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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY
August
338 BC, August 2
Philip of Macedon crushes Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea.
216 BC, August 2
Battle of Cannae — Hannibal destroys the Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Publius Terentius Varro in what is considered one of the great masterpieces of the tactical art.
55 BC, August 26
Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain.
79 AD, August 24
Long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupted killing an estimated 20,000 people. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae were buried in volcanic ash.
642 AD, August 5
Battle of Maserfeld — Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Bernicia.
778 AD, August 15
Died: Roland, Frankish commander under Charlemagne.
1057, August 15
Died: King Macbeth I of Scotland.
1100, August 5
Henry I crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1485, August 22
England's King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the Wars of the Roses.
1492, August 3
Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain.
After Christians overthrew the Muslims rulers in Spain, Jews were ordered expelled from the country. (Go figure.)
1517, August 15
First modern-day European connection with China began as seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernao Pires de Andrade met Chinese officials at Pearl River estuary.
1521, August 13
Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez (Hernán Cortés) captured present-day Mexico City from the Aztec Indians.
1533, August 29
The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, was murdered on orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.
1572, August 24
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre: a massacre of Huguenots began. An estimated 70,000 people were killed in France in the following weeks.
1583, August 5
Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.
1587, August 18
Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C.
1609, August 28
Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay.
1620, August 15
The Mayflower departs Southampton, England for America.
1632, August 29
Philosopher John Locke was born in Somerset, England.
1680, August 21
Pueblo Revolt — Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe from the Spanish.
1692, August 19
Salem Witch Trials: In Salem, Massachusetts five women and a clergyman are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
1704, August 13
The Battle of Blenheim (also known as the Battle of Höchstädt) was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in victory for English and Austrian forces over French and Bavarian soldiers.
1735, August 4
A jury acquitted John Peter Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal of seditious libel.
1742, August 7
Born: Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary War general (died: 1786).
1754, August 23
Born: France's King Louis XVI, at Versailles.
1769, August 15
Born: Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleone Buonaparte), in the city of Ajaccio on Corsica one year after France bought the island from the Republic of Genoa. (He died in exile on St. Helena, May 5, 1821.)
1775, August 22
Britain's King George III proclaimed the American colonies in a state of open rebellion.
1776, August 2
Members of the Continental Congress began putting their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.
1777, August 16
American Revolutionary War — American forces won the Battle of Bennington, Vt.
1782, August 7
George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed the "Purple Heart".
1787, August 6
In Philadelphia, delegates to the Constitutional Convention began to debate the articles contained in the first draft of what became the U.S. Constitution. [The articles in the draft had already been approved in principle.]
1787, August 22
At Philadelphia, inventor John Fitch took advantage of the Delaware River to demonstrate his steamboat to delegates of the Continental Congress.
1789, August 7
The United States War Department is established.
1790, August 1
The first United States census was completed, showing a population of nearly 4 million people.
1790, August 4
A newly passed tariff act created the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard).
1790, August 9
The privately owned vessel, Columbia, returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage, becoming the first ship to carry the American flag around the world. [In 1792 Captain Robert Gray was sent to the Pacific Northwest in Columbia to trade for fur. He discovered the Columbia River and named it after the ship.]
1794, August 7
Farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of Pennsylvania rise up in a "Whiskey Rebellion" against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
1798, August 2
End of the Battle of the Nile between French and British navies.
1806, August 6
Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire.
1807, August 17
Robert Fulton's North River Steam Boat (known as the Clermont) began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany.
1812, August 5
War of 1812 — Tecumseh and his warriors ambush 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.
1812, August 16
War of 1812 — Detroit fell to British and Indian forces.
1812, August 19
War of 1812 — USS Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia. The British shot is said to have bounced off the Constitution's sides, earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides".
1814, August 24
War of 1812 — Washington, D.C. was burned by British forces. The exterior walls of the White House were later painted white to cover smoke damage.
1815, August 8
Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile. (He died on St. Helena, May 5, 1821.)
1821, August 10
Missouri became the 24th state.
1825, August 6
Bolivia declared its independence from Peru.
1829, August 16
The original "Siamese twins," Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston to be exhibited to the Western world.
1830, August 4
Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.
1831, August 21
Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia.
1833, August 20
Born: Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the U.S., in North Bend, Ohio.
1842, August 9
The United States and Canada resolved a border dispute by signing the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
1844, August 8
During a meeting held in Nauvoo, Ill., the Quorum of Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is created as the leading body of the Mormon Church.
1846, August 10
Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of half a million dollars had made it possible. [James Smithson never set foot on U.S. soil!]
1846, August 13
The American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles.
1846, August 18
Mexican-American War: U.S. forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearney captured Santa Fe, N.M.
1846, August 22
The United States annexed New Mexico.
1848, August 9
The Free-Soil Party nominated Democrat and past-president Martin Van Buren for president at its convention in Buffalo, N.Y.
1848, August 14
The Oregon Territory was established.
1851, August 12
Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine.
1851, August 22
The schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.
1858, August 5
Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It operated for less than a month.
1858, August 16
A telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.
1860, August 11
The nation's first successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nevada.
1861, August 5
American Civil War — To pay for its cost of the war, the Union implemented and unconstitutional income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).
1861, August 16
American Civil War — President Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy.
1862, August 5
American Civil War — At Baton Rouge, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city but then lose the battle.
1863, August 8
American Civil War — Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis refuses the request upon receipt).
1863, August 21
American Civil War — Lawrence, Kansas destroyed by William Quantrill, Jesse and Frank James, the Younger Brothers, et. al.
1864, August 5
American Civil War — At Mobile Bay, Adm. David Farragut says "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" and leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses to seal off the last major Southern port.
1866, August 20
President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, months after the fighting had stopped.
1867, August 12
President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1873, August 1
Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
1874, August 10
Born: Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, was born in West Branch, Iowa.
1875, August 4
Died: Writer Hans Christian Andersen (born: 1805).
1875, August 25
Capt. Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, getting from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.
1876, August 1
Colorado was admitted as the 38th state.
1876, August 2
Frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok (James Butler Hickok) was shot dead from behind by Jack McCall while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
1876, August 7
Born: Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), spy (died: 1917).
1876, August 8
Thomas Edison received a patent for his mimeograph.
1877, August 15
Thomas Edison made the first-ever recording — "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
1877, August 29
The second president of the Mormon Church, Brigham Young, died in Salt Lake City.
1882, August 5
Standard Oil of New Jersey was established.
1883, August 26
In Indonesia, the volcano Krakatoa began erupting with increasingly large explosions heard 2200 miles away in Australia.
1883, August 27
The island volcano Krakatoa blew up on Aug. 26th producing tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait that claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.
1884, August 5
The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island (later Liberty Island) in N.Y. Harbor.
1886, August 31
An earthquake rocked Charleston, South Carolina, killing 110 people.
1887, August 31
Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his kinetoscope, a device that produced moving pictures.
1888, August 31
Mary Ann Nicholls was found murdered in London's East End in what is generally regarded as the first slaying committed by Jack the Ripper.
1890, August 6
At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first execution by electric chair.
1892, August 2
Born: Jack Warner, (Warner Bros.) film producer, (died: 1978).
1892, August 4
Lizzie Borden's family is found murdered in their Fall River, Mass. home.
1893, August 14
Paris, France introduced automobile license plates to the world.
1894, August 1
The First Sino-Japanese War erupted, the result of a dispute over control of Korea; Japan's army routed the Chinese.
1894, August 18
Congress established the Bureau of Immigration but no one has bothered to put the intent into practice. [Poor saps who bother to ask are generally denied immigration while most simply come on in illegally by boat, get on a plane, or stroll in across the border.]
1894, August 27
Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court. [Amendment XVI corrected that little "error."]
1895, August 19
American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
1896, August 17
A prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, a finding that touched off the Klondike gold rush.
1898, August 12
The cease-fire agreement ending hostilities in the Spanish-American War was signed. The Treaty of Paris (1898) was signed on December 10th.
Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States.
1900, August 3
Born: Ernie Pyle, famous WW II correspondent (killed: April 18, 1945, by enemy machine gun fire on an island off Okinawa Honto, Japan).
1902, August 9
Edward VII was crowned king of England following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1902, August 22
President Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. chief executive to ride in an automobile, in Hartford, Conn.
1908, August 27
Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, was born near Stonewall, Texas.
1909, August 11
The SOS distress signal was first used by an American ship, the Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
1910, August 13
Died: Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, in London.
1911, August 8
Public Law 62-5 is passed setting the number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives at 435, to take effect in the next Congress in 1913.
1911, August 22
It was announced in Paris that Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" had been stolen from the Louvre Museum the night before. The painting turned up two years later, in Italy.
1914, August 3
World War I — Germany declares war against France.
1914, August 4
World War I — The United Kingdom declared war on Germany and the U.S. proclaimed neutrality.
1914, August 5
The first electric traffic light was installed (in Cleveland, Ohio).
1914, August 6
World War I — Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia and Serbia declared war against Germany.
1914, August 15
The Panama Canal opened to traffic.
1914, August 18
World War I — President Wilson issued his "Proclamation of Neutrality," aimed at keeping the U.S. out of the war.
1914, August 20
World War I — German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium.
1914, August 23
World War I — Japan declared war against Germany.
1915, August 6
World War I — Battle of Sari Bair — The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
1916, August 3
Sir Roger Casement is hanged for his role in the Easter Rising in Ireland.
World War I — The Battle of Romani: 23 miles east of the Suez Canal.
1916, August 4
The United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.
1916, August 25
The National Park Service was established within the Department of the Interior.
1916, August 28
World War I — Italy's declaration of war against Germany took effect.
1917, August 14
World War I — China declared war on Germany and Austria.
1917, August 28
10 suffragists were arrested as they picketed the White House.
1918, August 20
World War I — Britain opened its offensive on the Western front.
1920, August 26
The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was declared in effect.
1921, August 2
Died: Opera singer Enrico Caruso, in San Francisco, Calif.
1921, August 10
Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello. [From a wheelchair 12 years later, he became the 32nd President of the United States.]
1921, August 25
The United States signed a peace treaty with Germany.
1923, August 2
Died: Warren G. Harding, the 29th U.S. president, in San Francisco.
1923, August 3
Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President of the United States.
1924, August 5
The comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," by Harold Gray, made its debut.
1926, August 6
Gertrude Ederle became first woman to swim the English Channel.
In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premiered with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
1927, August 7
The Peace Bridge over the Niagara River between the United States and Canada was dedicated during ceremonies attended by Prince Edward (Prince of Wales) and Vice President Charles Dawes.
1928, August 27
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes. [We bet you thought nonsense by government officials was a modern-day phenom.]
1932, August 13
Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice-chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out "for all or nothing."
1932, August 24
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States, traveling from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just over 19 hours.
1934, August 2
Died: German President Paul von Hindenburg, paving the way for a complete takeover by Adolf Hitler.
Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
1934, August 7
The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the U.S. government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel Ulysses.
1934, August 11
The first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
1934, August 13
Al Capp's "Li'l Abner" comic strip made its debut.
1935, August 14
The Social Security Act became law.
1935, August 15
Died: Will Rogers, humorist, actor, (in a plane crash in Alaska).
Died: Wiley Post, pilot of plane crash in Alaska.
1935, August 31
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
1936, August 1
Adolf Hitler presided over opening ceremony of Olympic games in Berlin.
1936, August 9
Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as the United States took first place in the 400-meter relay.
1938, August 18
President Roosevelt dedicated the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada.
1939, August 2
Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.
1939, August 23
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty.
1939, August 26
The first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS — a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first game, 5-2, the Dodgers the second, 6-1.
1940, August 3
World War II — Italy invades British Somaliland.
1940, August 20
World War II — British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
1942, August 7
World War II — Battle of Guadalcanal — US Marines initiate the first major American offensive action of the war in the Pacific, on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
1942, August 8
World War II — Six convicted Nazi saboteurs who'd landed in the U.S. were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others received life imprisonment.
1942, August 11
World War II — Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared that "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."
1942, August 17
World War II — U.S. Eighth Air Force bombers attacked Rouen, France.
World War II — U.S. Marines led by Lt. Col. Evans E. Carlson raided a Japanese seaplane base on Makin Island (now Butaritari Island, part of the Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands).
1943, August 2
World War II — Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
1943, August 3
World War II — Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.)
1943, August 17
World War II — The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.
1943, August 25
World War II — U.S. forces overran New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.
1943, August 29
World War II — Responding to a clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its naval ships.
1944, August 1
World War II — An uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation, a revolt that lasted two months before collapsing.
1944, August 4
Nazi police raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested eight people — including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a famous account of the Holocaust. (Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.)
1944, August 5
World War II: — Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1944, August 9
258 black American sailors based at Port Chicago, Calif., refused to load a munitions ship following the explosion of another ship that killed 320 men, two-thirds of them black. (The sailors were court-martialed, fined and imprisoned for their refusal.)
1944, August 10
World War II: — American forces overcame Japanese resistance on Guam.
1944, August 14
World War II: — The federal government allowed the manufacture of certain domestic appliances, such as electric ranges and vacuum cleaners, to resume on a limited basis.
1944, August 15
World War II: — Operation Anvil (renamed Operation Dragoon): Allied forces land in southern France.
1944, August 25
World War II: — Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.
World War II: — Romania declared war on Germany.
1945, August 2
World War II: — The Potsdam Conferences, attended by Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill (later Clement Attlee) and Harry S. Truman, concludes.
1945, August 6
World War II: — An atomic bomb code-named Little Boy was dropped by the American B-29 Enola Gay on the city of Hiroshima in Japan at 8:16 a.m., killing 80,000 outright (another 60,000 died by year's end from fallout sickness).
1945, August 8
President Truman signed the United Nations charter.
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan. (The purpose of such a belated act was to "legalize" a "land grab" of northern Japanese islands. The Soviets quickly occupied the islands, and Stalin demanded a seat at the Japanese surrender ceremony three weeks later on Sept. 2.)
1945, August 9
World War II: — Three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people. [War planners estimated that an invasion of the Japanese home-islands would cost more than a million lives. — A basis for the estimate was the 219,000 killed in the single-island Battle of Okinawa. More people died in the Battle of Okinawa than from a-bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined: 219,000 vs. 214,000.]
1945, August 14
World War II: — President Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally. (Formal surrender documents were signed Sept. 12th).
1945, August 27
World War II: — American troops began landing in Japan following the Japanese surrender.
1946, August 1
President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Arkansas Senator William J. Fulbright.
The Atomic Energy Commission was established.
1947, August 7
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day, 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America to Polynesia.
1947, August 14
Pakistan became independent of British rule.
1947, August 15
India became independent of British rule.
1948, August 3
Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
1948, August 15
Republic of Korea established south of 38th Parallel.
1948, August 16
Died: baseball legend Babe Ruth, in New York at age 53.
1949, August 3
National Basketball Association was reorganized and adopted its current name. (The league was founded on Aug. 3, 1946).
1949, August 10
The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense.
1949, August 24
The North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) went into effect.
1950, August 25
President Truman ordered the Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
1951, August 14
Died: Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
1953, August 5
Korean War — Operation Big Switch was under way as prisoners taken during the conflict were exchanged at Panmunjom.
1953, August 7
To correct an error, Ohio was admitted to the union, retroactive to 1803.
1953, August 12
The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb but did not publicly acknowledge it until Aug. 20th.
1954, August 18
During the Eisenhower administration, Assistant Secretary of Labor James E. Wilkins became the first black to attend a meeting of a president's Cabinet as he sat in for Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell.
1955, August 2
A patent for Velcro was granted.
1955, August 20
Hundreds of people were killed while rioting against French colonialism in Morocco and Algiers.
1957, August 1
The U.S. and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1957, August 5
"American Bandstand," hosted by Dick Clark, made its network debut on ABC.
1957, August 26
The Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
1958, August 3
The nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.
1959, August 21
Hawaii became the 50th state.
1960, August 3
Niger gained independence from France.
1960, August 6
Fidel Castro nationalized American and foreign-owned property in Cuba.
1960, August 12
The first balloon satellite — the Echo One — was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral.
1960, August 13
The first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of new heavenly body, Echo One.
1960, August 15
Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) declares independence from France.
1961, August 13
East Germany sealed off the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to halt the flight of refugees to the West.
1961, August 15
East Germany began construction on the Berlin Wall.
1962, August 27
The United States launched the Mariner II space probe, which flew past Venus the following December.
1962, August 31
The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent within the British Commonwealth.
1963, August 5
The U.S., U.K., U.S.S.R., and others sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
1963, August 18
James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the U. of Miss.
1963, August 28
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of about 200,000.
1964, August 2
Vietnam War — The Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnam torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1964, August 4
The bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.
1964, August 5
Vietnam War — American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for torpedo boat strikes against US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin three days earlier.
1964, August 7
Vietnam War — Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
1965, August 11
Rioting and looting that claimed 34 lives broke out in the predominantly black section of Watts in Los Angeles.
1966, August 1
25-year-old Charles Joseph Whitman shot and killed 15 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by police.
1967, August 7
Vietnam War — The People's Republic of China agrees to give North Vietnam and undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
1968, August 20
The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime.
1968, August 24
France became the world's fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.
1969, August 10
Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.
1969, August 14
British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1969, August 31
Boxer Rocky Marciano died in a light airplane crash in Iowa, a day before his 46th birthday. (Born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, he is the only Heavyweight Champion of the World to retire undefeated.)
1972, August 3
The U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).
1972, August 4
President Carter signed the bill to create the Department of Energy.
1973, August 14
The U.S. bombing of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia was ended.
1974, August 7
French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.
1974, August 8
President Nixon announced that he would resign office "effective at noon tomorrow" following new damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal.
1974, August 26
Died: Charles Lindbergh — the first man to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic — at his home in Hawaii at age 72.
1975, August 27
Died: Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia's 3,000-year-old monarchy, in Addis Ababa at age 83 almost a year after being overthrown in a coup sponsored by the Soviet Union.
1976, August 7
Viking program — Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
1977, August 16
Died: Elvis Presley, at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42.
1977, August 20
The U.S. launched Voyager Two, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
1978, August 7
President Carter declares an emergency to respond to ground polution at Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New York.
1978, August 17
The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their Double Eagle Two outside Paris.
1979, August 20
Swimmer Diana Nyad succeeded in her third attempt at swimming from the Bahamas to Florida.
1979, August 27
Murdered: British World War II hero Lord Louis Mountbatten, off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.
1980, August 31
Poland's Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day-old strike.
1981, August 3
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) walked off the job in an illegal strike despite a warning from President Reagan that illegal strikers would be terminated.
1981, August 5
President Reagan began the firing process for 11,359 of the 13,000 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order to return to work.
1981, August 7
The Washington Star newspaper ceases operations after 128 years.
1981, August 13
In a ceremony at his California ranch, President Reagan signed a historic package of tax and budget reductions.
1981, August 25
the U.S. spacecraft Voyager II came within 63,000 miles of Saturn's cloud cover, sending back pictures and data of the ringed planet.
1982, August 18
For the first time, volume on the New York Stock exchange topped the 100 million level as 132.69 million shares were traded.
1986, August 6
William J. Schroeder died after living 620 days with the Jarvik Seven artificial heart.
1986, August 21
The natural unexpected release of toxic gas from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon killed over 1700 people.
1987, August 17
Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a Berlin hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, having apparently committed suicide.
1988, August 9
President Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos to be secretary of education; Cavazos became the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet.
1988, August 10
President Reagan signed a measure providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II.
1990, August 2
Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War of 1991.
1991, August 6
Tim Berners-Lee released his concept for the expansion and simplification of the international Internet which became the World Wide Web (WWW).
1993, August 10
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1994, August 14
Eight children who had been left alone died in an early morning house fire in Carbondale, Ill.
1994, August 15
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos", is captured.
1995, August 5
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. chose Kenneth W. Starr to take over the Whitewater investigation from Robert Fiske.
1998, August 7
U.S. embassy bombings — Al Qaeda terrorist car-bombed the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing 224 people and injuring over 4,500. — The American people said, "ho hum."
1998, August 21
The U.S. destroyed a pharmaceutical plant (erroneously believed to be a chemical weapons plant) in Sudan. [The attack was based on faulty CIA information, but that didn't matter to the American press because the president was a Democrat.]
2002, August 6
Marquis de la Fayette was finally made an Honorary Citizen of the U.S.
2003, August 14
A huge blackout hit the norhteastern U.S. and southeastern Canada: 50 million people lost power. (Naturally, U.S. business leaders and government officials quickly blamed Canadian power companies but later investigations showed the problem originated in Ohio.)
2003, August 24
The Justice Department reported the U.S. crime rate in 2002 was the lowest since studies began in 1973.
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