History by month
August
31 days of history. Every date is an entry point to the events, births, and moments that shaped our world.
August 1
1981 MTV launched at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981, with the words "Ladies and gentlem
August 2
1990 Iraqi tanks crossed the Kuwaiti border at 2:00 a.m. on August 2, 1990, while com
August 3
1492 Christopher Columbus departed Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, with three
August 4
1914 Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914, executing the Schlieffen Plan's massi
August 5
1963 The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by the
August 6
1945 The B-29 Enola Gay released a 9,700-pound uranium bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" ov
August 7
1964 The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed by Congress on August 7, 1964, gave Presid
August 8
1588 The English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake used fire
August 9
1945 Kokura was the primary target on August 9, 1945, but thick cloud cover over the
August 10
1846 President James K. Polk signed legislation establishing the Smithsonian Institut
August 11
1965 The Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles erupted on August 11, 1965, after Californ
August 12
August 13
1961 Walter Ulbricht, East Germany's leader, declared on June 15, 1961, "Nobody has t
August 14
1945 Japan's formal surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Septemb
August 15
1945 Emperor Hirohito's voice, broadcast by radio for the first time in Japanese hist
August 16
1977 Elvis Presley was found unresponsive on his bathroom floor at Graceland on Augus
August 17
1969 Jimi Hendrix took the stage at Woodstock on Monday morning, August 18, 1969, aft
August 18
1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18,
August 19
1812 The USS Constitution earned her nickname "Old Ironsides" on August 19, 1812, whe
August 20
1968 Soviet tanks rolled into Prague at midnight on August 20, 1968, ending eight mon
August 21
1959 Congress passed the Hawaii Admission Act in March 1959, ending decades of planta
August 22
1485 Richard III charged directly into Henry Tudor's bodyguard at the Battle of Boswo
August 23
1989 Two million people from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania linked hands on August 23
August 24
79 Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 AD, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii
August 25
1894 Kitasato Shibasaburo and Alexandre Yersin independently isolated the bacterium r
August 26
1346 English longbowmen devastated the French army at Crecy on August 26, 1346, in on
August 27
1883 Krakatoa exploded on August 27, 1883, with a force equivalent to 200 megatons of
August 28
1963 An estimated 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963,
August 29
2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005, as a
August 30
1918 Fanya Kaplan shot Vladimir Lenin twice as he left a Moscow factory on August 30,
August 31
1997 Princess Diana died at 4:00 a.m. on August 31, 1997, at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospit