July 28th
 

1741 ~ Death of Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Composer.

1750 ~ Death of Johann Sebastian Bach, German Composer.

1794 ~ Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.

1866 ~ Birthday of Beatrix Potter, English Author. (The Tale of Peter Rabbit)

1904 ~ Birthday of Pavel Cherenkov, Russian Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1958.

1914 ~ WWI develops: Austria Formally declares war on Serbia.

1973 ~ Watkins Glen, NY concert attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead.

1996 ~ The remains of a prehistoric man, Kennewick Man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

1998 ~ Monica Lewinsky was given blanket immunity from prosecution in exchange for grand jury testimony in the investigation of her relationship with President Bill Clinton..

2004 ~ Death of Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick, OM FRS, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962.

July 28 1945
 

A US Army B-25 bomber crashes into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 79th floors. An engine plunges down an elevator shaft, sparking a fire in the basement. Eleven people in the building are killed, in addition to the three man bomber crew

July 29th
 

1856 ~ Death of Robert Schumann, Composer.

1890 ~ Death of Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter.

1905 ~ Birthday of Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General.

1907 ~ Sir Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts movement with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island.

1958 ~ The U.S. Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1974 ~ Death of Mama Cass Elliot, Musician.

1975 ~ Death of James Blish, Science Fiction Writer.

1981 ~ Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales.

1993 ~ The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges.

1996 ~ The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act was struck down as too broad in U.S. federal court.

July 29th
 

1921: Adolf Hitler is selected as leader of the National Socialist Party.

1968: Pope Paul VI issues encyclical Humanae Vitae, prohibiting all unnatural forms of birth control.

July 30th
 

1718 ~ Birthday of William Penn, English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania.

1729 ~ The city of Baltimore was founded.

1792 ~ The French national anthem ''La Marseillaise'' by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris

1818 ~ Birthday of Birthday of Emily Brontë, English Novelist.

1898 ~ Birthday of Henry Moore, Sculptor.

1941 ~ Birthday of Paul Anka, Singer and Composer.

1945 ~ World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis.

1966 ~ England won the first televised Football World Cup, beating Germany 4 to 2.

1974 ~ Cyprus Crisis: Greek, Turkish and U.K. foreign ministers signed a peace agreement for Cyprus.

2003 ~ The last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle manufactured in Mexico.

July 31st
 

1099 ~ Death of El Cid , Spanish warrior.

1498 ~ Discovery of Trinidad by Christopher Columbus.

1556 ~ Death of Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits.

1886 ~ Death of Franz Liszt, Hungarian Composer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Milton Friedman, awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, 1976.

1917 ~ The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) started in Flanders. With casualties from both sides exceeding 550,000, the name Passcheddaele has come to be used as a synonym for pointless slaughter.

"...I died in Hell
(they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight
and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"

Siegfried Sassoon

1941 ~ Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."

1964 ~ Ranger program: Ranger 7 sent back the first close-up photographs of the moon.

1991 ~ Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed in Moscow.

1999 ~ NASA intentionally crashed the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.

August 1st
 

10 B.C. ~ Birthday of Claudius, Roman Emperor.

1774 ~ The element oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley.

1779 ~ Birthday of Birthday of Francis Scott Key, Composer of The Star-Spangled Banner.

1819 ~ Birthday of Herman Melville, Writer.

1834 ~ Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

1894 ~ The First Sino-Japanese War began between Japan and China over Korea.

1932 ~ Birthday of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League.

1944 ~ Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary.

1957 ~ The United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1977 ~ Death of Gary Powers, Spy Plane Pilot.

August 2nd
 

216 B.C. ~ During the Battle of Cannae, in a masterpiece of tactical warfare, Hannibal destroyed the double Consular Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Publius Terentius Varro.

1776 ~ Delegates to the Continental Congress began to sign the Declaration of Independence.

1876 ~ Death of James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, Gunfighter.

1921 ~ Death of Enrico Caruso, Italian Tenor.

1922 ~ Death of Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor.

1932 ~ Birthday of Peter O'Toole, Actor. (Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter).

1939 ~ Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

1943 ~ PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy rammed and sunk.

1976 ~ Death of Fritz Lang, Film Director.(Metropolis, M, Frau im Mond)

1990 ~ Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War.

August 3rd
 

1900 ~ Birthday of John T. Scopes, defendant in the Monkey Trial

1904 ~ Birthday of Clifford D. Simak, Science Fiction Author.

1914 ~ First World War: Germany declared war against France.

1924 ~ Death of Joseph Conrad, Author. (Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim)

1924 ~ Birthday of Leon Uris, American Writer. (Exodus, QB VII)

1943 ~ Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.

1958 ~ The USS Nautilus traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1972 ~ U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1977 ~ Death of Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus.

2003 ~ The U.S. Anglican Church approved the appointment of an openly homosexual bishop.

August 4th
 

1704 ~ An Anglo-Dutch force seized the rock of Gibraltar.

1792 ~ Birthday of Percy Shelley, Poet.

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

1875 ~ Death of Hans Christian Andersen, Writer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Louis Armstrong, Jazz Musician.

1914 ~ The UK declared war on Germany.

1944 ~ Anne Frank and her family were betrayed to the Gestapo.

1964 ~ The bodies of three missing civil rights workers were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.

1983 ~ New York Yankee Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull during a baseball game and was charged by police for his "act of cruelty to animals".

1984 ~ The African republic Upper Volta changed its name to Burkina Faso.

August 5th
 

1884 ~ The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1895 ~ Death of Friedrich Engels, Socialist Philosopher.

1930 ~ Birthday of Neil Armstrong, Astronaut.

1962 ~ Death of Marilyn Monroe, Actress.

1963 ~ The U.S., UK, and U.S.S.R. signed a nuclear test ban treaty.

1966 ~ The album ''Revolver'' by the Beatles was released.

1973 ~ Arab gunmen opened fire and threw grenades into a passenger lounge at Athens airport.

1981 ~ The federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.

1984 ~ Death of Sir Richard Burton, Actor.

2000 ~ Death of Sir Alec Guinness, Actor.

August 6th
 

1809 ~ Birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet.

1881 ~ Birthday of Alexander Fleming, scientist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Lucille Ball, Actress, Comedienne.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jon Postel, creator of DNS.

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima.

1961 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov spent a day in orbit.

1962 ~ Jamaica became independent.

1990 ~ The UN Security Council ordered a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee released his idea for the "World Wide Web".

1991 ~ Death of Harry Reasoner, Reporter.

August 7th
 

1560 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Bathory, serial killer.

1867 ~ Birthday of Mata Hari (Margaretha Zelle), spy.

1942 ~ Birthday of Garrison Keillor, radio host.

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, arrived at the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America..

1957 ~ Death of Oliver Hardy, Comedian & Actor.

1960 ~ Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.

1964 ~ U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers to deal with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1974 ~ French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

1998 ~ Bombing of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya that killed 224 people and injured over 4,500.

2004 ~ Death of Red Adair, American oil well firefighter.

August 8th
 

1844 ~ Brigham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons following the killing of Joseph Smith.

1879 ~ Birthday of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary.

1902 ~ Birthday of P.A.M. Dirac, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1937 ~ Birthday of Dustin Hoffman, Actor (The Graduate, Tootsie, Kramer vs. Kramer).

1945 ~ The U.S. ratified the United Nations Charter.

1963 ~ Britain's Great Train Robbery took place when thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

1966 ~ The Beatles' released “Revolver”

1974 ~ U.S. President Nixon announced his resignation effective August 9.

1988 ~ U.N. Secretary-General Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq.

1996 ~ Death of Frank A Whittle, inventor of the Jet engine.

August 9th
 

1173 ~ Construction of the (Leaning) Tower of Pisa began. It took two centuries to complete.

1483 ~ Opening of the Sistine Chapel.

1896 ~ Birthday of Jean Piaget, Child Psychologist.

1902 ~ Edward VII was crowned king of England following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

1936 ~ Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as the United States took first place in the 400-meter relay.

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

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.

1986 ~ The Headington Shark is erected in Oxford.

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