21st AUGUST
St Francis de Sales (b. 1567)
William IV, King of the UK (b. 1765)
Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria (b. 1858)
Aubrey Beardsley (b. 1872)
Leni Riefenstahl (b. 1902)
Count Basie (b. 1904)
Diana Churchill (b. 1913)
Maurice Pialat (b. 1925)
Barry Foster (b. 1927)
Art Farmer (b. 1928)
Princess Margaret (b. 1930)
Donald Dewar (b. 1937)
Joe Strummer (b. 1952)
Pete de Freitas (b. 1961)
Ettore Bugatti (d. 1947)
Constant Lambert (d. 1951)
Sir Jacob Epstein (d. 1959)
Tarheel Slim (d. 1977)
Benigno Aquino (d. 1983)
Chriss Gittins (d. 1988)
Diana Vreeland (d. 1989)
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (d. 1995)
Sir Fred Hoyle (d. 2001)
Pueblo Indians drive out the Spanish and take possession of Santa Fe NM, 1680
Battle of Vimiero, Portugal, 1808
Apparition of Blessed Virgin reported, Knock, Co Mayo, 1879
Cadillac Motor Company inaugurated, US, 1901
Mona Lisa stolen from Louvre by Vicenzo Perruggia, 1911
Battle of Bapaume-Péronne begins, 1918
Dock strike ends, London, 1923
Benny Goodman plays concert which inaugurates swing era, Palomar Th, Los Angeles CA, 1935
Civil Defence starts, UK, 1939
Dumbarton Oaks conference begins, Washington DC, 1944
Longest living UK bird (Manx sheerwater) 1st ringed, Copeland Island, Co Down, 1954
Hawaii, the Aloha State, becomes 50th state of the Union, 1959
1st nuclear merchant ship, SS Savannah, begins maiden voyage, 1962
Gemini V launched, 1965
Mary Langdon becomes 1st UK female firefighter, East Sussex Fire Brigade, 1976
1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from volcanic lake, Cameroon, 1986
Latvia & Estonia proclaim independence, 1991
Gorbachev restored to power as coup fails, Russia, 1991
Sting and Trudi Styler marry, 1992
Contact with Mars Observer is lost 3 days before it begins orbiting Mars, 1993
Nelson Mandela files for divorce from Winnie Mandela, 1995
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre opened, London, 1996

22nd AUGUST
Thomas Tredgold (b. 1788)
Claude Debussy (b. 1862)
Jacques Lipchitz (b. 1891)
Dorothy Parker (b. 1893)
Jack Payne (b. 1899)
Leni Riefenstahl (b. 1902)
Deng Xiaoping (b. 1904)
Hugh Paddick (b. 1915)
John Lee Hooker (b. 1917)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (b. 1928)
Sylva Koscina (b. 1933)
Layne Staley (b. 1967)
Richard III, King of England (d. 1485)
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (d. 1553)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (d. 1806)
Ivan Turgenev (d. OS 1883)
Robert Cecil, Marquis of Salisbury (d. 1903)
Kate Chopin (d. 1904)
Michael Collins (d. 1922)
Michael Fokine (d. 1942)
Lord (William) Morris of Nuffield (d. 1963)
Jomo Kenyatta (d. 1978)
Battle of the Standard, Northallerton, 1138
Henry VII wins Battle of Bosworth Field, Market Bosworth, 1485
English Civil War begins, Nottingham, 1642
Cook takes possession of east coast of Australia, OS 1770
Sierra Leone settled as haven for former UK slaves, 1788
French forces land, Ireland, 1798
New Mexico annexed by US, 1846
Cecil Sharp collects 1st folk song, 1903
Korea formally annexed by Japan, 1910
1st UK aircraft shot down in war, near Mons, 1914
BBC inaugurates 1st regular TV service, 1932
1st boxing match televised, Broadcasting House, 1933
2 dogs return from 3 days in space, Sputnik V, 1960
1st papal visit to South America made by Pope Paul VI, Colombia, 1968
Sex Pistols play Anarchy In The UK on So It Goes, ITV, 1976
100s of eminent Nicaraguans held hostage by Sandanista guerillas, 1978
54 die when Boing 737 catches fire on runway, Manchester, 1985
All-day licensing laws come into effect, England & Wales, 1988
Pre-revolutionary Russian flag replaces hammer & sickle, Moscow, 1991
Princess of Wales denies making nuisance phonecalls to Oliver Hoare, UK, 1994
Armed thieves steal Munch's The Scream and Madonna, Munch Museum, Oslo, 2004

23rd AUGUST
Louis XVI, King of France (b. 1754)
Georges Cuvier (b. 1769)
Arnold Toynbee (b. 1852)
Jack B Yeats (b. 1871)
Constant Lambert (b. 1905)
Gene Kelly (b. 1912)
Bob Peck (b. 1945)
Keith Moon (b. 1946)
River Phoenix (b. 1970)
Sir William Wallace (d. 1305)
Isabella, Queen of England (d. 1358)
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (d. 1628)
Rudolph Valentino (d. 1926)
Adolph Loos (d. 1933)
Albert Roussel (d. 1937)
Oscar Hammerstein II (d. 1960)
Didier Pironi (d. 1987)
RD Laing (d. 1989)
Huey P Newton (d. 1989)
David Rose (d. 1990)
Rome falls to Visigoths, 410
Richard De Clare claims Ireland for Henry II, Waterford, 1170
Battle of Tagliacozzo, 1268
Battle of Cassel, 1328
Chieftains agree Statutes of Icolmkill before Bishop Andrew Knox, Iona, 1609
National conscription 1st introduced, by decree, France, 1793
Mexico becomes independent, 1821
UK takes possession of Hong Kong, 1839
Treaty of Prague signed, 1866
1st Japanese ship reaches US with tea cargo, San Francisco, 1872
Albert Bridge opened, Chelsea, 1873
Battle of Mons begins, Belgium, 1914
Japan declares war on Germany, 1914
Little Mermaid statue unveiled, Copenhagen, 1917
Nicola Sacco & Bartolome Vanzetti wrongly sent to electric chair, US, 1927
Len Hutton scores world record 364 in 13 hr 20 min, Oval, 1938
Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact signed, 1939
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania annexed to USSR, 1939
German air Blitz on London begins, Battle of Britain, 1940
Battle of Stalingrad begins, 1942
World Council of Churches formed, 1948
Race riots, Nottingham, 1958
John Lennon marries Cynthia Powell, Liverpool, 1962
She Loves You by the Beatles released, 1963
Beatles play live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1964
Race riots, Detroit MI, 1967
Lou Reed's final gig with Velvet Underground, Max's Kansas City, New York NY, 1970
Bryan Allen makes 1st manpowered flight of over 1 mile, 1977
Alexander Godunov defects while Bolshoi Ballet on tour, New York NY, 1979
1st condom advertisment shown on TV, UK, 1987
Jane Weber becomes 1st Canadian woman to sail Atlantic single-handed, Plymouth, 1989
Child abuse allegations made against Michael Jackson, US, 1994

24th AUGUST
Alexander II, King of Scotland (b. 1198)
Robert Herrick (bapt. 1591)
George Stubbs (b. 1724)
William Wilberforce (b. NS 1759)
Sir Max Beerbohm (b. 1872)
Jean Rhys (b. 1894)
Jorge Luis Borges (b. 1899)
Graham Sutherland (b. 1903)
Arthur (Big Boy) Crudup (b. 1905)
Wynonie Harris (b. 1915)
Charles Causley (b. 1917)
Yasser Arafat (b. 1929)
Tony Secunda (b. 1940)
John Cipollina (b. 1943)
Jim Capaldi (b. 1944)
Pliny the Elder (d. 79)
Alaric I, King of the Visigoths (d. 410)
Il Parmigianinio (d. 1540)
Thomas Blood (d. 1680)
Thomas Chatterton (d. 1770)
Francois Philidor (d. 1795)
Simone Weil (d. 1943)
JW Dunne (d. 1949)
Jack Wilson (d. 1970)
Louis Prima (d. 1978)
Yootha Joyce (d. 1980)
Alberto Cavalcanti (d. 1982)
Feliks Topolski (d. 1989)
Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae buried when Vesuvius erupts, 79
St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Huguenots takes place, Paris, 1572
Calcutta founded, Subanati, 1686
Battle of Malaga, 1704
UK troops capture Washington and burn down White House & Capitol, 1814
SS Enrica becomes Alabama when Confederate flag replaces Union Jack, 1862
Waffle iron invented, 1869
Motion picture camera patented by Edison, US, 1891
Goodison Park, home of Everton FC, opened, Liverpool, 1892
Allies retreat from Mons, 1914
1st bombing raid by a UK plane takes place, 1914
8 die when Zeppelins raid outskirts of London, 1916
62 die in ZR-2 dirigible balloon explosion near Hull, 1921
Amelia Earhart completes 1st women's non-stop transatlantic flight, Newark NJ, 1932
German attacks on Fighter Command airfields begin, Battle of Britain, 1940
Maisie Dunn 1st woman to wear bikini on UK beach, Torquay, 1946
1st Edinburgh International Festival opened, 1947
1st transcontinental non-stop flight made by helicopter, Washington DC, 1956
Manchester Guardian becomes The Guardian, 1959
Temperature drops to a record -126_9°F, Vostok, Antarctica, 1960
A6 murder of Michael Gregson, for which James Hanratty is hanged, takes place, 1961
France becomes 5th thermonuclear power by exploding hydrogen bomb, S Pacific, 1968
Keith Moon drives his Lincoln into Holiday Inn swimming pool, Flint MI, 1968
1st Reading Festival takes place, 1973
In opera Ulysses, Annabel Hunt 1st actress nude on UK TV, Glyndebourne, 1975
Mark Chapman sentenced to 20 years to life for John Lennon murder, New York NY, 1981
SUS law repealed, UK, 1981
Voyager 2 reaches Neptune and sends pictures of Triton after 12 year journey, 1989
Tadeusz Mazowiecki endorsed as 1st non-Communist leader in 40 years, Poland, 1989
Islamic Jahad release the hostage Brian Keenan, Beirut, 1990
Judas Priest cleared of subliminal messages on LP causing 2 suicides, Reno NV, 1990
Ernest Saunders found guilty in Guinness trial, UK, 1990
The Word 1st broadcast, UK, 1990
Armenian sovereignty proclaimed, 1991
Ukrain proclaims independence subject to referendum, Kiev, 1991
Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary and winds up Central Committee, Moscow, 1991
Mars Observer reachers Mars, but fails to transmit, 1993
Jeff Buckley's debut LP, Grace, released, US, 1994
Microsoft Windows 95 software 1st available, 1995

25th AUGUST
Ivan the Terrible (b. 1530)
Narcisse Diaz (b. 1808)
Allan Pinkerton (b. 1819)
Francis Bret Harte (b. 1836)
Ruby Keeler (b. 1909)
Erich Honecker (b. 1912)
Bob Crosby (b. 1913)
Mel Ferrer (b. 1917)
Leonard Bernstein (b. 1918)
Richard Greene (b. 1918)
George Wallace (b. 1919)
Althea Gibson (b. 1927)
Junior Delgado (b. 1958)
St Louis (Louis IX, King of France) (d. 1270)
Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England (d. 1482)
David Hume (d. 1776)
Sir William Herschel (d. 1822)
Michael Faraday (d. 1867)
Friedrich Nietzsche (d. 1900)
Henri Fantin-Latour (d. 1904)
Grigory Zinoviev (d. 1936)
George, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
Alfred Kinsey (d. 1956)
Paul Muni (d. 1967)
GL Rockwell (d. 1967)
Stan Kenton (d. 1979)
Truman Capote (d. 1984)
Jack Nitzsche (d. 2000)
Rules agreed by Church Council to decide when Easter falls, Nicaea, 325
Capt Cook sets sail on 1st voyage of discovery, 1768
British forces destroy United States Library of Congress and 3,000 books, 1814
Uruguay declares itself independent from Spain, 1825
Matthew Webb becomes 1st man to swim channel, Dover-Calais, 1875
Conan Doyle bowls WG Grace out in 1st MCC match, 1900
Louvain sacked by Germany, 1914
1st scheduled airline flights start, London-Paris, 1919
Ethelda Bleibtrey becomes 1st US woman to win an Olympic gold medal, Antwerp, 1920
Treaty of Berlin signed, 1921
Ahmed Zog becomes 1st king of Albania, 1928
The Kop opened, Anfield Football Ground, Liverpool, 1928
Ramsay MacDonald forms National Government, 1931
1st RAF air raid on Berlin takes place, 1940
Arno Rudolphi & Ann Hayward marry suspended from parachutes, New York NY, 1940
Paris liberated, 1944
Colour TV breakthrough announced, RCA, 1949
Beatles attend conference by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bangor, 1967
Shroud of Turin 1st goes on show, St John's Cathedral, Turin, 1978
Voyager 2 flies past Saturn, 1981
Michael Jackson spends £25m on 5,000 song copyrights, including Beatles, 1985
Fire partially destroys city centre, Lisbon, 1988
Byelorussia declares independence, 1991
Diane Modell and Paul Edwards test positive for drugs, Commonwealth Games, 1994
Plant and Page make 1st joint appearance since Led Zeppelin split, Unledded, 1994
Cassini makes fly-past of Earth en route to Saturn, 1999

26th AUGUST
Sir Robert Walpole (b. 1676)
Joseph Montgolfier (b. 1740)
Antoine Lavasier (b. 1743)
Albert, Prince Consort (b. 1819)
Polly Nichols (b. 1845)
Lee De Forest (b. 1873)
John Buchan (b. 1875)
Guillaume Apollinaire (b. 1880)
Jules Romains (b. 1885)
Peggy Guggenheim (b. 1898)
Jimmy Rushing (b. 1902)
Christopher Isherwood (b. 1904)
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (b. 1910)
Frans Hals (d. 1666)
Louis-Philippe, King of France (d. 1850)
Carl Wilhelm (d. 1873)
William James (d. 1910)
Lon Chaney (d. 1930)
Frank Harris (d. 1931)
Ransom Eli Olds (d. 1950)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958)
Sir Francis Chichester (d. 1972)
Charles Lindbergh (d. 1974)
Lotte Lehmann (d. 1976)
Charles Boyer (d. 1978)
Tex Avery (d. 1980)
Rockin' Dopsie (d. 1993)
Ronald White (d. 1995)
Bunny Austin (d. 2000)
Lord (Gerry) Fitt (d. 2005)
Sir Clyde Walcott (d. 2006)
Julius Caesar 1st lands in Britain, BC 55
Edward III & the Black Prince defeat French, Battle of Crècy, 1346
Massachusetts stockholders agree to emigrate to New England, 1629
John Fitch patents his steamboat, 1791
1st French railway opens, Paris-St Germains, 1837
Women's right to vote comes into force, 19th Amendment, US, 1920
Anglo-Egyptian Alliance signed, 1936
Leslie Mitchell becomes 1st UK TV announcer, Olympia, 1936
USSR announces 1st intercontinental ballistic missile tests completed, 1952
Issigoni's BMC Morris Mini 1st goes on sale, 1959
Mariner 2 space probe launched to make 1st interplanetary space shot, US, 1962
1st balloon crossing of Atlantic completed by 3 Americans, 1978
Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice elected Pope John Paul I, Rome, 1978
Rhodesia becomes Zimbabwe, 1979
WGBH-FM becomes 1st US radio station to broadcast in digital sound, Boston MA, 1986
Reform of Sunday Trading Law comes into effect, UK, 1994

27th AUGUST
Confucius (b. BC 551)
Georg Hegel (b. 1770)
Theodore Dreiser (b. 1871)
Charles Stewart Rolls (b. 1877)
Sam Goldwyn (b. 1882)
Eric Coates (b. 1886)
Man Ray (b. 1890)
CS Forester (b. 1899)
Lyndon B Johnson (b. 1908)
Sir Donald Bradman (b. 1908)
Martha Raye (b. 1916)
Ira Levin (b. 1929)
Alice Coltrane (b. 1937)
Sonny Sharrock (b. 1940)
Titian (d. 1576)
Lope de Vega (d. 1635)
Sir Rowland Hill (d. 1879)
Gracie Allen (d. 1964)
Le Corbusier (d. 1965)
Brian Epstein (d. 1967)
Marina, Duchess of Kent (d. 1968)
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett (d. 1969)
Ras Tafari Mackonnen, Hailé Selassié (d. 1975)
Lord (Louis) Mountbatten of Burma (d. 1979)
Stevie Ray Vaughan (d. 1990)
Carl Giles (d. 1995)
Dick Bentley (d. 1995)
Bob Arnold (d. 1998)
Aaliyah (d. 2001)
Washington defeated, Battle of Long Island, 1776
Jacques Charles launches 1st hydrogen balloon to fly, 1783
James Tyler makes 1st UK balloon ascent, Edinburgh, 1784
Declaration of Rights of Man issued, France, 1789
1st commercial oil well drilled, Titusville PA, 1859
36,380 die when Krakatoa erupts, Sunda Strait, 1883
1st UK long-distance bus service begins, London-Leeds, 1900
Tarzan of the Apes 1st appears in a magazine serial, 1912
Lt Peter Nesterov becomes 1st pilot to loop-the-loop, USSR, 1913
1st flight of Heinkel 178, 1st jet-propelled aircraft, 1939
1st BBC TV programme transmitted from continent, 1950
1st 2 dogs sent 279 miles into space, Sputnik III, 1958
Beatles meet Elvis Presley at his home, Perugia Way, Bel Air CA, 1965
Chichester begins round-world solo voyage in Gipsy Moth IV, Plymouth, 1966
Women For Life On Earth 1st make camp, Greenham Common, 1981
Radio 5 launched, 1990
Jenny Eclair is 1st woman to win annual Perrier Award, Edinburgh, 1995
Mir space station vacated by crew and mothballed, 1999

28th AUGUST
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (b. 1592)
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (b. 1749)
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (b. 1814)
Count Leo Tolstoy (b. 1828)
Sir Edward Burne-Jones (b. 1833)
Robb Wilton (b. 1881)
Ivor Gurney (b. 1890)
Karl Böhm (b. 1894)
Liam O'Flaherty (b. 1896)
Charles Boyer (b. 1899)
Sir John Betjeman (b. 1906)
George Alcock (b. 1912)
Kenny Drew (b. 1928)
Sri Chinmoy (b. 1931)
Martin Lamble (b. 1949)
St Augustine of Hippo (d. 430)
Leigh Hunt (d. 1859)
Robert Walker (d. 1951)
Bohuslav Martinú (d. 1959)
Prince William of Gloucester (d. 1972)
Robert Shaw (d. 1978)
Ruth Gordon (d. 1985)
John Huston (d. 1987)
Patience Strong (d. 1990)
Liverpool created a borough by John, 1207
Battle of Newburn, 1640
Scenery 1st introduced to theatre, in production of Hamlet, 1661
Indian War ends with Indian surrender, New England, 1676
Austrians take Venice following seige, 1849
Channel telegraph cable laid, 1850
Lohengrin 1st performed, conducted by Liszt, 1850
RL Thomas becomes 1st film actor, as Mary Queen of Scots, US, 1895
Portable, collapsible loo-seat patented, Germany, 1902
Montenegro proclaimed an independent kingdom, 1910
Battle of Heligoland Bight, 1914
1st radio commercial, for an apartment block, broadcast, WEAF, New York NY, 1922
BBC makes 1st broadcast appeal on behalf of police, 1933
Manolete mortally wounded by bull during bullfight, Linares, Spain, 1947
Emmett Till is slain for flirting with a white woman 4 days earlier, Money MS, 1955
BBC makes 1st experimental stereo radio transmissions, 1962
Martin Luther King makes "I have a dream speech" to 200,000, Washington DC, 1963
Bob Dylan and the Hawks (The Band) 1st perform together, Forest Hill NY, 1965
Television split up, 1978
Sebastian Coe runs mile in record 3:47_32 minutes, Brussels, 1981
70 die in 3 aeroplane collision during air display, Ramstein, West Germany, 1988
Decree absolute granted to Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, 1989
Kelly Holmes wins double gold for athletics, Summer Olympics, Athens, 2004

29th AUGUST
John Locke (b. 1632)
Jean Ingres (b. 1780)
Oliver Wendell Holmes (b. 1809)
Maurice Maeterlinck (b. 1862)
Preston Sturges (b. 1898)
Ingrid Bergman (b. 1915)
Charlie Parker (b. 1920)
Lord (Marmaduke) Hussey of North Bradley (b. 1923)
Dinah Washington (b. 1924)
Charles Gray (b. 1928)
Thom Gunn (b. 1929)
Sterling Morrison (b. 1942)
James Hunt (b. 1947)
John The Baptist (d. 27)
Atahualpa (d. 1533)
Louis Couperin (d. 1661)
Brigham Young (d. 1877)
William Spooner (d. 1930)
Cesare Pavese (d. 1950)
Eamon de Valera (d. 1975)
Jimmy Reed (d. 1976)
Guy Stevens (d. 1981)
Ingrid Bergman (d. 1982)
Lee Marvin (d. 1987)
Sir Peter Scott (d. 1989)
Mary Norton (d. 1992)
Charlie Feathers (d. 1998)
Patrick Proktor (d. 2003)
Geoffrey Perkins (d. 2008)
Herod presents head of John the Baptist to Salome on dish, AD 30
Edward III defeats Spanish Armada, Winchelsea, 1350
900 die as HMS Royal George sinks at anchor, Spithead, 1782
Faraday 1st demonstrates induction of electric currents, 1831
Factory Act passed, 1833
Melbourne founded, Australia, 1835
UK lease of Hong Kong agreed, ending Opium War, Treaty of Nanking, 1842
Battle of Boomplatz, 1848
Garibaldi wounded and captured, Battle of Aspromonte, 1862
Second Battle of Bull Run begins, 1862
"The Ashes" invented by The Sporting Times when England 1st loses to Australia, 1882
1st motor-cycle patented by Daimler, 1885
Rugby League formed, Huddersfield, 1895
Chop suey ("Various things") devised by a chef, New York NY, 1897
Glenn Curtis wins The Gordon Bennett, 1st air race held, Reims, 1909
USSR explodes a hydrogen bomb, 1953
George Harrison joined the Quarrymen, Liverpool, 1958
Dylan introduces Beatles to marijuana, Delmonico Hotel, New York NY, 1964
Beatles meet Elvis Presley, Gracelands, Memphis TN, 1965
Beatles play last official concert, Candlestick Park, San Francisco CA, 1966
Clash play 1st formal gig, with Buzzcocks & Sex Pistols, Islington, 1976
1000s die when Hurricane Katrina strikes Gulf Coast, US, 2005

30th AUGUST
Pedro the Cruel (b. 1334)
Jacques David (b. 1748)
Sir John Rennie (b. 1794)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (b. 1797)
Joseph Dent (b. 1849)
Raymond Massey (b. 1896)
Shirley Booth (b. 1898)
Fred MacMurray (b. 1908)
Joan Blondell (b. 1909)
John Phillips (b. 1935)
Bruce McLaren (b. 1937)
John Peel (b. 1939)
Louis XI, King of France (d. 1483)
Francis Baily (d. 1844)
Feargus O'Connor (d. 1855)
Sir John Ross (d. 1856)
Alan Leo (d. 1917)
Charles Coburn (d. 1961)
Guy Burgess (d. 1963)
Philly Joe Jones (d. 1985)
Taylor Caldwell (d. 1985)
Lindsay Anderson (d. 1994)
Sterling Morrison (d. 1995)
Christine Pascal (d. 1996)
Fred Whipple (d. 2004)
Glenn Ford (d. 2006)
Battle of Chesapeake Capes begins, 1781
Honalulu becomes a city, Hawaii, 1850
1st UK tram service begins, Birkenhead Street Railway, 1860
2nd Battle of Bull Run ends, 1862
1st stereo system patented by Clement Adler, Germany, 1881
Bubonic Plague reported, Glasgow, 1900
1st vacuum cleaner patented by Herbert Cecil Booth, 1901
Morris Major announced, UK, 1930
Evacuation of children from cities begins, UK, 1939
Seige of Leningrad by German forces begins, 1941
Soviet troops enter Bucharest, Romania, 1944
Hong Kong re-occupied by UK, 1945
Hot line between Kremlin and White House comes into operation, 1963
Bob Dylan & the Band play Isle of Wight Pop Festival, 1969
Jimi Hendrix plays last official UK date, Isle of Wight Pop Festival, 1970
1,100 die when Hurricane David devastates Dominica and reaches US, 1979
1st recorded occurrence of a comet hitting the Sun, 1979
Guion S Bluford Jr becomes 1st black American astronaut in space, Challenger, 1983
Dali escapes from house fire, Pilbol Castle, near Gerona, 1984
Discovery launched, 1984
Japanese satellite Yohkoh launched to study Sun, 1991
Last Rolls Royce comes off own production line, Crewe, 2002

31st AUGUST
Caligula (b. 12)
Jahangir (b. 1569)
Charles Turner (b. 1774)
Théophilé Gautier (b. 1811)
Maria Montessori (b. 1870)
DuBose Heyward (b. 1885)
Billy Wells (b. 1889)
Fredric March (b. 1897)
Roland Culver (b. 1900)
William Saroyan (b. 1908)
Richard Baseheart (b. 1914)
Alan Jay Lerner (b. 1918)
Larry Grayson (b. 1923)
James Coburn (b. 1928)
Roy Castle (b. 1932)
Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935)
Andrew Cunanan (b. 1969)
Henry V, King of England (d. 1422)
Henrietta Marie, Queen of Charles (d. 1669)
John Bunyan (d. 1688)
John Keill (d. 1721)
Louis de Bougainville (d. 1811)
Arthur Philip (d. 1814)
Charles Baudelaire (d. 1867)
Polly Nichols (d. 1888)
Harley Granville Barker (d. 1946)
Georges Braque (d. 1963)
Rocky Marciano (d. 1969)
John Ford (d. 1973)
Jean Seberg (d. 1979)
Henry Moore (d. 1986)
Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
Dodi Fayed (d. 1997)
Lionel Hampton (d. 2002)
Carl Wayne (d. 2004)
Ken Campbell (d. 2008)
Henry VI becomes King of England at 9 months, 1422
Grenville engages Spain in Revenge, Battle of Flores, 1591
Great Western Railway Bill passed, UK, 1835
1st US tennis championship begins, Newport RI, 1881
Thomas A Edison receives a patent for his Kinetoscope, 1887
Coca-Cola 1st introduced to UK, 1900
The Threepenny Opera 1st performed, Berlin, 1928
Elizabeth Cowell is 1st UK woman radio announcer, Alexandra Palace, 1936
Evacuation of women & children begins, London, 1939
Malaya becomes independent, 1957
Riots, Notting Hill, 1958
Trinidad & Tobago become independent, 1962
Gary Sobers is 1st cricketer to score 6 sixes off an over, Swansea, 1968
Solidarity Labor Union formed, Poland, 1980
269 die when Russians shoot down South Korean airliner, 1983
1000 die in tropical storm, Philippines, 1984
Docklands Light Railway opens to public, London, 1987
Postal strike begins, UK, 1988
East and West Germany sign reunification treaty, Berlin, 1990
National broadcasts of Nicam stereo TV sound begin, BBC, 1991
IRA announces complete cessation of military operations, 1994

 

Last updated: April 09, 2009