On this day: 1 August

Years ago today

Events · 28

• 1291
  Federal Charter of 1291 — Founding document of Switzerland
• 1664
  Battle of Saint Gotthard — 1664 major battle in the Austro-Turkish war
• 1759
  Battle of Minden — 1759 battle
• 1798
  Battle of the Nile — 1798 naval battle during the French invasion of Egypt
• 1801
  Action of 1 August 1801 — 1801 naval battle of the First Barbary War
• 1876
  Colorado — state of the United States of America
• 1894
  First Sino-Japanese War — 1894–1895 war between the Qing dynasty and the Empire of Japan over influence in Joseon, fought chiefly in Joseon
• 1895
  Kucheng Massacre — 1895 massacre in Fujian, China
• 1927
  Nanchang Uprising — communist rebellion to form the PLA in China
• 1936
  1936 Summer Olympics — Games of the XI Olympiad, in Berlin, Germany
• 1943
  Operation Tidal Wave — 1943 military operation
• 1944
  Warsaw Uprising — major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army
• 1960
  Benin — sovereign state in West Africa
• 1966
  University of Texas Tower Shooting — mass shooting
• 1971
  The Concert for Bangladesh — 1971 benefit concert organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar
• 1975
  Helsinki Accords — 1975 non-binding European and North American political agreement
• 1976
  Trinidad and Tobago — island sovereign state in the Caribbean
• 1976
  1976 German Grand Prix — Formula One motor race held in 1976
• 1981
  MTV — American cable television channel
• 1990
  Aeroflot Flight 35 — Aircraft crash in Azerbaijan SSR in 1990
• 1991
  Chicken Kiev speech — 1991 speech by George H. W. Bush in Ukraine
• 1998
  Puntland — semi-autonomous state that considers itself to be part of Somalia
• 2004
  Tragedia del Ycua — Paraguayan national tragedy
• 2008
  2008 K2 disaster — attempt on K2 in which 11 people died
• 2009
  2009 Tel Aviv gay centre shooting — 2009 shooting at an Israeli gay centre that resulted in two deaths
• 2017
  2017 Herat mosque attack — suicide bombing in Herat, Afghanistan
• 2023
  federal prosecution of Donald Trump for election interference — prosecution of a former US president for obstructing formal counting of ballots
• 2024
  2024 American–Russian prisoner exchange — exchange of prisoners between Western states and Russia in August 2024

Births · 60

• 10 BCE(Julian date)
  Claudius — fourth Roman emperor (41–54)
• 126(Julian date)
  Pertinax — emperor of Ancient Rome (126-193)
• 845(Julian date)
  Sugawara no Michizane — Japanese poet
• 1313(Julian date)
  Kōgon — Emperor of Japan
• 1377(Julian date)
  Go-Komatsu — emperor of Japan
• 1520(Julian date)
  Sigismund II Augustus — King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania
• 1744
  Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck — French naturalist (1744-1829)
• 1770
  William Clark — American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor (1770-1838)
• 1779
  Francis Scott Key — American lawyer and poet who wrote The Star-Spangled Banner (1779-1843)
• 1818
  Maria Mitchell — American astronomer
• 1819
  Herman Melville — American writer and poet (1819–1891)
• 1843
  Robert Todd Lincoln — Union Army officer, U.S. ambassador, and Secretary of War (1843–1926)
• 1867
  William Speirs Bruce — Scottish marine biologist and polar explorer (1867-1921)
• 1885
  George de Hevesy — Hungarian chemist (1885–1966)
• 1893
  Alexander of Greece — King of Greece (1917–1920)
• 1905
  Helen Sawyer Hogg — astronomer (1905-1993)
• 1910
  Gerda Taro — German photographer, best known for her reporting on the Spanish Civil War (1910–1937)
• 1914
  J. Lee Thompson — British film director (1914-2002)
• 1920
  Henrietta Lacks — American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line (1920–1951)
• 1920
  Zhou Xuan — Chinese actress and singer (1920-1957)
• 1924
  Abdullah of Saudi Arabia — King of Saudi Arabia from 2005 to 2015 (1924–2015)
• 1924
  Georges Charpak — French physicist (1924-2010)
• 1925
  Ernst Jandl — Austrian poet, dramatic and writer (1925–2000)
• 1929
  Hafizullah Amin — Afghan communist revolutionary, politician and teacher (1929–1979)
• 1930
  Pierre Bourdieu — French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher (1930–2002)

Deaths · 60

• 30 BCE(Julian date)
  Mark Antony — Roman politician and general (83 BC – 30 BC)
• 371(Julian date)
  Eusebius of Vercelli — Catholic bishop and saint
• 527(Julian date)
  Justin I — Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 518 to 527 (450-527)
• 1098
  Adhemar of Le Puy — French bishop
• 1137(Julian date)
  Louis VI of France — king of the Franks from 1108 to 1137
• 1146(Julian date)
  Vsevolod II of Kiev — Grand Prince of Kiev
• 1252(Julian date)
  Giovanni da Pian del Carpine — Roman Catholic archbishop and traveller (1182–1252)
• 1402(Julian date)
  Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York — Duke of York (1341–1402)
• 1457(Julian date)
  Lorenzo Valla — Italian Renaissance humanist (c. 1407–1457)
• 1464(Julian date)
  Cosimo de' Medici — First ruler of the Medici political dynasty (1389–1464)
• 1494(Julian date)
  Giovanni Santi — Italian painter
• 1546(Julian date)
  Peter Faber — Jesuit priest and evangelist
• 1557(Julian date)
  Olaus Magnus — Swedish writer
• 1589
  Jacques Clément — assassin of the French king Henry III
• 1714(Julian date)
  Anne of Great Britain — Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1702 to 1714 (1665–1714)
• 1787
  Alphonsus Maria de Liguori — Italian Catholic bishop and saint (1696-1787)
• 1798
  François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers — French admiral (1753–1798)
• 1866
  John Ross — 1st principal chief of the Cherokee Nation (1790–1866)
• 1868
  Peter Julian Eymard — Catholic priest - Saint
• 1903
  Calamity Jane — American scout and frontierswoman
• 1905
  Henrik Sjöberg — Swedish sportsman (1875–1905)
• 1911
  Edwin Austin Abbey — American illustrator and painter (1852-1911)
• 1913
  Lesya Ukrainka — Ukrainian poet, writer and feminist (1871–1913)
• 1943
  Lydia Litvyak — Soviet flying ace
• 1943
  Lin Sen — Chairman of the National Government of China (1868-1943)