August 1
August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in
leap years), with 152 days remaining.
Events
* 527 - Justinian I becomes Byzantine Emperor.
* 1119 - The crusaders are beaten in the Battle of Sarmada.
* 1245 - First Council of Lyons opens.
* 1291 - The Swiss Confederation is formed.
* 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella drive the Jews out of Spain.
* 1461 - Edward IV crowned king of England.
* 1498 - Christopher Columbus discovers Venezuela.
* 1519 - Charles V elected emperor of Germany.
* 1619 - First Black slaves landed in Jamestown, Virginia.
* 1635 - Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.
* 1774 - The element oxygen is discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph
Priestley.
* 1776 - Formal signing of the Declaration of Independence.
* 1790 - The first census of the United States is completed. The total
population of the thirteen states was 3,929,214.
* 1798 - Battle of the Nile starts between French and British fleets.
* 1831 - London Bridge opens.
* 1832 - Black Hawk War ends.
* 1834 - Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
* 1838 - Victoria crowned queen of Britain.
* 1864 - General Philip Sheridan takes command of the Army of the
Shenandoah.
* 1859 - First dog show held in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.
* 1873 - First cable car begins service in San Francisco, California.
* 1876 - Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
* 1894 - War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
* 1895 - El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form the Central American
Union.
* 1902 - The United States buys the rights to the Panama Canal from
France.
* 1909 - United States Army Air Corps founded.
* 1914 - Germany declares war on Russia.
* 1917 - Battle of Third Ypres.
* 1936 - The Berlin Olympic Games are opened.
* 1941 - The first Jeep is produced.
* 1943 - PT-109, with Lieutenant John F. Kennedy aboard, sinks.
* 1944 - Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
* 1944 - An uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw,
Poland.
* 1950 - King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates.
* 1957 - The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense
Command (NORAD).
* 1964 - North Vietnam fires on a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin.
* 1965 - President Johnson authorizes the first use of American ground
troops in the Vietnam War.
* 1965 - Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announces her engagement to
Claus von Amsberg.
* 1966 - Charles Whitman kills 15 people shooting from a tower at the
University of Texas in Austin, in the United States, before being
killed by the police.
* 1967 - Israel annexes East Jerusalem.
* 1971 - George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in New York features,
among others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell.
* 1981 - First broadcasts by MTV. The first video played was Video Killed
The Radio Star by Buggles.
* 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait.
* 1991 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir accepts a formula for
peace talks in the Middle East.
* 1994 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirm rumours that they
had married eleven weeks earlier.
* 1996 - Michael Johnson wins the 200 meters in 19.32, beating the old
world record by over 0.3 seconds.
* 2001 - In talks between the government and representatives of the
Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia, an agreement is reached
on the position of the Albanian language in the Republic.
* 2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the
European Environment Agency.
Births
* 10 BC - Claudius (+ 54), Roman emperor
* 126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (+ 193)
* 1367 - Sigismund, emperor of Hungary and king of Bohemia
* 1476 - Pope Paul IV
* 1744 - Jean Baptiste Lamarck, scientist (+ 1829)
* 1770 - William Clark, explorer (+ 1838)
* 1779 - Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (+
1843)
* 1818 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer
* 1819 - Herman Melville, writer (+ 1891)
* 1824 - Paul Broca, anthropologist
* 1863 - Gaston Doumergue, politician and president of France (+ 1937)
* 1885 - George de Hevesy, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in
chemistry 1943 (+ 1966)
* 1921 - Jack Kramer, tennis star
* 1922 - Arthur Hill, actor
* 1925 - Ernst Jandl, writer (+ 2000)
* 1930 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (+ 2002)
* 1931 - Tom Wilson, cartoonist (Ziggy)
* 1933 - Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian
* 1936 - Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer
* 1937 - Senator Alfonse D'Amato from New York
* 1942 - Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (+
1995)
* 1942 - Sjoukje Dijkstra, figure skater
* 1950 - Jim Carroll, poet, actor
* 1953 - Robert Cray, singer
* 1959 - Joe Elliot, rock and roll musician (Def Leppard)
* 1960 - Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy)
* 1963 - Coolio, rapper
* 1965 - Sam Mendes, film director
* 1973 - Tempestt Bledsoe, actress
* 1981 - Ashley Parker Angel, singer
* It is also recognised that August 1 is the "Horse's Birthday" for every
horse, regardless of their actual date of birth.
Deaths
* 371 - St Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop
* 1598 - Abraham Ortelius, cartographer
* 1836 - James Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 1817
* 1876 - Wild Bill Hickock, gunfighter
* 1889 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer
* 1917 - Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, Montana
* 1923 - Warren G. Harding, United States President
* 1934 - Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor of Germany
* 1964 - Johnny Burnett, singer (boating accident)
* 1970 - Frances Farmer, actress
* 1977 - Gary Powers, pilot
* 1989 - Joris Ivens, movie director
* 1992 - Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
Holidays and observances
* Angola - Armed Forces Day
* Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago - Emancipation Day
* Benin - National Day
* China - Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese PLA
* Democratic Republic of Congo - Parent's Day
* Nicaragua - Fiesta Day
* Rastafarianism - Celebration of the liberation of Haile Selassie from
slavery
* Switzerland - National Day
* Bah‡'’ Faith - Feast of Kam‡l (Perfection) - First day of the eighth
month of the Bah‡'’ Calendar
