1512 – Battle of Saint-Mathieu (also called the Battle of Brest): an English fleet of 25 ships commanded by Sir Edward Howard and a Franco-Breton fleet of 22 ships commanded by René de Clermont
1885 – Leo Daft opens America’s first commercially operated electric streetcar in Baltimore
1893 – Rudolf Diesel’s prototype internal combustion engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, runs on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany
1971 – During the internment round-up operation in West Belfast, the Parachute Regiment kills 11 unarmed civilians in what becomes known as the Ballymurphy Massacre
1985 – Uno Lindström of Sweden juggles a soccer ball 13.11 miles (21.09 km)
1993 – Charlotte Anne Lopez, 16, of Vermont is crowned the 11th Miss Teen USA
1997 – Atlanta Braves sign Greg Maddux to a then-record 5-year, $57.5 million deal
2019 – Monsoon flooding in southern and western India kills at least 150, with 40 dead in Kerala state and 100,000 in emergency relief camps
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 9th August 2026
1726 – Netherlands accedes to the Covenant of Hanover, creating an alliance of Great Britain, the Electorate of Hanover, France, and the Kingdom of Prussia united against the Austro-Spanish powers
1936 – Hungarian swimmer Ferenc Csik wins the 100 m freestyle gold medal in 57.6 seconds at the Berlin Olympics, beating Japanese pair Masanori Yusa and Shigeo Arai
1941 – Winston Churchill reaches Newfoundland for talks with Franklin D. Roosevelt
1946 – First time all Major League Baseball games (8) are played at night
1965 – Fire in Titan II silo in Searcy, Arkansas, kills 53 people
1984 – STS 41-D vehicle moves out to the launch pad
1988 – Just one day after 8/8/88, the number 888 pops up as the winning lottery combination in New York
2016 – Chinese weightlifter Deng Wei sets a world record of 147 kg in the clean and jerk and another for a total score of 262 kg to win the women’s 63 kg gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
Historical Events for 8th August 2026
1863 – American Civil War: Tennessee’s “military” Governor Andrew Johnson frees his personal slaves, celebrated as a holiday by Tennessee African Americans in the early 20th century
1870 – The Republic of Ploiești, a failed Radical-Liberal uprising against Domnitor Carol I of Romania
1943 – Common Chiefs of Staff meet in Quebec
1960 – Brian Hyland’s recording of “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini”, a novelty pop song written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100
1975 – As a result of rainfall from Typhoon Nina, the Banqiao Dam in China fails, causing the collapse of almost 6 million buildings and 229,000 deaths
1984 – Future five-time America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts of New Zealand wins the Finn Class sailing gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics
1988 – US Senior Open Men’s Golf, Medinah CC: Gary Player of South Africa wins by two strokes over New Zealander Bob Charles in an 18-hole playoff, claiming his second consecutive US Senior title
2017 – The Walt Disney Company announces plans to create its own streaming service, cancelling ties with Netflix
Historical Events for 7th August 2026
1760 – Fort Loudoun, Tennessee, surrenders to Cherokee Indians
1864 – Battle of Moorefield, West Virginia: Surprise Union raid kills 400 Confederates and captures 400 horses, badly damaging Confederate cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley
1942 – First American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island
1954 – Jerome Moross and John Treville Latouche’s “Golden Apple,” adapted from parts of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” closes at Alvin Theatre, NYC, after 125 performances
1970 – British keyboard playing singer-songwriter Christine McVie (née Perfect) joins rock band Fleetwood Mac
1974 – French Philippe Petit walks a tightrope strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City at a height of 1,350 feet (411.5 meters)
1977 – Gary Geld and Peter Udell’s musical “Shenandoah,” based on the film of the same name, closes at the Alvin Theatre, NYC, after 1,050 performances and winning two Tony Awards
1984 – Japan beats US, 6-3 in the final of the Los Angeles Olympic baseball demonstration event
Historical Events for 6th August 2026
939 – Battle at Simancas: Spain defeats the Moors
1861 – US Congress passes First Confiscation Act
1908 – St. Louis Cardinals’ Johnny Lush pitches a second career no-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Brooklyn Superbas; a change in MLB rules makes this unofficial as the game was shortened by rain
1936 – Jack Lovelock of New Zealand runs a world record time of 3:47.8 to win the gold medal in the 1,500 m at the Berlin Olympics
1986 – Phil Katz releases archiving utility PKARC for DOS
1995 – Revival of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’s musical comedy “Damn Yankees,” starring Jerry Lewis and Bebe Neuwirth, closes at Marquis Theatre, NYC, after 519 performances
2017 – UEFA Women’s Euro Final: Dutch forward Vivianne Miedema scores 2 as the Netherlands beat Denmark 4-2 in Enschede, the Netherlands
2018 – Saudi Arabia’s state airline suspends direct flights to Toronto and expels ambassador after Canada calls for release of detained activists for civil and women’s rights
Historical Events for 5th August 2026
1763 – Pontiac’s War: Battle of Bushy Run – British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Native American forces at Bushy Run
1861 – President Lincoln signs the first US personal income tax into law, imposing a 3% tax on incomes over $800
1942 – German troops cross the Russian Kuban River in the Western Caucasus
1953 – Operation “Big Switch”; Korean War prisoners exchanged at Panmunjom
1963 – Craig Breedlove sets a world land speed record of 407.45 mph (655.73 km/h) in the Spirit of America at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
1984 – American super-hurdler Edwin Moses wins the 400 m hurdles gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics, his 105th consecutive race victory
1993 – Republican Guard kills 64 civilians at Gninguilim marketplace in Chad
2019 – Brazilian drug dealer Clauvino da Silva tries and fails to escape a Rio de Janeiro jail by dressing up as his teenage daughter in a silicone mask and wig
Historical Events for 4th August 2026
1666 – Hurricane hits Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Christopher, killing thousands
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pérignon’s invention of Champagne
1917 – Pravda calls for the killing of all capitalists, priests, and officers
1948 – Hungary’s Olga Gyarmati wins the first ever Olympic women’s long jump competition at the London Games
1983 – 16th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego
1992 – In its debut at the Barcelona Olympics the badminton singles gold medals are both won by Indonesian athletes, whilst both men’s and women’s doubles go to South Korea
2019 – Car explosion kills 20 and injures 47 in Cairo, Egypt, in a terrorist-related incident
2019 – British Open Women’s Golf, Woburn GC: Hinako Shibuno of Japan wins her maiden major title in her first LPGA event; beats American Lizette Salas by 1 stroke
Historical Events for 3rd August 2026
1650 – Dutch Stadtholder William II and Amsterdam reach an accord about a standing army
1692 – Battle of Steenkerque: French defeat William III’s combined English/Dutch army
1948 – An American 1-2 in the men’s 200 m at the London Olympics with Mel Patton (21.1) defeating teammate Barney Ewell
1948 – Franklin D. Roosevelt advisor Alger Hiss is accused of being a “communist”
1954 – The Convair XFY-1 Pogo, a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft, makes its first successful flight
1958 – MLB Baltimore Orioles manager Paul Richards is ejected from both games of a doubleheader at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan
1987 – Discovery in the Orbital Processing Facility is powered up for STS-26
2015 – The Athens Stock Exchange reopens after a month and falls by 22%
Historical Events for 2nd August 2026
1819 – First parachute jump in US by Frenchman Louis-Charles Guille over Jersey City
1870 – Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London
1920 – Marcus Garvey presents his “Back to Africa” program in NYC
1941 – Thousands of Jews are expelled from Subcarpathian Ruthenia
1967 – US Lunar Orbiter 5 is launched and enters lunar orbit on August 5
1975 – 104°F (40°C) in Providence, Rhode Island (state record)
2013 – 40 people are killed after an ammunition depot explodes in Homs, Syria
2015 – British Open Women’s Golf, Turnberry: Inbee Park of South Korea shoots final found 65 (−7) to win her 7th major title, 3 strokes ahead of compatriot Ko Jin-young
Historical Events for 1st August 2026
1883 – A papyrus is offered to the British Museum for £10,000, later revealed to be a forgery
1941 – Luftwaffe bombs German 23rd Infantry Division
1944 – Polish resistance fighters of the Home Army launch the Warsaw Uprising, the largest military effort undertaken by a resistance movement in occupied Europe
1957 – Gil Hodges hits his 13th MLB career grand slam, a National League record and the last by a Brooklyn Dodgers player
2014 – USA and UN announce a 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Palestine, though it quickly breaks down
2014 – Indiana Pacers NBA superstar Paul George suffers a gruesome compound fracture of his lower right leg during a Team USA scrimmage
2018 – Australian Rugby League’s “Immortals” tally increases to 13 as pre-war stars Dally Messenger, Frank Burge, and Dave Brown, along with latter-day giants Norm Provan and Mal Meninga, are added
2024 – Tunisian human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine is arrested and imprisoned for “conspiracy against state security”