August 29

• August 29, 29
  John the Baptist, an itinerant preacher at the Jordan River, is beheaded by order of Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea
• August 29, 70
  Jerusalem is sacked and the Temple of Jerusalem, except Western Wall of Herod's complex, is burned after a nine-month Roman siege under Titus during First Jewish-Roman War
• August 29, 284
  Diocletian becomes emperor of Rome beginning a method of numbering years known as Diocletian era
• August 29, 1526
  Turkish forces of Suleiman the Magnificent defeat the Hungarian forces and kill Hungarian King Louis II at the Battle of Mohács, which leads to the partition of Hungary for several centuries
• August 29, 1533
  Francisco Pizarro captures Cusco and completes his conquest of Peru
• August 29, 1632
  English philosopher John Locke is born in Wrington, England
• August 29, 1637
  The Dutch attack and capture Elmina in Ghana, which up to that point was the center of Portuguese activity in West Africa and was mostly used for the slave trade
• August 29, 1655
  Swedish king Charles X Gustav of Sweden occupies Warsaw
• August 29, 1742
  Edmond Hoyle publishes his "Short Treatise" on classic English trick-taking card game whist
• August 29, 1786
  Shay's Rebellion lead by American farmer Daniel Shay in Springfield, Massachusetts begins in order to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt
• August 29, 1791
  The Pandora under Captain Edward Edwards sinks in Endeavour Strait between Australia and New Guinea; 33 crewmen and 4 prisoners die
• August 29, 1842
  Britain and China sign the Treaty of Nanjing, which ends the First Opium War, opens the port of Shanghai to foreigners and cedes Hong Kong to the British
• August 29, 1864
  William Huggins, an English astronomer, discovers chemical composition of nebulae using astronomical spectroscopy
• August 29, 1885
  Gottlieb Daimler receives German patent for a motorcycle
• August 29, 1893
  The "clasp locker", a clumsy slide fastener and forerunner to the zipper is first patented by Whitcomb L. Judson
• August 29, 1897
  First Zionist Congress, opened by Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl in Basel, Switzerland, starts program to resettle Jewish people in Palestine
• August 29, 1949
  The Soviet Union successfully detonates an atomic weapon
• August 29, 1966
  The Beatles' give their last public concert, Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California
• August 29, 2005
  Nearly 2000 people are killed, and severe damage is caused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Katrina strikes coastal areas from Louisiana to Alabama, and travels up the entire state of Mississippi, affecting most of eastern North America

August 28

• August 28, 388
  Magnus Maximus, West Roman Emperor, is executed
• August 28, 476
  The western Roman Empire formally ends as the barbarian general Odoacer deposes the last of the Roman emperors, the young boy Romulus Augustus, marking the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe
• August 28, 1533
  Atahualpa, last of the Inca rulers, is strangled at the orders of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in spite of the chief has already paid his ransom
• August 28, 1664
  Four English warships under Colonel Richard Nicolls sails into New Amsterdam to take control of Brooklyn, a village of mostly English settlers
• August 12, 1676
  Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, is killed by English soldiers, marking the end of the King Philip's War between Indians and colonists
• August 28, 1789
  William Herschel discovers Enceladus, a moon of Saturn
• August 28, 1789
  Sir William Herschel discovers Saturn's moon Enceladus
• August 28, 1830
  Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive, loses the competition with horse-drawn car bearing passengers during test on Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
• August 28, 1867
  United States occupy Midway Islands in the Pacific
• August 28, 1879
  Cetshwayo kaMpande, last of the great Zulu kings, is captured by the British at the end of the Zulu wars
• August 28, 1923
  The August Uprising in Georgia against Soviet rule begins
• August 28, 1937
  Toyota Motors becomes an independent company
• August 28, 1963
  Martin Luther King Jr, an American leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, gives his I have a dream speech at Lincoln Memorial before 250,000 civil rights supporters
• August 28, 1968
  152 police officers are wounded and about 101 civilians injuried during anti-war protests in Chicago
• August 28, 1996
  Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court of Justice in London

August 27

• August 27, 1626
  Danish forces and allies are soundly defeated at Lutter-am-Barenberg by an army of the Catholic League under Czech leader Wallenstein, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars
• August 27, 1689
  Peter the Great takes power from his half-sister Sophia and assumes Russian throne, starting politics of modernization and westernization of traditionalist social systems
• August 27, 1776
  The Americans are defeated by the British at the Battle of Long Island, New York
• August 27, 1783
  The first unmanned hydrogen balloon flight, made by Jacques Charles, successfully completes its flight in Paris reaching 900 meter altitude
• August 27, 1813
  Napoleon defeat The Allies at the Battle of Dresden
• August 27, 1849
  Venice, under Daniele Manin, surrender to Austrians under Field Marshal Radetzky, following a siege since July 20 after proclaiming independence
• August 27, 1883
  Explosion of volcano with a force of 1,300 megatons on the island Krakatoa causes the tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait, which claims some 36,417 lives in Java and Sumatra
• August 27, 1896
  Zanzibar loses to England in a 38-minute war, the shortest war in history, which begins after the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini and the succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash
• August 27, 1913
  Lieutenant Peter Nestrov, of Imperial Russian Air Service, performs a loop in a monoplane at Kiev, the first aerobatic maneuver in an airplane
• August 27, 1928
  Kellogg–Briand Pact is signed by the USA, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Poland, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy in relations with one another
• August 27, 1939
  Heinkel He 178, the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, makes the first flight, piloted by Erich Warsit

August 26

• August 26, 55 BC
  Roman forces under the command of Julius Caesar invade Britain
• August 26, 1071
  The Seljuks under Alp Arslan defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV, who is taken prisoner, at Manzikert in Eastern Turkey and conquer parts of Anatolia and Syria
• August 26, 1346
  King Edward III's 10,000-man English army actively using the English longbow annihilate a French force of 25,000 under King Philip VI at the Battle of Crecy in Normandy
• August 26, 1429
  Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris after assault which ends siege of Paris by French army
• August 26, 1648
  The Fronde, a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, begins when the Parliament of Paris opposes the centralizing policies of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis XIV's chief minister
• August 26, 1768
  The first voyage of James Cook to the south Pacific ocean aboard HMS Endeavour starts to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis from Plymouth
• August 26, 1789
  French National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a fundamental document in the history of human and civil rights
• August 26, 1843
  Charles Thurber patents a typewriter, making some important innovations
• August 26, 1879
  Little War against Spanish rule in Cuba follows the Ten Years' War
• August 26, 1896
  The Philippines' revolutionary secret society Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang Katipunan begins armed conflict with Spanish troops, which eventually ends declaring Philippines free from Spanish rule
• August 26, 1907
  Harry Houdini, a Hungarian-American illusionist, escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 seconds
• August 26, 1914
  Germans defeat Russians in Battle of Tannenberg, resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army, and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov
• August 26, 1976
  First outbreak of the Ebola virus occurs in Yambuku, Zaire
• August 26, 1988
  Mehran Karimi Nasseri, "The terminal man", is stuck in the De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, where he will continue to reside until August 1, 2006

August 25

• August 25, 325
  First Council of Nicaea ends with condemnation of Arian Christianity and establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
• August 25, 357
  Julian, Augustus in the Roman Empire, beats the Alamanni tribal confederation under paramount king Chnodomar in the Battle of Strasbourg
• August 25, 383
  Gratian, Emperor of Rome, is murdered
• August 25, 1270
  Louis IX, King of France, dies on The Eighth Crusade, which is decimated by the Plague
• August 25, 1499
  Ottoman fleet defeats Venetians at the Battle of Zonchio
• August 25, 1515
  Spanish conquistadors under Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founds Havana in island of Cuba
• August 25, 1530
  Ivan the Terrible, the first tsar of Russia, is born
• August 25, 1543
  Portuguese ships land on the Japanese Island of Tanegashima and introduce the arquebus to Japan beginning the Nanban trade period between Portugal and Japan
• August 25, 1580
  Spain defeat Portugal in the Battle of Alcântara, the decisive battle of the Spanish King Philip II for the Portuguese throne
• August 25, 1609
  Galileo demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers
• August 25, 1689
  English–allied Iroquois takes Montreal
• August 25, 1758
  The Prussians lose 12,800 men and the Russians lose 18,000 men during Battle of Zorndorf, which ends with inconclusive results
• August 25, 1765
  In protest over the stamp tax, American colonists sack and burn the home of Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson
• August 25, 1776
  David Hume, a Scottish philosopher and historian, dies
• August 25, 1819
  James Watt, a Scottish inventor, dies
• August 25, 1825
  Uruguay, supported by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, declares independence from Brazil
• August 25, 1830
  Theatergoers who have just watched a nationalistic opera in Brussels start Belgium revolts against Netherlands
• August 25, 1835
  New York Sun publishes Moon hoax story, a series of six articles about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon
• August 25, 1875
  Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 min
• August 25, 1900
  Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, dies
• August 25, 1944
  French General Charles de Gaulle enters liberated Paris
• August 25, 1981
  Voyager 2 makes the closest approach to Saturn
• August 25, 1989
  First close up pictures of Neptune are taken by spacecraft Voyager 2
• August 25, 1991
  Belarus declares independence from Soviet Union and changes the name to the Republic of Belarus

August 24

• August 24, 79
  The eruption of Mount Vesuvius buries the Roman settlements of Pompeii and Herculaneum under 4 to 6 meters of ash and kills 33,000 inhabitants of the town-cities
• August 24, 410
  Rome is occupied and sacked by Alaric I, King of the Visigoths, for the first time since 390 BC
• August 24, 1109
  In the Battle of Hundsfeld, Boleslaus III Wrymouth Prince of Poland defeats Emperor Henry V, incited by Bolesław's half-brother Zbigniew
• August 24, 1215
  Pope Innocent III, following a request from King John, declares the Magna Carta annulled
• August 24, 1217
  Eustace the Monk, a French mercenary and pirate, is executed by English troops
• August 24, 1516
  The Ottomans under Selim I with the support of artillery defeat the Mamluks at Battle of Marj Dabiq and gain control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant
• August 24, 1572
  Catherine de' Medici instigates Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris in which French protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny and thousands of Calvinist Huguenots are killed throughout France by Roman Catholic mob
• August 24, 1662
  An Act of Uniformity, a part of the Clarendon Code, is passed by the English Parliament and required that England's college fellows and clergymen accept the newly published Book of Common Prayer
• August 24, 1690
  Job Charnock, a servant and administrator of the English East India Company, founds the city of Kolkata in East India, after the Mughal emperor transfer taxation rights to the East India Company
• August 24, 1751
  Thomas Colley, an English chimney sweep, is executed in England for drowning a supposed witch
• August 24, 1780
  King Louis XVI abolish torture as a means to get suspects to confess, as part of his reforms in France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas
• August 24, 1814
  The United States Capitol and White House in Washington D.C. are burned and sacked by British General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn during War of 1812
• August 24, 1821
  Mexico gains independence from Spain with the Treaty of Córdoba and becomes a constitutional monarchy after 11 years of war
• August 24, 1824
  Simon Bolivar's army beat the Spanish in Peru in the Battle of Junín
• August 24, 1853
  First potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum in Saratoga Springs, New York
• August 24, 1857
  The New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company fails, sparking the Panic of 1857, the first world-wide economic crisis
• August 24, 1936
  Australian Antarctic Territory is created
• August 24, 1940
  Edward R. Murrow, an American broadcast journalist, starts a series of radio news broadcasts from London during the Blitz, which follow by millions of listeners in the United States
• August 24, 1991
  Ukraine declares independence from the USSR
• August 24, 2006
  The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, demoting Pluto to the status of 'dwarf planet' more than 70 years after its discovery

August 23

• August 23, 406
  The Roman army under Stilicho beat the Barbarians and executes his Gothic king Radagaisus
• August 23, 1305
  William Wallace, one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered in London
• August 23, 1514
  The Ottoman Empire under Selim I gains decisive victory against a Persian army in the Battle of Chaldiran and wrests Eastern Anatolia from the Safavids
• August 23, 1617
  The first one-way street is opened in alleys near the River Thames in London
• August 23, 1689
  French cross the Rhine, destroying Baden-Baden by fire during Nine Years' War
• August 23, 1775
  Britain's King George III refuses the American colonies' offer of peace and proclaims the American colonies in a state of "open and avowed rebellion"
• August 23, 1833
  Slavery Abolition Act bans slavery throughout the British Empire and frees some 700,000 slaves, including those in the West Indies
• August 23, 1866
  Peace of Prague, lenient toward the Austrian Empire, ends the Austro-Prussian war and leads to the creation of the North German Confederation with Prussia as the only major power
• August 23, 1903
  In Russia the Bolsheviks, who ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Mensheviks form from the breakup of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party as a result of a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Juliy Martov
• August 23, 1939
  Germany and the Soviet Union sign Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with secret protocol, which defines eastern Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and the Romanian province of Bessarabia as Soviet domains of influence and western Poland and Lithuania as Germany's one
• August 23, 1942
  German forces attack Stalingrad in Soviet Union, starting 5-month-long battle of Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, with combined casualties amounting to nearly two million
• August 23, 1943
  Soviet forces recapture Kharkiv, the last stage of the Battle of Kursk, an important engagement between German and Soviet forces after which Red Army gains the initiative against the German Wehrmacht
• August 23, 1944
  Romania is liberated and King Michael unconditionally surrenders to the Allies
• August 23, 1962
  Mariner 2, an American space probe to Venus, and the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter, is launched
• August 23, 1996
  Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, allegedly writes "The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," his first open call for war
• August 23, 2005
  Israel's unilateral disengagement from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank ends
• August 23, 2006
  In Austria, Natascha Kampusch manages to escape after being kidnapped eight years ago by Wolfgang Priklopil who locked her up in his cellar; Priklopil commits suicide by throwing himself in front of a train

August 22

• August 22, 634
  Abu Bakr, successor of Mohammed and first Caliph, dies; Umar, a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, becomes the second Caliph
• August 22, 1138
  The english defeat Scots at the battle of the Standard
• August 22, 1236
  Volkwin, the Master of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, is defeated and killed by the Samogitians at the Battle of Saule which causes merging the order into the Teutonic Order
• August 22, 1350
  Philip VI of Valois, King of France, dies; John II of France succeeds
• August 22, 1485
  England's King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings, is killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, that ends the War of the Roses and establishes the Tudor dynasty in England
• August 22, 1614
  Trades people under Vincent Fettmilch chase and plunder Jews out of ghetto in Frankfurt
• August 22, 1642
  Civil war in England, resulted in the establishment of the supremacy of Parliament over the king, begins as King Charles I declared war on the Puritan Parliament at Nottingham
• August 22, 1676
  Ole Rømer, a Danish astronomer, publishes the first measurement of the speed of light based on the times of the eclipses of Io, the moon of Jupiter
• August 22, 1717
  The Austrian army under Eugene of Savoy force the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans
• August 22, 1787
  Inventor John Fitch demonstrates his steamboat, the Perseverance, on the Delaware River to delegates of the Continental Congress
• August 22, 1791
  Haitian Revolution, the only slave revolt which led to the founding of a state, begins in the French colony of Saint-Domingue
• August 22, 1831
  Nat Turner's Rebellion, a slave rebellion in Virginia, which claimed from 55 to 65 people, is suppressed by white militias
• August 22, 1849
  Earliest recorded air raid occurs, as Austria employs 200 balloons to deliver ordinance against Venice
• February 12, 1851
  Gold fields are discovered by gold prospector Edward Hargraves in New South Wales, Australia, starting Victorian gold rush
• August 22, 1864
  In Geneva, Switzerland, representatives of 12 nations agreed to sign the First Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field"
• August 22, 1875
  Russia recognizes Japan's control over the 4 southernmost Kuril Islands and by the Treaty of Saint Petersburg and gets all rights over Sakhalin in exchange
• August 22, 1910
  Imperial Japan annexes Korea bringing to a close the Joseon Dynasty and starting the modernization and industrialization in the peninsula
• August 22, 1932
  The British Broadcasting Corporation begins experimental regular TV broadcasts
• August 22, 1942
  Brazil declares war on Germany
• August 22, 1969
  Hurricane Camille strikes U.S. Gulf Coast and kills 255
• August 22, 2006
  The International Congress of Mathematicians awards Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman the Fields Medal for proving the Poincare conjecture, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems, but Perelman refuses the medal
• August 22, 2007
  Myanmar government arrests thirteen dissidents who led protests against huge rises in fuel prices
• August 22, 2008
  Pirates hijack German, Iranian, and Japanese cargo ships off the coast of Somalia, in seven such attacks since June 20

August 21

• August 21, 1680
  Pueblo Indians take possession of Santa Fe and drives the Spanish out of New Mexico until 1692 during the Pueblo Revolt
• August 21, 1770
  British navigator, James Cook formally claims the East Coast of Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales during his first voyage
• August 21, 1808
  Napoleon Bonaparte's General Jean-Andoche Junot is defeated by British General Arthur Wellesley at the first Battle of the Peninsular War at Vimeiro, Portugal
• August 21, 1810
  Sweden's Riksdag elects Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France under Napoleon, as heir apparent to the Swedish throne
• August 21, 1841
  John Hampson of New Orleans patents the Window blind
• August 21, 1944
  Dumbarton Oaks conference, which establishes United Nations, opens in Washington, DC
• August 21, 1968
  Radio Prague, Czechoslovakia, at 12:50 AM announces a Soviet-led invasion, after Warsaw Pact forces enter Czechoslovakia to end reform movement known as Prague Spring
• August 21, 1986
  A limnic eruption at Lake Nyos in Cameroon triggers the sudden release of about 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide and causes death of 1,744 people
• August 21, 2013
  1,429 are killed in the Ghouta chemical attack during the Syrian Civil War, blamed on President Bashar al-Assad

August 20

• August 20, 1191
  Crusader King Richard I executes some 2,700 Muslim prisoners in Acre
• August 20, 1530
  Hayreddin Barbarossa, a Barbary pirate, unites Algeria and Tunisia as military states under the Ottoman caliphate and becomes admiral of the Ottoman fleet
• August 20, 1619
  The first African slaves arrive to North America aboard a Dutch privateer and dock in Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty human captives among its cargo
• August 20, 1672
  Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland and key figure in Dutch politics, is assassinated by a carefully organized lynch mob by a shot in the neck, and his naked body is hanged and mutilated beside body of his brother Cornelis de Witt
• August 20, 1745
  Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Blair Castle, Scotland
• August 20, 1847
  General Winfield Scott wins the Battle of Churubusco, only 8 kilometers away from Mexico City
• August 20, 1860
  Robert O'Hara Burke leads a group of 15 men, 27 camels and 23 horses out of Melbourne on an expedition to cross Australia
• August 20, 1913
  Adolphe Pégoud becomes the first pilot to parachute from an aircraft
• August 20, 1939
  Soviet forces under Lieutenant General Georgi Zhukov successfully counterattack Japanese invaders at Nomanhan in the Mongolian People's Republic on the border with Manchukuo
• August 20, 1940
  Ramón Mercader, agent of Josef Stalin, fatally stabs Leon Trotsky with an ice pick in Mexico City
• August 20, 1956
  The Calder Hall atomic power station begins operation in Cumberland, Great Britain, generating up to 90,000 kilowatts of power and manufacturing plutonium becoming the world's first power station to generate electricity on an industrial scale
• August 20, 2011
  In the Battle of Tripoli, Libyan rebels take control the nation's capital, effectively overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi

August 19

• August 19, 1099
  Crusaders led by Frankish knight Godfrey of Bouillon beat Fatimid forces at Battle of Ascalon
• August 19, 1399
  King Richard II of England surrenders to his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, who returns to England to claim his inherited lands
• August 19, 1493
  Maximilian I succeeds his father Frederick III, who bleeds to death after the amputation of his left leg, as Holy Roman Emperor
• August 19, 1524
  Emperor Charles V's troops besiege Marseille
• August 19, 1692
  Five women are hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being convicted of the crime of witchcraft
• August 19, 1700
  Russia declares war on Sweden
• August 19, 1772
  Gustav III of Sweden eliminates the rule of parties, becoming almost an absolute monarch
• August 19, 1779
  Americans under Major Henry Lee take the British garrison at Paulus Hook, New Jersey
• August 19, 1821
  Navarino Massacre, a massacre of Turkish civilian population during Greek War of Independence, occurs
• August 19, 1871
  Orville Wright, aviation pioneer, is born in Dayton, Ohio
• August 19, 1934
  One day before the death of Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor of Germany Hitler and his cabinet issue a decree, that dissolves the office of the president and make Hitler Führer of Germany
• August 19, 1942
  United States Marines land on Guadalcanal, Solomon Island starting the first American offensive in Pacific in World War II
• August 19, 1953
  Mohammad Mosaddegh, Prime Minister of Iran and the leading champion of secular democracy, is deposed in Iran by the British MI6 and the American CIA
• August 19, 1988
  Iran and Iraq begin a cease-fire after eight years of war
• August 19, 1991
  Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while vacationing in the Crimea during a coup, during the failed coup attempt, led by Vice President Gennady Yanayev and seven hard-liners, and collapsed in less than 72 hours

August 18

• August 18, 1227
  Genghis Khan, a Mongol conqueror, dies, which triggers subsequent division of Mongol empire among his sons
• August 18, 1459
  City of Smederevo falls under the Turks after three-months siege completing the Ottoman conquest of Serbia
• August 18, 1588
  A storm strikes the remaining 60 ships of the Spanish Armada under the Duke Alonso Pérez de Guzmán after which only 11 are left. Many of the ships go to Ireland where most of the Spaniards are killed by the English
• August 18, 1759
  The French fleet is destroyed by the British under Admiral Edward Boscawen, at the battle of Lagos Bay in southern Portugal
• August 18, 1807
  Robert Stevenson begins work on the 35-meters Bell Rock lighthouse at the mouth of Scotland's Firth of Forth, the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse
• August 18, 1838
  United States Exploring Expedition, an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands, led by Charles Wilkes, departs from Hampton Roads
• August 18, 1846
  General Stephen W. Kearny proclaims all of New Mexico a territory of the United States and declares himself the military governor of the New Mexico Territory shortly after Capture of Santa Fe
• August 18, 1851
  The Platine War for the hegemony over South America begins between the Argentine Confederation and Empire of Brazil and its alliance
• August 18, 1862
  Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota four young Sioux murder five white settlers at Acton Township, Minnesota
• August 18, 1870
  Prussian forces defeat the French at the Battle of Gravelotte, the largest battle during the Franco–Prussian War
• August 18, 1920
  Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women right to vote, is ratified
• August 18, 1920
  Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković links Earth's periodic long-term climate changes with orbital eccentricity and full cycles of Earth's axis precession, later called Milankovitch cycles
• August 18, 1955
  First Sudanese Civil War begins between the northern part of Sudan and the southern Sudan region

August 17

• August 17, 1743
  By the Treaty of Åbo, Sweden cedes southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war with Russia
• August 17, 1786
  Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, dies, and his nephew Frederick William II succeeds
• August 17, 1807
  Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, popularly known as the Clermont, begin heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany and becomes the first commercially successful steamboat
• August 17, 1812
  Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow
• August 17, 1869
  Oxford beats Harvard on the Thames River in the first international boat race
• August 17, 1877
  Asaph Hall, an American astronomer, discovered the Mars moon Phobos
• August 17, 1945
  Indonesia declares independence from Netherlands
• August 17, 1960
  Gabon gains independence from France
• August 17, 1970
  Venera 7, the first man-made spacecraft to land successfully on another planet, and to transmit data from there back to Earth, is launched by USSR
• August 17, 1982
  The first commercially available compact discs are released to the public in Germany
• August 17, 1987
  Rudolf Hess, a prominent politician in Nazi Germany, commits suicide by hanging himself with an electrical flex in his cell at age 93 in Spandau Prison in Berlin, Germany, where he served 46 years
• August 17, 1998
  Decline in commodity prices triggers financial crisis in Russia and discredits the government of President Boris Yeltsin
• August 17, 2008
  Michael Phelps wins his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games, in the 4x100 medley relay, in record time of 3:29.34 and holds the record for most gold medals at an Olympics event

August 16

• August 16, 1419
  Wenceslaus IV, King of Germany and Charles IV's son, dies and is succeeded by Sigismund
• August 16, 1513
  Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian crush the French at the Battle of the Spurs
• August 16, 1777
  American forces win the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vermont
• August 16, 1780
  American troops under General Horatio Gates are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina
• August 16, 1793
  French National Convention declares universal conscription in the Levée en masse
• August 16, 1819
  11 people are killed in the Peterloo massacre after English police charge into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field that have gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation
• August 16, 1829
  The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston from Siam, now Thailand, aboard the ship Sachem to be exhibited to the Western world
• August 16, 1940
  Foreign Correspondent, American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is released
• August 16, 1943
  Sicily is conquered by Allied forces during Operation Husky
• August 16, 2008
  Russia signs a French-brokered peace plan with Georgia, ending their nine-day-old conflict
• August 16, 2009
  Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt sets a 100 m world record (9.58) at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin

August 15

• August 15, 636
  At the Battle at Yarmuk Islamic forces under Khalid ibn al-Walid beat a Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius and gain control of Syria and Palestine
• August 15, 718
  The combined Byzantine–Bulgarian forces decisively defeat Umayyad navy using Greek fire after thirteen months of siege of Constantinople, stopping the Arab threat in Eastern Europe
• August 15, 778
  The Basques, an ethnic group from western end of the Pyrenees, beat forces of Charlemagne and Roland, prefect of the Breton March, at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass
• August 15, 1040
  Macbeth kills Duncan I at Pitgaveny and becomes the King of the Scots
• August 15, 1057
  Macbeth, the King of Scotland, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Lumphanan, by Malcolm Canmore, the eldest son of King Duncan I, who was killed by Macbeth 17 years earlier
• August 15, 1261
  Constantinople falls to Michael VIII Palaiologos who transforms the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire
• August 15, 1511
  Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca and center of East Indian spice trade, is captured by Portuguese general Afonso de Albuquerque
• August 15, 1519
  Panama City is founded
• August 15, 1549
  Francis Xavier, a co-founder of the Society of Jesus, lands in Kagoshima with the first Portuguese Jesuit missionary to rich Japan
• August 15, 1598
  Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leads an Irish force to victory over the British at Battle of Yellow Ford
• August 15, 1649
  Oliver Cromwell lands in Ireland beginning the conquest of Ireland
• August 15, 1760
  Frederick II, king of Prussia, defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Liegnitz
• August 15, 1769
  Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and continental Europe, is born on the island of Corsica
• August 15, 1799
  Combined army of Austrians and Imperial Russians under Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov beat French Revolutionary Army at Novi Ligure, Italy, recapturing lands taken by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796
• August 15, 1806
  Construction of Arc de Triomphe, a triumphal arch in Paris, starts by order of Napoleon in honor of the victory at Austerlitz
• August 15, 1865
  Sir Joseph Lister discovers the antiseptic process while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, which led to a reduction in post-operative infections
• August 15, 1867
  Second Reform Bill extends suffrage in England giving the vote to the working classes
• August 15, 1914
  Panama Canal, one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects, officially opens in Panama, connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
• August 15, 1935
  Famed American aviator Wiley Post and humorist Will Rogers are killed in plane crash in Alaska
• August 15, 1944
  The Allies launch Operation Anvil, as a second Allied invasion force under Lieutenant-General Jacob Devers lands on the Mediterranean coast of France between Cannes and Toulon
• August 15, 1947
  The greater Indian subcontinent formed by the Partition of India gain independence from the British Empire as Dominion of India, with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister
• August 15, 1948
  Republic of Korea, South Korea, is proclaimed by an anti-Communist Syngman Rhee, who has been backed and appointed by the United States as head of the provisional government
• August 15, 1969
  Woodstock Music and Art Fair, widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history, opens in New York State
• August 15, 1971
  US President Richard Nixon's administration refuses to settle foreign debts in gold at $35 per ounce, dropping the gold standard, and allowing the dollar to float in foreign exchanges, also imposes a 90-day wage and price freeze