August 5
- 642 – Battle of Maserfield – Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria.
- 910 – The last major Danish army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Earl Aethelred of Mercia.
- 1071 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year siege of Bari.
- 1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
- 1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.
- 1388 – The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near Otterburn.
- 1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.
- 1600 – The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England) takes place.
- 1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.
- 1689 – 1,500 Iroquois attack the village of Lachine in New France.
- 1716 – The Battle of Petrovaradin takes place.
- 1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.
- 1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run – British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
- 1772 – The First Partition of Poland begins.
- 1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
- 1824 – Greek War of Independence: Constantine Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian ships in the Battle of Samos.
- 1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month.
- 1860 – Charles XV of Sweden of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim.
- 1861 – American Civil War: in order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).
- 1861 – The United States Army abolishes flogging.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge – along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
- 1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Mobile Bay begins – at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
- 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
- 1874 – Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
- 1882 – The Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
- 1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
- 1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
- 1901 – Peter O'Connor sets the first IAAF recognised long jump world record of 24 ft 11.75 in (7.6137 m) The record will stand for 20 years.
- 1906 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional monarchy.
- 1914 – World War I: the German minelayer Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) of the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.
- 1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
- 1916 – World War I: Battle of Romani – Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.
- 1925 – Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge of the Welsh language that is at the time in danger of dying out.
- 1940 – World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
- 1944 – World War II: possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
- 1944 – World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
- 1944 – World War II: The Nazis begin a three-day massacre of anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.
- 1949 – In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000.
- 1949 – The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana.
- 1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.
- 1960 – Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.
- 1962 – Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
- 1963 – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
- 1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- 1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.
- 1969 – Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
- 1971 – The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean.
- 1974 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
- 1979 – In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake an attempted military uprising.
- 1981 – Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
- 1989 – General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista Front winning a majority.
- 1995 – The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated in Croatia as Victory Day.
- 2003 – A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
- 2010 – 2010 Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground.
August 4
- 70 – The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
- 367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.
- 1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham – the army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
- 1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
- 1532 – the Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the Kingdom of France.
- 1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir – the Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
- 1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of Champagne, although he actually did not have anything to do with sparkling wine.
- 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
- 1789 – In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
- 1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
- 1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
- 1821 – Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
- 1824 – The Battle of Kos is fought between Turk and Greek forces.
- 1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
- 1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.
- 1873 – Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
- 1892 – The parents of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
- 1902 – The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
- 1906 – Central Railway Station, Sydney opens.
- 1914 – World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.
- 1916 – World War I: Liberia declares war on Germany.
- 1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
- 1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
- 1944 – The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
- 1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
- 1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
- 1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is founded.
- 1964 – American civil rights movement: civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
- 1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
- 1965 – The Constitution of Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
- 1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
- 1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish chargé d’affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
- 1977 – US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
- 1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
- 1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".
- 1989 – Licence to Kill goes on general cinema release in the United Kingdom.
- 1991 – The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa.
- 1993 – A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
- 1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
- 2002 – Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
- 2005 – Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor General.
- 2006 – A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
- 2007 – NASA's Phoenix spaceship is launched.
- 2007 – Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovers a suitcase containing the undeclared sum of US$800,000 as it goes through an x-ray machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as "Maletinazo".
- 2010 – California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
August 3
- 8 – Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus.
- 435 – Deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, is exiled by Roman Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
- 881 – Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu: Louis III of France defeats the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied.
- 1031 – Olaf II of Norway is canonised as Saint Olaf by Grimketel, the English Bishop of Selsey.
- 1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
- 1527 – The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.
- 1601 – Long War: Austria captures Transylvania in the Battle of Guruslău.
- 1645 – Thirty Years' War: the Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1678 – Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.
- 1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing 35,000 people.
- 1811 – First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest summit in the Bernese Alps by brothers Johann Rudolf and Hieronymus Meyer.
- 1852 – First Boat Race between Yale and Harvard, the first American intercollegiate athletic event. Harvard won.
- 1860 – The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.
- 1900 – The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company is founded.
- 1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists only for 10 days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.
- 1907 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana a record $29.4 million for illegal rebating to freight carriers; the conviction and fine are later reversed on appeal.
- 1913 – A major labour dispute, known as the Wheatland Hop Riot, starts in Wheatland, California.
- 1914 – World War I: Germany declares war against France.
- 1921 – Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis confirms the ban of the eight Chicago Black Sox, the day after they were acquitted by a Chicago court.
- 1929 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, tapped to be the messianic "World Teacher", shocks the Theosophy movement by dissolving the Order of the Star, the organisation built to support him.
- 1934 – Adolf Hitler becomes the supreme leader of Germany by joining the offices of President and Chancellor into Führer.
- 1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.
- 1936 – A fire wipes out Kursha-2 in the Meshchera Lowlands, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, killing 1,200 and leaving only 20 survivors.
- 1940 – World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.
- 1946 – Santa Claus Land, the world's first themed amusement park, opened in Santa Claus, Indiana, US.
- 1948 – Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
- 1949 – The National Basketball Association is founded in the United States.
- 1958 – The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap.
- 1959 – Portugal's state police force PIDE fires upon striking workers in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, killing over 50 people.
- 1960 – Niger gains independence from France.
- 1972 – The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
- 1975 – A privately chartered Boeing 707 crashes into the mountainside near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.
- 1977 – The United States Senate begins its hearing about Project MKULTRA.
- 1981 – Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front-Suxxali Reew Mi.
- 1997 – Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria; a total of 116 villagers killed, 40 in Oued El-Had and 76 in Mezouara.
- 2001 – The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Ealing, London, UK injuring seven people.
- 2004 – The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.
- 2005 – President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.
- 2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran.
- 2007 – Former Deputy Director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following a conviction for kidnapping.
- 2010 – Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85 dead and at least 17 billion Pakistani rupees (US$200 million) in damage.
August 2
- 338 BC – A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.
- 216 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae – The Carthaginian army led by Hannibal defeats a numerically superior Roman army under command of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.
- 1377 – Russian troops are defeated in the Battle on Pyana River because of drunkenness.
- 1610 – Henry Hudson sails into what is now known as Hudson Bay thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.
- 1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
- 1790 – The first US Census is conducted.
- 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: the Battle of the Nile concludes in a British victory.
- 1830 – Charles X of France abdicates the throne in favor of his grandson Henri.
- 1869 – Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).
- 1870 – Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London.
- 1897 – Anglo-Afghan wars: The Siege of Malakand ends when a relief column is able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand region of colonial India's North West Frontier Province.
- 1903 – Fall of the Ottoman Empire: an unsuccessful uprising led by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, takes place.
- 1916 – World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
- 1918 – Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.
- 1918 – The first general strike in Canadian history takes place in Vancouver.
- 1922 – A typhoon hits Shantou, Republic of China killing more than 50,000 people.
- 1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
- 1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
- 1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
- 1939 – Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan project to develop a nuclear weapon.
- 1943 – Rebellion in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka.
- 1943 – World War II: the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.
- 1944 – ASNOM: birth of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, celebrated as Day of the Republic in the Republic of Macedonia.
- 1945 – World War II: the Potsdam Conference, at which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, is concluded.
- 1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy.
- 1968 – An earthquake hits Casiguran, Aurora, Philippines killing more than 270 people and wounding 261.
- 1973 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.
- 1980 – A bomb explodes at the railway station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.
- 1985 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport killing 137.
- 1989 – Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restoring democracy for the first time since 1972.
- 1989 – A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.
- 1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
- 2005 – Air France Flight 358, landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and ran off the runway causing the plane to burst into flames. There are 12 serious injuries and no fatalities.
August 1
- 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.
- 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.
- 1492 – Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile drive the Jews out of Spain.
- 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 – Lombard Street Riot erupts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
- 1855 – 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 – 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 – 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 declared as 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.
- 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, elected President of Iceland, becomes the 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 discovers a 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.
