August 31
- 1056 – After a sudden illness a few days previous, Byzantine Empress Theodora, dies without children to succeed the throne, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty.
- 1218 – Al-Kamil becomes Sultan of Egypt, Syria and northern Mesopotamia on the death of his father Al-Adil.
- 1314 – King Håkon V Magnusson moves the capital of Norway from Bergen to Oslo.
- 1422 – King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France. His son, Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
- 1795 – War of the First Coalition: The British capture Trincomalee (present-day Sri Lanka) from the Dutch in order to keep it out of French hands.
- 1803 – Lewis and Clark start their expedition to the west by leaving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 11 in the morning.
- 1813 – At the final stage of the Peninsular War, British-Portuguese troops capture the town of Donostia (now San Sebastián), resulting in a rampage and eventual destruction of the town. Elsewhere, Spanish troops repel a French attack in the Battle of San Marcial.
- 1864 – During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1876 – Ottoman Sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
- 1886 – An earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina.
- 1888 – Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims.
- 1895 – German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his Navigable Balloon.
- 1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
- 1907 – Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the St. Petersburg Convention, which results in the Triple Entente alliance.
- 1920 – Polish-Bolshevik War: a decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
- 1920 – The first radio news program is broadcast by 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1936 – Radio Prague, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air.
- 1939 – Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day thus starting World War II in Europe.
- 1940 – Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia. The CAB investigation of the accident is the first investigation to be conducted under the Bureau of Air Commerce act of 1938.
- 1941 – World War II: Serbian paramilitary forces defeat Germans in the Battle of Loznica.
- 1943 – The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.
- 1945 – The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
- 1949 – The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece in Albania after its defeat on Gramos mountain marks the end of the Greek Civil War.
- 1957 – The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1958 – A parcel bomb sent by Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, fails to kill King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
- 1962 – Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
- 1963 – Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore achieve technical independence pending accession to the Federation of Malaysia
- 1965 – The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft makes its first flight.
- 1980 – After two weeks of nationwide strikes, the Polish government was forced to sign the Gdańsk Agreement, allowing for the creation of the trade union Solidarity.
- 1982 – Anti-government demonstrations are held in 66 Polish cities to commemorate the second anniversary of the Gdańsk Agreement.
- 1986 – Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
- 1986 – The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 423.
- 1987 – Thai Airways Flight 365 crashes into the ocean near Ko Phuket, Thailand, killing all 83 aboard.
- 1991 – Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 – Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo.
- 1994 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
- 1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.
- 1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite.
- 1999 – The first of a series of bombings in Moscow kills one person and wounds 40 others.
- 1999 – A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including 2 on the ground.
- 2005 – A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.
- 2006 – Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.
- 2010 – The last episode of The Bill, the longest-running police procedural television series in the United Kingdom, is aired on ITV1.
August 30
- 1363 – Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders — Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang — are pitted against each other in what is one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.
- 1574 – Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
- 1590 – Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)
- 1791 – HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on a reef the previous day.
- 1799 – The entire Dutch fleet is captured by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell[disambiguation needed] during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars.
- 1800 – Gabriel Prosser postpones a planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, but is arrested before he can make it happen.
- 1813 – Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
- 1813 – Creek War – Fort Mims massacre: Creek "Red Sticks" kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.
- 1835 – Melbourne, Australia is founded.
- 1836 – The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
- 1862 – American Civil War – Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General Horatio Wright.
- 1873 – Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.
- 1897 – The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.
- 1896 – Philippine Revolution: After Spanish victory in the Battle of San Juan del Monte, eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas.
- 1909 – Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
- 1914 – World War I: Germans defeat the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg
- 1918 – Fanny Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.
- 1922 – Battle of Dumlupinar: the final battle in the Greek-Turkish War ("Turkish War of Independence").
- 1940 – The Second Vienna Award re-assigns the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.
- 1942 – World War II: the Battle of Alam Halfa begins.
- 1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
- 1945 – The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
- 1945 – The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being.
- 1956 – The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens.
- 1962 – Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
- 1963 – The Hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
- 1967 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- 1974 – A Belgrade–Dortmund express train derails at the main train station in Zagreb killing 153 passengers.
- 1974 – A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 8 are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
- 1981 – President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
- 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
- 1995 – NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
- 2010 – The first shooting spree in Slovakia's history takes place in Bratislava.
August 29
- 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
- 1350 – Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
- 1475 – The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
- 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Portugal.
- 1521 – The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
- 1526 – Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
- 1541 – The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
- 1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
- 1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.
- 1758 – The first American Indian Reservation is established, at Indian Mills, New Jersey.
- 1786 – Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
- 1825 – Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
- 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
- 1833 – The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.
- 1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
- 1861 – American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
- 1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first rack railway.
- 1871 – Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871).
- 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen
- 1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.
- 1903 – The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, is launched.
- 1907 – The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
- 1910 – The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea.
- 1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
- 1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine sunk in accident.
- 1916 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
- 1918 – Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred Days Offensive
- 1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
- 1941 – Tallinn, the Capital of Estonia liberated from Soviet occupants.
- 1943 – German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government.
- 1944 – Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
- 1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
- 1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- 1966 – The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
- 1970 – Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Ruben Salazar.
- 1982 – The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
- 1991 – Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
- 1991 – Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo is killed by the Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.
- 1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
- 1997 – At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
- 2003 – Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
- 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $80 billion in damage.
- 2007 – 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base
August 28
- 475 – The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna.
- 489 – Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
- 1189 – Third Crusade: the Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan
- 1521 – The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
- 1542 – Turkish-Portuguese War (1538-1557) – Battle of Wofla: the Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed.
- 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
- 1619 – Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1640 – Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn.
- 1789 – William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn.
- 1810 – Battle of Grand Port – the French accept the surrender of a British Navy fleet.
- 1830 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in US railroading.
- 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most the British Empire.
- 1845 – The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.
- 1849 – After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria.
- 1859 – A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as far away as Japan.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas.
- 1867 – The United States takes possession of the, at this point unoccupied, Midway Atoll.
- 1879 – Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
- 1898 – Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
- 1901 – Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. The first American private school in the country.
- 1909 – A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.
- 1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
- 1914 – World War I: the Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
- 1914 – World War I: German troops conquer Namur.
- 1916 – World War I: Germany declares war on Romania.
- 1916 – World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.
- 1917 – Ten Suffragettes are arrested while picketing the White House.
- 1924 – The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
- 1931 – France and Soviet Union sign a treaty of non-aggression.
- 1937 – Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
- 1943 – World War II: in Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
- 1944 – World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
- 1953 – Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
- 1955 – Black teenager Emmett Till is murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.
- 1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.
- 1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech
- 1963 – Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan flat, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights.
- 1964 – The Philadelphia race riot begins.
- 1968 – Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.
- 1979 – An IRA bomb explodes on the Grand Place in Brussels.
- 1988 – Ramstein airshow disaster: three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. 75 are killed and 346 seriously injured.
- 1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
- 1990 – The Plainfield Tornado: an F5 tornado hits in Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.
- 1991 – Ukraine declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
- 1996 – Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales divorce.
- 1998 – Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.
- 2003 – An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London's underground rail network to a halt.
August 27
- 479 BC – Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea.
- 410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days.
- 1172 – Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned as junior king and queen of England.
- 1232 – The Formulary of Adjudications is promulgated by Regent Hōjō Yasutoki. (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 1232)
- 1689 – The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing empire.
- 1776 – The Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
- 1793 – French counter-revolution: the port of Toulon revolts and admits the British fleet, which lands troops and seizes the port leading to Siege of Toulon.
- 1798 – Wolfe Tone's United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connaught.
- 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France.
- 1813 – French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
- 1828 – Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks brokered by Great Britain between Brazil and Argentina during the Argentina-Brazil War.
- 1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.
- 1861 – Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
- 1896 – Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
- 1916 – Romania declares war against Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations.
- 1921 – The British install the son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali (leader of the Arab Revolt of 1916 against the Ottoman Empire) as King Faisal I of Iraq.
- 1922 – The Turkish army takes the Aegean city of Afyonkarahisar from the Greeks.
- 1927 – Five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?"
- 1928 – The Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by the first 15 nations to do so. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it.
- 1939 – First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft.
- 1943 – Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
- 1957 – The Constitution of Malaysia comes into force.
- 1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
- 1969 – Israeli commando force penetrates deep into Egyptian territory to stage a mortar attack on regional Egyptian Army headquarters in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt.
- 1971 – An attempted coup fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.
- 1975 – The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group.
- 1979 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Shortly after, 18 British Army soldiers are killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland (see Warrenpoint ambush).
- 1982 – Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide claim responsibility, saying they are avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
- 1985 – The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
- 1990 – Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash.
- 1991 – The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- 1991 – Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
- 1993 – The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.
- 2000 – 540-metre (1,772 ft)-tall Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
- 2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
- 2006 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash.
- 2009 – The Burmese military junta and ethnic armies begin three days of violent clashes in the Kokang Special Region.
August 26
- 1071 – Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert.
- 1278 – Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in (then) Moravia.
- 1303 – Ala ud din Khilji captures Chittorgarh.
- 1346 – Hundred Years' War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
- 1466 – A conspiracy against Piero di Cosimo de' Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, is discovered.
- 1498 – Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.
- 1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 1768 – Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour.
- 1778 – The first recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia.
- 1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France.
- 1813 – War of the Sixth Coalition: An impromptu battle takes place when French and Prussian-Russian forces accidentally run into each other near Liegnitz, Prussia (now Legnica, Poland).
- 1814 – Chilean War of Independence: Infighting between the rebel forces of José Miguel Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins erupts in the Battle of Las Tres Acequias.
- 1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st state in the union of the United States.
- 1883 – The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa begins its final, paroxysmal, stage.
- 1914 – World War I: the British Expeditionary Force fights a rear-guard action at the Battle of Le Cateau that briefly checks the German advance.
- 1914 – World War I: the German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.
- 1920 – The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.
- 1940 – Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.
- 1942 – Holocaust in Chortkiav, western Ukraine: At 2.30 am the German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of their houses, divides them into groups of 120, packs them in freight cars and deports 2000 to Belzec death camp. 500 of the sick and children are murdered on the spot.
- 1944 – World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
- 1957 – The USSR announces the successful test of an ICBM – a "super long distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket ... a few days ago," according to the Soviet news agency, ITAR-TASS.
- 1966 – The Namibian War of Independence starts with the battle at Omugulugwombashe.
- 1970 – The then new feminist movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality.
- 1977 – The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec
- 1978 – Papal conclave, 1978 (August): Pope John Paul I is elected to the Papacy.
- 1978 – Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut, on board Soyuz 31.
- 1980 – John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, US.
- 1997 – Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed.
- 1999 – Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.
- 2008 – Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
