captain David Gower scores his 5,000th run in Test cricket during the drawn 4th Test v Australia at Old Trafford
- Aug 2 Five die in a train crash in Westminster, Colorado
- Aug 3 "Nihilator" set harness pacing mile (1:49.6) in East Rutherford, NJ
- Aug 3 Train crash at Flaujac, France: 35 killed
- Aug 4 "Dreamgirls" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 1522 performances
- Aug 4 American hang glider Larry Tudor set a world record for gain of height, climbing 4,343m in one flight [1] [2]
Baseball Hall of Fame
Aug 4 New York Yankees retire Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizzuto's #10
Golf Tournament
Aug 4 Scott Verplank beats Jim Thorpe in Western Open playoff, first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Gene Littler 1954
Baseball History
Aug 4 Tom Seaver of Chicago White Sox becomes 17th pitcher to win 300 MLB career games, beating New York, 4-1; 54,032 at Yankee Stadium
Churches Meet with Botha
Aug 7 A delegation of the South African Council of Churches meets with President P. W. Botha, following calls by the church for urgent discussions on the causes of unrest, forced removals and the emergency regulations in the country
Broadway Album
Aug 7 Barbra Streisand records "Broadway Album"
- Aug 7 Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts
- Aug 8 Baseball's new agreement permits 2 new NL teams in 1993
- Aug 8 Japan launches Planet A, a probe to Halley's comet
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Aug 9 Adventure comedy film "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" starring Paul Reubens is released
Baseball Record
Aug 10 Oakland A's Dave Kingman is 21st to hit 400 HRs (off Matt Young at Seattle)
- Aug 10 Uno Lindstron of Sweden juggles a soccer ball 13.11 miles
- Aug 11 "Tap Dance Kid" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 669 performances
- Aug 11 Challenger flies to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz
PGA Championship
Aug 11 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Cherry Hills CC: Hubert Green wins by 2 strokes from fellow American Lee Trevino
- Aug 11 Rudolf Povarnitsin of USSR sets new high jump world record (7'10"12)
- Aug 12 520 people die when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes in Ueno, Japan, the second-deadliest aviation disaster of all time
- Aug 12 Baltimore Orioles W Gross & L Sheets are 6th to hit consecutive pinch HRs
- Aug 13 South African Defence Force soldiers, travelling in a convoy of more than ten armoured vehicles, surrounded the Thaba-Juluba high school in Soweto and arrest 200 students during a clampdown on school boycotts
Music History
Aug 14 Michael Jackson buys ATV Music (including publishing rights to most of the Beatles song catalog) for $47.5M; 10 years later he sells 1/2 of his interest to Sony for $150M
- Aug 14 Political violence by the youth begins after funeral of assassinated Victoria Mxenge, a civil rights lawyer, who was respected and liked by the Congress of South African Students
- Aug 15 First Iraqi air raid on Iran's main oil export terminal, Kharg Island
- Aug 15 P. W. Botha gives the "Rubicon" Speech in Durban, South Africa, disappointing many by refusing to consider immediate and major reforms in the country's apartheid system
Death of A Salesman
Aug 16 CBS' premiere of its TV adaptation of "Death of A Salesman", starring Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich
- Aug 17 1,400 meatpackers walk off the job at a Geo A Hormel & Co plant
Election of Interest
Aug 17 Rajiv Gandhi announces Punjab state elections in India
- Aug 17 Sara Trollinger forms House of Hope in Orlando
- Aug 18 Suisei Launch (Halley's Comet Flyby)
Event of Interest
Aug 19 Following the Rubicon speech four days earlier, Archbishop Desmond Tutu snubs P. W. Botha's invitation to attend a meeting to discuss the role and actions of the police and security forces in South Africa
- Aug 19 Japan launches its 2nd probe of Halley's Comet, Suisei
Sports History
Aug 20 1st NL pitcher to strike out 200+ in 1st 2 seasons (Dwight Gooden)
- Aug 20 Hanspeter Beck of South Australia, finishes a 3,875 mile, 51 day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle
- Aug 20 Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of US
- Aug 20 Libya throws out 1000s Tunisian/Egyptian gas workers
- Aug 20 Met Dwight Gooden strikes out 16 on way to his 13th consecutive win
- Aug 21 American Mary Decker Slaney runs mile in world record 4:16.71, Zurich, Switzerland; the third time she held the record
Film & TV History
Aug 21 Film adaptation of John Pielmeier's stage drama "Agnes of God", directed by Norman Jewison, and starring Meg Tilley, Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda premieres
- Aug 21 NY Lotto pays $41 million to three winner (#s are 14-17-22-23-30-47)
- Aug 22 30th Walker Cup: US wins 13-11
- Aug 22 Airtours Boeing-737 crashes at Manchester airport, 55 killed
- Aug 23 Paul Hornung awarded $1,160,000 by a Louisville court against NCAA who barred him as a college football analyst for betting on games
- Aug 23 Said Aouita of Morocco sets 1.5k record (3:29.46) in Berlin
- Aug 23 South African attorney/UDF leader "Dulah" Omar arrested
- Aug 23 West German top counter espionage Hans Tiedge moves to German DR
- Aug 24 STS 51-I mission scrubbed at T -5m because of bad weather
- Aug 25 Met Dwight Gooden becomes youngest pitcher to win 20 games (20y 9m 9d)
- Aug 25 STS 51-I scrubbed at T -9m because of an onboard computer problem
- Aug 26 42nd Venice Film Festival: "Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond)" directed by Agnes Varda wins the Golden Lion
Sports History
Aug 26 Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray knocks in 9 RBIs in a game vs California Angels
The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Aug 26 French government denies knowledge of bombing of the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland New Zealand
- Aug 27 20th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-I): Discovery 6 launches
Event of Interest
Aug 27 General Ibrahim Babangida overthrows Major General Muhammadu Buhari's regime in Nigeria
Tennis Open
Aug 27 Mary Joe Fernández at 14 years 8 days old becomes youngest player to win at the US Tennis Open; beats England's Sara Gomer 6-1, 6-4 in a 1st round match
Sports History
Aug 31 Ángel Cordero Jr. becomes 3rd jockey to ride horses earning over $100m
- Aug 31 Night Stalker suspect that terrorized California captured in East Los Angeles
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists