August 31st in History

1056 - After a sudden illness a few days previous, Byzantine Empress Theodora dies without children to succeed the throne, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty.

1422 - King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France. His son, Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.

1876 - Ottoman Sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.

1888 - Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims.

1945 - The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.

1962 - Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.

1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1994 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.

1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales dies after a car crash with Dodi Al-Fayed in Paris, France.

Famous Birthdays

1569 - Emperor Jahangir of India

1870 - Maria Montessori, educator

1880 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

1907 - Ramon Magsaysay, 7th President of the Philippines

1940 - Jack Thompson, actor

1947 - Somchai Wongsawat, 26th Prime Minister of Thailand

1958 - Julie Brown, actress

1970 - Nikola Gruevski, 6th Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia

1970 - Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan

1971 - Pádraig Harrington, golfer

1981 - Mawnia Al-Kuwaitia, singer

1985 - Rolando, footballer

August 30th in History

1813 - Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.

1835 - Melbourne, Australia is founded.

1914 - World War I: Germans defeat the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg

1945 - Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.

1967 - Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1981 - President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.

1999 - East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.

Famous Birthdays

1808 - Princess Ludovika of Bavaria

1917 - Denis Healey, British politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer

1919 - Wolfgang Wagner, opera director

1934 - Baloo Gupte, cricketer

1951 - Dana Rosemary Scallon, singer and politician

1963 - Mark Strong, actor

1985 - Steven Smith, footballer

1989 - Simone Guerra, footballer

August 29th in History

1756 - Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.

1778 - American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.

1825 - Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.

1833 - The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.

1943 - German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government.

1944 - Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.

1950 - Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to bolster the US presence there.

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.

Famous Birthdays

1632 - John Locke, philosopher and physician

1862 - Maurice Maeterlinck, poet and Nobel Prize laureate

1912 - Barry Sullivan, actor

1928 - Charles Gray, actor

1936 - John McCain, politician

1947 - James Hunt, race car driver

1965 - Dina Spybey, actress

1979 - Ryan Shealy, baseball player

1986 - Lea Michele, actress and singer

1993 - Liam Payne, singer/

August 28th in History

1521 - The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.

1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.

1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

1818 - Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, founder of Chicago dies

1833 - The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most the British Empire.

1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.

1916 - World War I: Germany declares war on Romania.

1916 - World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.

1917 - Ten Suffragettes are arrested while picketing the White House.

1943 - World War II: in Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.

1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Grand Place in Brussels.

1991 - Ukraine declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Famous Birthdays

1025 - Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan

1592 - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham,

1774 - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Catholic saint

1827 - Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia

1859 - Vittorio Sella, photographer

1913 - Jack Dreyfus, entrepreneur

1925 - Billy Grammer, country music singer and guitarist

1945 - Bob Segarini, musician

1957 - Ivo Josipovic, President of Croatia

1969 - Jack Black, actor

1974 - Carsten Jancker, footballer

1999 - His Highness Prince Nikolai of Denmark, son of HRH Prince Joachim, grandson of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

August 27th in History

1172 - Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned as junior King and Queen of England.

1593 - Pierre Barrière fails in his attempt to assassinate King Henry IV of France.

1798 - Wolfe Tone's United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connaught.

1810 - Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France.

1813 - French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1828 - Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks brokered by Great Britain between Brazil and Argentina during the Cisplatine War.

1861 - Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1957 - The Constitution of Malaysia comes into force.

1979 - A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British World War II admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Shortly after, 18 British Army soldiers are killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland.

1991 - Moldova declares independence from the USSR.

Famous Birthdays

1665 - John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, politician

1865 - Charles G. Dawes, general and 30th Vice President of the United States

1884 - Vincent Auriol, French, 16th President of the French Republic

1908 - Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States

1918 - Jelle Zijlstra, Prime Minister of the Netherlands

1931 - Joe Cunningham, baseball player

1944 - G. W. Bailey, actor

1966 - Juhan Parts, 14th Prime Minister of Estonia

1977 - Deco, footballer

1979 - Rusty Smith, speed skater

Centenary of 1913 Dublin Lock-Out

Dublin 1913

In 1913 Dublin lacked a real industrial base and work was generally of a casual nature with poor union organisation and slave wages. A third of the city’s teeming population inhabited the centre city tenement slums. The overcrowding, squalor and inadequate sanitation combined with poor diet to give Dublin one of the highest infant death rates in Europe.

High levels of violence and prostitution offered further evidence of the demoralised state of many of the population. It was in many ways an unlikely seed-bed for trade unionism. The social system was typified by insecurity of employment, personal daily struggles for survival and the frequent indifference of the longer established - but conservative - craft trade unions.  

The New Unionism, marked by its organisation of the unskilled and socialist zeal, had briefly flourished in Dublin in the 1890s. But the odds were heavily stacked against permanent success: many union organizations had become moribund. With James Larkin’s arrival in Ireland as Organiser for the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL), the waterfront workers rose again, firstly in Belfast in 1907 and subsequently in other Irish ports.

Disagreement with the NUDL’s Liverpool Executive led to Larkin’s suspension and the launch in 1909 of a Dublin-based union for unskilled workers - the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. From the beginning the new union enunciated in its rule book a wide programme of industrial and political agitation to change society in the interests of the Irish working class. But the employers would not be silent observers.

The Bosses Organise

Under the calculating leadership of William Martin Murphy, owner of the Irish Independent and controller of the Dublin Tramways Company, over 400 employers combined in the Dublin Employers’ Federation to deny the same rights of combination to the city’s underprivileged. Their aim was to remove the threat of the ITGWU and its message of discontent so marvelously articulated by Larkin's street oratory.

The crunch came on 15th August, 1913 when Murphy offered the workers in the Independent’s dispatch department the choice of Union or job. When their loyalty to the Union resulted in dismissal, prompt solidarity action saw the dispute escalate with further dismissals in Eason’s and on the trams.

The now confident employers issued the infamous ‘document’, locking out any worker that refused to sign a pledge to disown the ITGWU. By the end of September over 20,000 were locked out.

Bloody Sunday

On Sunday, 31 August, the police attacked a crowd gathered to hear Larkin address them in O’Connell Street. The meeting had been banned by the authorities. Scores were injured in the baton charge and British public opinion was shocked at the scenes.  As a result of injuries recived in the baton charge and subsequent violence James Nolan, James Byrne and Alice Brady paid for their loyalty to the workers’ cause with their lives.

Questions were raised in the House of Commons and the issue was debated at the British Trades Union Congress.

Support soon came on foot of the distress but Larkin’s ‘Fiery Cross’ crusade in Britain, where he preached the ‘Divine Mission of Discontent,’ generated rank-and-file rather than official reaction. Assistance was limited to food and material support rather than sympathetic industrial action.

James Connolly, now co-ordinating industrial matters, drew the port of Dublin shut as ‘tight as a drum’ and both sides settled for a long attritional war through the winter with the bosses relying on starvation and the workers on the simple message of ‘each for all and all for each.’

To The Bitter End

The TUC Dublin Food Fund and other support marshalled by the Dublin Trades Council sustained the workers and there can have been few occasions as emotive as the landing of the food ships on the quays. The workers also began to defend themselves through the formation of the Irish Citizen Army. Intellectuals and many middle-class sympathisers rallied to the workers’ side shocked at the awful conditions and horrified at the pig-headedness of the employers. The Church was less sympathetic and positively hostile to the notion of Dublin’s starved youngsters going to the ‘godless’ homes of English sympathisers for the duration. Connolly wondered why souls were of greater concern than bellies.

In the face of uneven odds the Lock-Out began to crumble in January 1914 as the Building Labourers’ Union returned – as many others were to do – without signing the offending document.

Some stuck it out until May, but in the end the employers could and did claim victory as resistance collapsed. But they lacked the strength to enforce their victory, as the ITGWU survived.

In defeat, the ITGWU had gained many adherents and, more significantly, had laid the foundations that led Connolly to conclude:

“From the effects of this drawn battle both sides are still bearing heavy scars. How deep those scars are, none will ever reveal. But the working class has lost none of its aggressiveness, none of its confidence, none of the hope in the ultimate triumph. No traitor amongst the ranks of that class has permanently gained, even materially, by his or her treachery. The flag of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union still flies proudly in the van of the Irish working class, and that working class still marches proudly and defiantly at the head of the gathering hosts who stand for a regenerated nation, resting upon a people industrially free."

The Legacy of 1913

1913 was, in fact, a victory drawn from the jaws of defeat. The trade union and labour movement was soon to become an essential and important part of the new southern Irish State but the battle was not won in 1913, and progress since has been uneven.

Despite tremendous growth in numerical terms in the size of the trade union movement in the 1970s, working class organisation has not been reflected in political gains.

In terms of a social audit of Ireland today as compared to 1913 can we really claim to be in credit? Certainly extreme poverty has gone but things are relative to the times. We still have acute housing problems, attacks on hard-won health, education and social services and new problems of urban decay, drug abuse, vandalism and crime in the alienation of our youth. Regrettably there is now a gathering attack on trade unionism and the essential collective value that it represents and to which the whole of Irish society owes many of its freedoms.

Dublin Lock-Out, 1913

August 26th in History

1346 - Hundred Years' War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.

1429 - Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.

1498 - Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.

1768 - Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour.

1814 - Chilean War of Independence: Infighting between the rebel forces of José Miguel Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins erupts in the Battle of Las Tres Acequias.

1920 - The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.

1944 - World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.

1970 - The then new feminist movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality.

1978 - Papal conclave: Pope John Paul I is elected to the Papacy.

1999 - Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

Famous Birthdays

1540 - King Magnus of Livonia

1676 - Sir Robert Walpole, First Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1728 - Johann Heinrich Lambert, scientist

1819 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, Husband of Queen Victoria

1874 - Zona Gale, novelist

1901 - Maxwell Taylor, general

1910 - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

1944 - HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, son of Prince Henry and Princess Alice of Gloucester, grandson of King George V and Queen Mary of Teck

1956 - Brett Cullen, actor

1969 - Elaine Irwin Mellencamp, model

1982 - Angelo Iorio, footballer

1988 - HI+RH Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, daughter of Archduke Prince Lorenz of Austria-Este and Archduchess Princess Astrid of Belgium, granddaughter of His Majesty King Albert II of Belgium

August 25th in History

1482 - Margaret of Anjou dies

1537 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.

1768 - James Cook begins his first voyage.

1825 - Uruguay declares its independence from Brazil.

1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends. The Red Army is defeated.

1942 - World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.

1944 - World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.

1980 - Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.

1989 - Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune.

1991 - Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union

Famous Birthdays

1530 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (Also known as Ivan the Terrible)

1707 - King Louis I of Spain

1882 - Seán T. O'Kelly, 2nd President of Ireland

1910 - Dorothea Tanning, painter

1930 - Sir Thomas Sean Connery, actor

1952 - Duleep Mendis, cricketer

1961 - Billy Ray Cyrus, singer, songwriter

1970 - Claudia Schiffer, model

1977 - Sophie Cadieux, actress

1988 - Alexandra Burke, singer-songwriter

August 24th in History

79 - Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash

1200 - King John of England, marries Isabella of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral.

1215 - Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.

1349 - Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.

1662 - The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.

1814 - British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House is set ablaze, though not burned to the ground; as well as several other buildings.

1815 - The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.

1912 - Alaska becomes a United States territory.

1932 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop

1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1991 - Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

2006 - The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is now considered a Dwarf Planet.

Famous Birthdays

1198 - King Alexander II of Scotland

1358 - King John I of Castile

1787 - James Weddell, explorer

1899 - Albert Claude, biologist, Nobel laureate

1924 - Jimmy Gardner, actor

1944 - Gregory Jarvis, astronaut

1954 - Philippe Cataldo, singer

1974 - Jennifer Lien, actress

August 23rd in History

79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

1305 - Sir William Wallace is executed for High Treason at Smithfield in London.

1839 - The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.

1866 - Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.

1914 - World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.

1942 - World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

1943 - World War II: Kharkov liberated as a result of the Battle of Kursk.

1944 - World War II: Marseille liberated.

1948 - World Council of Churches is formed.

1989 - Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands

1990 - Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1990 - West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.

2007 - The skeletal remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Anastasia are found near Yekaterinburg, Russia.

2011 - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan civil war.

Famous Birthdays

1754 - King Louis XVI of France

1852 - Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia.

1875 - Eugene Lanceray, artist

1927 - Dick Bruna, illustrator

1945 - Bob Peck, actor

1951 -  Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, consort of deceased King Hussein of Jordan.

1964 - Wendy Pepper, designer

1974 - Sir Konstantin Sergeevich "Kostya" Novoselov, physicist, Nobel Laureate

1982 - Trevor Wright, actor

1988 - Carl Hagelin, ice hockey player

August 22nd in History

564 - Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.

1485 - The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet. Henry Tudor becomes King Henry VII

1642 - Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War begins.

1770 - James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, Queensland and claims the east coast of Australia as New South Wales in the name of King George III.

1798 - French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.

1910 - Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.

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 Béal na mBláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.

1942 - World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.

1968 - Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a Pope to Latin America.

1989 - The first ring of Neptune is discovered.

Famous Birthdays

1800 - Samuel David Luzzatto, scholar

1880 - George Herriman, cartoonist

1915 - Hugh Paddick, actor

1935 - Annie Proulx, author

1945 - Erol Gelenbe, computer scientist and mathematician

1970 - Charlie Connelly, writer

1973 - Kristen Wiig, comedian

1991 - Federico Macheda, footballer

August 21st in History

1680 - Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.

1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondicherry.

1879 - The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, appears at a church in Knock County Mayo, Ireland. Beside them and a little to their left was an altar with a cross and the figure of a lamb, around which angels hovered.

1911 - The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.

1918 - World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.

1942 - World War II: The flag of Nazi Germany is installed atop the Mount Elbrus, the highest peak of the Caucasus mountain range.

1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day

1991 - Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.

Famous Birthdays

1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal

1765 - King William IV of the United Kingdom

1902 - Angel Karaliychev, writer

1927 - Thomas S. Monson, 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

1930 - Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, deceased sister of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen mother

1945 - Jerry DaVanon, baseball player

1956 - Kim Cattrall, actress

1963 - His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco

1968 - Dina Carroll, singer

1978 - Bhumika Chawla, actress

August 20th in History

1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen. Today celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.

1083 - Canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen and his son Saint Emeric.

1775 - The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.

1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.

1914 - World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.

1944 - World War II: the Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.

1960 - Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.

1988 - Iran–Iraq War: a cease-fire is agreed after almost eight years of war.

1991 - Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Famous Birthdays

1561 - Jacopo Peri, composer

1833 - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States

1845 - St. Albert Chmielowski, Catholic Saint

1901 - Salvatore Quasimodo, writer, Nobel Prize laureate

1941 - Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia

1944 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India

1949 - Phil Lynott, musician

1983 - Andrew Garfield, actor

1992 - Demi Lovato, actress and singer

August 19th on History

1504 - In Ireland, the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) and Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds fight in the Battle of Knockdoe.

1561 - An 18-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France.

1759 - Battle of Lagos Naval battle during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France.

1812 - War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname "Old Ironsides".

1919 - Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.

1944 - World War II: Liberation of Paris – Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.

1945 - Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.

1989 - Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Famous Birthdays

1342 - Catherine of Bohemia, Duchess of Bavaria

1596 - Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia

1848 - Gustave Caillebotte, Painter

1883 - Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, fashion designer

1928 - Walter Massey, actor

1946 - Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States

1959 - Ricky Pierce, basketball player

1969 - Matthew Perry, actor

1977 - Iban Mayo, cyclist

1980 - Russell Kane comedian

August 18th in History

1783 - A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast. This is later known as the Great Meteor of August 18, 1783

1868 - French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers Helium.

1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1963 - American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

Famous Birthdays

1606 - Maria Anna of Spain, Queen of Hungary

1611 - Marie Louise Gonzaga, Queen of Poland

1750 - Antonio Salieri, composer

1830 - Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria

1906 - Marcel Carné, film director

1925 - Brian Aldiss, writer

1943 - Carl Wayne, singer

1962 - President Felipe Calderón of Mexico

1969 - Isaac Austin, basketball player

1981 - César Delgado, footballer

August 17th in History

1862 - American Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

1918 - Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

1943 - World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

1943 - World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.

1959 - Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.

1960 - Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.

1982 - The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.

Famous Birthdays

1556 - Alexander Briant, English Jesuit and martyr

1786 - Princess Marie Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Princess of Leiningen, Duchess of Kent, Mother of Queen Victoria

1844 - Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia

1887 - Emperor Charles I of Austria

1928 - T. J. Anderson, composer

1943 - Robert De Niro, actor

1951 - Robert Joy, actor

1968 - Helen McCrory, actress

1980 - Lene Marlin, singer

August 16th in History

1513 - Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) – King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat.

1792 - Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.

1793 - French Revolution: a levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention.

1870 - Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.

1914 - World War I: Battle of Cer begins.

1930 - The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon.

1945 - An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantarō Suzuki.

1960 - Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1972 - In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.

Famous Birthdays

1573 - Queen Anna of Austria of Poland

1860 - Martin Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke, cricketer

1888 - T. E. Lawrence, writer and soldier

1895 - Liane Haid, actress

1917 - Roque Cordero, composer

1933 - Stuart Roosa, astronaut

1947 - Marc Messier, actor

1954 - James Cameron, film director

1958 - Madonna Ciccone (Madonna), singer and actress

1967 - Ulrika Jonsson, television personality

1985 - Agnes Bruckner, actress

Historians identify where Richard III was killed in battle

A pair of historians believe they have identified the spot where Richard III was killed in battle.

In their new book Bosworth 1485: A Battlefield Rediscovered, Professor Anne Curry and Dr Glenn Foard pinpoint east of the battlefield a spot where the king supposedly met his violent death.

Through archaeological research and a study of the landscape, Curry and Foard have concluded Richard that was most likely killed at Fenn Lane, near Ambion Hill in Leicestershire.

The Roman road crossing a stream may be the ford referred to in the name ‘Sandeford’. Further research will be carried out to test this theory.

“We believe Richard takes the cavalry down Fenn Lane, fails, and so he and his men are then pursued by Henry’s troops up the marshy lane,” Curry said.

“This fits with accounts we have of Richard’s death, which was in a wet area.

“His horse gets stuck when Richard is attacked around the head.”

Curry explained the site is also close to where a number of items linked to the death of Richard were found, such as a silver-gilt badge in the shape of a boar and a chape – the crossbar of a sword.

“We have not got his body there of course but by studying the landscape and putting it together with archaeological research, we have a pretty good argument,” she said.

Curry and Foard were part of a team that in 2010 identified what is now believed to be the true site of the 1485 Battle of Bosworth.

The pair have been working on their book, Bosworth 1485: A Battlefield Rediscovered, for around three years.

“It’s been very rewarding, particularly in terms of working with archeologists,” said Curry.


“It’s rare for historians and archaeologists to work so closely together. It has entailed lots of different processes.”

Richard III 

August 15th in History

293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is dedicated.

1040 - King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.

1057 - King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada.

1483 - Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.

1519 - Panama City, Panama, is founded.

1537 - Asunción, Paraguay, is founded.

1540 - Arequipa, Peru, is founded.

1599 - Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass – Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.

1843 - The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

1944 - World War II: Operation Dragoon – Allied forces land in southern France.

1945 - World War II: Japan surrenders to end the war.

1947 - India gains Independence from the British Indian Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1948 - The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north.

1960 - Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.

1971 - Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1973 - Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends

1998 - Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles

Famous Birthdays

1771 - Sir Walter Scott, novelist and poet

1860 - Florence Harding, First Lady of the United States, wife of President  Warren G. Harding

1890 - Jacques Ibert, composer

1912 - Julia Child, chef, author and TV personality

1912 - Dame Wendy Hiller, actress

1917 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of the Republic of Ireland

1928 - Nicolas Roeg, film director

1935 - Jim Dale, actor

1951 - John Childs, cricketer

1959 - Scott Altman, astronaut

1972 - Ben Affleck, actor

1977 -Igor Cassina, gymnast

August 14th in History

1415 - Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta.

1598 - Nine Years War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.

1893 - France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

1916 - Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Entente in World War I

1941 - World War II – Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.

1947 - Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1971 - Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.

1974 - The second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins

2010 - The first-ever Youth Olympic Games are held in Singapore.

Famous Birthdays

1297 - Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Japan

1479 - Princess Catherine of York, ninth child and sixth daughter of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville

1740 - Pope Pius VII

1857 - Max Wagenknecht, composer

1876 - King Alexander I of Serbia

1910 - Willy Ronis, photographer

1924 - Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, Tibetan religious figure

1933 - Richard R. Ernst, chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate

1949 - Morten Olsen, footballer

1959 - Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr, basketball player

1966 - Halle Berry, actress

1978 - Kate Ritchie, actress

August 13th in History

1516 - The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognises Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, recognises Francis's claim to Milan.

1704 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim – English and Imperial forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.

1792 - King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.

1920 - Polish-Soviet War: the Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.

1937 - The Battle of Shanghai begins.

1960 - The Central African Republic declares independence from France.

1961 - The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.

2008 - South Ossetian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori.

Famous Birthdays

1311 - King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon

1860 - Annie Oakley, sharpshooter

1888 - John Logie Baird, television inventor pioneer

1913 - Makarios III, Archbishop and first President of Cyprus

1926 - Fidel Castro, communist revolutionary and President of Cuba

1949 - Bobby Clarke, ice hockey player

1960 - Phil Taylor, darts player

1974 - Sam Endicott, singer

1975 - Joe Perry, snooker player

August 12th in History

30 BC - Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.

1831 - French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.

1898 - The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawai'i to the United States.

1914 - World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.

1944 - Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.

1952 - The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Soviet Union.

1964 - Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.

1969 - Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.

1978 - The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed.

2012 - Closing ceremony of the 30th Olympic Games in London

Famous Birthdays:

1503 - King Christian III of Denmark and Norway

1629 - Tsar Alexis I of Russia

1762 - King George IV of the United Kingdom

1880 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player

1907 - Benjamin Henry Sheares, 2nd President of Singapore

1910 - Yusof bin Ishak, 1st President of Singapore

1926 - Joe Jones, R&B singer

1932 - Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand, consort of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej Rama IX of Thailand

1939 - George Hamilton, actor

1954 - François Hollande, President of France

1961 - Mark Priest, cricketer

1983 - Mark Webster, Dart player

August 11th in History

1804 - Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.

1919 - The constitution of the Weimar Republic is adopted.

1947 - Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan, gives a speech to the Constituent Assembly, the contents and meaning of which remain contentious today.

1952 - Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.

1960 - Chad declares independence.

2003 - NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54 year history.

Famous Birthdays:

1467 - Mary of York, Princess, Second daughter of King Edward IV and Queen consort Elizabeth Woodville.

1892 - Hugh MacDiarmid, poet

1928 - Arlene Dahl, actress

1944 - Frederick W. Smith, entrepreneur

1954 - Joe Jackson, singer

1968 - HRH Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau, the wife of Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

1976 - Iván Córdoba, footballer

August 10th in History

1519 - Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second in command Sebastian Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines.

1675 - The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London is laid.

1680 - The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico.

1793 - The Musée du Louvre is officially opened in Paris, France.

1821 - Missouri is admitted as the 24th US state.

1913 - Second Balkan War: delegates from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the war.

1990 - The Magellan space probe reaches Venus.

1998 - HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah is proclaimed the crown prince of Brunei with a Royal Proclamation

2003 - Yuri Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space.

Famous Birthdays

1397 - Albert II of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor

1874 - Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States

1907 - Su Yu, Communist military leader

1933 - Rocky Colavito, baseball player

1960 - Antonio Banderas, actor

1965 - Claudia Christian, actress

1971 - Roy Keane, footballer

1977 - Matt Morgan, comedian

1990 - Lucas Till, American actor

August 9th in History

681 - Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.

1483 - Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.

1902 - Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1936 - Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad.

1942 - Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.

1945 - World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright.

1974 - As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes 38th President of the United States at 12 noon.

Famous Birthdays:

1669 - Tsarina Eudoxia Lopukhina of Russia, first consort of Peter I of Russia

1783 - Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia,  daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and sister of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I.

1847 - Queen Maria dal Pozzo of Spain, consort of Amadeo I

1927 - Robert Shaw, actor

1947 - Barbara Mason, soul singer

1961 - John Key, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand

1963 - Whitney Houston, singer and actress

 1976 - Jessica Capshaw, actress

August 8th in History

1220 - Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.

1503 - King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1786 - Mont Blanc on the French – Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard.

1942 - Quit India Movement is launched in India against the British rule in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for swaraj or complete independence.

1974 - President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

1990 - Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.

2008 - The 2008 Summer Olympics officially opened with the opening ceremony at National Stadium, Beijing, China.

Famous Birthdays:

1079 - Emperor Horikawa of Japan

1824 - Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, consort of Alexander II of Russia.

1879 - Bob Smith, Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

1879 - Emiliano Zapata, revolutionary

1922 - Rudi Gernreich, fashion designer

1937 - Dustin Hoffman, actor

1953 - Nigel Mansell, race car driver

1961 - David Evans, guitarist

1981 - Roger Federer, tennis player

August 7th in History

936 - Coronation of King Otto I of Germany.

1794 - US President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

1933 - The Simele massacre: The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Simele. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.

1960 - Ivory Coast becomes independent.

1981 - The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.

2008 - Georgia launches a large-scale military offensive against South Ossetia, in an attempt to reclaim the territory from Russia, starting the 2008 South Ossetia war.

Famous Birthdays:

317 - Constantius II, Roman Emperor

1779 - Carl Ritter, Geographer

1876 - Mata Hari, Spy

1928 - Betsy Byars, author

1942 - Tobin Bell, actor

1955 - Wayne Knight, actor

1971 - Sydney Penny, actress

1979 - Eric Johnson, actor

August 6th in History

1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.

1538 - Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.

1787 - Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1806 - Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire.

1825 - Bolivia gains independence from Spain

1914 - World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.

1940 - Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union

1942 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning Queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.

1945 - World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

1962 - Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

2012 - NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity, lands on Mars.

Famous Birthdays:

1504 - Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury

1697 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor

1861 - Edith Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States

1881 - Sir Alexander Fleming, Scientist

1926 - Frank Finlay, actor

1937 - Barbara Windsor, actress

1972 - Geri Halliwell, singer (Spice Girls)

1977 - Luciano Zavagno, Argentine footballer

August 5th in History

1068 - Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year siege of Bari.

1100 - Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.

1305 - William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.

1583 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

1620 - The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.

1772 - The First Partition of Poland begins.

1861 - The United States Army abolishes flogging.

1870 - Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.

1926 - Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.

1940 - World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.

1960 - Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.

1962 - Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.

1965 - The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.

1981 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

2010 - 2010 Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground.

Famous Birthdays

1623 - Antonio Cesti, composer

1749 - Thomas Lynch, Jr., signer of the United States Declaration of Independence

1827 - Deodoro da Fonseca, 1st President of Brazil

1828 - Louise of the Netherlands, Queen consort of Sweden and Norway

1906 - Joan Hickson, actress

1923 - Devan Nair, 3rd President of Singapore

1930 - Neil Armstrong, pilot, engineer, and astronaut, 1st man to walk on the moon

1937 - Brian G. Marsden, astronomer

1956 - Maureen McCormick, actress

1966 - Jonathan Silverman, actor

1975 - Ami Foster, actress

1982 - Michele Pazienza, footballer

1991 - Esteban Gutierrez, Formula 1 Racing Driver

August 4th in History

70 - The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.

1265 - Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham – the army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.

1327 - First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.

1532 - The Duchy of Brittany is united to the Kingdom of France.

1704 - War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.

1789 - In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.

1824 - The Battle of Kos is fought between Turkish and Greek forces.

1914 - World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.

1915 - World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.

1944 - The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

1965 - The Constitution of Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.

1984 - The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.

2006 - A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF)

Famous Birthdays

1290 - Leopold I, Duke of Austria

1521 - Pope Urban VII

1821 - Louis Vuitton, fashion designer, founded Louis Vuitton

1900 - Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen consort of the United Kingdom

1919 - Michel Déon, writer

1942 - David Lange, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand

1955 - Billy Bob Thornton, actor and writer

1960 - José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 5th Prime Minister of Spain

1961 - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

1968 - Lee Mack, comedian and actor

1974 - Kily González, footballer

1981 - Abigail Spencer, actress

1988 - Tom Parker, singer

1992 - Tiffany Evans, singer and actress

1992 - Cole Sprouse, actor

1992 - Dylan Sprouse, actor

August 3rd in History

881 - Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu: Louis III of France defeats the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied.

1601 - Long War: Austria captures Transylvania in the Battle of Goroszló.

1860 - The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.

1914 - World War I: Germany declares war against France.

1934 - Adolf Hitler becomes the supreme leader of Germany by joining the offices of President and Chancellor into Führer.

1936 - Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.

1940 - World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.

1960 - Niger gains independence from France.

2001 - The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom injuring seven people.

2004 - The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.

2010 - Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85 dead and at least 17 billion Pakistani rupees ($200 million) in damage.

Famous Birthdays

1734 - Naungdawgyi, king of Myanmar

1770 - Frederick William III of Prussia

1803 - Joseph Paxton, gardener and architect, designed The Crystal Palace

1856 - Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia

1907 - Ernesto Geisel, military leader and 29th President of Brazil

1934 - Jonas Savimbi, political leader, founded UNITA

1941 - Martha Stewart, businesswoman, publisher, and author, founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

1958 - Lambert Wilson, actor

1983 - Mamie Gummer, actress

1986 - Charlotte Casiraghi, daughter of HRH Caroline, Princess of Hanover

1992 - Karlie Kloss, model

August 2nd in History

924 - Ælfweard of Wessex, King of Wessex, dies

1100 - William II of England dies

1377 - Russian troops are defeated in the Battle on Pyana River because of drunkenness.

1776 - The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.

1790 -The first US Census is conducted.

1870 - Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London, United Kingdom.

1918 - Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.

1918 - The first general strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.

1923 - As vice president, Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President of the United States after the death of Warren G. Harding

1943 - Rebellion in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka.

1989 - Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restoring democracy for the first time since 1972.

1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

1998 - The Second Congo War begins.

Famous  Birthdays

1455 - John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg

1674 - Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

1696 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan

1834 - Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty

1858 - Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Queen consort of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

1868 - Constantine I of Greece

1897 - Karl-Otto Koch, SS officer

1923 - Shimon Peres, 9th President of Israel

1932 - Peter O'Toole, actor

1943 - Max Wright, actor

1955 - Tim Dunigan, actor

1962 - Cynthia Stevenson, actress

1976 - Reyes Estévez, runner

1981 - Sara Foster, actress

1991 -Skyler Day, actress

August 1st in History

30 BC - Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic

1192 - Richard the Lionheart landed on Jaffa and defeated the army of Saladin

1498 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.

1759 - Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.

1774 - British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.

1800 - The Acts of Union 1800 is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1834 - Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force.

1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.

1914 - Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilizes because of World War I.

1944 - The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.

1957 - The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1960 - Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.

1960 - Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.

1964 - The Belgian Congo is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1974 - Cyprus dispute: The United Nations Security Council authorizes the UNFICYP to create the "Green Line", dividing Cyprus into two zones.

1981 - MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.

2007 - The I-35W Mississippi River bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour.

Famous  Birthdays

10 BC - Claudius, Roman Emperor

126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor

1659 - Sebastiano Ricci, painter

1779 - Francis Scott Key, lawyer, author, and songwriter of the US National anthem

1916 - His Eminence Fiorenzo Angelini,  Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

1930 - Julie Bovasso, actress

1939 - Terry Kiser, actor

1942 - Giancarlo Giannini, actor

1948 - Avi Arad, businessman and film producer, founded Marvel Studios

1962 - Jesse Borrego, actor

1969 - David Wain, actor

1972 - Tanya Reid, actress

1979 - Jason Momoa, actor

1983 - Craig Clarke, rugby player

1988 - Max Carver, actor

1993 - Leon Thomas III, actor and singer

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