Independence
day
Benin
Switzerland
UN
Day
World
Breastfeeding Week, 1-7 August
Events
of the day
30 BC – Octavian
(later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria,
Egypt, bringing it under the control
of the Roman Republic.
69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians
in Germania Inferior (Netherlands)
revolt under the leadership of Gaius
Julius Civilis.
527 – Justinian I becomes the sole
ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
607 – Ono no Imoko is dispatched as
envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional
Japanese date: July 3, 607).
902 – Taormina, the last Byzantine
stronghold in Sicily, is captured
by the Aghlabid army.
1192 – Richard the Lionheart landed
on Jaffa and defeated the army of
Saladin
1203 – Isaac II Angelus, restored
Eastern Roman Emperor, declares his
son Alexius IV Angelus co-emperor
after pressure from the forces of
the Fourth Crusade.
1291 – The Old Swiss Confederacy is
formed with the signature of the Federal
Charter.
1498 – Christopher Columbus becomes
the first European to visit what is
now Venezuela.
1664 – The Ottoman Empire is defeated
in the Battle of Saint Gotthard by
an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli,
resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
1759 – Seven Years' War: The Battle
of Minden, an allied Anglo-German
army victory over the French. In Britain
this was one of a number of events
that constituted the Annus Mirabilis
of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden
Day by certain British Army regiments.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars:
Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir
Bay) – Battle begins when a British
fleet engages the French Revolutionary
Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
1800 – The Act of Union 1800 is passed
in which merges the Kingdom of Great
Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland
into the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland.
1801 – First Barbary War: The American
schooner USS Enterprise captures the
Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship
action off the coast of modern-day
Libya.
1831 – A new London Bridge opens.
1834 – Slavery is abolished in the
British Empire as the Slavery Abolition
Act 1833 comes into force.
1838 – Non-labourer slaves in most
of the British Empire are emancipated.
1840 – Labourer slaves in most of
the British Empire are emancipated.
1842 – The Lombard Street Riot erupts
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
1855 – The first ascent of Monte Rosa,
the second highest summit in the Alps.
1876 – Colorado is admitted as the
38th U.S. state.
1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War
erupts between Japan and China over
Korea.
1907 – The start of first Scout camp
on Brownsea Island, the origin of
the worldwide Scouting movement.
1914 – Germany declares war on Russia
at the opening of World War I. The
Swiss Army mobilises because of World
War I.
1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks
the first significant battle in the
Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang
and Communist Party of China. This
day is commemorated as the anniversary
of the founding of the People's Liberation
Army.
1937 – Josip Broz Tito reads the resolution
"Manifesto of constitutional
congress of KPH" to the constitutive
congress of KPH (Croatian Communist
Party) in woods near Samobor.
1944 – The Warsaw Uprising against
the Nazi occupation breaks out in
Warsaw, Poland.
1957 – The United States and Canada
form the North American Air Defense
Command (NORAD).
1960 – Dahomey (later renamed Benin)
declares independence from France.
1960 – Islamabad is declared the federal
capital of the Government of Pakistan.
1964 – The Belgian Congo is renamed
the Republic of the Congo.
1966 – Charles Whitman kills 16 people
at The University of Texas at Austin
before being killed by the police.
1966 – Purges of intellectuals and
imperialists becomes official People's
Republic of China policy at the beginning
of the Cultural Revolution.
1968 – The coronation is held of Hassanal
Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei.
1974 – Cyprus dispute: The United
Nations Security Council authorizes
the UNFICYP to create the "Green
Line", dividing Cyprus into two
zones.
1975 – CSCE Final Act creates the
Conference for Security and Co-operation
in Europe.
1980 – Buttevant Rail Disaster kills
18 and injures dozens of train passengers
in Ireland.
1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected
President of Iceland and becomes the
country's first democratically elected
female head of state
1981 – MTV begins broadcasting in
the United States and airs its first
video, "Video Killed the Radio
Star" by the Buggles.
1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discover
the preserved bog body of a man, called
Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire,
North West England.
1993 – The Great Flood of 1993 comes
to a peak.
2001 – Alabama Supreme Court Chief
Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments
monument installed in the judiciary
building, leading to a lawsuit to
have it removed and his own removal
from office.
2004 – A supermarket fire kills 396
people and injures 500 in Asunción,
Paraguay.
2007 – The I-35W Mississippi River
Bridge spanning the Mississippi River
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses
during the evening rush hour.
Holidays
and observances
Armed
Forces Day (Lebanon)
Armed Forces Day or Anniversary of
the Founding of the People's Liberation
Army (People's Republic of China)
Christian Feast Day:
Abgar V of Edessa (Syrian Church)
Alphonso Maria de' Liguori
Æthelwold of Winchester
Eusebius of Vercelli
Exuperius of Bayeux
Felix of Girona
Peter Apostle in Chains
August 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Celebration of the Slavery Abolition
Act 1833 which ended the slavery in
the British Empire, generally celebrated
as a part of Carnival, as the Caribbean
Carnival takes place at this time
(British West Indies):
Earliest day on which Caribana celebration
can fall, celebrated on the first
Weekend of August. (Toronto)
Earliest day on which Emancipation
Day can fall, celebrated on the first
Monday of August. (Anguilla, the Bahamas,
British Virgin Islands)
Emancipation Day (Barbados, Bermuda,
Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago)
Earliest day on which Civic Holiday
can fall; celebrated on the first
Monday of August. (Canada)
Earliest day on which Commerce Day,
or Frídagur verslunarmanna, can fall;
celebrated on the first Monday of
August. (Iceland)
Earliest day on which International
Friendship Day can fall, celebrated
on the first Sunday of August.
Feast of Kamál (Perfection); First
day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í
calendar. (Bahá'í Faith)
Liberation of Haile Selassie from
slavery. (Rastafari movement)
National Day, celebrates the independence
of Benin from France in 1960.
National Day, commemorates Switzerland
becoming a single unit in 1291.
Procession of the Cross and the beginning
of Dormition Fast (Eastern Orthodoxy)
Statehood Day (Colorado)
The beginning of Autumn observances:
Lughnasadh, traditionally begins on
the eve of August 1. (Gaels, Ireland,
Scotland, Neopagans)
Lammas (England, Scotland, Neopagans)
The first day of Carnaval del Pueblo
(Burgess Park, London)
Yorkshire Day (Yorkshire, England)
World Scout Day, anniversary of the
first day of the Brownsea Island Camp
in 1907, where Robert Baden-Powell
began scouting.
For details, contact Datacentre
