Tell us your Today In History….
We want to know what happened to you on this day in history. Life Event e.g. marriage or children? Move cities or countries? Start or finish a job? It can be funny, or a general story, or anything you’d like to share….
Comment at the bottom of the page with your story and go in the draw to win a DVD.
August 31
1422 Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
1887 Thomas Alva Edison patents Kinetoscope (produces moving pictures)
1894 The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act passed by Richard Seddon’s Liberal government, making New Zealand the first country in the world to outlaw strikes in favour of compulsory arbitration
1920 Belgium starts paying old age pensions
1948 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands celebrates golden jubilee
1962 Trinidad & Tobago gain independence from Britain (National Day)
1990 East & West Germany sign a treaty to join legal & political systems
1994 Pentium computer beats world chess champ Gari Kasparov
1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris
2006 Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” is recovered from a raid by Norwegian police. The painting was said to be in a better-than-expected condition.
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August 30
1146 European leaders outlaw crossbow, intending to end war for all time.
1791 HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day, on her return from her search for the Bounty and the mutineers who had taken her.
1835 Melbourne, Australia is founded.
1918 Fanya Kaplan attempts but fails to assassinate Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia.
1963 Hotline communication link between Pentagon (Washington, D.C.) and the Kremlin (Moscow) installed.
1968 First record under Apple label (Beatle’s Hey Jude).
1979 1st recorded occurrence of a comet hitting the sun (energy=1 million hydrogen bombs)
2012 Cholera outbreak kills 229 people in Sierra Leone.
2013 15 people are killed by a liquid ammonia leak at a cold storage plant in Shanghai, China.
2015 English author Frederick Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal) reveals that he worked for MI6 for more than 20 years.
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August 29
1350 Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
1756 Prussian Libya occupies Saxson: beginning 7 Years War.
1831 Michael Faraday demonstrates the first electric transformer.
1864 William Huggins discovers chemical composition of nebulae.
1883 Seismic sea waves created by Krakatoa eruption create a rise in English Channel, 32 hrs after explosion.
1898 The Goodyear tire company is founded.
1909 World’s first air race held in Rheims France.
1914 New Zealand forces capture German Samoa.
1964 Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins” directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke is released.
2005 Hurricane Katrina makes its 2nd landfall as a category 3 hurricane devastating much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida Panhandle. Kills more than 1,836, causes over $115 billion in damage.
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August 28
1189 Third Crusade: the Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.
1565 Oldest city in the US established – St Augustine Florida.
1789 William Herschel discovers Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
1898 Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink “Pepsi-Cola.”
1937 Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a dream speech” addressing civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
1981 Sebastian Coe of UK sets 1-mi record of 3:47.33 (since broken)
1983 Joseph Kreckman sets record of 2,215 clay pigeons shot in an hour.
1994 1st Japanese gay pride parade.
2003 An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London’s underground rail network to a halt.
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August 27
663 Battle of Baekgang: Tang Chinese and Silla Korean forces defeat Korean Baekje forces and their Yamato Japanese allies on the Geum River in Korea; – no Japanese invasion of Korea for 900 years.
1601 Olivier van Noort completes first Dutch exploration of new world.
1689 The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing empire.
1789 French National Assembly issues “Declaration of Rights of Man & Citizen.”
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons and kills approximately 40,000 people.
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes “Tarzan of the Apes.”
1913 Swedish engineer Gideon Sundback of Hoboken applies to patent all-purpose zipper.
1955 “Guinness Book of World Records” first published.
1981 Divers begin to recover a safe found aboard sunken Italian liner Andrea Doria.
2003 Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
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August 26
1346 Battle of Crécy, south of Calais in northern France; Edward III’s English longbows defeat Philip VI’s army, cannons used for first time in battle.
1498 Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.
1652 Battle of Plymouth: General-at-Sea George Ayscue of the Commonwealth of England attacked a convoy of the Dutch Republic commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter (Dutch victory).
1843 Charles Thurber patents a typewriter.
1907 Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 seconds.
1951 Jongbloed in Paris demonstrates artificial heart.
1957 USSR announces successful test of intercontinental ballistic missile.
1985 French government denies knowledge of attack on Rainbow Warrior.
2002 Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2012 15 year-old New Zealand golfer, Lydia Ko, becomes the youngest LPGA Tour event winner and the first amateur winner since 1969.
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August 25
1609 Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1768 Captain James Cook departs from Plymouth, England, on his first voyage on board the Endeavour, bound for the Pacific Ocean.
1875 Matthew Webb becomes the first to swim English Channel (21h 45m).
1894 Japanese scientist Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
1924 International maritime treaty drawn.
1940 First British night bombing of Germany (Berlin).
1944 Paris liberated from Nazi occupation (Freedom Tuesday).
1976 Harm Wiersma becomes world checker champion.
1988 Serious fire destroys historic centre of Lisbon.
1989 After 12-year, 4-billion-mile journey, Voyager 2 flies over cloudtops of Neptune & its moon Triton, sending back photographs of swamps.
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August 24
79 Mt Vesuvius erupts, buries Roman Pompeii & Herculaneum.
1215 Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid
1847 Charlotte Brontë finishes manuscript of “Jane Eyre.”
1891 Thomas Edison patents motion picture camera
1909 Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal
1932 1st transcontinental non-stop flight by a woman, Amelia Earhart
1968 France became world’s 5th thermonuclear power with detonation on Mururoa
1998 First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.
2000 Argon fluorohydride, the first Argon compound ever known, is discovered at the University of Helsinki by Finnish scientists.
2006 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term “planet” such that Pluto is considered a Dwarf Planet.
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August 23
79 Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire (goes on to destroy Pompeii).
1305 William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason by Edward I of England.
1904 Automobile tire chain patented.
1924 Mars’ closest approach to Earth since 10th century.
1930 1st British Empire Games close in Hamilton, Canada.
1954 First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 takes 1st photograph of Earth from Moon
1990 East & West Germany announced that they would unite on Oct 3
2005 Hurricane Katrina first forms over the Bahamas, later becoming a category 5 hurricane.
2006 Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.
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August 22
565 St Columba reported seeing monster in Loch Ness.
1639 Madras (now Chennai), India, founded by the British East India Company on sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
1770 James Cook’s expedition lands on the east coast of Australia.
1864 First Geneva Convention adopted in Geneva “for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field.”
1901 Cadillac Motor Company is founded.
1923 Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, runs world record mile (4:10.4).
1926 Gold discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
1945 Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup.
1962 Failed assassination on French president Charles de Gaulle.
2004 “The Scream” (1910 painted version) and “Madonna”, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.
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August 21
1541 Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom, and dominate central Hungary for 150 years.
1760 The church (later cathedral) of “Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico)” is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city.
1841 John Hampton patents the venetian blind.
1842 The city of Hobart, Tasmania, is founded.
1879 The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
1911 “Mona Lisa” stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Perugia (Recovered in 1913).
1986 Volcanic eruption in Cameroon releases poison gas, killing 2,000.
1989 Voyager 2 begins a flyby of planet Neptune.
1994 The last French troops pull out of Rwanda, ending their highly controversial mission there.
2007 Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph. Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
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August 20
2 Venus and Jupiter in conjunction – possible astrological explanation for Star of Bethlehem.
1741 Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition.
1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over.
1882 Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” opens in Moscow.
1893 Shechita (ritual slaughtering) prohibited in Switzerland.
1896 Dial telephone patented.
1908 America’s Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to be greeted with a tremendous welcome; 221 American sailors desert to remain in Australia.
1920 Allen Woodring wins Oympic 200m dash wearing borrowed shoes.
1940 British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
1980 Reinhold Messner of Italy is 1st to solo ascent Mt Everest.
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August 19
1561 Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith, Scotland to assume throne after spending 13 years in France.
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie, raises his standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, igniting the second Jacobite rebellion.
1768 Saint Isaac’s Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1839 Details of Louis Daguerre’s first practical photographic process are released in Paris.
1919 Afghanistan declares independence from UK.
1957 US Major David Simons reaches 30,933m in a balloon.
1979 Soviet Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakov & Valery Ryumin returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after a record 175 days in space.
1992 Sri Lanka make their highest cricket score ever 8-547 v Australia.
2005 The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
2015 US Food and Drug administration approves Female Viagra libido pill Addyi
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August 18
1686 Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus.
1868 French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse.
1904 Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid.
1926 Weather map televised for first time.
1957 Juan-Manuel Fangio, wins his last auto World Championship at 46.
1960 The Beatles give their 1st public performance at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg.
1964 South Africa banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies.
1971 New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake announces in Parliament that New Zealand’s combat force would be withdrawn from Vietnam before the end of the year, coinciding with a similar announcement by the Australian government.
1983 Samantha Druce, aged 12y 119d, becomes the youngest woman to swim English Channel.
1989 Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
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August 17
1563 King Charles IX of France declared an adult at 13.
1819 The Church Missionary Society establishes New Zealand’s second mission station at Kerikeri.
1835 Solymon Merrick patents wrench.
1877 Asaph Hall discovers Mars’ moon Phobos.
1903 Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University & begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America.
1946 George Orwell publishes “Animal Farm” in the United Kingdom.
1953 First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
1976 An earthquake & tsunami in the Philippines kills up to 8,000.
1979 Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” directed by Terry Jones, starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese premieres.
1980 Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.
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August 16
1743 Earliest boxing code of rules formulated in England.
1829 Siamese twins Chang & Eng Bunker arrive in Boston to be exhibited.
1834 Charles Darwin climbs Mt Campana in Chile.
1880 The French state commissions sculptor Auguste Rodin for a large sculpted doorway ‘The Gates of Hell’ for the proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
1904 NYC begins building Grand Central Station.
1930 First British Empire Games open in Hamilton, Canada.
1962 Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as Beatles’ drummer.
1981 Highest score in World Cup soccer match (New Zealand-13, Fiji-0).
1988 IBM introduces software for artificial intelligence.
2008 Usain Bolt sets a new 100 metres dash world record of 9.69 seconds at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.
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August 15
778 Battle of Roncevaux Pass: Roland, commander of the rearguard of Charlemagne’s army is defeated by the Basques.
1040 King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as per Shakespeare’s play). The latter does succeed him as King.
1620 Mayflower sets sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims.
1903 New Zealand’s All Blacks play their first Rugby Test Match against Australia’s Wallabies at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney; New Zealand win 22-3.
1939 “The Wizard of Oz”, premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, starring Judy Garland (Dorothy), Ray Bolger (Scarecrow), Jack Haley (Tin Man), Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion), Frank Morgan (Wizard), Billie Burke (Glinda), and Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch).
1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in New York State on Max Yasgur’s Dairy Farm
1975 Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
1989 Frederik de Klerk becomes president of South Africa.
2004 Bay of Plenty defeat Auckland 33-26 in Rugby Union to win NZ’s Ranfurly shield for the first time in the shield’s 102 year history and after 28 unsuccessful challenges.
2008 Lee Berger and his nine-year-old son, Matthew, discover the two-million-year-old fossils of a new species of human ancestor (Australopithecus sediba) at Malapa Cave, South Africa.
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August 14
1281 During Kublai Khan’s second invasion of Japan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near Japan.
1498 Columbus landed at the mouth of the Orinoco River in what is now Venezuela.
1846 The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
1862 Abraham Lincoln receives the first group of African Americans to confer with a US president.
1880 Construction of Cologne Cathedral completed after it was began in 1248 – largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe.
1893 France introduces motor vehicle registration, includes a driving test.
1894 Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge demonstrates wireless telegraphy (radio) using Morse code at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University.
1941 US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter.
1945 V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end World War II (also August 15 depending on time zone).
2010 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics, officially starts in Singapore.
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August 13
3114 BC According to the Lounsbury correlation, the start of the Mayan calendar.
1521 Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire.
1642 Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Martian south polar cap.
1792 Revolutionaries imprison French royals, including Marie Antoinette.
1889 William Gray patents coin-operated telephone.
1913 Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley, Sheffield, England.
1960 The first two-way conversation via satellite is undertaken using Echo 1.
1961 Construction of the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany.
2004 28th Olympic Games opens at Athens, Greece.
2012 Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus is stripped of her shot-put gold medal after failing a drugs test.
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August 12
3 Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem.
1332 Battle of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle.
1658 First American police force forms (New Amsterdam).
1851 First America’s Cup – US schooner America beats British yacht Aurora after race around the Isle of Wight.
1851 American inventor Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine.
1865 Joseph Lister performs first antiseptic surgery.
1883 The last quagga (zebra subspecies) dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1918 WW I: Allies defeat Germans at the Battle of Amiens – the last great battle on the Western Front.
1927 “Wings”, the only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture, opens starring Clara Bow (Outstanding Picture 1929).
1981 IBM introduces its first Personal Computer (PC & PC-DOS version 1.0).
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August 11
3114 BC The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins.
1772 Explosive eruption blows 4,000′ off Papandayan Java, kills 3,000.
1835 George B Airy begins 46-year reign as England’s Astronomer Royal.
1858 First ascent of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.
1934 First federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay
1978 Funeral of Pope Paul VI
1988 Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Dr Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan.
1989 Voyager 2 discovers 2 partial rings of Neptune.
2013 14th World Championships in Athletics: Usain Bolt wins 100m.
2015 Greek Debt crisis: European Commission announces a bailout with Greece and its creditors has been agreed “in principle.”
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August 10
610 In Islam, the traditional date of the Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad began to receive the Qur’an.
1585 English Queen Elizabeth I signs Treaty of Nonsuch: Aid for Netherlands.
1628 Swedish warship Vasa sinks in Stockholm, killing 30.
1675 King Charles II and John Flamsteed lay the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London.
1787 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his chamber piece “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.”
1793 Louvre palace officially opens in Paris as The Museum Central des Arts.
1897 Automobile Club of Great Britain established (now: Royal Automobile Club).
1966 Daylight meteor seen from Utah to Canada. Only known case of a meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere & leaving it again.
1993 An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale hits the South Island of New Zealand.
2006 Scotland Yard disrupts major terrorist plot to destroy aircraft travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States. All toiletries are banned from commercial aircraft.
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August 9
48 BC Caesar’s civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
1173 Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins, and it takes two centuries to complete.
1483 Opening of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
1655 Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell divides England into 11 districts
1803 First horses arrive in Hawaii
1910 Alva Fisher patents electric washing machine
1945 US drops 2nd atomic bomb “Fat Man” on Japan destroys part of Nagasaki
1969 Manson family commits Tate-LaBianca murders
1993 King Albert II of Belgium, crowned
2012 Usain Bolt becomes the first person to win the 100m and 200m sprint in back to back Olympics
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August 8
70 Tower of Antonia destroyed by Romans
1508 Spaniard Juan Ponce de León founds Caparra the first European settlement in Puerto Rico
1579 Cornerstone is laid for Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg observatory
1609 Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei’s telescope
1709 First known ascent in hot-air balloon, Bartolomeu de Gusmao (indoors)
1794 Joseph Whidbey and George Vancouver lead an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.
1854 Smith & Wesson patents metal bullet cartridges
1945 President Harry Truman signs the United Nations Charter
1950 Florence Chadwick swims English Channel
1960 “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini” hits #1
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August 7
1409 Council of Pisa closes
1461 Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor
1606 Possible first performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace for King James I.
1782 George Washington creates the Purple Heart medal (original name Badge of Military Merit) as commander of the Continental Army
1908 The first train to travel the length of New Zealand’s North Island ‘main trunk line’, leaves Wellington
1944 IBM dedicates the first programme-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
1947 Thor Heyerdahl and his fellow adventurers aboard the Kon-Tiki reach the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia after 101 days at sea crossing the Pacific Ocean when their balsa raft crashes into an archipelago reef
1963 Jacqueline Kennedy becomes first US First Lady to give birth (Patrick Kennedy) since Mrs Cleveland
1970 1st computer chess tournament
1974 Philippe Petit walks tightrope strung between twin towers
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August 6
1497 Italian explorer John Cabot returns to Bristol from North America (Newfoundland) – first European to do so since the Vikings
1661 The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal
1774 Founder of the Shaker Movement, Mother Ann Lee, arrives in New York
1856 The Great Bell is cast in the Great Clock of Westminster (Big Ben)
1890 At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes first person to be executed by electric chair
1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”
1979 Marcus Hooper, 12, is youngest person to swim English Channel
1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1996 George R.R. Martin publishes the epic fantasy novel “A Game of Thrones”, the first in his series “A Song of Ice and Fire”
2012 Mount Tongariro, New Zealand, erupts for the first time in a century
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August 5
1100 Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey
1305 William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.
1858 Cyrus W Field completes first transatlantic telegraph cable
1864 US Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay won by the Union led by Rear Admiral Farragut with the cry “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
1943 World War II: at around 11 A.M during the Battle of Troina, Mount Etna erupts sending ash and lava miles into the sky.
1966 Beatles release single “Yellow Submarine” with “Eleanor Rigby” in UK
1974 US President Richard Nixon admits he withheld information about Watergate break-in
1985 Establishment of a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is announced
1985 Flexible-wing glider altitude record (214,250′) set by Larry Tudor
2012 General Motors signs a record breaking $559 million marketing deal with Manchester United
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August 4
1181 Supernova seen in Cassiopia
1693 Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon’s invention of Champagne
1777 Retired British cavalry officer Philip Astley establishes first circus
1870 British Red Cross Society forms
1902 The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
1914 WWI: Germany declares war on Belgium; Britain declares war on Germany
1947 The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1962 Nelson Mandela captured by South African police
1965 Cook Islands enters into free association with New Zealand
2006 Dame Silvia Cartwright steps down as the Governor-General of New Zealand and is replaced by The Honourable Anand Satyanand, who is sworn in on 23 August.
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August 3
1108 Louis VI, “the Fat One,” King of France, crowned
1492 Christopher Columbus sets sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa María, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the “Indies”
1829 Gioacchino Rossini’s “William Tell” premieres in Paris
1860 The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.
1900 Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded.
1908 French brothers Amadee and Jean Bouyssonie discover the fossil remains of a nearly complete 60,000 year-old Neanderthal man at La Chappelle-aux-Saints, France. Known as the ‘Old man of La Chappelle’ his skeleton shows that Neanderthals led physically stressful lives with high risk of injury.
1926 Traffic lights installed at Piccadilly Circus, London
1934 Adolf Hitler merges the offices of German Chancellor and President, declaring himself “Führer” (leader)
1970 Mairiam Hargrave of Yorkshire passes her driving test on 40th try
2013 The Chiefs defeat the Brumbies to win the Super 15 Rugby Final
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August 2
1100 King William II of England (William Rufus) is killed by an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrell while hunting in the New Forest.
1610 Henry Hudson enters bay later named after him, the Hudson Bay
1776 Formal signing of the US Declaration of Independence by 56 people (date most accepted by modern historians)
1865 Lewis Carroll publishes “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
1932 Carl David Anderson discovers and photographs a positron, the first known antiparticle
1970 Rubber bullets used for the first time in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’
1986 Saddam Hussein offers peace in open letter to Iran
1987 Don Brown sets flight record for handbow (1,336 yds 1’3″)
1990 US President George H. W. Bush orders troops to Saudi Arabia
1995 Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd issues a decree replacing all members of the Council of Ministers who do not have blood ties so the royal Family
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August 1
30 BC Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.
1774 Joseph Priestley, English theologian, chemist and author discovers oxygen
1793 France becomes 1st country to use the metric system
1831 London Bridge opens to traffic
1936 Adolf Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin
1944 Anne Frank’s last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested
1982 Greg Louganis, US becomes first diver to score 700 (752.67) in 11 dives
1983 New Zealand score their first Test Cricket match victory in England
1987 In New Zealand, the Maori Language Act comes into force, making te reo Māori an official language of New Zealand; it can now be used in some legal proceedings.
1991 Italian/Argentine Soccer star Diego Maradona retires
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