- Aug 1 ArenaBowl I, Pittsburgh Civic Arena: Denver Dynamite beats Pittsburgh Gladiators 45-16, Gary Mullen MVP
- Aug 1 Crossbow flight record (2,005 yds 1'9") set by Harry Drake in Nevada
- Aug 1 In New Zealand, the Maori Language Act comes into force, making te reo Māori an official language of New Zealand; it can now be used in some legal proceedings
Boxing Title Fight
Aug 1 Mike Tyson outpoints Tony Tucker in 12 rounds in a heavyweight boxing unification matchup in Las Vegas; first to own all 3 major belts WBA, WBC and IBF simultaneously
Music History
Aug 1 Music video channel MTV Europe launches, with Elton John throwing the switch; "Money For Nothing" Dire Straits is the first video presented
- Aug 1 Nurse Mary R Stout chosen chairperson of Vietnam Veterans of America
- Aug 2 Cincinnati outfielder Eric Davis is 7th to hit 30 HRs & steal 30 bases in one season as he homers in Reds 5-4 win v Giants
- Aug 2 Don Brown sets flight record for handbow (1,336 yds 1'3")
Federation Cup
Aug 2 Federation Cup Tennis Final: Steffi Graf & Claudia Kohde-Kilsch beat Chris Evert & Pam Shriver in the doubles as Germany beats US 2-1 in Vancouver, Canada
- Aug 2 Michael Andretti runs fastest Indy car race in history (171.49mph) in winning the Marlboro 500 at the Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Michigan
- Aug 2 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Baseball Record
Aug 3 Detroit Tigers ace Jack Morris ties AL record with 5 wild pitches in a 4-2, 10 innings loss v Kansas City Royals
- Aug 3 Discovery in Orbital Processing Facility is powered up for STS-26
- Aug 3 Twins pitcher Joe Niekro is caught with a file on the mound in 11-3 win v Angels, ejected and suspended for 10 games
- Aug 4 FCC vote 4-0 to rescind fairness doctrine for broadcasters
- Aug 6 20th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Holiday Inn
- Aug 7 5 Central American presidents sign peace accord in Guatemala
- Aug 7 Javed Miandad becomes first to score 6,000 Test runs for Pakistan as he cracks 260 in drawn 5th Test v England at The Oval
- Aug 7 Lynne Cox becomes the 1st woman to swim from the US to the Soviet Union, 4.3 km across the Bering Sea in water temperature averaging 43 to 44 °F (6 to 7 °C)
- Aug 8 Brewers' Rob Deer struck-out 5 times in a game
- Aug 8 Pakistan all out 708 v England at The Oval, Botham 3-217
- Aug 9 LA Rams beat Dallas Cowboys 28-27 in London, England (NFL expo)
PGA Championship
Aug 9 PGA Championship Men's Golf, PGA National Palm Beach: Larry Nelson wins 2nd PGA C'ship in a playoff with fellow American Lanny Wadkins
- Aug 9 The National Union of Mineworkers begin South Africa's longest wage strike
- Aug 10 Flight Readiness Firing of Discovery's main engines is successfully
- Aug 10 Kevin Gross is 2nd pitcher in 8 days to be ejected for scuffing ball
- Aug 11 France & Great-Britain send minesweepers to Persian Gulf
- Aug 12 Charles Cole climbs 870'Tyrolean Traverse from top of Elephant Rock
- Aug 13 Cards outfield sets record of no putouts in a 4-2 in 13 inning
World Record
Aug 13 Jackie Joyner-Kersee ties world record with 24'5½" jump
Baseball Record
Aug 14 Oakland's Mark McGwire sets rookie HR record at 39, en route to 49
- Aug 15 At Pan Am games in Indianapolis, USA & Cuba are tied with 2 outs in 9th, Ty Griffin HR, Cuba 1st loss in 20 years of Pan Am competition
- Aug 16 Astrological Harmonic Convergence-Dawn of New Age
- Aug 16 Northwest Airlines 255 plane crashes in Detroit, 156 die (1 lives)
- Aug 16 NY Mets beat Chicago Cubs, 23-10 at Wrigley Field, Chicago; Greg Maddox records the loss
Baseball Record
Aug 17 Bunt single gives Milwaukee Brewers' Paul Molitor longest MLB hit streak of 1980's at 32 games
- Aug 17 Dow Jones Industrial Avg closes above 2,700 for 1st time (2,700.57)
Hall of Fame
Aug 17 Muhammad Ali elected to "Ring" magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame
- Aug 18 Houston Oiler Earl Campbell, retires from NFL
- Aug 18 Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
- Aug 18 Philip Rush of NZ, set record for triple crossing English Channel his time 28:21, 10 hours faster than 1st man to do it
- Aug 18 Straatsburg: Manuela Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Anke Mohring and Heike Friedrich swims female world record 4x200m freestyle (7:55.47)
- Aug 19 Hungerford Massacre: in England, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide
Film Release
Aug 21 "Dirty Dancing" film directed by Emile Ardolino, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey opens in the US
- Aug 21 "Mack Lobell" set harness racing's trotting mil (1:52)
- Aug 21 Clayton Lonetree, 1st US marine court-martialed for spying, convicted
- Aug 21 Silke Horneer swims female world record 100m breaststroke (1:07.91)
- Aug 23 15-year old boy hijacks KLM B737, demands $1 billion
- Aug 23 Violent rainfall and floods in Bangladesh, kill 100's of people
- Aug 24 Announcement of possible Martian tornadoes
- Aug 25 Dow Jones industrial stock avg reaches record 2722.42
- Aug 25 Madonna sings in Rotterdam
- Aug 26 Paul Molitor goes 0-for-4 ends hitting streak at 39 consecutive games
- Aug 28 2nd Athletics World Championships open at Rome, Italy
Baseball Record
Aug 28 Mike Schmidt passes Ted Williams & Willie McCovey with 522 HRs
- Aug 29 44th Venice Film Festival: "Au revoir les enfants" ("Goodbye, Children") directed by Louis Malle wins Golden Lion
Baseball Record
Aug 29 Houston Astro MLB player Nolan Ryan passes the 200-strikeout barrier for record 11th time
Sports History
Aug 30 2nd World Championships in Athletics: Carl Lewis wins gold in 100m after Ben Johnson is disqualified
- Aug 30 87th US Golf Amateur Championship won by Billy Mayfair
- Aug 30 Ben Johnson of Canada runs 100m in world record 9.83 sec
Baseball Record
Aug 30 Kirby Puckett goes 6-for-6 with 2 HRs in Minn 10-6 win over Milwaukee
- Aug 30 Knuckleballer Charlie Hough on the mound, Rangers catcher Geno Petralli ties the major league record by allowing 6 passed balls
- Aug 30 Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria sets high jump woman's record 2.09m (6'10½"), one of the most long-standing records in athletics
- Aug 30 Street Fighter, the first arcade fighting game to introduce special attacks (designed by Takashi Nishiyama), is released
- Aug 30 Yves Pol of France runs complete marathon backwards (3:57:57)
Sports History
Aug 31 Curtis Strange sets golf's earning for year record ($697,385)
Premiere of "Bad"
Aug 31 Michael Jackson's "Bad" video, directed by Martin Scorcese, premieres during TV special "Michael Jackson: The Magic Returns" on CBS
- Aug 31 South Africa's longest mine strike in history ends
- Aug 31 The Great Potato Incident: Minor league Williamsport Bills catcher Dave Bresnahan attempts to lure an opposing baserunner off third base using a potato carved to look like a baseball. Umpire calls runner safe, and the catcher is fined $50 and released by the team [1] [2]
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