Events Pre-1600 959 – Eraclus becomes the 25th bishop of Liège. 1140 – Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin dynasty general Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars. 1169 – Battle of the Blacks: Uprising by the black African forces of the Fatimid army, along with a number of Egyptian emirs and commoners, against Saladin.. 1192 – Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes Sei-i Taishōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: the 12th day of the seventh month in the third year of the Kenkyū (建久) era). 1331 – King Stefan Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stefan Dušan, who succeeds as King of Serbia. 1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Conquest of Ceuta.
1601–1900 1673 – The Dutch fleet defeats an Anglo-French fleet under Prince Rupert in the battle of Texel. 1680 – Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt. 1689 – The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland. 1716 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The arrival of naval reinforcements and the news of the Battle of Petrovaradin force the Ottomans to abandon the Siege of Corfu, thus preserving the Ionian Islands under Venetian rule. 1772 – King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondichéry. 1791 – Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, led by Dutty Boukman, held a Vodou ceremony that became a pivotal act of resistance. This gathering sparked a mass uprising against slavery, marking the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. 1808 – Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War. 1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. 1821 – Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances. 1831 – Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, which will claim the lives of 55 to 65 whites and about twice that number of blacks. 1852 – Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory. 1858 – The first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates is held in Ottawa, Illinois."First Debate: Ottawa, Illinois." NPS.gov. 21 August 2019. 1862 – The Stadtpark, the first public park in Vienna, opens to the public. 1863 – Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by pro-Confederate guerrillas known as Quantrill's Raiders. 1878 – The American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga Springs, New York. 1879 – The locals of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland report their having seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The apparition is later named "Our Lady of Knock" and the spot transformed into a Catholic pilgrimage site. 1883 – An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic. 1888 – The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.
1901–present 1901 – Six hundred American school teachers, Thomasites, arrived in Manila on the USAT Thomas. 1911 – The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee. 1914 – World War I: The Battle of Charleroi, a successful German attack across the River Sambre that pre-empted a French offensive in the same area. 1918 – World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins. 1942 – World War II: The Guadalcanal campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru. 1944 – Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins. 1944 – World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, Calvados, France. 1945 – Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 1957 – The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile. 1959 – United States 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. 1963 – Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalizes Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. 1965 – The Socialist Republic of Romania is proclaimed, following the adoption of a new constitution. 1968 – Cold War: Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals. 1968 – James Anderson Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine. 1971 – A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured. 1982 – Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon. 1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. is assassinated at Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor). 1986 – Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a range. 1988 – The 6.9 Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal–India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured. 1991 – Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after its occupation by the Soviet Union since 1940. 1991 – Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses. 1993 – NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. 1994 – Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 crashes in Douar Izounine, Morocco, killing all 44 people on board. 1995 – Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, attempts to divert to West Georgia Regional Airport after the left engine fails, but the aircraft crashes in Carroll County near Carrollton, Georgia, killing nine of the 29 people on board. 2000 – American golfer Tiger Woods wins the 82nd PGA Championship and becomes the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a calendar year. 2013 – Hundreds of people are reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria. 2017 – A solar eclipse traverses the continental United States.
Births Pre-1600 1165 – Philip II of France (died 1223) 1481 – Jorge de Lencastre, Duke of Coimbra (died 1550) 1535 – Shimazu Yoshihiro, Japanese general (died 1619) 1552 – Muhammad Qadiri, Founder of the Naushahia branch of the Qadri order (died 1654) 1567 – Francis de Sales, Swiss bishop and saint (died 1622) 1579 – Henri, Duke of Rohan (died 1638) 1597 – Roger Twysden, English historian and politician (died 1672)
1601–1900 1625 – John Claypole, English politician (died 1688) 1643 – Afonso VI of Portugal (died 1683) 1660 – Hubert Gautier, French mathematician and engineer (died 1737) 1665 – Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer and mathematician (died 1729) 1670 – James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, French general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire (died 1734) 1725 – Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter and educator (died 1805) 1754 – William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor, created gas lighting (died 1839) 1754 – Banastre Tarleton, English general and politician (died 1833) 1765 – William IV, King of the United Kingdom (died 1837) 1787 – John Owen, American governor of North Carolina (died 1841) 1789 – Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and academic (died 1857) 1798 – Jules Michelet, French historian and philosopher (died 1874) 1800 – Hiram Walden, American general and politician (died 1880) 1801 – Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Dutch historian and politician (died 1876) 1813 – Jean Stas, Belgian chemist and physician (died 1891) 1816 – Charles Frédéric Gerhardt, French chemist and academic (died 1856) 1823 – Nathaniel Everett Green, English painter and astronomer (died 1899) 1826 – Carl Gegenbaur, German anatomist and academic (died 1903) 1829 – Otto Goldschmidt, German composer, conductor and pianist (died 1907) 1840 – Ferdinand Hamer, Dutch bishop and missionary (died 1900) 1851 – Charles Barrois, French geologist and palaeontologist (died 1939) 1854 – Frank Munsey, American publisher, banker, political financier and author (died 1925) 1856 – Medora de Vallombrosa, Marquise de Morès, American heiress (died 1921) 1858 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria (died 1889) 1862 – Emilio Salgari, Italian journalist and author (died 1911) 1869 – William Henry Ogilvie, Scottish-Australian poet and author (died 1963) 1872 – Aubrey Beardsley, English author and illustrator (died 1898) 1878 – Richard Girulatis, German footballer and manager (died 1963) 1879 – Claude Grahame-White, English pilot and engineer (died 1959) 1884 – Chandler Egan, American golfer and architect (died 1936) 1885 – Édouard Fabre, Canadian runner (died 1939) 1886 – Ruth Manning-Sanders, Welsh-English author and poet (died 1988) 1887 – James Paul Moody, English sailor (died 1912) 1891 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto Rican-American soldier (died 2007) 1892 – Charles Vanel, French actor and director (died 1989) 1894 – Christian Schad, German painter (died 1982) 1895 – Blossom Rock, American actress (died 1978) 1897 – Keith Arbuthnott, 15th Viscount of Arbuthnott, Scottish soldier and peer (died 1966)
1901–present 1902 – Angel Karaliychev, Bulgarian author (died 1972) 1903 – Kostas Giannidis, Greek pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1984) 1904 – Count Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (died 1984) 1905 – Bipin Gupta, Indian actor and producer (died 1981) 1906 – Friz Freleng, American animator, director, and producer (died 1995) 1907 – P. Jeevanandham, Indian lawyer and politician (died 1963) 1908 – M. M. Kaye, British writer (The Far Pavilions) (died 2004) 1909 – Ethel Caterham, English supercentenarian 1909 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian mathematician and physicist (died 1992) 1912 – Toe Blake, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1995) 1914 – Doug Wright, English cricketer and coach (died 1998) 1916 – Bill Lee, American actor and singer (died 1980) 1916 – Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican pianist and songwriter (died 2005) 1917 – Leonid Hurwicz, Polish-American economist and mathematician (died 2008) 1918 – Billy Reay, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (died 2004) 1921 – Reuven Feuerstein, Romanian-Israeli psychologist and academic (died 2014) 1922 – Albert Irvin, English soldier and painter (died 2015) 1923 – Keith Allen, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (died 2014) 1924 – Jack Buck, American sportscaster (died 2002) 1924 – Jack Weston, American actor (died 1996) 1926 – Can Yücel, Turkish poet and translator (died 1999) 1927 – Thomas S. Monson, American religious leader, 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 2018) 1928 – Addison Farmer, American bassist (died 1963) 1928 – Art Farmer, American trumpet player and composer (died 1999) 1928 – Bud McFadin, American football player (died 2006) 1929 – Herman Badillo, Puerto Rican-American lawyer and politician (died 2014) 1929 – X. J. Kennedy, American poet, translator, anthologist, editor (died 2026) 1929 – Ahmed Kathrada, South African politician and political prisoner (died 2017) 1930 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (died 2002)