1609 – Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, including to the Doge (ruler) of Venice, Leonardo Donato
1908 – Allen Winter wins US 1st $50,000 trotting race
1910 – US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Newport, RI: William Larned beats Tom Bundy 6-1, 5-7, 6-0, 6-8, 6-1 for his 4th consecutive US singles title
1921 – Yankee pitcher Harry Harper hits 3 batters in an inning tying record
1950 – US President Harry Truman orders army to take control of railroad to avert a strike
1984 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1985 – STS 51-I scrubbed at T -9m because of an onboard computer problem
1991 – Norway and Denmark recognize independence of former USSR Baltic republics
2019 – Double Dave, a rare two-headed timber rattlesnake found in Pine Barrens forest, New Jersey
2020 – England’s James Anderson becomes first fast bowler to reach 600 wickets in Test cricket; Pakistan batsman Azhar Ali caught at first slip on 5th day of 3rd Test at Southampton
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 24th August 2023
1349 – 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Plague, are killed in Mainz
1516 – Battle of Marj Dabiq: Ottoman forces decisively beat the Mamluk Sultanate
1853 – 1st potato chips prepared by chef George Crum at Moon’s Lake House, near Saratoga Springs, New York (popular legend says he invented though earlier recipes exist)
1920 – With British approval, Greece is encouraged to take offensive action against Turkish nationalists in Asia Minor
1954 – US President Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party, at height of McCarthyism
1958 – Sergei Popov wins Stockholm marathon (2:15:17.0) (WR)
1960 – -127°F (-88°C), Vostok, Antarctica (world record)
1993 – Padres scores 14 in 1st vs Cardinals
1995 – Fire that wipes 6,000 acres begins in Hamptons on Long Island
1995 – Microsoft debuts Windows 95
Historical Events for 23rd August 2023
1595 – Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.
1903 – Sixth Zionist Congres: Theodor Herzl declares Jewish state
1923 – Paavo Nurmi of Finland runs world record for 1 mile of 4:10.4 in Stockholm; record stands until 1931
1931 – Count Gyula Károlyi becomes premier of Hungary
1946 – “The Big Sleep” directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Bogart (Philip Marlowe) and Lauren Bacall, premieres
1948 – World Council of Churches formed by 147 churches from 44 countries
1979 – Iranian army opens offensive against Kurds
1985 – Said Aouita of Morocco sets 1.5k record (3:29.46) in Berlin
1990 – East and West Germany announced that they would unite on Oct 3
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.
Historical Events for 22nd August 2023
1642 – English Civil War begins between Royalists and Parliament
1848 – The United States annexes New Mexico
1933 – Chicago Cubs president William Veeck, Sr. urges MLB to incorporate midsummer inter-league games and a split season
1939 – Dutch border guards take positions for German invasion
1946 – Mikko Hietanen wins Oslo marathon (2:24:55)
1962 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1966 – The Beatles arrive in New York City and hold two press conferences, one for the press and one for their fans
1980 – Leaders of Port Elizabeth’s Black secondary school children in South Africa decided to end a four month boycott of classes
1992 – Greg Matthews (4/76) and Shane Warne (3/11) spin Australia to a famous 16-run win v Sri Lanka in 1st cricket Test in Colombo
2008 – Maurren Higa Maggi wins the women’s long jump with a leap of 7.04m at the Beijing Olympics; Brazil’s first ever gold medal in any women’s individual event
Historical Events for 21st August 2023
1689 – Battle of Dunkeld fought in Scotland between supporters of King James VII of Scotland and troops of William of Orange
1949 – Philadelphia fans cause A’s to forfeit game when they riot over a trapped line drive by Rich Ashburn, Giants leading 4-2 in 9th declared winners
1975 – US lightens trade embargo against Cuba
1977 – American water skier Donna Patterson Brice sets women’s high speed record 111.11 mph at Long Beach, California
1991 – Conservative coup in the Soviet Union is crushed by popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin in three days
1992 – US Marshals move in on Randy Weaver’s cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho to apprehend him on firearms charges; an 11 day stand-off ensues
1994 – The last French troops pull out of Rwanda, ending their highly controversial mission there
1994 – Ernesto Zedillo wins Mexican presidential election
2018 – Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull calls for and wins a leadership vote 43-35 over Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton
2020 – American golfer Scottie Scheffler makes birdie on 4 of final 5 holes to become 12th player in PGA Tour history to shoot 59 in 2nd round of the Northern Trust at TPC Boston
Historical Events for 20th August 2023
1391 – Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.
1856 – Wilberforce University forms in Ohio
1900 – Great Britain beats France by 158 runs in Paris; cricket’s only appearance at an Olympic Games
1920 – 1st US commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit begins daily broadcasting
1949 – 78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland
1953 – Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
1957 – USAF balloon, manned by David Simons, breaks an altitude record at 102,000 ft (3,1089.6 m), over Minnesota and South Dakota
1988 – Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria sets 100m hurdle woman’s record (12.21)
1990 – George Steinbrenner steps down as NY Yankee owner
1995 – Indians’ Jose Mesa sets record with his 37th consecutive save
Historical Events for 19th August 2023
1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio
1941 – Romania annexes the Transnistria territory from the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa
1943 – Belgian church excommunicates Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle
1953 – Democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh is overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name ‘Operation Boot’) and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project)
1954 – American Ralph Bunche named undersecretary of the UN
1977 – USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
1985 – Following the Rubicon speech four days earlier, Archbishop Desmond Tutu snubs P. W. Botha’s invitation to attend a meeting to discuss the role and actions of the police and security forces in South Africa
1985 – Japan launches its 2nd probe of Halley’s Comet, Suisei
1987 – Hungerford Massacre: in England, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide
2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait
Historical Events for 18th August 2023
1886 – Carr Baker Neel and Samuel Neel win US Lawn Tennis Association doubles
1926 – England regain Ashes with 5th Test Cricket win, to take series 1-0
1941 – German concentration camp Amersfoort opens
1955 – 46.1 cm rainfall at Westfield, Massachusetts (state record)
1960 – Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at County Stadium, Milwaukee
1977 – Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton throws his NL record tying 5th one-hitter
1982 – NYSE tops 100m shares traded for the 1st time, sets a new record of 132.69m shares traded
1987 – Straatsburg: Manuela Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Anke Mohring and Heike Friedrich swims female world record 4x200m freestyle (7:55.47)
1987 – Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
2020 – Joe Biden is formally nominated as the Democratic party’s presidential candidate during the second night of their 1st ever virtual convention
Historical Events for 17th August 2023
1891 – Electric self-starter for automobile patented
1918 – Samuel Riddle buys Man o’War for $5,000
1926 – Greek-Serbian, Croatian and Slavs peace treaty signed
1936 – An unemployed worker, Neils B. Ruud, in Madison, Wisconsin, receives the first unemployment benefit check paid under a State law, for $15
1948 – Phillies commit 8 errors in a baseball game for the 2nd time
1948 – Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
1985 – 1,400 meatpackers walk off the job at a Geo A Hormel and Co plant
1986 – Bronze pig statue unveiled at Pike Place Market, Seattle
2008 – Canadian Open Women’s Golf, Ottawa Hunt GC: Australian Katherine Hull wins by 1 from Se Ri Pak
2013 – 15 civilians are killed by a Syrian warplane attack in Aleppo
Historical Events for 16th August 2023
1954 – 200 pilgrims drown in Farahzad Iran rain storm flood
1969 – Second day of the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York; performers include Santana, John Sebastian; Mountain, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, and Jefferson Airplane
1972 – Philip Potter appointed sect-gen of World council of Churches
1988 – Mayor Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers
1991 – John Gutfreund announces his resignation as chief executive of Salomon Brothers amid illegal bidding scandal
2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps wins his 7th of 8 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics when he takes the 100m butterfly in Olympic record 50.58; beats Milorad Čavić of Serbia by 0.01
2012 – South African police open fire on striking mine workers and kill at least 34 people
2012 – 113 people are killed and over 200 wounded in a series of attacks across Iraq
2013 – 61 people are killed after the ferry MV Thomas Aquinas sinks in the Philippines
2019 – Huge fire in Chalantika slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, destroys 1,200 houses and leaves up to 10,000 homeless