- William Clark, co-leader of Lewis & Clark Expedition is born. (1770)

- Joseph Priestley isolates the gas 'oxygen' for the first time. (1774)

- Star-Spangled Banner writer, Frances Scott Key is born in 1779.

- Metric distance unit of the meter was first defined. (1791)

- Whiskey Rebellion (1797)

- Two Years Before the Mast author, Richard Henry Dana is born. (1815)

- Moby Dick author, Herman Melville is born. (1819)

- Colorado entered the Union in 1876, the year the United States celebrated its centennial. Thus, the 38th State is known as the Centennial State. (1876)

- First World War erupts. (1914)

- The Army Jeep was introduced. (1941)

- Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary on this day in 1944.

- Media giant MTV debuted in 1981.

- Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York inducts Henry "Hank" Aaron 1982.

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- Washington, D.C. planner, Pierre Charles L'Enfant is born. (1754)

- Declaration of Independence was formally signed. (1776)

- John Tyndall, the scientist who helped explain why the sky is blue, is born. (1820)

- 'Alice's Adventures In Wonderland' was first published. (1865)

- Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany. (1934)

- Isabel Allende, writer is born. (1942)

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- Christopher Columbus sets sail in 1492.

- Explorer Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec. (1608)

- Captain Henry Hudson, seeking a new passage to the Pacific, discovers the bay in Canada which now bears his name. (1610)

- La Scala Opera House in Milan was opened. (1777)

- First savings bank in America, the Bank for Savings in New York City, opens for business. (1819)

- Labor organizer, Uriah Smith Stephens, is born. (1821)

- The source of the Nile river, Lake Victoria, was discovered. (1858)

- Monkey Trial lawyer, John T. Scopes is born. (1900)

- Ernie Pyle, WW II journalist, is born. (1900)

- Gray Panthers founder, Margaret E. "Maggie" Kuhn is born. (1905)

- President Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated 1923

- Exodus author, Leon Marcus Uris is born. (1924)

- Nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. (1958)

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- National Smile Week (August 4-8, 2003)

- Clown Week (August 1-7, 2003)

- Coast Guard Day

- Modern pencil inventor, Nicolas-Jacque Conte, is born. (1755)

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet is born. (1792)

- Borden murders were discovered in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892.

- Louis Armstrong , famous jazz musician is born. (1901)

- Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg, Holocaust hero is born. (1912)

- A famine struck Russia; millions starved and resorted to eating grass. (1921)

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- Julia Archibald Holmes became the first woman on record to reach the summit of Pike's Peak. (1858)

- Statue of Liberty cornerstone laid in New York City. (1884)

- Pulitzer Prize poet and novelist, Conrad Aiken, is born in Savannah, Georgia. (1889)

- Lucille Ball, actress is born. (1911)

- The first electric traffic signals are installed in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. (1914)

- "Little Orphan Annie" turns 75 in 2003!

- Neil Armstrong, the first person to touch the Moon's surface, is born. (1930)

- Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, Philadelphia's local after-school dance show went on TV in 1957.

- US: Handicapped Children's Protection Act, 1986.

- The United States and Viet Nam declare an end to decades of enmity, formally establish diplomatic ties and pledge a new era of co-operation. (1995)

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- Hiroshima Peace Ceremony

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet is born. (1809)

- Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, is born. (1881)

- Cy Young pitched his first professional baseball game. (1890)

- Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel. (1926)

- Andy Warhol, artist is born. (1928)

- First atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during WWII. (1945)

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- Nathanael Greene, Revolutionary war hero is born. (1742)

- Order of the Purple Heart created by George Washington. (1782)

- Newspaper correspondent and editor Charles Anderson Dana is born in 1819.

- Spy Gertrud Margarete Zelle, a.k.a. "Mata Hari," is born. (1876)

- Anthropologist and archaeologist and Louis Leakey is born. (1903)

- Ralph Bunche, first person of color to win the Noble Prize for Peace is born. (1904)

- Story Teller, Garrison Keillor  is born. (1942)

- The raft Kon Tiki runs aground on the Tuamotu Archipelago. (1947)

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- Matthew A. Henson, co-discoverer of North Pole is born. (1865)

- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896)

- Ernest O. Lawrence, Cyclotron inventor is born. (1901)

- Richard Nixon announces his resignation as President. (1974)

- Mexican revolutionary and reformer Emiliano Zapata is born. (1879)

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- Conservationist and writer of one of the most famous books in the English language: The Compleat Angler, Isaac Walton, is born. (1593)

- John Dryden, poet, dramatist, critic, and translator is born. (1631)

- Creek War ended by the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson. (1814)

- William T.G. Morton, controversial anesthesiology pioneer is born. (1819)

- S. R. Ranganathan, one of the most influential figures in the field of library and information sciences, is born. (1892)

- Jean Piaget, pioneering philosopher and psychologist, is born. (1896)

- "Mary Poppins" author, P.L. Travers is born. (1906)

- Cartoon character, Betty Boop introduced. (1930)

- Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in track. (1936)

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- Edmund Jennings Randolph, first Attorney General of the United States is born. (1753)

- Orator and Southern Statesman, William Lowndes Yancey is born. (1814)

- Missouri became the 24th state in 1821.

- Smithsonian Institution established by Congress. (1846)

- Herbert Hoover, President who became a nickname for many items during the Depression  is born. (1874)

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- Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, “father of gymnastics,” is born. (1778)

- Japanese Meiji Restoration political figure, Kido Takayoshi, who helped end the over 250 year old feudalistic Tokugawa shogunate, is born. (1833)

- Duke Kahanamoku broke the world record in the 100-yard free-style swim by 4.6 seconds in Honolulu Harbor in 1911.

- Roots author, Alex Haley is born. (1921)

- Federal prison opened at Alcatraz Island. (1934)

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- Full Moon

- Japanese isolationist, Tokugawa Iemitsu, is born. (1604)

- Patriot bard Robert Southey is born. (1774)

- Washington Monument architect Robert Mills is born. (1781)

- “Diamond Jim” James Buchanan Brady is born. (1856) Are you a gourmet, gourmand, epicure, or gastronome?

- Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to America The Beautiful, was born in 1859.

- Humanitarian, philanthropist, and merchant Julius Rosenwald is born. (1862)

- Christy Mathewson, baseball great, who said, "You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat," is born. (1880)

- Movie director, Cecil B. de Mille is born. (1881)

- Archaeologist Eliezer Lipa Sukenik, who identified the antiquity of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is born. (1889)

- Miguel Torga, writer is born. (1907)

- T. Rex found by Susan Hendrickson. (1990)

- The United States, Mexico and Canada agree to form a free-trade zone that would rank as the world’s largest single trading bloc. (1992)

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- Golden Mean Day

- International Lefthanders Day

- Perseid Meteor Showers peak August 13th, 2003.

- William Caxton, who published the first book in English, is born. (1422)

- Spanish conquerors captured Mexico City from Aztecs. (1521)

- Lucy Stone, women’s rights pioneer, is born. (1818)

- Dictionary of Music and Musicians writer, George Grove, is born. (1820)

- Kate Chase Sprague, Washington socialite,   is born. (1840)

- Western sharpshooter "Annie Oakley" is born. (1860)

- Mystery and suspense writer, Alfred Hitchcock is born. (1899)

- Rotary engine designer Felix Wankel is born. (1902)

- Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuban leader is born. (1926)

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- O - Bon / Festival of Souls (solar date)

- Mathematician Jean-Gaston Darboux is born. (1842)

- Oregon Territory created by Congress. (1848)

- Julia Child, famous cook is born. (1925)

- World War II ended. (1945)

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- Assumption Day

- Macbeth, King of Scotland, slain by son of King Duncan. (1057)

- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769)

- Ivanhoe author, Walter Scott, a novelist and poet, is born. (1771)

- Davy Crockett, American frontiersman is born. (1786)

- Edna Ferber, novelist, whose work was the inspiration for numerous Broadway plays and Hollywood films, is born. (1887)

- “Lawrence of Arabia,” Thomas Edward Lawrence is born. (1888)

- Sixties Woodstock Music Festival began at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in New York on Friday, August 15th in 1969.

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- Elvis Day

- National Homeless Animals Day

- Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln. (1863)

- Illustrator of Prince Valliant and other comic strips, Harold R. “Hal” Foster is born. (1892)

- Labor leader, George Meany is born. (1894)

- Gold discovered in the Klondike. (1896)

- Circus owner, Robert Ringling  is born. (1897)

- Roller coaster was patented in 1898.

- Robert Bunsen, German chemist and inventor of the gas burner which bears his name, died. (1899)

- Romance novelist, Georgette Heyer is born. (1902)

- Israeli politician, Shimon Peres is born. (1923)

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- Founder of the modern theory of numbers, Pierre de Fermat, mathematician is born. (1601)

- Frontiersman Davy Crockett is born. (1786)

- Wrench was patented by Solymon Merrick of Massachusetts. (1835)

- Samuel Goldwyn, movie mogul  is born. (1882)

- Marcus Garvey Jr., American black nationalist  is born. (1887)

- Actress Mae West  is born. (1892)

- Jiang Zemin, President of China  is born. (1929)

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- National Friendship Week

- Roman temple to Venus founded. (293 BC)

- Genghis Khan, Mongol leader, died. (1227)

- Virginia Dare, was the first English child born in North America is born. (1587)

- Antonio Salieri, composer  is born. (1750) Did he poison Mozart?

- Meriwether Lewis, explorer is born. (1774)

- Marshall Field, store owner is born. (1834)

- Potawatomi Indians, who played lacrosse, left Chicago. (1835)

- Guano Act of 1856.

- Max Factor, cosmetics entrepreneur is born. (1904)

- 19th Amendment to US constitution passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage. (1920)

- Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter’s First Lady is born. (1927)

- Japanese automobile manufacturer, Toyota Motor Company, founded. (1937)

- James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. (1963)

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- National Aviation Day

- Mary Stuart proclaimed Queen of Scotland. (1561)

- USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) defeats the British frigate Guerrière off the coast of Nova Costa. (1812)

- John Cotton Dana, who said “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn,”  is born. (1856)

- Orville Wright, aviator is born. (1871)

- Frank J. Wisner, from Cripple Creek Brewing Company invented the Black Cow. You know it as the root beer float. (1893)

- Ogden Nash, poet who said, “Too clever is dumb,” is born. (1902)

- Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor and television pioneer is born. (1906)

- Two men arrested for playing baseball on Sunday, a violation of “Blue Laws.” (1917)

- Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry is born. (1921)

- Adolf Hitler becomes President of Germany in 1934.

- The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio. (1934)

- William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton, past President is born. (1946)

- Tipper Gore, activist for "Parental Advisory" labels on music is born. (1948)

- Saturday morning television shows for children first aired by American Broadcasting Company. (1950)

- Norwegian Crown Princess Mette Marit is born. (1973)

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- Bernardo O'Higgins, son of an Irish immigrant who became Governor-General of Chile is born. (1778)

- Jons Jacob Berzelius, inventor of modern chemical notation, and the discoverer of silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium is born. (1779)

- Rock edicts of King Asoka decipherer, James Prinsep is born. (1799)

- Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States is born. (1833)

- National Labor Union called on Congress to mandate an eight-hour workday. (1866)

- Presidential Proclamation declaring a “State of Peace” between Texas and the United States. (1866)

- “It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home,” writer, Edgar Albert Guest  is born. (1881)

- The Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, opens in New York City. (1885)

- Kingsley Davis, who coined the term "zero population growth," is born. (1908)

- Gateway Arch architect, Eero Saarinen is born. (1910)

- The first commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan. (1920)

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- Tobias Furneaux, who introduced domestic animals and potatoes into the South Sea Islands, is born. (1735)

- William Kelly, iron manufacturer and inventor is born. (1811)

- Nat Turner Slave Rebellion occurred. (1831)

- Lincoln-Douglas debates begin in 1858.

- Jazz musician, William "Count" Basie is born. (1904)

- Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre. (1911)

- Basketball great, Wilton "Wilt" Chamberlain is born. (1936)

- Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state. 1959

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- Louis XVI of France  is born. (1754)

- Colonies declared in rebellion by Britain. (1775)

- Franklin state formed. (1784)

- Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of Battle of Lake Erie is born. (1785)

- Treaty of Cordoba, granting Mexico its independence from Spain, signed. (1821)

- Union navy captured Fort Morgan, Alabama. (1864)

- Edgar Lee Masters, author of Spoon River Anthology is born. (1869)

- William Eccles, radio pioneer is born. (1875)

- Jonathan Wainwright, Medal of Honor recipient is born. (1883)

- Gene Kelly, dancer is born. (1912)

- Edgar F. Codd, founder of theory of relational databases is born. (1923)

- Mark Russell, political satirist is born. (1932)

- In Equatorial Guinea, the world's largest frog (3.3 kg) is caught. (1960)

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- Mt. Vesuvius erupted and destroyed Pompeii, Stabiae, and Herculaneum. (79 A.D.)

- Robert Herrick, poet  is born. (1591)

- British troops captured Washington, D.C., and burned the White House, Capitol, and other government buildings. (1814)

- Potato chips first prepared. (1853)

- Writer and caricaturist, Max Beerbohn is born. (1872)

- James Weddell, Antarctic explorer is born. (1787)

- Inventor of the toy electric train, Joshua Lionel Cowen is born. (1880)

- Duke Kahanamoku, swimmer and surfer is born. (1890)

- Meteorologist, Rudolf Oskar Robert Williams Geiger, one of the founders of microclimatology is born. (1894)

- Jorge Luis Borges, poet  is born. (1899)

- Alaska becomes a United States territory, not a state. (1912)

- Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader is born. (1929)

- Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player is born. (1960)

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- Be Kind to Humankind Week

- Ivan the Terrible, of Russia is born. (1530)

- New Orleans, Louisiana is founded. (1718)

- Allan Pinkerton, detective nicknamed "The Eye," which today has come to mean all detectives are known as "private eyes."  is born. (1819)

- Francis Bret Harte, American writer is born. (1836)

- Charles Richet, anaphylaxis researcher and Nobel Prize winner is born. (1850)

- Walt Kelly, Pogo cartoonist is born. (1913)

- United States National Park Service is created. (1916)

- Leonard Bernstein, conductor and composer is born. (1918)

- George C. Wallace, politician is born. (1919)

- John Birch, missionary whom a conservative organization named them selves after, was killed in China. (1945)

- Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician is born. (1964)

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- Antoine Lavoisier, father of modern chemistry is born. (1743)

- John Fitch was granted a United States patent for the steamboat. (1791)

- John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln assassin is born. (1838)

- Amistad captured off Long Island. (1839)

- St. Louis authorized the first U.S. public school kindergarten in 1873.

- Albert Sabin, polio researcher is born. (1906)

- Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, "Mother Teresa," is born. (1910)

- Amendment 19, giving women in the U.S. the right to vote, was proclaimed in 1920.

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- Krakatoa (also spelled Krakatau), a volcano located in the Sunda Strait in what is now the nation of Indonesia, blew up. (1883)

- Georg Hegel, philosopher is born. (1770)

- "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" signed in France. (1789)

- German immigrant, Margaretha Schurz, who established the first kindergarten in America is born. (1833)

- Charles Dawes, Vice President under Calvin Coolidge is born. (1865)

- Theodore Dreiser, the leader of Naturalism in American writing is born. (1871)

- Man Ray, photographer and artist is born. (1890)

- C.S. Forester, Horatio Hornblower novels author is born. (1899)

- Lyndon Johnson, 36th President of the United States is born. (1908)

- Mars will approach within 34.5 million miles of the Earth on the night of 27-28 August, the closest Mars has been to Earth in the past 73,000 years.

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- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, famous German writer is born. (1749)

- Elizabeth Ann Seton, first American-born Catholic saint is born. (1774)

- Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace is born. (1828)

- Tom Thumb starts the first railway service in the United States. (1830)

- Scientific American magazine publishes first issue in 1845.

- Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres. (1850)

- First known photograph of a tornado is made. (1884)

- Roger Tory Peterson, ornithologist and illustrator is born. (1908)

- Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. in 1963.

- Riots in Chicago, Illinois during the Democratic National Convention. (1968)

- During the Olympic Games of Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of several gold medals in swimming events. 1972

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- Atahualpa, last Inca ruler of Peru, died. (1533)

- John Locke, philosopher is born. (1632)

- "According To Hoyle." Edmund Hoyle, game book author, died. (1769)

- Oliver Wendell Holmes (not the jurist), "Old Ironsides" poem writer  is born. (1809)

- 1st U.S. Indian reservation established. (1758)

- Shay's Rebellion started in Springfield, MA. (1786)

- Charles F. Kettering, prolific inventor and philanthropist is born. (1876)

- Chop suey “invented” in New York City. (1896)

- Games of the III Olympiad open in Saint Louis, Missouri 1904

- Ishi, reportedly the last of the Yahi tribe, discovered in California. (1911)

- Jazz musician, Charlie Parker is born. (1920)

- United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (1958)

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- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein writer is born. (1797)

- Ellen Herndon Arthur, Chester Alan Arthur's beloved "Nell,"  is born. (1827)

- Honolulu, Hawaii becomes a city. (1850)

- Second Battle of Manassas ended a long campaign in northern Virginia. (1862)

- Ernest Rutherford, physicist is born. (1871)

- Ted Williams, baseball player is born. (1918)

- Jean-Claude Killy, skiing legend is born. (1943)

- Thurgood Marshall confirmed as the 1st African American Supreme Court Justice. (1967)

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- Caligula, Roman Emperor is born. (12 A.D.)

- Maria Montessori, educator is born. (1870)

- Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands is born. (1880)

- Thomas A Edison patents the Kinetoscope for moving pictures. (1887)

- Arthur Godfrey, radio and television host is born. (1903)

- England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente to counter the Triple Alliance. (1907)

- William Saroyan, novelist and playwright is born. (1908)

- Film and Broadway Musical composer, Alan Jay Lerner is born. (1918)

- Itzhak Perlman, violin virtuoso  is born. (1945)

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