On This Day in History August 31

August 31 – Events:

• 1056 – Byzantine Empress Theodora becomes ill, dying suddenly a few days later, without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty.
• 1142 – With the aid of Hiawatha and Deganawidah, The Great Peacemaker, the Iroquois tribes establish the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee.
• 1422 – Henry VI, becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
• 1803 – Lewis and Clark start their expedition from Pittsburgh at 11 o clock in the morning.
• 1864 – During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1876 – Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
• 1886 – Earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1888 – Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper’s known victims.
• 1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
• 1907 – Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the St. Petersburg Convention, which results in the Triple Entente alliance.
• 1914 – Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1915 – Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1920 – Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
• 1920 – First radio news program broadcast by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1939 – Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II in Europe.
• 1942 – In Ternopil, western Ukraine, at 4.30 am, German SS organize the first deportation of Jews from Ternopil ghetto to death camp in Belzec, about 5,000 Jews were deported to face death in Belzec. When the Germans captured Ternopil, about 18,000 Jews lived in the city.
• 1943 – The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
• 1945 – The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
• 1948 – Actor Robert Mitchum was arrested in a Hollywood drug raid. He would later be found guilty of criminal conspiracy to possess marijuana and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.
• 1957 – The Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1962 – Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
• 1963 – Walter Cronkite began his stint as anchor of the CBS Evening News.
• 1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes its first flight.
• 1968 – Garfield Sobers becomes the first cricketer to hit 6 sixes in one over.
• 1978 – William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
• 1980 – The Gdansk Agreement is signed.
• 1986 – Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
• 1986 – The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.
• 1991 – Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 – Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo.
• 1994 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales dies as a result of a car crash in Paris.
• 1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, its first satellite.
• 1999 – The first of a series of Russian Apartment Bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.
• 1999 – A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including 2 on the ground.
• 2005 – A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
• 2006 – Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream was recovered from a raid by Norwegian police. The paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition.

August 31 – Birthdays:

• 12 – Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
• 161 – Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)
• 1569 – Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1627)
• 1602 – Amalia von Solms, countess of Solms-Braunfels (d. 1675)
• 1663 – Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d. 1705)
• 1721 – George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (d. 1775)
• 1741 – Jean Paul Egide Martini, French composer (d. 1816)
• 1811 – Theophile Gautier, French poet and novelist (d. 1872)
• 1821 – Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (d. 1894)
• 1822 – Galusha A. Grow, American politician (d. 1907)
• 1834 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d. 1886)
• 1843 – Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1919)
• 1870 – Maria Montessori, Italian educator (d. 1952)
• 1871 – James E. Ferguson, Texan governor (d. 1944)
• 1878 – Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
• 1879 – Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel (d. 1964)
• 1880 – Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
• 1885 – DuBose Heyward, American playwright (d. 1940)
• 1893 – Lily Laskine, French harpist (d. 1988)
• 1896 – Félix-Antoine Savard, French-Canadian priest and novelist (d. 1982)
• 1897 – Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
• 1900 – Gino Lucetti, Italian anarchist (d. 1943)
• 1903 – Arthur Godfrey, American television host (d. 1983)
• 1903 – Vladimir Jankélévitch, French philosopher (d. 1985)
• 1905 – Sanford Meisner, American actor and teacher (d. 1997)
• 1907 – Augustus F. Hawkins, American politician and civil rights lawmaker (d. 2007)
• 1907 – Ramon Magsaysay, Filipino politician (d. 1957)
• 1907 – William Shawn, American editor (d. 1992)
• 1907 – Altiero Spinelli, Italian citizen and advocate of European federalism (d. 1986)
• 1908 – William Saroyan, American novelist (d. 1981)
• 1913 – Sir Bernard Lovell, English radio astronomer
• 1914 – Richard Basehart, American actor (d. 1984)
• 1916 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist
• 1918 – Alan Jay Lerner, American lyricist (d. 1986)
• 1919 – Amrita Preetam, Indian poetess and author (d. 2005)
• 1924 – Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (d. 2003)
• 1927 – Bill Daily, American actor and comedian
• 1928 – James Coburn, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1931 – Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1931 – Jean Béliveau, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1934 – Nikos Xanthopoulos, Greek actor
• 1935 – Frank Robinson, American baseball player and manager
• 1935 – Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d. 1998)
• 1937 – Warren Berlinger, American actor
• 1937 – Bobby Parker, American blues musician/guitarist
• 1938 – Martin Bell, British journalist
• 1938 – Murray Gleeson, Australian Jurist, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia (b. 1938)
• 1939 – Jerry Allison, American drummer (The Crickets)
• 1941 – William DeWitt, Jr., American businessman
• 1944 – Roger Dean, British artist
• 1945 – Van Morrison, Northern Irish musician
• 1945 – Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist
• 1946 – Jerome Corsi, American writer
• 1947 – Mona Marshall, American voice actress
• 1947 – Yumiko Oshima, Japanese manga artist
• 1947 – Luca di Montezemolo, Italian businessman
• 1948 – Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter
• 1948 – Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist (Scorpions)
• 1948 – Harald Ertl, Austrian racing driver (d. 1982)
• 1948 – Holger Osieck, German footballer and coach
• 1949 – Richard Gere, American actor
• 1949 – H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1952 – Herbert Reul, German politician
• 1953 – György Károly, Hungarian author
• 1953 – Miguel Ángel Guerra, Argentine racing driver
• 1953 – Pavel Vinogradov, Russian cosmonaut
• 1954 – Julie Brown, American actress, singer-songwriter and screenwriter
• 1954 – Caroline Cossey, English model
• 1955 – Edwin Moses, American athlete
• 1956 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
• 1957 – Gina Schock, American drummer (The Go-Go’s)
• 1957 – Glenn Tilbrook, British musician (Squeeze)
• 1958 – Serge Blanco, French rugby footballer
• 1959 – Ralph Krueger, German-Canadian ice hockey coach
• 1960 – Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizballah
• 1960 – Chris Whitley, American musician (d. 2005)
• 1960 – Vali Ionescu, Rumanian long jumper
• 1962 – Dee Bradley Baker, American voice actor
• 1963 – Reb Beach, American guitarist (Winger, Whitesnake)
• 1963 – Todd Carty, Irish actor
• 1963 – Sonny Silooy, Dutch football player
• 1964 – Raymond P. Hammond, American poet and editor
• 1965 – Céline Bonnier, Quebec actress
• 1965 – Daniel Bernhardt, Swiss actor
• 1966 – Jan Einar Thorsen, Norwegian Alpine skier
• 1967 – Anita Moen, Norwegian Cross-country skier
• 1968 – Hideo Nomo, Japanese baseball player
• 1969 – Jonathan LaPaglia, Australian actor
• 1969 – Nathalie Bouvier, French alpine skier
• 1970 – Deborah Gibson, American singer
• 1970 – Queen Rania, Queen of Jordan
• 1970 – Zack Ward, Canadian actor
• 1970 – Arie van Lent, Dutch-German footballer
• 1971 – Pádraig Harrington, Irish professional golfer
• 1972 – Chris Tucker, American actor
• 1973 – Scott Niedermayer, hockey player
• 1974 – Andriy Medvedev, Ukrainian tennis player
• 1975 – Daniel Harding, British conductor
• 1975 – Gabe Kapler, American baseball player and manager
• 1975 – Sara Ramirez, American actress
• 1975 – John Grahame, American-born Canadian hockey player
• 1976 – Radek Martinek, Czechoslovakian ice hockey player
• 1976 – Roque Júnior, Brazilian footballer
• 1976 – Vincent Delerm, French singer-songwriter, pianist and composer
• 1977 – Jeff Hardy, American professional wrestler
• 1977 – Ian Harte, Irish footballer
• 1977 – Craig Nicholls, Australian musician (The Vines)
• 1978 – Phina Oruche, British actress
• 1978 – Philippe Christanval, French footballer
• 1979 – Clay Hensley, professional baseball player
• 1979 – Mickie James, American professional wrestler
• 1979 – Mark Johnston, Canadian swimmer
• 1979 – Simon Neil, Scottish musician (Biffy Clyro)
• 1979 – Ramón Santiago, Dominican baseball player
• 1980 – Joe Budden, American rapper
• 1981 – Joe Swanberg, American filmmaker
• 1981 – 40 Cal, American rapper
• 1981 – Dwayne Peel, Welsh International rugby player
• 1982 – Ian Crocker, American swimmer
• 1982 – Chris Duhon, American basketball player
• 1982 – Josh Kroeger, American baseball player
• 1982 – Alexei Mikhnov, Ukrainian-born ice hockey player
• 1982 – Jose Reina, Spanish footballer
• 1982 – Michele Rugolo, Italian racing driver
• 1982 – Patrick Nuo, Swiss singer
• 1983 – Larry Fitzgerald, American football player
• 1984 – Ted Ligety, American alpine skier
• 1984 – Matti Breschel, Danish road bicycle racer
• 1984 – Charl Schwartzel, South African golfer
• 1987 – Petros Kravaritis, Greek footballer

August 31 – Deaths:

• 651 – Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary
• 1056 – Theodora, Byzantine Empress (b. 981)
• 1234 – Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (b. 1212)
• 1372 – Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (b. 1301)
• 1422 – King Henry V of England (b. 1387)
• 1645 – Francesco Bracciolini, Italian poet (b. 1566)
• 1654 – Ole Worm, Danish physician (b. 1588)
• 1688 – John Bunyan, English writer (b. 1628)
• 1730 – Gottfried Finger, Czech composer (b. 1660?)
• 1741 – Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b. 1681)
• 1772 – William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
• 1795 – François-André Danican Philidor, French chess player (b. 1726)
• 1799 – Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (b. 1720)
• 1814 – Arthur Phillip, British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales (b. 1738)
• 1867 – Charles Baudelaire, French poet (b. 1821)
• 1869 – Mary Ward, Irish scientist, first automobile accident victim (b. 1827)
• 1888 – Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, widely believed to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1845)
• 1920 – Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (b. 1832)
• 1940 – Georges Gauthier, French Canadian Roman Catholic archbishop of Montreal (b. 1871)
• 1941 – Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (b. 1892)
• 1948 – Billy Laughlin, American actor (b. 1932)
• 1952 – Henri Bourassa, French Canadian political leader (b. 1868)
• 1963 – Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)
• 1967 – Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer (b. 1891)
• 1969 – Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)
• 1973 – John Ford, American film director (b. 1894)
• 1974 – William Pershing Benedict, American pilot
• 1974 – Norman Kirk, New Zealand prime minister (b. 1923)
• 1978 – John Wrathall, President of Rhodesia (b. 1913)
• 1979 – Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (b. 1904)
• 1985 – Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1899)
• 1986 – Henry Moore, English sculptor (b. 1898)
• 1986 – Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)
• 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales (b. 1961)
• 2002 – Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player (b. 1908)
• 2002 – George Porter, English chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Carl Wayne, English singer (b. 1943)
• 2005 – Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1908)
• 2005 – Michael Sheard, British actor (b. 1940)
• 2006 – Mohamed Abdelwahab, Egyptian footballer (b. 1983)
• 2006 – Tom Delaney, British racing driver (b. 1911)
• 2007 – Gay Brewer, American golfer (b. 1932)

August 31 – Holidays:

• Poland, Europe – Day of Solidarity and Freedom, on the anniversary of August Agreement from 1980
• Moldova: Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra).
• Malaysia – Hari Merdeka, a National Day (independence within the Commonwealth, 1957).
• Kyrgyzstan – Independence Day (from USSR, 1991).
• Trinidad and Tobago – Independence Day (from United Kingdom, 1962).

On This Day in History August 30

August 30 – Events:

• 1363 – Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang—are pitted against each other in what was one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.
• 1574 – Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
• 1590 – Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle.
• 1791 – The HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day.
• 1799 – Capture of the entire Dutch fleet by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars.
• 1800 – Gabriel Prosser leads a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia
• 1813 – Battle of Kulm: French forces defeated by Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
• 1813 – Creek War: Creek Red Sticks carried out the Fort Mims Massacre.
• 1835 – Melbourne, Australia is founded.
• 1836 – The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout a Union army under General Horatio Wright.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Union forces are defeated in Second Battle of Bull Run.
• 1873 – Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.
• 1897 – The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.
• 1896 – Eight provinces in the Philippines were declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco. This included the provinces of Batangas, Rizal, Cavite, Nueva Ecija as well as the nearby areas.
• 1909 – Burgess Shale fossils discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
• 1914 – Battle of Tannenberg.
• 1918 – Fanya Kaplan, an assassin, shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.
• 1922 – Battle of Dumlupinar, final battle in Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) (“Turkish War of Independence”).
• 1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins.
• 1942 – World War II: Battle of Alam Halfa begins.
• 1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
• 1945 – Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
• 1956 – Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens.
• 1962 – Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
• 1963 – Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders goes into operation.
• 1967 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first black Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
• 1974 – A Belgrade-Dortmund express train derails at the main train station in Zagreb killing 153 passengers.
• 1974 – Powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 8 killed, 378 injured. Eight leftwing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
• 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
• 1990 – Tatarstan declares independence from the RSFSR.
• 1999 – East Timorese vote for independence in a referendum.

August 30 – Birthdays:

• 1334 – Pedro of Castile (d. 1369)
• 1377 – Shah Rukh, ruler of Persia and Transoxonia (d. 1447)
• 1705 – David Hartley, English philosopher (d. 1757)
• 1720 – Samuel Whitbread, English brewer (d. 1796)
• 1748 – Jacques-Louis David, French painter (d. 1825)
• 1797 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English writer (d. 1851)
• 1808 – Princess Ludovika of Bavaria (d. 1892)
• 1813 – Princess Mathilde of Bavaria d. 1862
• 1818 – Alexander H. Rice, 30 Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895)
• 1821 – Anita Garibaldi, Brazilian warrior; Garibaldi’s wife (War of Tatters) (d. 1849)
• 1839 – Gulstan Ropert, French Catholic prelate (d. 1903)
• 1842 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia (d. 1849)
• 1848 – Andrew Onderdonk, Canadian railway contractor (d. 1905)
• 1852 – Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1911)
• 1856 – Carle David Tolmé Runge, German physicist (d. 1927)
• 1860 – Isaac Levitan, Russian artist (d. 1900)
• 1870 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia (d. 1891)
• 1871 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand-born Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate (d. 1937)
• 1884 – Theodor Svedberg, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
• 1893 – Huey Long, American politician (d. 1935)
• 1896 – Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (d. 1983)
• 1898 – Shirley Booth, American actress (d. 1992)
• 1901 – Roy Wilkins, American civil rights leader (1981)
• 1901 – John Gunther, American writer (d. 1970)
• 1906 – Joan Blondell, American actress (d. 1979)
• 1908 – Fred MacMurray, American actor (d. 1991)
• 1912 – Edward Mills Purcell, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
• 1912 – Nancy Wake AC GM, New Zealand-born World War II secret agent
• 1913 – Richard Stone, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (d. 1991)
• 1915 – Robert Strassburg, American composer (d. 2003)
• 1918 – Ted Williams, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1918 – Billy Johnson, American baseball player (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Kitty Wells, American singer
• 1922 – Lionel Murphy, Australian politician (d. 1986)
• 1922 – Regina Resnik, American mezzo-soprano
• 1923 – Barbara Mary Ansell, UK founder of paediatric rheumatology (d. 2001)
• 1923 – Vic Seixas, American tennis player
• 1924 – Geoffrey Beene, American fashion designer (d. 2004)
• 1925 – Laurent de Brunhoff, French writer and illustrator
• 1928 – Lloyd Casner, American racecar driver and owner (d. 1965)
• 1930 – Warren Buffett, American entrepreneur
• 1930 – Jerry Tarkanian, American basketball coach
• 1931 – Jack Swigert, American astronaut (d. 1982)
• 1933 – Don Getty, Canadian politician
• 1935 – John Phillips, American singer (Mamas and the Papas) (d. 2001)
• 1937 – Bruce McLaren, New Zealand car racer and founder of eponymous race team (d. 1970)
• 1939 – John Peel, English radio disc jockey (d. 2004)
• 1939 – Elizabeth Ashley, American actress
• 1941 – Ben Jones, American actor and politician
• 1943 – Robert Crumb, American cartoonist
• 1943 – Jean-Claude Killy, French skier
• 1944 – Molly Ivins, American political humorist (d. 2007)
• 1944 – Tug McGraw, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1946 – Peggy Lipton, American actress
• 1946 – Queen Anne-Marie of Greece
• 1947 – Allan Rock, Canadian politician and diplomat
• 1948 – Lewis Black, American comedian
• 1948 – Donnacha O’Dea, Irish poker player and swimmer
• 1949 – Peter Maffay, German musician
• 1949 – Ted Ammon, American financier (d. 2001)
• 1949 – Christopher Collins, American actor and comedian (d. 1994)
• 1949 – Don Boudria, Canadian politician
• 1951 – Timothy Bottoms, American actor
• 1951 – Dana, Irish singer and politician
• 1953 – Robin Harris, American comedian (d. 1990)
• 1953 – Horace Panter, British musician (The Specials and General Public)
• 1953 – Robert Parish, American basketball player
• 1953 – Ron George, American politician
• 1954 – David Paymer, American actor
• 1954 – Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus
• 1958 – Martin Jackson, British drummer (Swing out Sister)
• 1958 – Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist (d. 2006)
• 1959 – Mark ‘Jacko’ Jackson, Australian rules footballer and actor
• 1960 – Chalino Sanchez, Mexican musician (d. 1992)
• 1960 – Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese organisation Hizbollah
• 1960 – Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1993)
• 1960 – Guy A. Lepage, Quebec humorist, television host and producer
• 1962 – Alexander Litvinenko, Russian KGB officer (d. 2006)
• 1963 – Michael Chiklis, American actor
• 1963 – Paul Oakenfold, British disc jockey
• 1964 – Gavin Fisher, British engineer
• 1966 – Michael Michele, American actress
• 1968 – Vladimir Malakhov, Russian ice hockey player
• 1969 – Dimitris Sgouros, Greek pianist
• 1970 – Michael Wong Guang Liang, Chinese Malaysian singer
• 1971 – Lars Frederiksen, American guitarist (Rancid and UK Subs)
• 1972 – Cameron Diaz, American actress
• 1972 – Pavel Nedved, Czech footballer
• 1973 – Lisa Ling, American journalist
• 1974 – Javier Otxoa, Spanish cyclist
• 1974 – Aaron Barrett, Lead singer/guitarist of Reel Big Fish
• 1975 – Radhi Jaidi, Tunisian footballer
• 1976 – Mike Koplove, American baseball player
• 1977 – Shaun Alexander, American football player
• 1977 – Marlon Byrd, American baseball player
• 1977 – Elden Henson, American actor
• 1977 – Kamil Kosowski, Polish footballer
• 1977 – Jens Ludwig, German guitarist
• 1978 – Swizz Beatz, rapper/producer
• 1979 – Juan Ignacio Chela, Argentine tennis player
• 1979 – Leon Lopez, British actor
• 1979 – Niki Chow, Hong Kong actress and singer
• 1979 – Tavia Yeung, Hong Kong actress
• 1982 – Andy Roddick, American tennis player
• 1982 – Will Davison, Australian racing driver
• 1983 – Jun Matsumoto, Japanese singer and actor
• 1983 – Jonne Aaron, Vocalist of the Finnish Band Negative
• 1983 – Gustavo Eberto, Argentine footballer (d. 2007)
• 1984 – Anthony Ireland, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1985 – Richard Duffy, Welsh footballer
• 1985 – Steven Smith, Scottish footballer
• 1986 – Ryan Ross, American guitarist and lyricist (Panic at the Disco)
• 1988 – Ernests Gulbis, Latvian tennis player

August 30 – Deaths:

• 526 – Theodoric the Great (b. 454)
• 1158 – King Sancho III of Castile (b. 1134)
• 1428 – Emperor Shoko (b. 1401)
• 1483 – King Louis XI of France (b. 1423)
• 1580 – Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (b. 1528)
• 1617 – Rose of Lima, Peruvian saint (b. 1586)
• 1619 – Shimazu Yoshihiro, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1535)
• 1723 – Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch tradesman and scientist (b. 1632)
• 1751 – Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (b. 1661)
• 1856 – Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b. 1811)
• 1879 – John Bell Hood, American Confederate general (b. 1831)
• 1886 – Ferris Jacobs, Jr., American politician (b. 1836)
• 1896 – Alexei Lobanov-Rostovsky, Russian statesman (b. 1824)
• 1906 – Hans Auer, Swiss architect (b. 1847)
• 1907 – Richard Mansfield, American actor and manager (b. 1857)
• 1928 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
• 1935 – Henri Barbusse, French novelist and journalist (b. 1873)
• 1938 – Max Factor, make-up artist and cosmetic manufacturer (b. 1877)
• 1940 – J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
• 1941 – Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish engineer and physicist (b. 1874)
• 1943 – Father Eustaquio van Lieshout, Dutch Catholic priest (b. 1890)
• 1946 – Konstantin Rodzaevsky, Russian fascist (executed) (b. 1907)
• 1946 – Grigory Semyonov, Russian counter-revolutionary (executed) (b. 1890)
• 1949 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)
• 1961 – Charles Coburn, American actor (b. 1877)
• 1963 – Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy (b. 1911)
• 1968 – William Talman, American actor (b. 1915)
• 1970 – Del Moore, American comedian (b. 1916)
• 1971 – Nathan Leopold, American murderer (b. 1904)
• 1981 – Vera-Ellen, American actress (b. 1921)
• 1981 – Mohammad-Ali Rajai, Iranian statesman (b. 1933)
• 1985 – Taylor Caldwell, English-born author (b. 1900)
• 1989 – Seymour Krim, American journalist, essayist, and literary critic (b. 1922)
• 1991 – Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (b. 1925)
• 1993 – Richard Jordan, American actor, (b. 1938)
• 1994 – Lindsay Anderson, English film director (b. 1923)
• 1995 – Fischer Black, American economist (b. 1938)
• 1995 – Sterling Morrison, American guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (b. 1942)
• 1996 – Christine Pascal, French actress and director (b. 1953)
• 1999 – Raymond Poïvet, French comics artist (b. 1910)
• 2001 – Ivor Spencer-Thomas, English farmer, entrepreneur and inventor (b. 1907)
• 2002 – J. Lee Thompson, English film director (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Charles Bronson, American actor (b. 1921)
• 2003 – Donald Davidson, American philosopher (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (b. 1906)
• 2004 – Indian Larry, American motorcycle builder and stuntman (b. 1949)
• 2006 – Glenn Ford, Canadian-born American actor (b. 1916)
• 2006 – Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• 2006 – Robin Cooke, Baron Cooke of Thorndon, New Zealand jurist and member of the British House of Lords (b. 1926)
• 2007 – Michael Jackson, British beer and whiskey author/expert. (b. 1942)
• 2007 – Charles Vanik, American politician (b. 1918)

August 30 – Holidays:

• Peru – Saint Rose of Lima’s Day.
• Turkey – Victory Day (to commemorate the Battle of Dumlupinar in 1922).

On This Day in History August 29

August 29 – Events:

• 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
• 1189 – Ban Kulin wrote The Charter of Kulin, which became a symbolic “birth certificate” of Bosnian statehood.
• 1350 – Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
• 1475 – The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
• 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Portugal.
• 1521 – The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
• 1526 – Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
• 1533 – Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Inca emperor Atahualpa is executed in Cajamarca by the garrote by Spanish invaders known as Conquistadores.
• 1541 – The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
• 1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
• 1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years’ War.
• 1786 – Shays’ Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
• 1825 – Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
• 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
• 1833 – The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.
• 1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
• 1861 – American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
• 1862 – Second Battle of Bull Run
• 1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world’s first rack railway.
• 1871 – Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration.
• 1882 – Is the date attributed to the death of English Cricket and the origin of the legend of The Ashes. This is the date according to the mock obituary in The Sporting Times.
• 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world’s first motorcycle.
• 1895 – The formation of the Northern Rugby Union at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.
• 1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.
• 1907 – The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
• 1910 – Japan changes Korea’s name to Chosen and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.
• 1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
• 1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, first U.S. submarine sunk in accident.
• 1918 – Bapaume taken by Australian Corps and Canadian Corps in the Hundred Days Offensive.
• 1922 – Turkish forces set fire to Smyrna, in Asia Minor.
• 1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
• 1943 – German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves Danish government.
• 1944 – Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
• 1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
• 1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
• 1970 – Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Ruben Salazar.
• 1982 – The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
• 1991 – Supreme Soviet suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
• 1995 – NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
• 1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
• 1997 – At least 98 villagers are killed by the GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
• 2003 – Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
• 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $115 billion in damage.

August 29 – Birthdays:

• 1619 – Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French minister of finance (d. 1683)
• 1628 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman (d. 1701)
• 1632 – John Locke, English philosopher (d. 1704)
• 1694 – Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1715)
• 1725 – Charles Townshend, English politician (d. 1767)
• 1728 – Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony, Electress of Bavaria (d. 1797)
• 1756 – Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal and statesman (d. 1845)
• 1756 – Jan Sniadecki, Polish mathematician (d. 1830)
• 1777 – Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin, founder of Sinology (d. 1853)
• 1780 – Jean Ingres, French painter (d. 1867)
• 1805 – Frederick Maurice, English theologian (d. 1872)
• 1809 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician (d. 1894)
• 1810 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, founding father of the Argentine Republic (d. 1884)
• 1811 – Henry Bergh, founder of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (d. 1888)
• 1843 – David B. Hill, Governor of New York (d. 1910)
• 1844 – Edward Carpenter, English poet (d. 1929)
• 1862 – Andrew Fisher, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1928)
• 1862 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Nobel laureate (d. 1949)
• 1871 – Albert Lebrun, French politician (d. 1950)
• 1876 – Charles F. Kettering, American inventor (d. 1958)
• 1876 – Kim Gu, President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (d. 1949)
• 1898 – Preston Sturges, American filmmaker (d. 1959)
• 1901 – Aurel Joliat, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
• 1905 – Werner Forssmann, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
• 1905 – Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (d. 1979)
• 1912 – Wolfgang Suschitzky, Austrian-Polish cinematographer
• 1912 – Barry Sullivan, American actor (d. 1994)
• 1915 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
• 1916 – George Montgomery, American actor (d. 2000)
• 1916 – Luther Davis, American playwright
• 1917 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (d. 2004)
• 1920 – Charlie Parker, American musician (d. 1955)
• 1923 – Richard Attenborough, English film director
• 1923 – Marmaduke Hussey, BBC Chairman (d. 2006)
• 1924 – Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican songwriter (d. 2005)
• 1924 – Dinah Washington, American singer (d. 1963)
• 1926 – María Dolores Pradera, Spanish melodic singer
• 1928 – Charles Gray, English actor (d. 2000)
• 1929 – Thom Gunn, British poet (d. 2004)
• 1930 – Jacques Bouchard, Quebec advertising executive (d. 2006)
• 1931 – Stelios Kazantzidis, Greek singer (d. 2001)
• 1931 – Lise Payette, Quebec politician, writer and columnist
• 1933 – Arnold Koller, Swiss Federal Councilor
• 1935 – William Friedkin, American film director
• 1936 – John McCain, American politician
• 1937 – James Florio, Governor of New Jersey
• 1938 – Elliott Gould, American actor
• 1938 – Robert Rubin, United States Secretary of the Treasury
• 1939 – Joel Schumacher, American film director
• 1940 – Gary Gabelich, American race car driver (d. 1984)
• 1941 – Robin Leach, English television host
• 1942 – James Glennon, American cinematographer (d. 2006)
• 1942 – John Heuser, Electron Microscopist, Washington University in Saint Louis
• 1945 – Wyomia Tyus, American athlete
• 1946 – Bob Beamon, American jumper
• 1947 – James Hunt, English race car driver and one-time F1 world champion (d. 1993)
• 1952 – Karen Hesse, American children’s writer
• 1952 – Dave Malone, American rock guitarist
• 1953 – James Quesada, Nicaraguan-American anthropologist
• 1954 – Michael P. Kube-McDowell, American science fiction novelist
• 1956 – GG Allin, American singer (d. 1993)
• 1956 – Viv Anderson, English former footballer
• 1956 – Mark Morris, American choreographer
• 1957 – Jerry D. Bailey, American racing jockey
• 1958 – Michael Jackson, American singer
• 1958 – Lenny Henry, British comic
• 1959 – Ernesto Rodrigues, Portuguese composer
• 1959 – Akkineni Nagarjuna, Telugu film actor
• 1959 – Timothy Perry Shriver, Member of the Kennedy Family
• 1959 – Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut
• 1959 – Rebecca De Mornay, American actress
• 1960 – Tony MacAlpine, American shred guitarist
• 1961 – Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player
• 1962 – Hiroki Kikuta, Japanese composer
• 1963 – Elizabeth Fraser, Scottish singer
• 1965 – Dina Spybey, American actress
• 1967 – Anton Newcombe, American musician (The Brian Jonestown Massacre)
• 1969 – Me’Shell NdegéOcello, American singer
• 1969 – Joe Swail, Northern Irish snooker player
• 1969 – Michael Pinnella, American musician
• 1970 – Jacco Eltingh, Dutch tennis player
• 1971 – Carla Gugino, American actress
• 1972 – Bae Yong Joon, South Korean actor
• 1973 – Adam Sessler, American TV show host
• 1973 – Olivier Jacque, motorcyclist
• 1974 – Kumi Tanioka, Japanese composer
• 1975 – Dante Basco, Filipino-American actor
• 1976 – Stephen Carr, Irish footballer
• 1976 – Kevin Kaesviharn, National Football League player
• 1976 – Pablo Mastroeni, American soccer player
• 1976 – Jon Dahl Tomasson, Danish footballer
• 1977 – John Patrick O’Brien, American soccer player
• 1977 – Aaron Rowand, American baseball player
• 1977 – Roy Oswalt, American baseball player
• 1977 – Charlie Pickering, Australian comedian
• 1978 – Celestine Babayaro, Nigerian footballer
• 1979 – Chieu Luu, Canadian journalist
• 1979 – Ryan Shealy, American baseball player
• 1980 – David Desrosiers, Canadian musician
• 1980 – Chris Simms, American football player
• 1980 – David West, American basketball player
• 1980 – Nicholas Tse, Hong Kong singer and actor
• 1981 – Lanny Barbie, Canadian adult actress
• 1981 – Geneviève Jeanson, Quebec bicycle racer
• 1981 – Jay Ryan (Jay Bunyan), Australian actor
• 1982 – A+, American rapper
• 1982 – Carlos Delfino, Argentinean basketball player
• 1985 – Pouyan Afkary, Iranian-American musician (Scary Kids Scaring Kids)
• 1985 – Jeffrey Licon, American actor
• 1986 – Lauren Collins, Canadian actress
• 1987 – Tony Kane, Irish footballer
• 1990 – Sam Stern, English Chef / Author
• 1992 – Zach Kaponaske, laurel high baseball player

August 29 – Deaths:

• 886 – Basil I, Byzantine Emperor (b. 811)
• 1093 – Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1057)
• 1123 – King Eystein I of Norway (b. ca. 1088)
• 1395 – Duke Albert III of Austria (b. 1349)
• 1442 – John VI, Duke of Brittany (b. 1389)
• 1526 – King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (killed in battle) (b. 1506)
• 1542 – Cristovão da Gama, Portuguese soldier (born c. 1516)
• 1657 – John Lilburne, English dissenter
• 1712 – Gregory King, English statistician (b. 1648)
• 1769 – Edmund Hoyle, English author and teacher (b. 1672)
• 1780 – Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (b. 1713)
• 1799 – Pope Pius VI (b. 1717)
• 1844 – Edmund Ignatius Rice, Irish founder of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers (b. 1762)
• 1856 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (b. 1778)
• 1877 – Brigham Young, American religious leader and western settler (b. 1801)
• 1889 – Stefan Dunjov, Banat Bulgarian military figure (b. 1815)
• 1891 – Pierre Lallement, inventor of the bicycle (b. 1843 or 1844)
• 1904 – Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1840)
• 1930 – William Archibald Spooner, English writer (b. 1844)
• 1931 – David Abercrombie, Abercrombie & Fitch founder
• 1935 – Queen Astrid of Belgium (b. 1905)
• 1966 – Sayyid Qutb, Egyptian theoretician (b. 1906)
• 1968 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (b. 1881)
• 1972 – Lale Andersen, German singer (b. 1905)
• 1975 – Eamon de Valera, first Taoiseach and third President of Ireland (b. 1882)
• 1976 – Jimmy Reed, American blues singer (b. 1925)
• 1976 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet, musician, revolutionary and philosopher (b. 1899)
• 1977 – Brian McGuire, Australian racing driver (b. 1945)
• 1981 – Lowell Thomas, American writer and broadcaster (b. 1892)
• 1982 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (b. 1915)
• 1984 – Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian statesman (b. 1901)
• 1987 – Archie Campbell, American country music comedian (b. 1914)
• 1987 – Lee Marvin, American actor (b. 1924)
• 1989 – Peter Scott, English explorer, naturalist, and painter (b. 1909)
• 1992 – Teddy Turner, comedian (b. 1917)
• 1995 – Frank Perry, American film director (b. 1930)
• 2000 – Willie Maddren, English former footballer (b. 1951)
• 2001 – Francisco Rabal, Spanish actor (b. 1926)
• 2002 – Alan MacNaughtan, Scottish actor (b. 1920)
• 2003 – Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, Iraqi political leader (b.1939)
• 2003 – Patrick Procktor, English artist (b. 1936)
• 2003 – Michel Constantin, French film actor (b. 1924)
• 2004 – Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (b. 1942)
• 2007 – Richard Jewell, falsely accused in the  1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing (b. 1962)
• 2007 – Pierre Messmer, French politician and Prime Minister (b. 1916)
• 2007 – Alfred Peet, Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet’s Coffee & Tea (b. 1920)
• 2007 – James Muir Cameron Fletcher, New Zealand industrialist (b. 1914)

August 29 – Holidays:

• Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholic Church commemorate the beheading of John the Baptist with a feast day.
• Slovakia – Slovak National Uprising Day (1944, against the Nazis).

On This Day in History August 28

August 28 – Events:

• 475 – The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna, and appoints Romulus Augustus, his own son, as emperor.
• 489 – Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
• 1189 – The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan
• 1521 – The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
• 1542 – Reinforced with at least 600 arquebusiers and cavalry, Imam Ahmad Gragn attacks the Portuguese camp in the Battle of Wofla. The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama captured and afterwards executed.
• 1565 – St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
• 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
• 1619 – Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1640 – King Charles I’s English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn
• 1830 – The Tom Thumb presages the first railway service in the United States.
• 1845 – Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue.
• 1849 – After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
• 1859 – A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as further afield as Japan.
• 1862 – Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the battle of Second Manassas.
• 1867 – The United States occupies Midway Island.
• 1879 – Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
• 1898 – Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink “Pepsi-Cola”.
• 1899 – 122 houses, smelting factory, hospital, many facilities destroyed on

hill, cause by heavy rain with debris blow, at Sumitomo Besshi bronze mine, Niihama, Shikoku, Japan, at least 512 killed.

• 1907 – UPS is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
• 1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
• 1914 – The Royal Navy beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
• 1916 – Germany declares war on Romania.
• 1916 – Italy declares war on Germany.
• 1917 – Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
• 1924 – Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
• 1937 – Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
• 1943 – In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
• 1944 – Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
• 1953 – Nippon Television broadcasts Japan’s first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
• 1961 – Motown releases what would be its first number one hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.
• 1963 – During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
• 1964 – The Philadelphia race riot begins.
• 1968 – Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.
• 1971 – The dollar is allowed to float against the yen for the first time.
• 1979 – An IRA bomb explodes on the Grand Place in Brussels.
• 1981 – The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi’s sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
• 1986 – US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
• 1988 – Ramstein airshow disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and fall into the crowd. 69 are killed.
• 1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
• 1990 – The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hits in Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.
• 1996 – Britons Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, are divorced.
• 1998 – Pakistan’s National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the “Qur’an and Sunnah” the “supreme law” but the bill is defeated in the Senate.

August 28 – Birthdays:

• 1025 – Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (d. 1068)
• 1582 – Taichang Emperor, of the Ming dynasty of China (d. 1620)
• 1592 – George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (d. 1628)
• 1612 – Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (d. 1653)
• 1667 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1721)
• 1691 – Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empire Empress (d. 1750)
• 1714 – Anthony Ulrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1774)
• 1749 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (d. 1832)
• 1774 – Elizabeth Ann Seton, American-born Catholic saint (d. 1821)
• 1789 – Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (d. 1860)
• 1801 – Antoine Augustin Cournot, French mathematician (d. 1877)
• 1814 – Sheridan le Fanu, Irish writer (d. 1873)
• 1827 – Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia (d. 1894)
• 1828 – Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1910)
• 1840 – Alexander Cameron Sim, Scottish merchant (d. 1900)
• 1853 – Vladimir Shukhov, Russian engineer and inventor (d. 1939)
• 1867 – Umberto Giordano, Italian composer (d. 1948)
• 1878 – George Whipple, American scientist and Nobel laureate (d. 1976)
• 1894 – Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981)
• 1898 – Charlie Grimm, baseball player (d. 1983)
• 1899 – Charles Boyer, French actor (d. 1978)
• 1903 – Bruno Bettelheim, American psychologist (d. 1990)
• 1904 – Secondo Campini, Italian jet engine pioneer (d. 1980)
• 1906 – John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Roger Tory Peterson, American ornithologist (d. 1996)
• 1910 – Tjalling Koopmans, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Joseph Luns, Dutch politician (d. 2002)
• 1913 – Robertson Davies, Canadian writer (d. 1995)
• 1913 – Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)
• 1913 – Terence Reese, British bridge player (d. 1996)
• 1913 – Boris Pahor, Slovenian writer
• 1915 – Max Robertson, British sports commentator
• 1916 – Jack Vance, American author
• 1916 – Hélène Baillargeon, Quebec singer and folklorist (d. 1997)
• 1917 – Jack Kirby, American comic book artist (d. 1994)
• 1919 – Godfrey Hounsfield, Nobel Laureate (d. 2004)
• 1920 – Frits Bernard, pedophile activist (d. 2006)
• 1921 – Fernando Fernán Gómez, Spanish actor, director, academic and playwright (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Nancy Kulp, American actress (d. 1991)
• 1924 – Janet Frame, New Zealand author (d. 2004)
• 1924 – Peggy Ryan, American actress (d. 2004)
• 1925 – Donald O’Connor, American singer, dancer, and actor (d. 2003)
• 1925 – Billy Grammer, American country music singer and guitarist
• 1928 – F. William Free, American advertising executive (d. 2003)
• 1929 – Istvan Kertesz, Hungarian conductor (d. 1973)
• 1929 – Ken Gampu, South African actor (d. 2003)
• 1930 – Windsor Davies, British actor
• 1930 – Ben Gazzara, American actor
• 1931 – John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
• 1931 – Tito Capobianco, Argentinian stage impresario
• 1932 – Andy Bathgate, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1935 – Gilles Rocheleau, French Canadian politician (d. 1998)
• 1936 – Don Denkinger, American baseball umpire
• 1938 – Paul Martin, Canadaian politician
• 1938 – Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television journalist
• 1940 – Ken Jenkins, American actor
• 1940 – Roger Pingeon, French cylist
• 1940 – Nik Turner, English musician (Hawkwind)
• 1941 – Sybille de Selys Longchamps, Belgian aristocrat
• 1941 – Paul Plishka, American bass
• 1942 – Sterling Morrison, American guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (d. 1995)
• 1943 – David Soul, American actor
• 1943 – Lou Piniella, American baseball manager
• 1944 – Marianne Heemskerk, Dutch swimmer
• 1945 – Robert Greenwald, American film director/producer
• 1945 – Bob Segarini, Musician and radio personality
• 1944 – Melvin Dummar, American claimant to the Howard Hughes estate
• 1947 – Liza Wang, Hong Kong actress
• 1947 – Shoto Tanemura, Japanese martial artist
• 1948 – Danny Seraphine, American musician (Chicago)
• 1949 – Hugh Cornwell, British musician (The Stranglers)
• 1949 – Svetislav Pešic, Serbian basketball player and coach
• 1951 – Keiichi Suzuki, Japanese composer
• 1951 – Wayne Osmond, American singer (The Osmonds)
• 1952 – Rita Dove, American poet
• 1952 – Wendelin Wiedeking, German businessman
• 1952 – Guy Nadon, Quebec actor
• 1952 – Jacques Chagnon, Quebec politician
• 1957 – Daniel Stern, American actor
• 1957 – Rick Rossovich, American actor
• 1958 – Scott Hamilton, American figure skater
• 1960 – Emma Samms, English actress
• 1961 – Kim Appleby, English singer
• 1962 – Paul Allen, English footballer
• 1962 – David Fincher, American music video and film director
• 1963 – Jennifer Coolidge, American actress
• 1965 – Amanda Tapping, Canadian actress
• 1965 – Shania Twain, Canadian singer
• 1966 – Priya Dutt, Indian social worker and politician
• 1967 – Frederick Kesner, Philippine-born Australian poet
• 1968 – Billy Boyd, Scottish actor
• 1969 – Jason Priestley, Canadian-born actor
• 1969 – Jack Black, American actor
• 1969 – Mary McCartney, English photographer
• 1969 – Pierre Turgeon, French Canadian ice hockey player
• 1970 – Sherrié Austin, Australian actress/singer
• 1970 – Rick Recht, Jewish singer
• 1971 – Todd Eldredge, American figure skater
• 1971 – Janet Evans, American swimmer
• 1971 – Raul Marquez, Mexican-born American boxer
• 1971 – Shane Andrews, American baseball player
• 1972 – Jay Witasick, American baseball player
• 1973 – Matthew John Armstrong, American actor
• 1973 – DJ Assault, American musician
• 1974 – Johan Andersson, Swedish game programmer
• 1974 – Carsten Jancker, German footballer
• 1974 – Takahito Eguchi, Japanese composer
• 1975 – Jamie Cureton, English footballer
• 1975 – Gareth Farrelly, Irish footballer
• 1978 – Jess Margera, American drummer (CKY)
• 1978 – Shaniqua, American wrestling valet
• 1979 – Robert Hoyzer, German football referee
• 1979 – Shaila Durcal, Spanish singer
• 1979 – Kristen Hughes, Australian netballer
• 1979 – Markus Pröll, German footballer
• 1979 – Ruth Riley, American basketball player
• 1980 – T.J. Beam, American baseball player
• 1981 – Martin Erat, Czech hockey player
• 1981 – Vaggelis Moras, Greek footballer
• 1981 – Raphael Matos, Brazilian racing driver
• 1982 – Anderson Silva de França, Brazilian footballer
• 1982 – LeAnn Rimes, American singer
• 1982 – Kevin McNaughton, Scottish footballer
• 1982 – Thiago Motta, Brazilian footballer
• 1983 – Lasith Malinga, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1983 – Alfonso Herrera, Mexican actor and singer (RBD)
• 1985 – Cove Reber, American singer (Saosin)
• 1985 – Ralph Woolfolk IV, American actor
• 1986 – Gilad Shalit, Israeli corporal
• 1988 – Ray Jones, English footballer (d. 2007)
• 1990 – Bojan Krkic, Serbian-Spanish footballer
• 1991 – Kyle Massey, American actor
• 1991 – Sarah Jane Santos, Filipino singer
• 1999 – Prince Nikolai of Denmark

August 28 – Deaths:

• 388 – Magnus Maximus, Roman usurper
• 430 – Augustine of Hippo, North African saint and theologian (b. 354)
• 1341 – King Leo V of Armenia (b. 1309)
• 1481 – King Afonso V of Portugal (b. 1432)
• 1645 – Hugo Grotius, Dutch philosopher and writer (b. 1583)
• 1654 – Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (b. 1583)
• 1678 – John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, English soldier (b. 1602)
• 1757 – David Hartley, English philosopher (b. 1705)
• 1784 – Junípero Serra, Spanish missionary (b. 1713)
• 1785 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b. 1714)
• 1793 – Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, French general (executed) (b. 1740)
• 1805 – Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader (b. 1722)
• 1818 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, founder of Chicago
• 1820 – Andrew Ellicott, American surveyor (b. 1754)
• 1839 – William Smith, English geologist (b. 1769)
• 1900 – Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (b. 1838)
• 1903 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (b. 1822)
• 1933 – Helen Dunbar, American actress (b. 1863)
• 1943 – King Boris III of Bulgaria (b. 1894)
• 1947 – Manolete, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1917)
• 1955 – Emmett Till, American civil rights movement icon (b. 1941)
• 1959 – Bohuslav Martinu, Czech composer (b. 1890)
• 1965 – Giulio Racah, Israeli physicist (b. 1909)
• 1975 – Fritz Wotruba, Austrian sculptor (b. 1907)
• 1976 – Anissa Jones, American actress (b. 1958)
• 1978 – Robert Shaw, English actor and writer (b. 1927)
• 1981 – Béla Guttman, Hungarian footballer (b. 1900)
• 1985 – Ruth Gordon, American actress (b. 1896)
• 1987 – John Huston, American movie director (b. 1906)
• 1988 – Jean Marchand, French Canadian union leader and politician (b. 1918)
• 1990 – Willy Vandersteen, Belgian cartoonist (b. 1913)
• 1993 – William Stafford, American writer (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Earl Bascom, American rodeo pioneer (b. 1906)
• 2003 – Brian Douglas Wells, American criminal (failed) (b. 1956)
• 2005 – Jacques Dufilho, French actor (b. 1914)
• 2005 – Esther Szekeres, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1910)
• 2005 – George Szekeres, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1911)
• 2006 – Benoît Sauvageau, French Canadian politician (b. 1963)
• 2006 – Melvin Schwartz, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Arthur Jones, American inventor of the Nautilus exercise machines (b. 1926)
• 2007 – Hilly Kristal, American Founder of CBGB/Punk rock legend (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Paul B. MacCready, Jr., American aeronautical engineer (b. 1925)
• 2007 – Antonio Puerta, Spanish footballer (b. 1984)
• 2007 – Francisco Umbral, Spanish journalist, novelist, biographer and essayist (b. 1935)
• 2007 – Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese-born American actress (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Nikola Nobilo, New Zealand winemaker (b. 1913)

August 28 – Holidays:

• In Eastern Orthodox Churches using the Julian calendar: Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, public holiday in the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia
• Hong Kong: Liberation Day (1945).
• Many Christian churches: feast day of Saint Augustine of Hippo.
• Philippines: National Heroes Day

On This Day in History August 27

August 27 – Events:

• 479 BC – Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea. Along the with the Greek victory on the same day in the Battle of Mycale, the Persian invasion of Greece ended.
• 410 – Visigothic sack of Rome ends after three days.
• 663 – Remnants of the Korean Baekje Kingdom and their Yamato Japanese allies engage the combined naval forces of the Tang Chinese and Silla Koreans on the Geum River in Korea; the outcome is a significant Tang-Silla victory, while the Japanese would not attempt another invasion of Korea until the Imjin War of the late 16th century.
• 1232 – The Formulary of Adjudications is promulgated by Regent Hojo Yasutoki.
• 1689 – The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing empire.
• 1776 – Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
• 1793 – French counter-revolution, port of Toulon revolts and admits the British fleet, which lands troops and seizes the port leading to Siege of Toulon.
• 1798 – United Irishmen and French forces clash with the British army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
• 1813 – Napoleon defeats the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
• 1828 – The Russians defeat the Turks at the Battle of Akhalzic.
• 1859 – Petroleum discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. World’s first successful oil well.
• 1861 – Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
• 1883 – Krakatoa, an Indonesian volcano, erupts. It is one of the most violent volcanic events in modern times.
• 1896 – Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
• 1900 – British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal.
• 1920 – Radio Argentina begins regularly scheduled transmissions from the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, considered the world’s first public broadcast station.
• 1928 – Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed by sixty nations.
• 1939 – First flight of the Heinkel He 178, the first modern jet aircraft.
• 1952 – Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg; West Germany to pay 3 billion Deutschmark.
• 1957 – The Constitution of Malaysia came into force.
• 1962 – Mariner 2 launched to Venus.
• 1969 – The first installment of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It’s Tough Being a Man) movies is released in Japan. Director and screenplay writer Yoji Yamada went on to make 48 installments of the series, which is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running movie series.
• 1979 – An IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten and 3 others on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
• 1985 – The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
• 1990 – The British Broadcasting Corporation launches BBC Radio Five Live at 9am GMT with a mixture of sports, news, and children’s programming.
• 1991 – The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• 1991 – Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
• 1993 – The Florida Department of Transportation decides to cease producing its distinctive colored U.S. Highway shields so that it can make use of Federal funds for those signs.
• 1993 – The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo’s Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.
• 2000 – Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
• 2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing approximately 34,646,416 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth.
• 2006 – Comair Flight 5191 crashed en route from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Forty-nine of the 50 people aboard the flight were confirmed dead in the hours following the crash

August 27 – Birthdays:

• 1407 – Ashikaga Yoshikazu, Japanese shogun (d. 1425)
• 1471 – George, Duke of Saxony (d. 1539)
• 1487 – Anna of Brandenburg, queen of Denmark (d. 1514)
• 1637 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (d. 1715)
• 1665 – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (d. 1751)
• 1669 – Anne Marie of Orléans, queen of Italy (d. 1728)
• 1698 – Baal Shem Tov, Founder of the Chasiddic movement {d. 1760)
• 1677 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (d. 1748)
• 1724 – John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-born Continental Congressman (d. 1781)
• 1730 – Johann Georg Hamann, German philosopher (d. 1788)
• 1770 – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (d. 1831)
• 1809 – Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States of America (d. 1891)
• 1858 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (d. 1932)
• 1865 – James Henry Breasted, American Egyptologist (d. 1935)
• 1865 – Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 1951)
• 1870 – Amado Nervo, Mexican poet (d. 1919)
• 1871 – Theodore Dreiser, American author (d. 1945)
• 1874 – Carl Bosch, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
• 1875 – Katharine McCormick, American women’s rights activist (d. 1967)
• 1877 – Charles Rolls, Co-founder of Rolls-Royce (d. 1910)
• 1877 – Ernst Wetter, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1963)
• 1882 – Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer (d. 1974)
• 1884 – Vincent Auriol,French President (d. 1966)
• 1886 – Rebecca Helferich Clarke, English composer and violist (d. 1979)
• 1886 – Eric Coates, English composer (d. 1957)
• 1890 – Man Ray, photographer and artist (d. 1976)
• 1896 – Faina Ranevskaya, Russian actress (d. 1984)
• 1898 – Gaspard Fauteux, French Canadian parliamentarian (d. 1963)
• 1899 – C. S. Forester, British author (d. 1966)
• 1899 – Byron Foulger, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1904 – Norah Lofts, British author (d. 1983)
• 1904 – John Hay Whitney, American financier (d. 1982)
• 1906 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Don Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
• 1908 – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States (d. 1973)
• 1908 – Kurt Wegner, German artist (d. 1985)
• 1909 – Lester Young, American musician (d. 1959)
• 1909 – Sylvère Maes, Belgian cyclist (d. 1966)
• 1911 – Kay Walsh, British actress (d. 2005)
• 1912 – Gloria Guinness, Mexican socialite and writer(d.1980)
• 1913 – Nina Schenk von Stauffenberg, wife of Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (d. 2006)
• 1915 – Norman F. Ramsey, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1916 – Martha Raye, American actress (d. 1994)
• 1917 – Peanuts Lowrey, American baseball player (d. 1986)
• 1919 – Murray Grand, American songwriter and cabaret singer (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Leo Penn, American film director (d. 1998)
• 1925 – Darry Cowl, French actor (d. 2006)
• 1926 – Pat Coombs, English actress (d. 2002)
• 1926 – Kristen Nygaard, Norwegian mathematician (d. 2002)
• 1927 – Jimmy C. Newman, American singer
• 1928 – Mangosuthu Buthelezi, South African politician
• 1929 – Ira Levin, American author (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Sri Chinmoy, Indian guru (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Joe Cunningham, American baseball player
• 1932 – Antonia Fraser, British author
• 1935 – Frank Yablans, American film producer
• 1935 – Ernie Broglio, American baseball player
• 1936 – Joel Kovel, American politician
• 1937 – Alice Coltrane, American jazz musician (d. 2007)
• 1937 – Tommy Sands, American actor and singer
• 1940 – Sonny Sharrock, American jazz guitarist (d. 1994)
• 1942 – Daryl Dragon, American keyboardist (Captain & Tennille)
• 1942 – Brian Peckford, Canadian politician
• 1943 – Tuesday Weld, American actress
• 1945 – G. W. Bailey, American actor
• 1947 – Barbara Bach, American actress
• 1947 – Harry Reems, American actor
• 1948 – Pavlos Sidiropoulos, Greek musician (d. 1990)
• 1949 – Jeff Cook, vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, fiddle, banjo and mandolin for Alabama
• 1950 – Charles Fleischer, American actor
• 1951 – Mack Brown, University of Texas Head Football Coach
• 1951 – Buddy Bell, American baseball player-manager
• 1952 – Paul “Pee-Wee Herman” Reubens, American actor
• 1953 – Alex Lifeson, Canadian guitarist (Rush)
• 1953 – Peter Stormare, Swedish-born actor
• 1954 – John Lloyd, British former tennis player
• 1954 – Derek Warwick, British race car driver
• 1955 – Diana Scarwid, American actress
• 1955 – Robert Richardson, American cinematographer
• 1955 – Laura Fygi, Dutch singer
• 1957 – Bernhard Langer, German golfer and two-time Masters champion
• 1958 – Sergei Krikalev, Russian cosmonaut
• 1958 – Tom Lanoye, Belgian author
• 1958 – Normand Brathwaite, Canadian comedian and television and radio host
• 1959 – Gerhard Berger, Austrian race car driver and F1 team co-owner (Scuderia Toro Rosso)
• 1959 – Juan Fernando Cobo, Colombian artist
• 1961 – Tom Ford, American fashion designer
• 1961 – Yolanda Adams, American gospel singer
• 1962 – Adam Oates, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – Vic Mignogna, American voice actor
• 1963 – Downtown Julie Brown, Welsh TV personality and former MTV VJ
• 1965 – Wayne James, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1966 – Juhan Parts, Prime Minister of Estonia
• 1967 – Bob Nastanovich, American musician (Pavement, Silver Jews)
• 1969 – Reece Shearsmith, British actor and comedian
• 1969 – Chandra Wilson, American actress
• 1970 – Peter Ebdon, English snooker player
• 1970 – Tony Kanal, English-born musician (No Doubt)
• 1970 – Jeff Kenna, Irish footballer
• 1970 – Jim Thome, American baseball player
• 1971 – Julian Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer
• 1972 – Mike Smith, Canadian actor
• 1972 – Dalip Singh, Indian professional wrestler
• 1972 – Denise Lewis, English heptathlete
• 1973 – Carlene Begnaud, American professional wrestler
• 1973 – Cory Bowles, Canadian actor
• 1973 – Danny Coyne, Welsh footballer
• 1973 – Dietmar Hamann, German footballer
• 1974 – José Vidro, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1975 – Jonny Moseley, American skier
• 1975 – Mark Rudan, Australian footballer
• 1976 – Sarah Chalke, Canadian actress
• 1976 – Carlos Moyà, Spanish tennis player
• 1976 – Steve Taylor, British writer
• 1976 – Milano Collection Akihito Terui, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1976 – Mark Webber, Australian race car driver
• 1977 – Deco, Portuguese footballer
• 1978 – Mase, American rapper
• 1979 – Giovanni Capitello, American filmmaker/actor
• 1979 – Tian Liang, Chinese diver
• 1979 – Sarah Neufeld, Canadian musician (Arcade Fire)
• 1983 – Wilson Chen, Taiwanese actor
• 1984 – David Bentley, English footballer
• 1984 – Sulley Muntari, Ghanaian footballer
• 1985 – Alexandra Nechita, Artist
• 1986 – Mario, American R&B singer
• 1988 – Alexa Vega, American actress

August 27 – Deaths:

• 542 – Saint Caesarius of Arles
• 1312 – Arthur II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1262)
• 1394 – Chokei, Emperor of Japan (b. 1343)
• 1450 – Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr, English politician (b. 1395)
• 1521 – Josquin Des Prez, Flemish composer
• 1545 – Piotr Gamrat, Polish Catholic archbishop (b. 1487)
• 1572 – Claude Goudimel, French composer
• 1577 – Titian, Italian artist
• 1590 – Pope Sixtus V (b. 1521)
• 1635 – Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and playwright (b. 1562)
• 1664 – Francisco Zurbarán, Spanish painter (b. 1598)
• 1748 – James Thomson, Scottish poet (b. 1700)
• 1773 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (b. 1721)
• 1871 – William Whiting Boardman, American politician (b. 1794)
• 1875 – William Chapman Ralston, American banker (b. 1826)
• 1909 – Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (b. 1842)
• 1929 – Herman Potocnik Noordung, Slovenian rocket scientist (b. 1892)
• 1931 – Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
• 1931 – Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
• 1944 – Georg von Boeselager, German nobleman (b. 1915)
• 1948 – Charles Evans Hughes, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
• 1958 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• 1963 – Garrett Morgan, American inventor (b. 1877)
• 1963 – W.E.B. DuBois, American civil rights activist and scholar (b. 1868)
• 1963 – Allama Mashriqi, Pakistani scholar and politician (b. 1888)
• 1964 – Gracie Allen, American actress and comedienne (b. 1895)
• 1965 – Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (b. 1887)
• 1967 – Brian Epstein, English manager of The Beatles (b. 1934)
• 1968 – Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (b. 1906)
• 1969 – Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (b. 1884)
• 1969 – Erika Mann, German writer and daughter of Thomas Mann (b. 1905)
• 1971 – Bennett Cerf, American publisher and television personality (b. 1898)
• 1971 – Margaret Bourke-White, American photo-journalist (b. 1906)
• 1975 – Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1892)
• 1976 – Mukesh, Indian playback singer (b. 1923)
• 1979 – Earl Mountbatten, British admiral and statesman (assassinated) (b. 1900)
• 1980 – Douglas Kenney, American humorist (b. 1947)
• 1981 – Valery Kharlamov, Soviet Union ice hockey player (b. 1948)
• 1984 – Bernard Youens, English actor (b. 1914)
• 1988 – William Sargant, British psychiatrist (b. 1907)
• 1990 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, American guitarist (b. 1954)
• 1996 – Greg Morris, American actor (b. 1933)
• 1999 – Hélder Câmara, Brazilian Roman Catholic archbishop (b. 1909)
• 2001 – Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (assassinated) (b. 1938)
• 2001 – Michael Dertouzos, Greek internet pioneer, Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (b. 1936)
• 2003 – Pierre Poujade, French politician (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Willie Crawford, American baseball player (b. 1946)
• 2005 – Seán Purcell, Gaelic footballer (b. 1929)
• 2006 – Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Indian film director (b. 1922)
• 2006 – Maria Capovilla, oldest woman alive from 2004-2006 (b. 1889)
• 2006 – Jesse Pintado, Mexican-born guitarist (Napalm Death) (b. 1969)
• 2007 – Emma Penella, Spanish actress (b. 1930)

August 27 – Holidays:

• Roman Festivals – Volturnalia held in honor of Volturnus.
• RC Saints – Saint Joseph Calasanctius (Pre-1970 Roman Catholic calendar), Saint Monica of Hippo, Saint Caesarius of Arles, and Saints Rufus and Carpophorus.
• Moldova – Independence Day (from the USSR, 1991).

On This Day in History August 26

August 26 – Events:

• 55 BC – Julius Caesar invades Britain.
• 1071 – Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert.
• 1278 – Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in Moravia.
• 1303 – Ala ud din Khilji won Chittor.
• 1346 – Hundred Years’ War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armored knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
• 1466 – A conjure against Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, is discovered.
• 1498 – Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pietà.
•  1526 – Ottoman Empire defeated Hungarian Kingdom in the battle of Mohàcs.
• 1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1768 – HM Bark Endeavour expedition under Captain James Cook sets sail from England.
• 1778 – The first ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain of Slovenia.
• 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by Constituent Assembly at Palace of Versailles.
• 1818 – The first Illinois Constitution was signed in Kaskaskia.
• 1839 – The ship Amistad is captured off Long Island.
• 1858 – First news dispatch by telegraph.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Bull Run begins.
• 1883 – Eruption of Mount Krakatoa.
• 1914 – World War I: Germans defeat Russians in Battle of Tannenberg, a decisive engagement which resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian 2nd Army.
• 1914 – World War I: The British Expeditionary Force briefly checks the German advance at Le Cateau.
• 1914 – World War I: The German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.
• 1920 – 19th amendment to U.S. Constitution gives women the right to vote.
• 1922 – Turkish Army started the last attack on Greeks in the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1924 – Catastrophe of Smyrna, known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe to Greeks, occurs. The Ottoman army expels Greeks and other non-Turks from Asia Minor in systematic ethnic cleansing.
• 1939 – The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds  and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York.
• 1940 – Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France’s first black colonial governor.
• 1942 – Holocaust in Chortkiv, western Ukraine: At 2.30 am the German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of houses, splits in groups of 120, packs them in freight cars and deports 2,000 Jews to Belzec death camp. 500 of the sick and children murdered on the spot.
• 1944 – World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
• 1957 – The USSR announces the successful test of an ICBM – a “super long distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket … a few days ago,” according to the Soviet news agency, TASS.
• 1968 – The Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1972 – Games of the XX Olympiad open in Munich, Germany.
• 1976 – Raymond Barre becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1977 – Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec
• 1978 – Papal conclave, 1978 (August): Pope John Paul I is elevated to the Papacy.
• 1978 – Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut on board of the Soyuz 31 spacecraft.
• 1980 – John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey’s Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada.
• 1983 – Flooding destroys most of the old town of Bilbao, Spain.
• 1987 – President Ronald Wilson Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day.
• 1988 – Merhan Karimi Nasseri arrives at Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
• 1997 – Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed.
• 1999 – Michael Johnson breaks the 400 metres world record with a time of 43.18 seconds.
• 2002 – Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 2003 – Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

August 26 – Birthdays:

• 1469 – Ferdinand II of Naples (d. 1496)
• 1540 – King Magnus of Livonia (d. 1583)
• 1676 – Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1745)
• 1694 – Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (d. 1755)
• 1728 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, German scientist (d. 1777)
• 1736 – Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l’Isle, French chemist (d. 1790)
• 1740 – Joseph Montgolfier, French inventor (d. 1810)
• 1743 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (d. 1794)
• 1775 – William Joseph Behr, German writer (d. 1851)
• 1789 – Abbas Mirza, Prince of Persia (d. 1833)
• 1792 – Manuel Oribe, Uruguayan political figure (d. 1857)
• 1826 – Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (d. 1875)
• 1845 – Mary Ann Nichols, English victim of Jack the Ripper (d. 1888)
• 1850 – Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
• 1862 – Herbert Booth, American son of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1926)
• 1873 – Lee DeForest, American inventor (d. 1961)
• 1874 – Zona Gale, American novelist (d. 1938)
•  1875 – John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist, Governor General of Canada (d. 1940)
• 1880 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet and art critic (d. 1918)
• 1882 – James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1964)
• 1885 – Jules Romains, French author (d. 1972)
• 1894 – Sparky Adams, Baseball player (d. 1989)
• 1896 – Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1990)
• 1897 – Yoon Boseon, President of South Korea (d. 1990)
• 1898 – Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (d. 1979)
• 1899 – Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter (d. 1991)
• 1900 – Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (d. 1980)
• 1901 – Maxwell Taylor, American general (d. 1987)
• 1901 – Chen Yi, Chinese communist military commander and politician (d. 1972)
• 1904 – Christopher Isherwood, English-born writer (d. 1986)
• 1906 – Albert Sabin, American polio researcher (d. 1993)
• 1908 – W. B. Henning, Prussian-born Iranist (d. 1967)
• 1908 – Aubrey Schenck, film producer (d. 1999)
• 1909 – Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981)
• 1909 – Gene Moore, baseball player (d. 1978)
• 1910 – Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun, Nobel laureate (d. 1997)
• 1914 – Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (d. 1984)
• 1920 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Benjamin Bradlee, American journalist
• 1922 – Irving R. Levine, American journalist
• 1923 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist
• 1924 – Alex Kellner, baseball player (d. 1996)
• 1925 – Jack Hirshleifer, American economist (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Alain Peyrefitte, French politician and writer (d. 1999)
• 1927 – B. V. Doshi, Indian architect
• 1928 – Peter Appleyard, Canadian jazz vibraphonist
• 1928 – Naïm Kattan, Canadian novelist and essayist
• 1934 – Tom Heinsohn, American basketball player and commentator
• 1935 – Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Vice Presidential candidate
• 1936 – Yvette Vickers, American actress
• 1940 – Don LaFontaine, American voice actor
• 1941 – Barbet Schroeder, Swiss film director
• 1941 – Akiko Wakabayashi, Japanese actress
• 1941 – Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (The Searchers) (d. 2005)
• 1942 – Vic Dana, American singer
• 1942 – Dennis Turner, British politician
• 1944 – Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
• 1944 – Stephen Greif, English actor
• 1944 – Maureen Tucker, American musician (The Velvet Underground)
• 1945 – Tom Ridge, first United States Secretary of Homeland Security
• 1946 – Valerie Simpson, American singer
• 1946 – Mark Snow, American composer
• 1946 – Zhou Ji, Education Minister of the People’s Republic of China
• 1946 – Chantal Renaud, Quebec singer and actress
• 1947 – Emiliano Díez, Cuban actor
• 1950 – Benjamin Hendrickson, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1950 – Jerome “Pop” Pentsky, American fast food restaurateur
• 1952 – Bryon Baltimore, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1952 – Michael Jeter, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1952 – Will Shortz, American crossword editor
• 1953 – Pat Sharkey, Irish footballer
• 1954 – Efren Reyes, Filipino pool player
• 1956 – Mark Mangino, American football coach
• 1957 – Dr. Alban, Nigerian-Swedish singer
• 1957 – Rick Hansen, Canadian paraplegic athlete
• 1960 – Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist and bandleader
• 1960 – Nancy Martinez, Canadian-born singer
• 1961 – Jeff Parrett, American baseball player
• 1962 – Bob Mionske, American cyclist and attorney
• 1965 – Chris Burke, American actor
• 1965 – Bobby Duncum, Jr., wrestler (d. 2000)
• 1965 – Jon Hensley, American actor
• 1966 – Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player
• 1966 – Shirley Manson, Scottish singer
• 1967 – Kelly Madison, porn star
• 1970 – Olimpiada Ivanova, Russian athlete
• 1971 – Thalía, Mexican singer
• 1975 – Morgan Ensberg, American baseball player
• 1976 – Amaia Montero, Spanish singer (La Oreja de Van Gogh)
• 1976 – Zemfira, Russian singer
• 1977 – Saeko Chiba, Japanese seiyuu
• 1977 – Morris Peterson, American basketball player
• 1978 – Raja Kashif, Pakistani Singer
• 1979 – Jamal Lewis, American football player
• 1979 – Cristian Mora, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1979 – Rubén Pazos, Spanish footballer
• 1980 – Macaulay Culkin, American actor
• 1980 – Chris Pine, American actor
• 1980 – Brendan Harris, American baseball player
• 1981 – Jesse Martin, Australian yachtsman
• 1981 – Petey Williams, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1983 – Félix Porteiro, Spanish racing driver
• 1986 – Cassie Ventura, American singer
• 1988 – Danielle Savre, American actress
• 1988 – Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este
• 1988 – Evan Ross, American actor
• 1990 – Lil’ Chris, British singer
• 1993 – Keke Palmer, American actress

August 26 – Deaths:

• 1278 – King Otakar II of Bohemia
• 1346 – Killed in the Battle of Crécy:
  • Charles II of Alençon (b. 1297)
  • Louis I of Flanders (b. 1304)
  • John I, Count of Luxemburg (b. 1296)
  • Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1320)
  • 1349 – Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury
  • 1551 – Margareta Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1516)
  • 1572 – Petrus Ramus, French philosopher (b. 1515)
  • 1595 – Antonio, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (b. 1531)
  • 1666 – Frans Hals, Dutch painter (b. circa 1580)
  • 1714 – Edward Fowler, English Bishop of Gloucester (b. 1632)
  • 1723 – Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist (b. 1632)
  • 1785 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (b. 1716)
  • 1850 – Louis-Philippe of France (b. 1773)
  • 1865 – Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer (b. 1791)
  • 1908 – Tony Pastor, American vaudeville performer (b. 1837)
  • 1910 – William James, American psychologist (b. 1842)
  • 1915 – John Bunny American comedian (b. 1863)
  • 1930 – Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (b. 1883)
  • 1944 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat (b. 1909)
  • 1945 – Franz Werfel, Austrian writer (b. 1890)
  • 1946 – Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (b. 1887)
  • 1956 – Alfred Wagenknecht, German-born American activist (b. 1881)
  • 1958 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)
  • 1968 – Kay Francis, American actress (b. 1899)
  • 1974 – Charles Lindbergh, American aviator (b. 1902)
  • 1976 – Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (b. 1888)
  • 1978 – Charles Boyer, French actor (b. 1899)
  • 1978 – José Manuel Moreno, Argentine footballer (b. 1916)
  • 1979 – Mika Waltari, Finnish author (b. 1908)
  • 1980 – Rosa Albach-Retty, German actress (b. 1874)
  • 1980 – Tex Avery, American cartoonist (b. 1908)
  • 1981 – Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (b. 1884)
  • 1981 – Lee Elhardt Hays, American folksinger (b. 1914)
  • 1986 – Ted Knight, American actor (b. 1923)
  • 1987 – Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
  • 1988 – Carlos Paião, Portuguese singer (b. 1957)
  • 1989 – Irving Stone, American author (b. 1903)
  • 1990 – Minoru Honda, Japanese astronomer (b. 1913)
  • 1992 – Arthur Leigh Allen, American suspected murderer (b. 1933)
  • 1992 – Bob de Moor, Belgian comics artist (b. 1925)
  • 1995 – Ronald White, American singer and songwriter (The Miracles) (b. 1939)
  • 1998 – Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
  • 2000 – Akbar Adibi, Iranian scientist (b. 1939)
  • 2001 – Louis Muhlstock, Canadian painter (b. 1904)
  • 2003 – Jim Wacker, American football coach (b. 1937)
  • 2004 – Laura Branigan, American singer (b. 1957)
  • 2005 – Denis D’Amour, Canadian guitarist (Voivod) (b. 1960)
  • 2005 – Robert Denning, American interior designer (b. 1927)
  • 2006 – Rainer Barzel, German politician (b. 1924)
  • 2006 – Clyde Walcott, Barbadian West Indies cricketer (b. 1926)
  • 2007 – Gaston Thorn, Luxembourger politician (b. 1928)

August 26 – Holidays:

• Namibia – Namibia Day or Heroes’ Day.
• Philippines – National Heroes’ Day.
• Zanzibar – Sultan’s Birthday.
• United States – Women’s Equality Day.

On This Day in History August 25

August 25 – Events:

• 1248 – The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht.
• 1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
• 1580 – Battle of Alcântara. Spain defeats Portugal.
• 1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
• 1718 – New Orleans, Louisiana is founded.
• 1758 – Seven Years’ War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
• 1768 – James Cook begins his first voyage.
• 1814 – Washington, D.C. is burned and White House is destroyed by British forces during the War of 1812.
• 1825 – Uruguay declares its independence from Brazil.
• 1830 – The Belgian Revolution begins.
• 1835 – The New York Sun perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax.
• 1894 – Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
• 1910 – Yellow Cab is founded.
• 1912 – The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
• 1916 – The United States National Park Service is created.
• 1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, started on August 13, now ends. The Red Army is defeated.
• 1921 – The first skirmishes of the Battle of Blair Mountain occur.
• 1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
• 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.
• 1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
• 1945 – Ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by a portion of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
• 1950 – President Harry Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike.
• 1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn
• 1989 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe.
• 1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the outermost planet in the Solar System.
• 1989 – Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan’s first female cabinet secretary.
• 1991 – Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, was convicted of a shoot-to-kill Berlin Wall policy.
• 2003 – The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).
• 2007 43 people killed by bomb blast in Hyderabad, India.

August 25 – Birthdays:

• 1530 – Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (d. 1584)
• 1561 – Philippe van Lansberge, Dutch astronomer (d. 1632)
• 1624 – François de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (d. 1709)
• 1662 – John Leverett the Younger, American educator (d. 1724)
• 1719 – Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, French painter (d. 1795)
• 1724 – George Stubbs, British painter (d. 1806)
• 1741 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian (d. 1792)
• 1744 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (d. 1803)
• 1767 – Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just, French revolutionary and writer (d. 1794)
• 1772 – King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1843)
• 1786 – King Ludwig I of Bavaria (d. 1868)
• 1796 – James Lick, American land baron (d. 1876)
• 1802 – Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian poet (d. 1850)
• 1803 – Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, the Duque de Caxias, Brazilian military leader
• 1819 – Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (d. 1884)
• 1836 – Bret Harte, American writer (d. 1902)
• 1841 – Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss medical researcher; Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
• 1845 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. 1886)
• 1867 – James W. Gerard, American jurist and diplomat (d. 1951)
• 1868 – Nikolaos Levidis, Greek shooter
• 1882 – Seán T. O’Kelly, Irish politician (d. 1966)
• 1893 – Henry Trendley Dean, American dental researcher (d. 1962)
• 1898 – Helmut Hasse, German mathematician (d. 1975)
• 1900 – Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist; Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
• 1902 – Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (d. 1972)
• 1903 – Árpád Élo, Hungarian physicist (d. 1992)
• 1905 – Faustina Kowalska, Polish mystic (d. 1938)
• 1909 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993)
• 1909 – Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971)
• 1911 – Vo Nguyen Giap (Võ Nguyên Giáp), Vietnamese general and statesman
• 1912 – Erich Honecker, East German politician (d. 1994)
• 1913 – Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
• 1913 – Bob Crosby, American bandleader (d. 1993)
• 1913 – Don DeFore, American actor (d. 1993)
• 1915 – Walter Trampler, American violist (d. 1997)
• 1916 – Van Johnson, American actor
• 1916 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist; Nobel Prize laureate  (d. 2003)
• 1916 – Saburo Sakai, Japanese aviator (d. 2000)
• 1917 – Mel Ferrer, American actor
• 1918 – Leonard Bernstein, American conductor and composer (d. 1990)
• 1918 – Richard Greene, English actor (d. 1985)
• 1919 – George Wallace, American politician (d. 1998)
• 1921 – Monty Hall, Canadian-born game show host
• 1921 – Brian Moore, Irish-born writer (d. 1999)
• 1921 – Bryce Mackasey, Canadian politician (d. 1999)
• 1925 – Thea Astley, Australian writer, (d. 2004)
• 1927 – Althea Gibson, American tennis player (d. 2003)
• 1928 – Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1928 – Darrell Johnson, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1930 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor
• 1930 – Graham Jarvis, Canadian actor (d. 2003)
• 1930 – Bruce Allpress, New Zealand actor
• 1931 – Hal Fishman, Los Angeles based local news anchor. (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Regis Philbin, American television host
• 1933 – Wayne Shorter, American jazz musician
• 1933 – Tom Skerritt, American actor
• 1934 – Lise Bacon, French Canadian politician
• 1935 – Charles Wright, American poet
• 1938 – David Canary, American actor
• 1938 – Frederick Forsyth, English author
• 1939 – John Badham, American film director
• 1940 – José Van Dam, Belgian baritone
• 1944 – Anthony Heald, American actor
• 1944 – Conrad Black, newspaper magnate
• 1944 – Jacques Demers, Canadian hockey coach
• 1946 – Rollie Fingers, American baseball player
• 1946 – Charles Ghigna (Father Goose), American poet and Children’s Author
• 1946 – Charlie Sanders, American football player
• 1949 – Martin Amis, English novelist
• 1949 – John Savage, American actor
• 1949 – Gene Simmons, Israeli-born musician (Kiss)
• 1949 – Fariborz Lachini, Canadian-Iranian composer
• 1950 – Charles Fambrough, American jazz musician
• 1951 – Rob Halford, English singer (Judas Priest)
• 1951 – Bill Handel, American radio personality
• 1952 – Geoff Downes, English keyboardist (Buggles, Yes, Asia)
• 1954 – Elvis Costello, English musician
• 1956 – Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally driver
• 1958 – Tim Burton, American film director
• 1960 – Ashley Crow, American actress
• 1961 – Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer and actor
• 1961 – Joanne Whalley, British actress
• 1962 – David Packer, American actor
• 1962 – Vivian Campbell, Irish musician (Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Dio)
• 1964 – Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
• 1964 – Blair Underwood, American actor
• 1964 – Vassilios Kotronias, Greek chess grandmaster
• 1964 – Marti Noxon, American television writer and producer
• 1965 – Mia Zapata, American singer (The Gits) (d. 1994)
• 1966 – Albert Belle, American Major League Baseball player
• 1966 – Derek Sherinian, American keyboardist
• 1967 – Jeff Tweedy, American singer (Wilco)
• 1968 – Rafet El Roman, Turkish singer and composer
• 1968 – Yuri Mitsui, Japanese actress, model and racing driver
• 1968 – Stuart Murdoch, Scottish musician (Belle & Sebastian)
• 1968 – Rachael Ray, American chef and television personality
• 1968 – Spider One, American musician (Powerman 5000)
• 1969 – Cameron Mathison, Canadian actor
• 1970 – Robert Horry, American basketball player
• 1970 – Jo Dee Messina, American country music singer
• 1970 – Claudia Schiffer, German model
• 1971 – Mike Lockwood, professional wrestler (d. 2003)
• 1971 – Thalia Sodi, Mexican actress and singer
• 1972 – Marvin Harrison, American football player
• 1973 – Fatih Akin, Turkish-German film director
• 1973 – Olavi Mikkonen, Swedish heavy metal guitarist (Amon Amarth)
• 1974 – Eric Millegan, American actor
• 1974 – Dave Luza, Dutch comedian
• 1974 – Pablo Ozuna, Dominican baseball player
• 1976 – Alexander Skarsgård, Swedish actor
• 1977 – Sophie Cadieux, Quebec actress
• 1977 – Diego Corrales, American boxer (d. 2007)
• 1977 – Jonathan Togo, American actor
• 1978 – Kel Mitchell, American actor
• 1979 – Marlon Harewood, English footballer
• 1980 – Neal Musser, American baseball player
• 1981 – Rachel Bilson, American actress
• 1981 – Clare Oliver, Australian cancer activist (d. 2007)
• 1983 – James Righton, Musician (Klaxons)
• 1983 – James Rossiter, British racing driver
• 1983 – Janet Chow, Miss Hong Kong 2006 Runner-Up
• 1987 – Stacey Farber, Canadian actress
• 1987 – Blake Lively, American actress
• 1987 – Justin Upton, American baseball player
• 1987 – James Wesolowski, Australian soccer player
• 1987 – Liu Yifei, Chinese actress and singer
• 1988 – Angela Park, Brazilian golfer
• 1988 – Raymond Quinn, English singer
• 1992 – Miyabi Natsuyaki, Japanese singer
• 1994 – Josh Flitter, American actor
• 1997 – Holly Gibbs, English child actor
• 1998 – China Anne McClain, American actress

August 25 – Deaths:

• 383 – Gratian, Roman Emperor
• 471 – Gennadius I, Patriarch of Constantinople
• 1192 – Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1142)
• 1270 – King Louis IX of France (b. 1214)
• 1282 – Thomas Cantilupe, English saint
• 1330 – Sir James Douglas, Scottish soldier (b. 1286)
• 1482 – Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI of England (b. 1429)
• 1554 – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English politician (b. 1473)
• 1632 – Thomas Dekker, English dramatist
• 1650 – Richard Crashaw, English poet
• 1688 – Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer
• 1699 – King Christian V of Denmark (b. 1646)
• 1711 – Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, English politician
• 1742 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b. 1704)
• 1774 – Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (b. 1714)
• 1776 – David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1711)
• 1792 – Jacques Cazotte, French writer (b. 1719)
• 1822 – William Herschel, German-born astronomer (b. 1738)
• 1867 – Michael Faraday, English scientist (b. 1791)
• 1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (b. 1844)
• 1900 – Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1840)
• 1904 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
• 1904 – William Hall, Canadian Royal Naval sailor (b. 1827)
• 1908 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1852)
• 1925 – Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (b. 1852)
• 1938 – Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian writer (b. 1870)
• 1939 – Babe Siebert, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1904)
• 1942 – George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (b. 1902)
• 1945 – John Birch, American intelligence officer and missionary (b. 1918)
• 1950 – Earl Caddock, professional wrestler (b. 1888)
• 1956 – Alfred Kinsey, American research biologist (b. 1894)
• 1967 – Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1883)
• 1967 – Paul Muni, Polish actor (b. 1895)
• 1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party leader (b. 1918)
• 1971 – Ted Lewis, American musician and entertainer (b. 1890)
• 1976 – Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1900)
• 1979 – Stan Kenton, American musician and bandleader (b. 1911)
• 1980 – Gower Champion, American dancer, actor, and choreographer (b. 1919)
• 1984 – Truman Capote, American author (b. 1924)
• 1984 – Waite Hoyt, American baseball player (b. 1899)
• 1984 – Viktor Chukarin, Soviet gymnast (b. 1921)
• 1985 – Samantha Smith, American social activist (b. 1972)
• 1990 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (b. 1903)
• 1999 – Rob Fisher, English musician (b. 1956)
• 2000 – Carl Barks, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
• 2000 – Jack Nitzsche, American record producer (b. 1937)
• 2001 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (b. 1979)
• 2001 – Carl Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1938)
• 2001 – Ken Tyrrell, former race driver and founder of Tyrrell Racing (b. 1924)
• 2001 – Philippe Léotard, French actor and singer (b. 1940)
• 2002 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian writer (b. 1923)
• 2005 – Peter Glotz, German politician (b. 1939)
• 2007 – Ray Jones, English professional footballer (b. 1988)

August 25 – Holidays:

• Roman festivals – Opiconsivia held in honor of Ops.
• Roman Catholic Saints – Genesius of Arles, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joseph Calasanz.
• Uruguay – National Day (independence from Brazil in 1825).

On This Day in History August 24

August 24 – Events:

• 49 BC – Julius Caesar’s general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide to avoid capture.
• 79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
• 410 – The Visigoths under Alaric begin to pillage Rome for three days.
• 1215 – Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.
• 1349 – Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
• 1391 – Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
• 1456 – The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
• 1511 – Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of Malacca.
• 1561 – Willem of Orange marries duchess Anna of Saxony.
• 1572 – Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: On the orders of king Charles IX of France, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) begins.
• 1608 – The first official English representative to India lands in Surat.
• 1662 – Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
• 1682 – William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
• 1690 – Calcutta, India is founded.
• 1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
• 1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1820 – Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal; see Portugal’s crises of the Nineteenth Century.
• 1821 – The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
• 1831 – Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
• 1857 – The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history.
• 1858 – In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
• 1870 – The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.
• 1875 – Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim English Channel
• 1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
• 1909 – Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
• 1912 – Alaska becomes a United States territory.
• 1914 – World War I: German troops capture Namur.
• 1929 – Turkey and Persia sign a friendship treaty.
• 1929 – Riots in Palestine of 1929: 18 Jews in Safed, 67 in Hebron, and 22 in Jerusalem killed by Arab Palestinians.
• 1931 – France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
• 1931 – Resignation of the United Kingdom’s Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
• 1932 – Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
• 1936 – The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
• 1937 – In the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.
• 1939 – The Nazi-Soviet Pact is signed between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.
• 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryujo is sunk and US carrier Enterprise heavily damaged.
• 1944 – World War II: Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
• 1949 – The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
• 1950 – Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the UN.
• 1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
• 1954 – Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commits suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
• 1960 – A temperature of -88°C (-127°F) is measured in Vostok, Antarctica — a world-record low.
• 1963 – The 200-metre freestyle is swum in less than 2 minutes for the first time by Don Schollander (1:58).
• 1967 – Led by Abbie Hoffman, a group of hippies temporarily disrupt trading at the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing a cease in trading as the brokers scramble to grab them up
• 1968 – France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power.
• 1981 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
• 1989 – Colombian drug barons declare “total war” on the Colombian government.
• 1989 – Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.
• 1989 – Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
• 1990 – A judge rules that Judas Priest are not responsible for the deaths of two youths who committed suicide after listening to the band’s music.
• 1990 – Sinéad O’Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Holmdel, New Jersey if “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played before her show, as is customary. This began the downfall of her career.
• 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• 1991 – Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
• 1992 – Diplomatic relations are established between the People’s Republic of China and South Korea.
• 1992 – Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida as a Category 5 Hurricane.
• 1994 – Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
• 1998 – The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 Pan Am bombing.
• 1998 – First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.
• 2000 – Argon fluorohydride, the first Argon compound ever known, is discovered at the University of Helsinki by Finnish scientists.
• 2004 – 89 passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions were caused by suicide bombers from the Russian Republic of Chechnya.
• 2006 – The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term “planet” such that Pluto is considered a Dwarf Planet.

August 24 – Birthdays:

• 1113 – Geoffrey of Anjou, Count of Anjou (d. 1151)
• 1198 – King Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
• 1358 – King John I of Castile (d. 1390)
• 1393 – Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1458)
• 1552 – Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (d. 1614)
• 1580 – John Taylor, English poet (d. 1654)
• 1591 – Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
• 1635 – Peder Griffenfeld, Danish statesman (d. 1699)
• 1669 – Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (d. 1747)
• 1707 – Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, English Evangelical Revivalist (d. 1791)
• 1750 – Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1836)
• 1758 – Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1794)
• 1759 – William Wilberforce, English abolitionist (d. 1833)
• 1772 – King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1840)
• 1787 – James Weddell, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
• 1817 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
• 1837 – Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (d. 1924)
• 1845 – James C. Calhoun, brother-in-law of George Armstrong Custer (d. 1876)
• 1852 – Deacon White, American baseball player (d. 1919)
• 1863 – Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (d. 1918)
• 1865 – King Ferdinand I of Romania (d. 1927)
• 1872 – Max Beerbohm, British caricaturist (d. 1956)
• 1880 – Joshua Lionel Cowen, American entrepreneur (d. 1965)
• 1884 – Earl Derr Biggers, American author (d. 1933)
• 1887 – Harry Hooper, American baseball player (d. 1974)
• 1890 – Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer and surfer (d. 1968)
• 1890 – Jean Rhys, British writer (d. 1979)
• 1895 – Richard Cardinal Cushing, archbishop of Boston (d. 1970)
• 1897 – Fred Rose, American songwriter and publishing executive (d. 1954)
• 1898 – Malcolm Cowley, American literary critic (d. 1989)
• 1899 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
• 1899 – Gaylord DuBois, American comic book writer (d. 1993)
• 1899 – Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1983)
• 1901 – Preston Foster, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1902 – Carlo Gambino, Sicilian-born American mafioso (d. 1976)
• 1902 – Fernand Braudel, French historian (d. 1985)
• 1904 – Alice White, American actress (d. 1983)
• 1905 – Siaka Stevens, President of Sierra Leone (d. 1988)
• 1905 – Arthur Crudup, American singer and guitarist (d. 1976)
• 1911 – Lofty England, English automotive engineer and race team manager (d.1995)
• 1912 – Durward Kirby, American television personality (d. 2000)
• 1915 – James Tiptree, Jr., American writer (d. 1987)
• 1916 – Hal Smith, American actor (d. 1994)
• 1916 – Léo Ferré, French composer and singer (d. 1993)
• 1917 – Dennis James, American game show host (d. 1997)
• 1918 – Sikander Bakht, Governor of Kerala (d. 2004)
• 1922 – René Lévesque, Premier of Quebec (d. 1987)
• 1922 – Howard Zinn, American historian and activist
• 1923 – Arthur Jensen, American psychologist
• 1927 – Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel laureate
• 1929 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader (d. 2004)
• 1934 – Kenny Baker, English actor
• 1936 – A. S. Byatt, English novelist
• 1936 – Kenny Guinn, American Governor, Nevada
• 1937 – Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, Nigerian politician (d. 1998)
• 1938 – Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
• 1938 – David Freiberg, American bassist (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
• 1938 – Mason Williams, American guitarist and composer
• 1940 – Francine Lalonde, Quebec politician
• 1942 – Max Cleland, American politician
• 1942 – Howard Jacobson, British novelist and newspaper columnist
• 1943 – John Cipollina, American guitarist (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (d. 1989)
• 1943 – Pini Zahavi, Israeli football agent
• 1944 – Bill Goldsworthy, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1996)
• 1944 – Gregory Jarvis, American astronaut (d. 1986)
• 1945 – Ken Hensley, English musician (Uriah Heep)
• 1945 – Vince McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter
• 1947 – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author
• 1947 – Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist
• 1947 – Vladimir Masorin, Russian admiral
• 1947 – Anne Archer, American Actress
• 1948 – Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician
• 1948 – Kim Sung-Il, Chief of Staff of Republic of Korea Air Force
• 1949 – Joe Regalbuto, American actor
• 1949 – Charles Rocket, American actor (d. 2005)
• 1950 – Tim White, American anthropologist
• 1951 – Orson Scott Card, American writer
• 1951 – Oscar Hijuelos, Pulitzer Prize winning author
• 1952 – Mike Shanahan, American football coach
• 1953 – Ron Holloway, American tenor saxophonist
• 1954 – Alain Daigle, French Canadian ice hockey player
• 1955 – Mike Huckabee, Governor/Presidential candidate
• 1956 – John Culberson, American politician
• 1956 – Dick Lee, Singaporean singer-songwriter
• 1957 – Jeffrey Daniel, American dancer and singer (Shalamar)
• 1957 – Stephen Fry, English comedian and actor
• 1958 – Steve Guttenberg, American actor
• 1958 – Tracy Harris, American artist
• 1958 – Chris Offutt, American author
• 1959 – Linda Bollea, Wife of Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan
• 1960 – Cal Ripken, Jr., American baseball player
• 1960 – Kim Christofte, Danish footballer
• 1960 – Takashi Miike, Japanese filmmaker
• 1962 – Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
• 1962 – David Koechner, American actor
• 1963 – John Bush, American singer (Anthrax)
• 1963 – Hideo Kojima, Japanese video game director
• 1964 – Salizhan Sharipov, Russian cosmonaut
• 1965 – Marlee Matlin, American actress
• 1965 – Brian Rajadurai, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1965 – Reggie Miller, American basketball player
• 1967- Michael Thomas, English Footballer
• 1968 – Shoichi Funaki, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1968 – Andreas Kisser, Brazilian guitarist (Sepultura)
• 1968 – Benoit Brunet, French Canadian ice hockey player
• 1970 – Tugay Kerimoglu, Turkish footballer
• 1971 – Pierfrancesco Favino, Italian actor
• 1972 – Jean-Luc Brassard, Canadian freestyle skier
• 1973 – Dave Chappelle, American actor and Comedian
• 1973 – Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
• 1973 – Carmine Giovinazzo, American actor
• 1973 – Andrew Brunette, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1974 – Jennifer Lien, American actress
• 1975 – Mark de Vries, Surinamese-Dutch footballer
• 1976 – Nordin Wooter, Dutch footballer
• 1977 – Denílson, Brazilian footballer
• 1977 – Robert Enke, German footballer
• 1977 – Per Gade, Danish footballer
• 1977 – John Green, American author
• 1977 – Jürgen Macho, Austrian footballer
• 1978 – Rafael Furcal, Dominican baseball player
• 1978 – Derek Morris, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Michael Redd, American basketball player
• 1979 – Elva Hsiao, Taiwanese singer
• 1980 – Sonja Bennett, Canadian actress
• 1980 – Michael Keohane, Irish racing driver
• 1981 – Chad Michael Murray, American actor
• 1981 – Jiro Wang Dong Cheng, Taiwanese singer, actor
• 1983 – Marcel Goc, German ice hockey player
• 1983 – Christopher Parker, British actor
• 1987 – Jon Scheyer, American basketball player
• 1987 – Anže Kopitar, Slovenian ice hockey player
• 1988 – Rupert Grint, English actor
• 1995 – Runa Tsukishima, Japanese child model
• 2003 – Alexandre Coste, son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco

August 24 – Deaths:

• 79 – Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. 23)
• 1042 – Michael V, Byzantine Emperor) (b. 1015)
• 1103 – King Magnus III of Norway (b. 1073)
• 1217 – Eustace the Monk, French mercenary and pirate (bc. 1170)
• 1540 – Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian painter (b. 1503)
• 1542 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
• 1572 – Victims of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre:
  • 1572 – Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (b. 1519)
  • 1572 – Pierre de la Ramée, French humanist (b. 1515)
  • 1572 – Charles de Téligny, French Huguenot soldier (b. 1535)
  • 1595 – Thomas Digges, English astronomer (b. 1546)
  • 1647 – Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (b. 1586)
  • 1664 – Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer (bc. 1610)
  • 1679 – Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz, French churchman and agitator (b. 1614)
  • 1680 – Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618)
  • 1683 – John Owen, English non-conformist theologian (b. 1616)
  • 1759 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (b. 1715)
  • 1779 – Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, Greek Orthodox martyr (b. 1714)
  • 1798 – Thomas Alcock, English clergyman (b. 1709)
  • 1831 – August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1760)
  • 1832 – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician (b. 1796)
  • 1841 – Theodore Edward Hook, English author (b. 1788)
  • 1888 – Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (b. 1822)
  • 1921 – Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (b. 1886)
  • 1940 – Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German television pioneer (b. 1860)
  • 1943 – Simone Weil, French philosopher and social activist (b. 1909)
  • 1946 – James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
  • 1954 – Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (b. 1882)
  • 1956 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)
  • 1958 – Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist (b. 1876)
  • 1967 – Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (b. 1882)
  • 1967 – Lam Bun, Hong Kong radio commentator (murdered) (b. 1930)
  • 1974 – Alexander de Seversky, Russian-American aviation pioneer (b. 1894)
  • 1977 – Buddy O’Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1916)
  • 1978 – Louis Prima, American band leader (b. 1910)
  • 1979 – Hanna Reitsch, German test pilot (b. 1912)
  • 1979 – Sampson Sievers, Russian Orthodox Christian monk and wonder-worker (b. 1898)
  • 1980 – Yootha Joyce, British actress (b. 1927)
  • 1982 – Félix-Antoine Savard, French Canadian catholic priest and novelist (b. 1896)
  • 1985 – Paul Creston, American composer (b. 1906)
  • 1987 – Malcolm Kirk, wrestler (b. 1936)
  • 1990 – Sergei Dovlatov, Russian writer (b. 1941)
  • 1990 – Gailli AbedElrhman, Sudanese writer (b. 1931)
  • 1991 – Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (b. 1904)
  • 1995 – Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-born photographer (b. 1898)
  • 1998 – E.G. Marshall, American actor (b. 1910)
  • 1999 – Alexandre Lagoya, Greek-Italian classical guitarist (b. 1929)
  • 2001 – Jane Greer, American actress (b. 1924)
  • 2002 – Nikolay Guryanov Russian Orthodox Christian mystic and priest (b. 1909)
  • 2003 – Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)
  • 2004 – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926)
  • 2005 – Kaleth Morales, Colombian Vallenato singer (b. 1984)
  • 2006 – Léopold Simoneau, French Canadian tenor (b. 1916)
  • 2006 – Cristian Nemescu, Romanian film director (b.1979)
  • 2007 – Andrée P. Boucher, Mayor of Quebec City (b. 1937)

August 24-Holidays

• Mundus patet: a harvest feast involving the dead.
• Ukraine: National holiday, independence from the Soviet Union (1991).

On This Day in History August 23

August 23 – Events:

• 79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
• 1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason by Edward I of England.
• 1328 – Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
• 1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
• 1555 – Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands.
• 1595 – Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.
• 1708 – Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
• 1775 – King George III declares the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion.
• 1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it wasn’t accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years.
• 1793 – French Revolution: a levée en masse was decreed by the National Convention.
• 1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
• 1813 – At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
•  1833 – Slavery abolished in the British colonies.
• 1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares to war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.
• 1864 – The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
• 1866 – Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.
• 1889 – First wireless message from a ship to the shore received.
• 1896 – First Cry of the Philippine Revolution is made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila.
• 1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented.
• 1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
• 1914 – World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.
• 1923 – Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.
• 1929 – Hebron Massacre: Arab attack of the Jewish community in the British Mandate of Palestine resulted in 133 Jews killed, 67 in Hebron.
• 1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, Baltic states, Finland, Ukraine and Poland are divided between the two nations.
• 1940 – World War II: The Germans start bombing London.
• 1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
• 1943 – World War II: Kharkov liberated.
• 1944 – World War II: Marseille liberated.
• 1944 – World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
• 1944 – Freckleton Air Disaster – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.
• 1946 – Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein.
• 1948 – World Council of Churches is formed.
• 1952 – The Arab League is formed.
• 1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People’s Liberation Army’s bombardment of Quemoy.
• 1962 – First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite.
• 1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
• 1973 – The Intelsat communication satellite is launched.
• 1975 – Successful Communist coup in Laos.
• 1977 – The Gossamer Condor wins the Kremer prize for human powered flight.
• 1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
• 1982 – Bachir Gemayel is elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.
• 1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
• 1985 – Famous shipwreck RMS Titanic is found.
• 1989 – Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way).
• 1989 – All of Australia’s 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute.
• 1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.
• 1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1990 – West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.
• 1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’
• 2000 – A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.
• 2000 – Nicaragua becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. This essentially deprecated the Buenos Aires Convention treaty, because as of this date, all members of the BA Convention were also signatories to Berne.
• 2005 – TANS Peru Flight 204 crashes near Pucallpa, Peru, killing 41.
• 2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.

August 23 – Birthdays:

• 686 – Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne (d. 741)
• 1486 – Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (d. 1566)
• 1524 – François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (d. 1590)
• 1623 – Stanislaw Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer (d. 1675)
• 1724 – Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)
• 1741 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French explorer (d. 1788)
• 1754 – King Louis XVI of France (d. 1793)
• 1769 – Georges Cuvier, French biologist and statesman (d. 1832)
• 1783 – William Tierney Clark, English civil engineer (d. 1852)
• 1785 – Oliver Hazard Perry, U.S. naval officer (d. 1819)
• 1805 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman (d. 1893)
• 1814 – James Roosevelt Bayley, first Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, and the eighth Archbishop of Baltimore (d. 1877)
• 1829 – Moritz Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1920)
• 1836 – Marie Henriette of Austria, Queen of the Belgians (d. 1902)
• 1843 – William Southam, Canadian newspaper publisher (d. 1932)
• 1846 – Alexander Milne Calder, American sculptor (d. 1923)
• 1847 – Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927)
• 1849 – William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor (d. 1903)
• 1852 – Arnold Toynbee, English economist and social reformer (d. 1883)
• 1852 – Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia. (d. 1913)
• 1854 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish/German composer (d. 1925)
• 1864 – Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (d.1936)
• 1868 – Edgar Lee Masters, American author (d. 1950)
• 1875 – William Eccles, English radio pioneer (d. 1966)
• 1875 – Eugene Lanceray, Russian artist (d. 1946)
• 1880 – Alexander Grin, Russian writer (d. 1932)
• 1883 – Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, U.S. general (d. 1953)
• 1884 – Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
• 1884 – Ogden L. Mills, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1927-1932 (d. 1937)
• 1900 – Ernst Krenek, Austrian-born composer (d. 1991)
• 1900 – Malvina Reynolds, American folk singer/songwriter (d. 1978)
• 1901 – John Sherman Cooper, U.S. Senator from Kentucky (d. 1991)
• 1903 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)
• 1905 – Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)
• 1908 – Hannah Frank, Scottish Artist and Sculptor
• 1910 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (d. 1979)
• 1911 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (d. 1998)
• 1912 – Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor (d. 1996)
• 1917 – Tex Williams, American singer (d. 1985)
• 1919 – Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin, Russian mathematician (d. 1984)
• 1921 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner
• 1922 – George Kell, baseball player
• 1922 – Jean Darling, American child actress
• 1922 – Pierre Gauvreau, Quebec painter, television writer and producer
• 1923 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (d. 2003)
• 1924 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer (d. 2005)
• 1924 – Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1925 – Robert Mulligan, American movie and television director
• 1927 – Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator
• 1928 – Marian Seldes, American actress
• 1929 – Vera Miles, American actress
• 1930 – Michel Rocard, Prime Minister of France
• 1931 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or  Medicine
• 1932 – Houari Boumedienne, President of Algeria (d. 1978)
• 1932 – Mark Russell, American comedian, musician, and political commentator
• 1933 – Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1933 – Pete Wilson, Governor of California
• 1934 – Barbara Eden, American actress and singer
• 1934 – Sonny Jurgensen, American football player
• 1936 – Henry Lee Lucas, American serial killer (d. 2001)
• 1943 – Nelson DeMille, American novelist
• 1944 – Antonia Novello, former United States Surgeon General
• 1946 – Keith Moon, English singer and drummer (The Who) (d. 1978)
• 1947 – Willy Russell, British playwright
• 1947 – David Robb, British actor
• 1948 – Andrei Plesu, Romanian writer, essayist
• 1948 – Daniel Ruettiger “Rudy”, University of Notre Dame football legend
• 1949 – Katiana Balanika, Greek actress and singer
• 1949 – Geoff Capes, English Strongman
• 1949 – Shelley Long, American actress
• 1949 – Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
• 1951 – Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (d. 2004)
• 1951 – Queen Noor of Jordan
• 1951 – Jimi Jamison, American singer (Survivor)
• 1952 – Vicky Leandros, Greek singer and politician
• 1953 – Bobby G, British singer (Bucks Fizz)
• 1954 – Charles Busch, American director, writer, actor and drag queen
• 1956 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
• 1956 – Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, Norwegian politician
• 1956 – Skipp Sudduth, American actor
• 1957 – Tasos Mitropoulos, Greek footballer and politician
• 1958 – Julio Franco, oldest regular position player in MLB history
• 1959 – George Kalovelonis, Greek tennis player
• 1960 – Rodney Alan Greenblat, American graphic artist
• 1960 – Chris Potter, Canadian actor
• 1961 – Dean DeLeo, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)
• 1961 – Gary Mabbutt, English footballer
• 1962 – Martin Cauchon, Canadian politician
• 1963 – Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
• 1963 – Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
• 1963 – Park Chan-wook, Korean director and screenwriter
• 1964 – Kong Hee, Singaporean, Founder and Senior Pastor of the City Harvest movement in Asia
• 1965 – Roger Avary, Canadian-born screenwriter, director, and producer
• 1966 – Rik Smits, Dutch-American basketball player
• 1968 – Chris DiMarco, American golfer
• 1969 – Keith Tyson, English artist
• 1969 – Jeremy Schaap, American sportswriter
• 1969 – Geneviève Brouillette, Quebec television and film actress
• 1970 – Jay Mohr, American actor and comedian
• 1970 – River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993)
• 1971 – Demetrio Albertini, Italian footballer
• 1971 – BoneCrusher, American rapper
• 1972 – Martin Grainger, English footballer
• 1972 – Raul Casanova, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1974 – Ray Park, Scottish actor
• 1974 – Shifty, American musician (Crazy Town)
• 1974 – Benjamin Limo, Kenyan runner
• 1974 – Christian Beranek, American graphic novelist and actor
• 1975 – Eliza Carthy, English singer and fiddler
• 1975 – Jarkko Ruutu, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1976 – Scott Caan, American actor
• 1977 – Douglas Sequeira, Costa Rican footballer
• 1978 – Kobe Bryant, American basketball player
• 1978 – Julian Casablancas, American musician
• 1979 – Edgar Sosa, Mexican boxer
• 1980 – Denny Bautista, Dominican baseball player
• 1980 – Rex Grossman, American football player
• 1981 – Ozzy Lusth, American Survivor contestant
• 1981 – Stephan Loboué, Ivorian footballer
• 1981 – Carmen Luvana, American pornographic actress.
• 1982 – Natalie Coughlin, American swimmer
• 1982 – YTCracker, American musician
• 1982 – Scott Palguta, Professional soccer player
• 1984 – Glen Johnson, English footballer
• 1986 – Neil Cicierega, American cartoonist and musician
• 1987 – Nikki Gil, Filipina actress, host and singer
• 1988 – Daniel Schwaab, German footballer
• 1995 – Eliza Pineda, Filipina child actress

August 23 – Deaths:

• 93 – Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (b. 40)
• 634 – Abu Bakr, Arabian caliph
• 1106 – Magnus, Duke of Saxony
• 1176 – Emperor Rokujo of Japan (b. 1164)
• 1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot
• 1387 – King Olav IV of Norway (b. 1370)
• 1507 – Jean Molinet, French writer (b. 1435)
• 1519 – Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot
• 1540 – Guillaume Budé, French scholar
• 1591 – Luis Ponce de León, Spanish poet and mystic (b. 1527)
• 1618 – Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
• 1628 – George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1592)
• 1652 – John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)
• 1706 – Colonel Edward Nott, Esq., British Crown Governor of Virginia (b. 1654)
• 1723 – Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (b. 1639)
• 1806 – Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (b. 1736)
• 1813 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)
• 1819 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
• 1853 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)
• 1867 – Auguste-Marseille Barthélemy, French poet (b. 1796)
• 1892 – Deodoro da Fonseca, 1 President of Brazil (b. 1827)
• 1926 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
• 1927 – Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (b. 1891)
• 1927 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (b. 1888)
• 1937 – Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)
• 1955 – Reginald Tate, British actor (b. 1896)
• 1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (b. 1895)
• 1962 – Walter Anderson, German folklorist (b. 1885)
• 1962 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (b. 1892)
• 1963 – Glen Gray, American jazz musician and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra (b. 1900)
• 1966 – Francis X. Bushman, American actor (b. 1883)
• 1967 – Georges Berger, Belgian racing driver (b. 1918)
• 1971 – The original Shamu, Sea World orca
• 1974 – Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist (b. 1888)
• 1982 – Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
• 1987 – Didier Pironi, French racing car driver (b. 1952)
• 1989 – Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese writer and academic (b. 1944)
• 1989 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (b. 1927)
• 1990 – David Rose, American composer and orchestra leader (b. 1910)
• 1995 – Dwayne Goettel, Canadian musician (Skinny Puppy)(b. 1964)
• 1997 – John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b.  1917)
• 1999 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (b.1926)
• 1999 – James White, Northern Irish writer (b. 1928)
• 2000 – John Anthony Kaiser, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1932)
• 2001 – Kathleen Freeman, American actress (b. 1919)
• 2001 – Peter Maas, American novelist (b. 1929)
• 2002 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American baseball player (b. 1922)
• 2003 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
• 2003 – Jack Dyer, Australian rules footballer (b. 1913)
• 2003 – John Geoghan, American Catholic priest (b. 1935)
• 2005 – Brock Peters, American actor (b. 1927)
• 2005 – Ninjalicious, Canadian author and urban explorer (b. 1973)
• 2006 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1928)
• 2007 – Robert Symonds, American actor (b. 1926)

August 23 – Holidays:

• Roman festivals – Vulcanalia.
• RC Saints – Saint Rose of Lima, Philip Benitius
• Romania – Liberation Day (1944).
• Swaziland – Umhlanga Day.
• Ukraine – Flag Day.

On This Day in History August 22

August 22 – Events:

• 392 – Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
• 476 – Odoacer is named Rex italiae by his troop.
• 565 – St. Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
• 851 : The army of Erispoe, King of Brittany, defeats that of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, near the Breton town of Jengland. Beginning of the Breton state.
• 1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England.
• 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field death of Richard III and end of the House of Plantagenet.
• 1559 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
• 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company after buying a sliver of land from local Nayak rulers.
• 1642 – Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. Beginning of the English Civil War.
• 1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
• 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
• 1770 – James Cook’s expedition lands on the east coast of Australia.
• 1775 – King George III declares the American colonies to be in open rebellion.
• 1780 – James Cook’s ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during  the voyage).
• 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
• 1798 – French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone’s United Irishmen’s Irish Rebellion.
• 1827 – José de La Mar becomes President of Peru.
• 1831 – Nat Turner’s slave rebellion revolt commences just after midnight in Southampton, Virginia, leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred blacks who were killed in retaliation for the uprising.
• 1848 – The United States annexes New Mexico.
• 1849 – First air raid in history. Austria launched pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice.
• 1851 – The first America’s Cup is won by the yacht America.
• 1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
• 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention. The Red Cross is formed.
• 1901 – Cadillac Motor Company founded.
• 1902 – Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.
• 1902 – The German Luger becomes the official German sidearm for both World Wars.
• 1910 – Japan illicitly annexes Korea with the signing of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. The name Korea was abolished and replaced with the ancient name Joseon.
• 1911 – Theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered.
• 1914 – World War I: In Belgium, British and German troops clash for the first time in the war.
• 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army is shot dead during an Anti- Treaty ambush at Beal County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.
• 1926 – Gold discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 1932 – The BBC first experiments with television broadcasting.
• 1941 – World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
• 1942 – World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.
• 1944 – World War II: Thirty-two Spaniards & four French Maquis tackle a German column (1,300 men in 60 lorries, with 6 tanks & 2 self-propelled guns), at La Madeiline, France. Three Maquis are wounded, with 110 Germans killed and 200 wounded.
• 1944 – World War II: Romania captured by the Soviet Union.
• 1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.
• 1952 – The penal colony on Devil’s Island is permanently closed.
• 1962 – An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
• 1962 – The NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered cargo ship, completes its maiden voyage.
• 1963 – Joe Walker in X-15 test plane reaches altitude of 106 km (67 miles).
• 1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
• 1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
• 1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
• 1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.
• 1978 – The Frente Sandinista de Liberacion or FSLN occupies national palace in Nicaragua.
• 1988 – The Perth Mint issues the first platinum coin, the koala.
• 1989 – The first ring of Neptune is discovered.
• 1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.
• 1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
• 2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
• 2004 – A version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
• 2007 – The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.
• 2007 – The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day

August 22 – Birthdays:

• 1601 – Georges de Scudéry, French writer (d. 1667)
• 1624 – Jean Renaud de Segrais, French writer (d. 1701)
• 1647 – Denis Papin, French physicist and inventor (d. c. 1712)
• 1679 – Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French cardinal (d. 1758)
• 1760 – Pope Leo XII (d. 1829)
• 1764 – Charles Percier, French architect (d. 1838)
• 1771 – Henry Maudslay, English inventor (d. 1831)
• 1773 – Aimé Bonpland, French explorer (d. 1858)
• 1779 – James Kirke Paulding, American author (d. 1860)
• 1800 – William S. Harney, U.S. general (d. 1889)
• 1800 – Samuel David Luzzatto, Italian-Jewish scholar (d. 1865)
• 1811 – William Kelly, American inventor (d. 1888)
• 1822 – Virginia Clemm Poe, wife of Edgar Allan Poe (d. 1847)
• 1827 – Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman, industrialist and politician (d. 1906)
• 1834 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer (d. 1906)
• 1836 – Archibald MacNeal Willard, American artist (d. 1918)
• 1845 – William Lewis Douglas, 42 Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1924)
• 1848 – Melville E. Stone, American newspaper publisher (d. 1929)
• 1854 – Milan I, King of Serbia (d. 1901)
• 1857 – Ned Hanlon, American baseball player and manager (d. 1937)
• 1860 – Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German inventor (d. 1940)
• 1860 – Eleonore of Reuss-Köstritz, tsaritsa of Bulgaria (d. 1917)
• 1862 – Claude Debussy, French composer (d. 1918)
• 1867 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (d. 1939)
• 1873 – Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher (d. 1928)
• 1874 – Max Scheler, German philosopher (d. 1928)
• 1880 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (d. 1944)
• 1880 – Gorch Fock, German author and poet (d. 1916)
• 1887 – Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, German minister of finance (d. 1977)
• 1891 – Jacques Lipchitz, Lithuanian-born American sculptor (d. 1973)
• 1893 – Dorothy Parker, American writer (d. 1967)
• 1893 – Wilfred Kitching, British Salvation Army general (d. 1977)
• 1895 – Paul Comtois, French Canadian politician (d. 1966)
• 1900 – Sergei Ozhegov, Russian lexicographer (d. 1964)
• 1902 – Leni Riefenstahl, German film director (d. 2003)
• 1902 – Thomas Pelly, American politician (d. 1973)
• 1904 – Deng Xiaoping, Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1997)
• 1908 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)
• 1909 – Julius J. Epstein, American screenwriter (d. 2000)
• 1909 – Mel Hein, American football player (d. 1992)
• 1909 – Lucille Ricksen, American actress (d. 1925)
• 1913 – Bruno Pontecorvo, Italian physicist (d. 1993)
• 1915 – Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
• 1915 – James Hillier, Co-inventor of the electron microscope (d. 2007)
• 1915 – Edward Szczepanik, former Polish Prime Minister (d. 2005)
• 1917 – John Lee Hooker, American guitarist and singer (d. 2001)
• 1918 – Mary McGrory, American journalist (d. 2004)
• 1920 – Ray Bradbury, American writer
• 1920 – Denton Cooley, American heart surgeon
• 1922 – Micheline Presle, French actress
• 1925 – James Kirkwood, Jr., American playwright and author (d. 1989)
• 1928 – Tinga Seisay, Sierra Leonean diplomat and pro-democracy advocate
• 1928 – Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer (d. 2007)
• 1930 – Gilmar, Brazilian football player
• 1932 – Gerald P. Carr, American astronaut
• 1934 – Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. general
• 1934 – Sir Donald McIntyre, English bass-baritone
• 1935 – E. Annie Proulx, American author
• 1936 – Dale Hawkins, American singer and songwriter
• 1938 – Paul Maguire, American football commentator
• 1939 – George Reinholt, American actor
• 1939 – Carl Yastrzemski, baseball player
• 1940 – Valerie Harper, American actress
• 1940 – Bill McCartney, former college football coach
• 1941 – Bill Parcells, American football coach
• 1942 – Ugur Mumcu, Turkish journalist and writer (d. 1993)
• 1943 – Masatoshi Shima, Japanese computer scientist
• 1945 – Ron Dante, American songwriter and record producer (The Archies)
• 1945 – Erol Gelenbe, Turkish computer scientist and mathematician
• 1947 – Cindy Williams, American actress
• 1947 – Donna Godchaux, singer (Grateful Dead)
• 1948 – Eleonora Brown, Italian actress
• 1949 – Diana Nyad, American swimmer, world record holder
• 1949 – Doug Bair, baseball player
• 1949 – Þórarinn Eldjárn, an Icelandic writer
• 1949 – Alfred Musema, Rwandan genocidaire
• 1950 – Ray Burris, baseball player
• 1952 – Peter Laughner, American singer and guitarist (Rocket From the Tombs, Pere Ubu) (d.  1977)
• 1953 – Paul Ellering, American wrestling manager
• 1955 – Will Shetterly, writer
• 1955 – Chiranjeevi, Telugu film actor
• 1956 – Paul Molitor, baseball player
• 1957 – Steve Davis, English snooker player
• 1958 – Colm Feore, American-born actor
• 1958 – Lane Huffman, American professional wrestler
• 1958 – Vernon Reid, American musician (Living Colour)
• 1959 – Juan Croucier, American musician
• 1959 – Pia Gjellerup, Danish politician
• 1961 – Roland Orzabal, British musician (Tears for Fears)
• 1961 – Debbi Peterson, American singer (The Bangles)
• 1963 – Tori Amos, American singer/songwriter
• 1963 – Terry Catledge, American basketball player
• 1964 – Mats Wilander, Swedish tennis player
• 1965 – Tom Gibis, American voice actor
• 1966 – Eric Andolsek, American football player (d. 1992)
• 1966 – GZA, American rapper
• 1966 – Rob Witschge, Dutch footballer
• 1967 – Layne Staley, American musician (Alice in Chains) (d. 2002)
• 1967 – Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, British actor
• 1967 – Ant, American comedian
• 1967 – Ty Burrell, American actor
• 1967 – Alfred Gough, American screenwriter
• 1967 – Yukiko Okada, Japanese singer (d. 1986)
• 1968 – Paul Colman, Australian guitarist (Newsboys)
• 1968 – Alexander Mostovoi, Russian footballer
• 1968 – Horst Skoff, Austrian tennis player
• 1968 – Rich Lowry, American magazine editor
• 1970 – Charlie Connelly, English writer
• 1970 – Giada De Laurentiis, Italian-born American chef and television host
• 1971 – Richard Armitage, English actor
• 1971 – Rick Yune, Korean American actor
• 1972 – Steve Kline, American baseball player
• 1972 – Okkert Brits, South African pole vaulter
• 1972 – Max Wilson, Brazilian racing driver
• 1973 – Kristen Wiig, American comedian
• 1973 – Howie Dorough, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
• 1974 – William Kucmierowski, American professional wrestler
• 1974 – Agustín Pichot, Argentine rugby player
• 1974 – Stefano Verderi, Italian guitarman
• 1975 – Clint Bolton, Australian footballer
• 1975 – Sheree Murphy, British actress
• 1975 – Rodrigo Santoro, Brazilian actor
• 1977 – Heiðar Helguson, Icelandic footballer
• 1977 – Keren Cytter, Israeli visual artist
• 1977 – Jenna Leigh Green, American actress
• 1978 – Jeff Stinco, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
• 1980 – Christi Shake, American model and actress
• 1980 – Roland Benschneider, German footballer
• 1980 – Nicolas Macrozonaris, French-Canadian track-and-field athlete
• 1981 – Alex Holmes, American football player
• 1982 – Heather Campbell, Canadian writer
• 1983 – Theo Bos, Dutch cyclist
• 1983 – Laura Breckenridge, American actress

August 22 – Deaths:

• 408 – Stilicho, Roman general (b. 359)
• 1155 – Konoe, Emperor of Japan (b. 1139)
• 1188 – Ferdinand II, King of Leon (b. 1137)
• 1241 – Gregory IX, Italian religious leader, 178th Pope (b. c. 1143)
• 1280 – Nicholas III, Italian religious leader, 188th Pope (b. c. 1216)
• 1304 – John II, Count of Hainaut (b. 1247)
• 1350 – Philip VI, King of France (b. 1293)
• 1485 – Richard III, King of England (b. 1452)
• 1553 – John Dudley, English admiral and politician (b. 1501)
• 1572 – Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland (b. 1528)
• 1584 – Jan Kochanowski, Polish writer (b. 1530)
• 1599 – Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman (b. 1577)
• 1599 – Luca Marenzio, Italian composer (b. c. 1553)
• 1607 – Bartholomew Gosnold, English explorer and privateer (b. 1572)
• 1609 – Maharal of Prague, Jewish mystic and philosopher (b. 1525)
• 1652 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (b. 1583)
• 1680 – John George II, Elector of Saxony (b. 1613)
• 1701 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman (b. 1628)
• 1711 – Louis François, duc de Boufflers, French marshal (b. 1644)
• 1752 – William Whiston, English mathematician (b. 1667)
• 1773 – George Lyttelton, English writer and politician (b. 1709)
• 1793 – Louis, 4th duc de Noailles, Marshal of France (b. 1713)
• 1797 – Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Alsatian-born Austrian general (b. 1724)
• 1806 – Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French artist (b. 1732)
• 1818 – Warren Hastings, British Governor-General of India (b. 1732)
• 1828 – Franz Joseph Gall, Austrian neuroscientist (b. 1758)
• 1850 – Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian poet (b. 1802)
• 1861 – Xianfeng, Emperor of China (b. 1831)
• 1891 – Jan Neruda, Czech author (b. 1834)
• 1903 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
• 1914 – Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi bishop of Bergamo
• 1918 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist (b. 1868)
• 1922 – Michael Collins, Irish revolutionary (b. 1890)
• 1926 – Charles W. Eliot, American President of Harvard University (b. 1834)
• 1940 – Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, English physicist, spiritualist, pioneer in wireless telegraphy (b.  1851)
• 1942 – Michel Fokine, Russian choreographer and dancer (b. 1880)
• 1950 – Kirk Bryan, American geologist (b. 1888)
• 1953 – Jim Tabor, baseball player (b. 1916)
• 1958 – Roger Martin du Gard, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• 1965 – Ellen Church, First American airline stewardess (b. 1904)
• 1967 – Gregory Goodwin Pincus, American endocrinologist (b. 1903)
• 1970 – Vladimir Propp, Russian structuralist scholar (b. 1895)
• 1973 – Louise Huff, American actress (b. 1895)
• 1974 – Jacob Bronowski, Polish-English mathematician & TV presenter (b. 1908)
• 1976 – Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, President of Brazil (b. 1902)
• 1976 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist (b. 1913)
• 1977 – Sebastian Cabot, English-born actor (b. 1918)
• 1978 – Jomo Kenyatta, first President of Kenya (b. c. 1892)
• 1979 – James T. Farrell, American novelist (b. 1904)
• 1980 – James Smith McDonnell, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1899)
• 1980 – Alfred Neubauer, German racing team manager (Mercedes Benz) (b. 1891)
• 1989 – Huey P. Newton, American activist (b. 1942)
• 1991 – Colleen Dewhurst, Canadian actress (b. 1924)
• 1994 – Gilles Groulx, French Canadian film director (b. 1931)
• 2003 – Arnold Gerschwiler, Swiss-born figure skating trainer (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Generosa Ammon, widow of Ted Ammon (b. 1956)
• 2003 – Imperio Argentina, Argentinian singer and actress (b. 1906)
• 2004 – Konstantin Aseev, Russian chess player (b. 1960)
• 2004 – Daniel Petrie, Canadian-born television and movie director (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Al Dvorin, American announcer on Elvis Presley’s shows (b. c.1923)
• 2005 – Luc Ferrari, French composer (b. 1929)
• 2006 – Bruce Gary, American rock drummer, producer (The Knack) (b. 1951)

August 22 – Holidays:

• RC feasts – Mary Queen of angels, Immaculate Heart