1st August
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.
- 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.
- 1794 - The Whiskey Rebellion begins in Pennsylvania.
- 1798 - Battle of the Nile starts between French and British fleets.
- 1820 - London's Regent's Canal opens.
- 1831 - London Bridge opens.
- 1832 - Black Hawk War ends.
- 1834 - Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
- 1838 - Victoria crowned queen of Britain.
- 1864 - American Civil War: General Philip Sheridan takes command of the Army of the Shenandoah.
- 1864 - foundation of Elgin Watch Company in Elgin, Illinois
- 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.
- 1907 - First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island.
- 1909 - United States Army Air Corps founded.
- 1914 - Germany declares war on Russia.
- 1927 - Formation of the People's Liberation Army.
- 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 - Warsaw 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).
- 1960 - Benin declares independence from France
- 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.
- 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 - Olympic Games: 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.
- 2004 - Paraguay: In capital city Asuncion a supermarket burned. More than 215 dead and 300 people injured.
Births
- 10 BC - Claudius, Roman emperor (d. 54)
- 126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (d. 193)
- 1368 - Sigismund, emperor, king of Hungary and of Bohemia (d. 1437)
- 1476 - Pope Paul IV (d. 1559)
- 1744 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, scientist (d. 1829)
- 1770 - William Clark, explorer (d. 1838)
- 1779 - Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (d. 1843)
- 1815 - Richard Henry Dana, lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)
- 1818 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer (d. 1889)
- 1819 - Herman Melville, writer (d. 1891)
- 1824 - Paul Broca, anthropologist (d. 1880)
- 1858 - Hans Rott, composer (d. 1884)
- 1863 - Gaston Doumergue, politician and president of France (d. 1937)
- 1885 - George de Hevesy, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry 1943 (d. 1966)
- 1921 - Jack Kramer, tennis star (d. 2002)
- 1922 - Arthur Hill, actor
- 1925 - Ernst Jandl, writer (d. 2000)
- 1930 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)
- 1931 - Tom Wilson, cartoonist (Ziggy)
- 1932 - Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)
- 1933 - Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian
- 1936 - Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer
- 1937 - Alfonse D'Amato, New York Senator
- 1942 - Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)
- 1942 - Sjoukje Dijkstra, figure skater
- 1950 - Jim Carroll, poet, actor
- 1953 - Robert Cray, singer
- 1956 - Tom Leykis, radio personality
- 1959 - Joe Elliot, rock and roll musician (Def Leppard)
- 1960 - Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy); Richard Roeper, columnist for Chicago Sun-Times, film critic partner of Roger Ebert
- 1963 - Coolio, rapper
- 1965 - Sam Mendes, film director
- 1973 - Tempestt Bledsoe, actress
- 1981 - Ashley Parker Angel, singer
- 1984 - Alessandra Angleton, twin daughter of Robert Angleton and Doris Angleton
- 1984 - Nicole Angleton, twin daughter of Robert Angleton and Doris Angleton
- 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 (b. 1527)
- 1714 - Queen Anne of Great Britain
- 1836 - James Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 1817 (b. 1751)
- 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 (b. 1865)
- 1964 - Johnny Burnett, singer (b. 1934)
- 1970 - Frances Farmer, actress (b. 1913)
- 1973 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, composer
- 1977 - Gary Powers, pilot (b. 1929)
- 1981 - Paddy Chayefsky, writer (b. 1923)
- 1990 - Graham Young, British serial killer, (b. 1947)
- 1992 - Mikhail Tal, world chess champion (b. 1936)
- 2004 - Philip Hauge Abelson physicist co-discoverer of Neptunium (b. 1913)
Holidays and observances
July 31 - August 2 - July 1 - September 1 -- listing of all days
