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July 28

1540  King Henry VIII of England's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed and Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1750  The great baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach died.

1794  Robespierre, one of leading figures of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.

1821  Peru declared its independence from Spain.

1858  The first recorded use of fingerprints as a means of identification was made by William Herschel.

1868  The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which established the citizenship of African Americans and guaranteed due process of law, was ratified.

1914  Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, precipitating the start of World War I.

1932  Herbert Hoover ordered Douglas MacArthur to evict the Bonus Marchers from their camps.

2002  Nine Pennsylvania coal miners were rescued after 77 hours of being trapped in a mine shaft.

July 30                                                    TishB'Av The Ninth of Av (5769)

1619  The first legislative assembly in English North America convened in Jamestown, VA.

1729  The U.S. city of Baltimore was founded.

1733  The Society of Freemasons opened their first American lodge.

1932  The tenth modern Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles.

1945  The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank within 15 minutes.  It was one of the greatest naval losses of World War II, resulting in the deaths of 900 men.

1956  The phrase "In God We Trust" was adopted as the U.S. National Motto.

1965  President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare Bill into law.

1975  Former Teamsters Union President James Hoffa was reported missing.  Many suspect that he was murdered, although his remains have never been found.

1980  The Republic of Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, gained its independence from France and Britain.

2002  Lisa Leslie became the first woman to dunk in a professional basketball game.

August 1

1790  The first U.S. census was completed showing a population of 3, 929, 214 people.

1834  The British Empire abolished slavery, and an estimated 750,000 slaves were freed.

1876  Colorado became the 38th state in the United States.

1936  Adolf Hitler presided over the opening of the Berlin Olympic Games.

1946  President Truman signed the congressional acts that established the Atomic Energy Commission and the Fulbright Scholarship Program.

1981  MTV made its debut at 12:01 a.m.  The first video shown was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles.

August 3

1492  Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain that took him to the Americas.

1914  Germany declared war on France.

1923  Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th President of the United States, following the death of President Warren G. Harding.

1949  The National Basketball Association was formed.

1958  The nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.

1981  U.S. traffic controllers went on strike.

1987  A 22 cent stamp honoring William Faulkner was issued.  It's first day cancellation held in Oxford, MS, where Faulkner had served as postmaster from 1921 until his resignation in 1924 following accusations of negligence.

1987  The Iran-Contra hearings ended.

August 5

1861  For the first time, the U.S. government levied an income tax.

1914  The first electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, OH.

1962  Marilyn Monroe died.

1963  The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater.

1984  Joan Benoit won the first Olympic Women's Marathon.

2002  The gun turret of the Civil War ironclad U.S.S. Monitor was raised from the ocean floor.

2003  The Reverend Gene Robinson was approved as the first openly gay bishop by the U.S. Episcopal Church.

August 7

1789  Congress established the U.S. War Department.

1947  The wooden raft Kon-Tiki, which carried Thor Heyerdahl and five companions more than 5,000 miles, crashed into a reef in the Pacific.

1959  The United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back of picture of Earth.

1964  Congress passed The Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which expanded President Johnson's use of military powers during the Vietnam War.

1987  Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, making the 2.7 mile trip through the frigid waters of the Bering Strait.  Cox is surprise of the (relatively) warm welcome that she receives from the Soviets.

1998  Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were bombed by terrorists.  Some 224 were killed and more than 5,500 were injured.

2000  Sen. Joseph Lieberman of CT was selected by Al Gore to be the first Jewish Vice-Presidential candidate on a major party ticket.

2007  Barry Bonds passes Hank Aaron on baseball's all-time homerun list.  This record, however, is discredited by many because of Bond's alleged steroid use.

August 9

1854  Henry David Thoreaus' Walden, recounting his experiment in solitary life on the shores of Massachusetts' Walden Pond, was published.

1936  Jesse Owens became the first American to win four gold medals in one Olympics.

1945  The United States exploded a nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, Japan killing an estimated 74,000 people.

1965  Singapore claimed its independence from Malaysia.

1974  Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as President following Nixon's resignation.

1995  Jerry Garcia, lead singer and guitarist of the Greatful Dead, died.

August 10

1821  Missouri became the 24 state in the United States.

1846  The Smithsonian Institute was established in Washington, D.C., by funds left by left by British scientist Joseph Smithson.

1921  Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on Campobello island.

1944  U.S. forces seized Guam from Japan.

1948  Candid Camera with Allen Funt debuted on television.

1988  President Reagan signed a bill that awarded $20,000 to each survivor of the Japanese-American internment.

1993  Ruth Bader Ginsberg was sworn in as the second female U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

1995  "Jane Roe" in the 1971 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, announced she had joined Operation Rescue.

August 12

1624  Cardinal Richelieu was named Chief Minister of France by King Louis XIII.

1851  Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine.

1865  British surgeon Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use an antiseptic during surgery.

1877  Thomas Edison made the world's first sound recording "Mary had a Little Lamb"on a machine called the Edisonphone.

1898  A peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed.

1898  Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States.

1960  The first telecommunications satellite, the Echo One, was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL.

1972  The last American combat troops left Vietnam.

1985  In the world's single aircraft disaster, a Japan Airlines 747 crashed into Mount Osutaka, killing 520 of the 524 aboard.

1998  Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion dollars to settle lawsuits brought about by Holocaust survivors and their heirs.  The banks had kept millions of dollars deposited by the Holocaust victims both before and during World War II.

2000  The Russian submarine, Kursk, and its crew were lost in the Barents Sea.

2004  NJ Governor James McGreevey announced his resignation.

August 14

1862  Abraham Lincoln received the first envoy of blacks to confer with a U.S. President.

1900  International forces entered Beijing, China, in an effort to suppress an anti-foreign uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion.

1935  The Social Security Act became law.

1945  Japan surrendered to the United States, ending World War II.

1947  Pakistan became independent of British rule.

1951  Newpaper publisher William Randolph Hearst died in Beverly Hills, CA.

1995  Sharon Faulker became the first female cadet at The Citadel, the state military college of South Carolina.

1997  Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

2003  The largest blackout in North American history hit the northeast.

August 16

1620  The Pilgrim fathers set sail from England on the Mayflower en route to the Americas.

1777  The Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, VT, won by American forces.

1829  The original Siamese twins, Eng and Chang, arrived in Boston, MA.

1896  The discovery of gold at Bonanza Creek on the Klondyke River started a gold rush in the Yukon Territory, Canada.

1948  Baseball legend Babe Ruth, died in New York City at age 53.

1960  Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, became an independent republic.

1962  Algeria was admitted to the Arab League.

1977  Elvis Presley, died at Graceland, his Memphis, TN home, from heart failure at age 42.

2003  Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin died.

August 18                                          National Aviation Day

1227  Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died in China.

1587  Virginia Dare became the first child born of English parents in North America.

1761  William Carey was born.

1859  The first air mail in the U.S. took off from Lafayette, IN, in a balloon.

1894  Congress established the Bureau of Immigration, forerunner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

1920  When Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the three-quarters of the states necessary was achieved and women got the right to vote.

1936  Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca was shot and killed by Spanish soldiers during the Spanish Civil War.

1958  Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita was published.

1963  James Meredith became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

August 20

1964  As part of his Great Society poliicies, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, which, among other things, established the Head Start program.

1968  The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia.

1977  The space probe Voyager II was launched.  It continues to explore to this day, and is now more than 7 billion miles away from Earth.

1980  Italian Reinhold Messner made the first successful solo ascent of Mt. Everest and without oxygen.

1998  U.S. cruise missiles hit suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and the Sudan.

2000  Tiger Woods won the PGA championship becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953  to win three majors in one year.

August 22

1642  The English Civil War between King Charles I (Royalists or Cavaliers) and those of Oliver Cromwell (Roundheads).

1775  King George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in open rebellion.

1846  The United States annexed New Mexico.

1851  The U.S. yacht America outraced the British Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.

1902  Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States President to ride in an automobile.

1910  Korea was annexed by Japan after 5 years as a protectorate.

1989  Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot today in Oakland, CA.

2003  Alabama's Justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for refusing to move a Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse rotunda.

2004  A version of Edvard Munch's painting The Scream was stolen in Norway.  Another version was stolen in 1994.

August 24                                     Women's Equality Day

    79   Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

1572  Seventy thousand French Protestants, or Huguenots, were killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

1814  The British set fire to the White House and the Capitol when they invaded Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812

1821  Mexico gained its independence from Spain from the Treaty of Cordoba.

1949  The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect.

1968  France became the world's fifth nuclear power as it exploded in a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.

1989  Pete Rose was banned from baseball for gambling.

1991  Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the General Secretary of the Communist Party after a failed coup against him.

1992  Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, causing record damage.