In 1579 on August 8, the cornerstone was laid for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory. Now there's a bit of trivia for ya'. :)

August 9th
 

48 BC ~ Roman Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus - Julius Caesar defeated Pompey decisively at Pharsalus and Pompey fled to Egypt.

117 ~ Death of Trajan, Roman Emperor.

378 ~ Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens was defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey. Valens was killed along with 2/3 of his army.

1842 ~ Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

1896 ~ Birthday of Jean Piaget, Child Psychologist.

1945 ~ World War II: An atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was detonated over the city of Nagasaki, Japan at 11:02 AM (local time), killing about 75,000.

1962 ~ Death of Hermann Hesse, Author.

1969 ~ Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murdered five people including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger.

1975 ~ Death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1995 ~ Death of Jerry Garcia, guitarist: Grateful Dead.

August 10th
 

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan's 5 ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe.

1792 ~ French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.

1809 ~ Ecuador declares independence from Spain.

1900 ~ Birthday of Wolfgang Pauli, physicist.

1920 ~ World War I: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives signed the Treaty of Sevres which divided up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies. (note to self – don’t lose wars)

1945 ~ Death of Robert Goddard, Rocket Scientist.

1948 ~ ”Candid Camera” makes its television after being on radio for a year as “Candid Microphone”.

1954 ~ At Messena, New York, the ground breaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway was held.

1988 ~ Japanese American Internment: US President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans who were either interned or relocated by in the United States during World War II.

1990 ~ The Magellan space probe reaches Venus.

August 11th
 

480 B.C. ~ Persians under Xerxes defeated Spartans under King Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fight to the last man. The Persian and Greek fleets also fight the indecisive Battle of Artemisium.

The Battle of Thermopylae has served as an example to officers and soldiers alike of what courage and self-sacrifice could achieve. It is still remembered, almost 2,500 years later, as a classic example of virtue.

1905 ~ Birthday of Erwin Chargaff, biochemist.

1933 ~ Birthday of Jerry Falwell, Christian preacher and politician.

1934 ~ Federal prison opened at Alcatraz Island.

1948 ~ Olympic games opened in London.

1900 ~ Death of Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist.

1966 ~ John Lennon held a press conference in Chicago excusing himself from the "Jesus affair".

2003 ~ NATO took over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

August 12th
 

1099 ~ First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders defeated Saracens and the Kingdom of Jerusalem is established under Godfrey of Bouillon.

1851 ~ Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.

1859 ~ Birthday of Katherine Lee Bates, poet, author of "America the Beautiful".

1887 ~ Birthday of Erwin Schrödinger, physicist.

1927 ~ Birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist.

1928 ~ Death of Leos Janacek, Czech composer.

1953 ~ The Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb.

1960 ~ “Echo I”, the first communications satellite, launched.

1964 ~ Birthday of Ian Fleming, Novelist.

1981 ~ The IBM PC was introduced.

August 13th
 

1521 ~ Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) fell to conquistador Hernán Cortés.

1704 ~ War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.

1860 ~ Birthday of Annie Oakley, Sharpshooter.

1899 ~ Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock, Director.

1926 ~ Birthday of Fidel Castro, Revolutionary and Politician.

1942 ~ Walt Disney's animated cartoon "Bambi" premiered.

1946 ~ Death of H. G. Wells, Writer.

1948 ~ Birthday of Kathleen Battle, Opera Singer.

1960 ~ Central African Republic & Chad declared independence from France.

1961 ~ The Berlin Wall began to be erected.

August 14th
 

1840 ~ Birthday of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, psychologist.

1863 ~ Birthday of Ernest Thayer, poet: “Casey at the Bat”.

1880 ~ After 632 years, Cologne Cathedral completed.

1945 ~ World War II: Japan surrenders, ending the war.

1947 ~ Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain at midnight, Pakistan commemorating the event on August 14 and India on August 15.

1951 ~ Death of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper magnate.

1953 ~ The Whiffle ball, a ball that curved when it was thrown, was invented by David Mullany Sr. for his 13-year-old son.

1971 ~ Rod Stewart released "Maggie May".

1980 ~ Lech Walesa lead strikes at Gdansk, Poland shipyards.

1988 ~ Death of Enzo Ferrari, Automobile Designer.

August 15th
 

1519 ~ Panama City, Panama founded.

1769 ~ Birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte, general and politician.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison made the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

1888 ~ Birthday of Lawrence of Arabia.

1912 ~ Birthday of Julia Child, Cook, Writer.

1948 ~ Republic of Korea established south of 38th Parallel.

1951 ~ Death of Artur Schnabel, Pianist.

1967 ~ Death of René Magritte, Surrealist painter.

1969 ~ First day of Woodstock Music and Art Festival.

I was able to talk my cousin out of going to this. She had called me a month or so earlier and said she could get a couple of tickets if we wanted to go. It was inconvenient to get to, and when I said so, she agreed, and so….

1994 ~ Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos", was captured.

August 16th
 

1894 ~ Birthday of George Meany, Labor Union leader.

1896 ~ Gold discovered in the Klondike.

1899 ~ Death of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist.

1913 ~ Birthday of Menachem Begin, Israeli soldier and politician.

1930 ~ First color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, was made by Ub Iwerks.

1948 ~ Death of Babe Ruth, baseball player.

1960 ~ Cyprus gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1962 ~ The Beatles fired Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr.

1977 ~ Death of Elvis Presley, Singer, Actor.

1984 ~ Carmaker John De Lorean was acquitted of all eight counts of possessing and distributing cocaine.

August 17th
 

1601 ~ Birthday of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

1786 ~ Birthday of Davy Crockett, Frontiersman, Soldier.

1807 ~ Robert Fulton's first American steamboat, the Clermont, left New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

1882 ~ Birthday of Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer.

1911 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Botvinnik, World Chess Champion.

1915 ~ Jewish American Leo Frank was lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.

1929 ~ Birthday of Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot.

1960 ~ Gabon gained independence from France.

1962 ~ East German border guards killed 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. Mr. Fecher thus became, at the tender age of 18, the most famous of the victims of the Berlin Wall.

1998 ~ Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admitted before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship.

August 18th
 

293 BC ~ Oldest known Roman temple to Venus founded, institution of Vinalia Rustica began.

1227 ~ Death of Genghis Khan, Mongol leader.

1587 ~ Birthday of Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Gov. John White of the Colony of Roanoke. She was the first English child born in the Americas.

1750 ~ Birthday of Antonio Salieri, Composer.

1774 ~ Birthday of Meriwether Lewis, Explorer.

1877 ~ Asaph Hall discovered Phobos.

1920 ~ 19th Amendment to US constitution was passed, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1925 ~ Birthday of Brian Aldiss, Writer.

1938 ~ The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, was dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1991 ~ Collapse of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev put under house arrest while he was vacationing in the Crimea. The coup was led by eight high-ranking hard-liners (the coup collapsed in less than 72 hours).

August 19th
 

1692 ~ Salem Witch Trials: In Salem, Massachusetts five women and a clergyman were executed after being convicted of witchcraft.

1839 ~ Presentation of Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences.

1871 ~ Birthday of - Orville Wright, Aviator.

1902 ~ Birthday of Ogden Nash, Poet.

1921 ~ Birthday of Gene Roddenberry, Producer.

1934 ~ The first All-American Soap Box Derby was held in Dayton, Ohio.

1946 ~ Birthday of Bill Clinton, U.S. President.

1960 ~ Cold War: In Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.

1981 ~ Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sent two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to take on a couple of United States fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.

1994 ~ Death of Linus Pauling, Chemist.

He was a physical chemist, among the most influential chemists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important scientists of all time. He was one of the first quantum chemists, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people to receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field, the other being Marie Curie.

August 20th
 

1882 ~ Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow.

1890 ~ Birthday of H. P. Lovecraft, Horror Writer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Jim Reeves, country and western singer

1940 ~ Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice-ax. He died the next day.

1941 ~ Birthday of Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

1944 ~ Birthday of Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India.

1968 ~ 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.

1991 ~ Collapse of the Soviet Union: Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1998 ~ The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec could not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

2001 ~ Death of Sir Fred Hoyle, Astronomer, Science Fiction Writer.

August 21st
 

1614 ~ Death of Elizabeth Bathory, serial killer.

1872 ~ Birthday of Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator.

1904 ~ Birthday of Count Basie (William Allen Basie), bandleader.

1923 ~ Birthday of Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel.

1936 ~ Birthday of Wilt Chamberlain, Basketball Hall of Famer.

1940 ~ Death of Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary.

1944 ~ Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations.

1959 ~ Hawaii was admitted as the 50th U.S. state.

1986 ~ Toxic gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing over 1700 people.

1983 ~ Assignation of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader.

August 22nd
 

1485 ~ Death of Richard III of England.

1770 ~ James Cook's expedition arrived on the east coast of Australia.

1851 ~ The first America's Cup was won by the yacht “America”.

1862 ~ Birthday of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dorothy Parker, Writer & Wit. "You can lead a horticulture, but you cannot make her think." and "She delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B." are among her more memorable quotes.

1910 ~ Japan annexed Korea.

1920 ~ Birthday of Ray Bradbury, science fiction author and fantasy author (Fahrenheit 451).

1962 ~ The Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed its maiden voyage.

1978 ~ Death of Kenya's founding father, Jomo Kenyatta.

2001 ~ For the Geeks among us, a sad day. The Trojan room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.