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 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 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 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 13

• August 13, 604
  Chinese emperor Wen is murdered by Yang, his son, who succeeds the throne
• August 13, 1415
  King Henry V of England takes his army across the English Channel and lays siege on Port Harfleur in Normandy
• August 13, 1521
  Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez conquers the Mexican city of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City, after an 85-day battle and completes conquest of Aztec Empire
• August 13, 1624
  French King Louis XIII names Cardinal Richelieu his first minister who becomes the world's first Prime Minister and begins to transform France into a centralized state
• August 13, 1630
  Emperor Frederick II fires Albrecht von Wallenstein, his best military commander
• August 13, 1642
  Christiaan Huygens, a prominent Dutch mathematician, discovers the Martian south polar cap
• August 13, 1645
  At Brömsebro peace is signed between Sweden and Denmark. Sweden gains the islands of Gotland and Halland from Denmark, Norway cedes to Sweden the northern provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen
• August 13, 1704
  The Battle of Blenheim, the turning point of the War of the Spanish Succession, results in decisive English and Austrian forces victory under Prince Eugene of Savoy and Duke of Marlborough over the Franco-Bavarian army
• August 13, 1787
  The Russian ambassador to the Ottomans, Yakov Bulgakov, is thrown into prison and the Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia starting the Russo–Turkish War of 1787–1792
• August 13, 1792
  Louis XVI of France is declared an enemy of the people and imprisoned with the French royal family, including Marie Antoinette, by revolutionaries
• August 13, 1814
  Netherland is signed to stop the transport of slaves and returns its colonial possessions before the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars by Treaty of London
• August 13, 1826
  Alexander Gordon Laing, British Army Major, crosses on camel the Sahara Desert from Tripoli and becomes the first European to enter the fabled city of Timbuktu in Mali
• August 13, 1849
  Hungary's General Artúr Görgey surrender to the Russian forces, who invaded Hungary to help Austrian Empire in struggle against Hungarian rebellions
• August 13, 1868
  In Arica, Peru, a magnitude 8.5-9.0 earthquake occurs, with catastrophic tsunamis killing 25,000 in South America
• August 13, 1876
  Richard Wagner's monumental epic, "Der Ring des Nibelungen" is first performed in its entirety at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany
• August 13, 1898
  Manila, the capital of the Philippines, falls to the United States Army under Admiral George Dewey
• August 13, 1913
  Harry Brearley, an English metallurgist, produces the first stainless steel
• August 13, 1918
  Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is established as a public company for aircraft-engine production in Germany
• August 13, 1923
  Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is elected president of the newly established Republic of Turkey
• August 13, 1960
  Central African Republic proclaims independence from France
• August 13, 1961
  The units of the East German army close the border and begin building of the Berlin Wall

August 12

• August 12, 30 BC
  Cleopatra, the most famous queen and the last active pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, kills herself by inducing an Egyptian cobra to bite her after her beloved Mark Antony's suicide
• August 12, 1093
  In England the foundation stone for Durham Cathedral is laid down
• August 12, 1332
  Rebels supporting the Balliol beat forces of the infant David II, the son of Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Dupplin Moor in Scotland
• August 12, 1399
  Battle of the Vorskla River, a major battle between joint armies of Tokhtamysh and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, and the Tatars, under Edigu and Temur Qutlugh, ends in a decisive Tatar victory
• August 12, 1508
  Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish explorer, arrives to New World to conquer the Puerto Rico
• August 12, 1648
  Seven-year-old Mehmed IV succeeds Ibrahim in the Ottoman House of Osman
• August 12, 1687
  At the Battle of Mohács, Hungary, the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, commanded by Charles of Lorraine defeated the Turks
• August 12, 1759
  Forces of Frederick the Great are defeated by combined army of Russians and Austrians under Pyotr Saltykov at Kunersdorf, which gives the victors the opportunity to march against Berlin
• August 12, 1812
  British commander the Duke of Wellington occupies Madrid, Spain, forcing out Joseph Bonaparte
• August 12, 1851
  Isaac Singer, the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, is granted a patent for his sewing machine
• August 12, 1883
  The last quagga, subspecies of the plains zebra, dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam
• August 12, 1896
  Gold is discovered at Dawson on the Klondike River in Alaska, triggering Klondike Gold Rush in Canada
• August 12, 1981
  At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, and in Boca Raton, Florida, IBM announces the model 5150, called IBM Personal Computer, a progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform
• August 12, 1982
  Mexico announces it is unable to pay its large foreign debt, triggering a debt crisis that quickly spreads throughout Latin America
• August 12, 1985
  Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes in Japan, killing 520 people becoming the worst single-aircraft disaster in history
• August 12, 1990
  The largest and most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, called "Sue", is discovered near Faith, South Dakota
• August 12, 2000
  The Russian submarine K-141 Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board

August 11

• August 11, 3114 BC
  The Mayan calendar, a system of calendars consisting of several counts of different lengths, begins in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
• August 11, 117
  The Roman army of Syria hail its legate, Hadrian, as emperor, which made the senate's formal acceptance an almost meaningless event
• August 11, 991
  Danes under Olaf Tryggvason defeat Anglo-Saxons forces at Battle of Maldon and kill Ealdorman of Essex Byrhtnoth
• August 11, 1804
  Austrian Empire is proclaimed by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who assumes the title of the first Emperor of Austria, as a reaction to Napoleon making himself an emperor
• August 11, 1918
  Battle of Amiens, the opening phase of the Allied offensive against Germany, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, ends with Allied victory
• August 11, 1960
  Chad declares independence from France and becomes one of seventeen nations in Africa to gain independence in 1960, what became known as Year of Africa
• August 11, 1966
  Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation ends after Indonesian General Suharto sign peace agreement with Malaysia
• August 11, 1984
  United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes"
• August 11, 2003
  A heat wave in Paris causes temperatures up to 44 degrees C
• August 11, 2009
  The Perseid meteor showers peak at 200 observations per hour

August 10

• August 10, 843
  Sons of Louis the Pious divide Charlemagne's Empire by Treaty of Verdun, so Charles the Bald receives the western portion, which later became France, Louis the German get eastern lands, later the medieval kingdom of Germany, and Lothair I receives the central part
• August 10, 1497
  John Cabot told King Henry VII of his trip to "Asia" after his return from his first successful journey to the Labrador coast
• August 10, 1500
  Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias discovers Madagascar
• August 10, 1539
  King Francis I of France signs edict known as Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, declaring that all official documents are to be written in French, not Latin
• August 10, 1557
  Spanish and English troops in alliance defeat the French at the Battle of St. Quentin (San Quintino)
• August 10, 1582
  Russia ends its 25-year war with Poland and cedes Livonia and Estonia to Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth losing access to the Baltic
• August 10, 1627
  Cardinal Richelieu begins a siege to Protestant La Rochelle, a Huguenot stronghold
• August 10, 1628
  The Swedish 69-meter warship Vasa capsizes and sinks in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage because the ballast is insufficient to counterweight the 64 guns and ballast
• August 10, 1675
  King of England Charles II lays the foundation stone of Royal Observatory in Greenwich, an important institution in the history of astronomy and navigation
• August 10, 1678
  The Treaty of Nijmegen ends the hostilities with France and gives to France control over the region of the Franche-Comté
• August 10, 1680
  In New Mexico Popé, a Tewa religious leader, leads rebellion of Pueblo Indians against Spaniads
• August 10, 1755
  The Great Upheaval, forced population transfer of the French Acadian population from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, begins
• August 10, 1779
  Louis XVI of France frees the last remaining serfs on royal land
• August 10, 1787
  Mozart completes his composition Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
• August 10, 1792
  Some 20,000 Parisians attack the Tuileries palace of Louis XVI at the instigation of Georges Jacques Danton and massacre some 600 guardsmen after Louis orders his Swiss guard to stop firing on the people
• August 10, 1809
  Quito, the seat of a real audiencia of Spain in modern-day Ecuador, declares independence from Spain
• August 10, 1861
  Union general Nathaniel Lyon the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War, at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri, which ends with a Confederate victory
• August 10, 1913
  Second Balkan War ends with Treaty of Bucharest, which confirms territorial acquisitions of Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria at the expense of Ottoman Empire during the First and Second Balkan Wars
• August 10, 1927
  United States President Calvin Coolidge formally dedicates the Mount Rushmore site
• August 10, 2010
  The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns

August 9

• August 9, 48 BC
  Dictator of the Roman Republic Julius Caesar defeats Senatorial army under Gnaeus Pompeius in the battle of Pharsalus in central Greece, the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War
• August 9, 14
  Augustus, the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, dies and his adopted son Tiberius succeeds to the throne
• August 9, 378
  Cavalry of Visigoth, a branch of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples, destroys Roman army and kills emperor Valens at battle of Adrianople
• August 9, 910
  King Edward of Wessex, son of Alfred the Great, defeats the Northumbrian Vikings at the Battle of Tettenhall
• August 9, 1378
  Cardinals declare Pope Urban VI lawless, anti-Christian, and devil
• August 9, 1483
  Pope Sixtus IV celebrates the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, chapel in the official residence of the Pope, named in his honor
• August 9, 1805
  Austria joins Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the Third Coalition against Napoleonic France and Spain
• August 9, 1842
  United States-Canada border is defined by Webster–Ashburton Treaty
• August 9, 1855
  Antonio López de Santa Anna resigns for the 11th and the last time as President of Mexico
• August 9, 1896
  Otto Lilienthal, German aerodynamic engineer, makes his last glide when his glider No. 11 is upset by a sudden gust of wind and he is unable to regain control
• August 9, 1936
  American track and field athlete Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, so is called "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy"
• August 9, 1942
  British arrest Indian nationalist Mohandas Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee in Bombay
• August 9, 1945
  Fat Man, an implosion-type atomic bomb with a plutonium core, is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing outright 35,000-40,000 people and thousands more from the effect of burns and radiation sickness during the following months
• August 9, 1965
  Singapore gains independence from Malaysia
• August 9, 1974
  Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, resigns from office as a result of the Watergate Scandal, triggered by break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex
• August 9, 2007
  The French global bank BNP Paribas in the United Kingdom blocks withdrawals from three hedge funds heavily committed in subprime mortgages, signaling the beginning of Great Recession

August 6

• August 6, 258
  Pope Sixtus II, bishop of Rome, is beheaded upon orders of Emperor Valerian
• August 6, 1517
  Francysk Skaryna, a Belarusian humanist and one of the first book printers in Eastern Europe, releases in Prague The Psalter, his first edition in the Old Belarusian language
• August 6, 1753
  Georg Richmann, German physicist, dies of electrocution in St. Petersburg, Russia, during an attempt to duplicate Benjamin Franklin's "sentry box" experiment becoming the first person in history to die while conducting electrical experiments
• August 6, 1774
  Mother Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker Movement, arrives in New York
• August 6, 1806
  The Holy Roman Empire goes out of existence after the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicates as a consequence of the Treaty of Pressburg and reorganizing Germany under a Napoleon
• August 6, 1825
  Bolivia gains independence from Peru with Latin America political leader Simón Bolívar as the first president after 15 years of war
• August 6, 1870
  Prussia beat France in the Battle of Spicheren
• August 6, 1888
  Martha Tabram, an English prostitute, is murdered by an unknown assailant, believed to be Jack the Ripper, a serial killer, who murdered from 5 to 11 women between August and November in London's Whitechapel district
• August 6, 1890
  Convicted murderer William Kemmler, senteced to death at Auburn State Prison in New York for murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe, becomes the first person to be executed in the electric chair
• August 6, 1926
  Warner Bros premieres Vitaphone sound-on-disc movie system in New York, Don Juan with John Barrymore shown
• August 6, 1945
  American airmen drop atomic bomb, developed by the Manhattan Project, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing from 90,000 to 166,000 people, which becomes together with bomb dropped on another Japanese city, Nagasaki, the only use of nuclear weapons in war
• August 6, 1962
  Jamaica gains independence from Britain
• August 6, 1978
  Pope Paul VI dies at age 80 of heart attack at summer residence in Castelgandolfo
• August 6, 1990
  United Nations Security Council votes 13-0 to place economic sanctions against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait
• August 6, 1996
  NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, found in Allan Hills, Antarctica, and thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms