August 1

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 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 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.
• 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 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

Deaths

• 527 - Justin I, Byzantine Emperor
• 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 - Warren G. Harding, United States President
• 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
• Rastafarianism - Celebration of the liberation of Haile Selassie from slavery
• Switzerland - National Day
• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Kamál (Perfection) - First day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í Calendar

July 31 - August 2 - July 1 - September 1 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December