- Aug 2 South African cricket batsman Graeme Smith blazes 259, fast bowler Makhaya Ntini has 5 wickets in each England innings as Proteas win 2nd Test by an innings and 92 at Lord's
Women's British Open
Aug 3 British Open Women's Golf, Royal Lytham & St Annes GC: Annika Sörenstam of Sweden wins by 1 stroke from Se Ri Pak; completes career grand slam for Sörenstam
- Aug 5 A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
- Aug 10 The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK - 38.5°C (101.3°F) in Kent . It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Aug 11 A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112°F (44° C), leaving about 144 people dead.
- Aug 11 Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
- Aug 11 NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
- Aug 14 Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
Sports History
Aug 16 Cristiano Ronaldo (18) makes his debut for Manchester United and the Premier League in a 4–0 home victory over Bolton Wanderers
- Aug 16 New Zealand beats Australia, 21-17 at Eden Park, Auckland to win their 5th Tri Nations Rugby Series; All Blacks have undefeated 4-0 record and regain Bledisloe Cup from Wallabies
- Aug 16 U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
- Aug 17 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Oak Hill CC: Shaun Micheel wins his lone major title by 2 strokes from Chad Campbell
- Aug 19 A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
- Aug 19 A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, 7 of them children
- Aug 22 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building
- Aug 23 9th Athletics World Championships open at Saint-Denis, France
- Aug 25 The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).
- Aug 26 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
- Aug 27 60th Venice Film Festival: "The Return" directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev wins Golden Lion
- Aug 27 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
Video Music Awards
Aug 28 20th MTV Video Music Awards: Missy Elliott, Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake win
- Aug 28 An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London's underground rail network to a halt.
- Aug 29 Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
Sports History
Aug 31 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Reserve Vineyards & GC: Tom Watson wins his third of 6 Champions Tour majors by 1 stroke from Jim Ahern & Tom Kite
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