August 1
August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining.
Events:
- 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 13 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 becomes a 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.
- 1940 - Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union.
- 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 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 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 11 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 Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.), an agreement is reached on the position of the Albanian language in F.Y.R.O.M.
- 2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
- 2002 - The U.S. plans to implement Operation TIPS, a controversial government program where citizens would report on 'suspicious' activity of fellow citizens.
Births:
- 10 BC - Emperor Claudius (+ 54)
- 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)
- 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
Deaths:
- 1598 - Abraham Ortelius, cartographer
- 1836 - James Madison, President of the United States 1809-1817
- 1876 - Wild Bill Hickock, gunfighter
- 1889 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer
- 1917 - Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, Montana
- 1923 - Former United States President Warren G. Harding
- 1934 - Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor of Germany
- 1964 - Johnny Burnett, singer (boating accident)
- 1970 - Frances Farmer, actress
- 1977 - Francis Gary Powers, pilot
- 1989 - Joris Ivens, movie director
- 1992 - Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
- 2001 - Poul Anderson, fantasy and science fiction writer
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
- Switzerland - National Day
See Also: July 31 - August 2 - July 1 - September 1 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December