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.
1461: Edward IV crowned king of England.
1498: Christopher Columbus discovers Venezuela.
1519: Charles V elected emperor of Germany.
1635: Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.
1774: The element oxygen is discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph Priestley.
1790: The first census of the United States is completed. The total population of the 17 states was 3,929,214.
1834: Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
1838: Victoria crowned queen of Britain.
1859: First dog show held in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.
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 buy the rights of the Panama Canal from France.
1914: Germany declares war on Russia.
1936: The Olympic Games of Berlin are opened.
1940: Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union.
1944: Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
1944: An uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw.
1957: The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1965: President Johnson authorizes the first use of American ground troops in the Vietnam War.
1965: Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announces her engagement with Claus von Amsberg.
1966: Charles Joseph 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.
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 Macedonia, an agreement is reached on the position of the Albanian language in Macedonia.
2001: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.

Births:

1367: Sigismund (emperor of Hungary and king of Bohemia)
1476: Paul IV (pope)
1770: William Clark (explorer)
1779: Francis Scott Key (author of "The Star-Spangled Banner" [The U.S. national anthem])
1818: Maria Mitchell (astronomer)
1819: Herman Melville (writer)
1824: Paul Broca (anthropologist)
1843: Robert Todd Lincoln (son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln)
1922: Arthur Hill (actor)
1931: Tom Wilson (cartoonist) (Ziggy)
1933: Dom Deluise (actor, comedian)
1936: Yves Saint Laurent (fashion designer)
1942: Jerry Garcia (guitarist, lyricist, singer) (Grateful Dead)
1942: Sjoukje Dijkstra (figure skater)
1953: Robert Cray (singer)
1959: Joe Elliot (singer) (Def Leppard)
1960: Chuck D (rapper) (Public Enemy)
1963: Coolio (rapper)
1973: Tempestt Bledsoe (actress)

Deaths:

1598: Abraham Ortelius, age 71 (cartographer)
1836: James Madison, age 85 (president of the United States 1809-1817)
1889: Maria Mitchell, age 71 (astronomer)
1964: Johnny Burnett (singer) (boating accident)
1989: Joris Ivens, age 90 (movie director)
1992: Mikhail Tal, age 55 (world chess champion)
2001: Poul Anderson (fantasy and science fiction author)

July 31 - August 2 - July 1 - September 1 - more historical anniversaries

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