August 1

August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining.

Events

• 527 – Justinian I becomes Byzantine Emperor.
• 1291 – The Swiss Confederation is formed.
• 1492 – Ferdinand and Isabella drive the Jews out of Spain.
• 1461 – Edward IV crowned king of England.
• 1498 – Christopher Columbus is the first European to visit Venezuela.
• 1619 – First African slaves landed in Jamestown, Virginia.
• 1774 – The element oxygen is discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph Priestley.
• 1776 – Formal signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• 1794 – The Whiskey Rebellion begins in Pennsylvania.
• 1798 – Battle of the Nile starts between French and British fleets.
• 1820 – London's Regent's Canal opens.
• 1831 – London Bridge opens.
• 1832 – Black Hawk War ends.
• 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
• 1838 – Slaves in Trinidad and Tobago are emancipated.
• 1864 – Foundation of Elgin Watch Company in Elgin, Illinois
• 1876 – Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
• 1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
• 1902 – The United States buys the rights to the Panama Canal from France.
• 1907 – First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island.
• 1914 – Germany declares war on Russia at the opening 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.
• 1936 – The Berlin Olympic Games are opened.
• 1941 – The first Jeep is produced.
• 1944 – Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
• 1944 – Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
• 1948 – The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
• 1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
• 1960 – Benin declares independence from France
• 1961 – Six Flags Over Texas, the first Six Flags park, opens.
• 1965 – Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announces her engagement to Claus von Amsberg.
• 1966 – Charles Whitman kills 15 people shooting from a tower at the University of Texas in Austin, in the United States, 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.
• 1967 – Israel annexes East Jerusalem.
• 1970 – Powder Ridge Rock Festival
• 1971 – George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in New York City features, among others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell.
• 1981 – First broadcasts by MTV. The first video played was Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles.
• 1994 – Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirm rumours that they had married eleven weeks earlier.
• 1996 – Olympic Games: Michael Johnson wins the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds, beating the old world record by over 0.3 seconds.
• 2001 – In talks between the government and representatives of the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia, an agreement is reached on the position of the Albanian language in the Republic.
• 2001 – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
• 2004 – 215 people are killed and 300 injured in a supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay.
• 2005 – German spelling reform of 1996 to be formally implemented

Births

In the Southern Hemisphere, August 1 is the Horse's Birthday, the day all horses are considered to have been born for recordkeeping and competition purposes. January 1 is the equivalent in the Northern Hemisphere.

• 10 BC – Claudius, Roman emperor (d. AD 54)
• 126 – Pertinax, Roman Emperor (d. 193)
• 1744 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, scientist (d. 1829)
• 1770 – William Clark, explorer (d. 1838)
• 1779 – Francis Scott Key, writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (d. 1843)
• 1815 – Richard Henry Dana, Jr., lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)
• 1818 – Maria Mitchell, astronomer (d. 1889)
• 1819 – Herman Melville, writer (d. 1891)
• 1858 – Hans Rott, composer (d. 1884)
• 1885 – George de Hevesy, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry 1943 (d. 1966)
• 1891 – Karl Kobelt, Swiss politician (d. 1968)
• 1921 – Jack Kramer (tennis player), American tennis player
• 1922 – Arthur Hill, actor
• 1922  – Pat McDonald, soap opera actress (d. 1990)
• 1925 – Ernst Jandl, writer (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Raymond Leppard, English conductor
• 1930 – Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)
• 1931 – Tom Wilson, cartoonist (Ziggy)
• 1932 – Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)
• 1933 – Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian
• 1936 – Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer
• 1937 – Al D'Amato, former U.S. senator from New York
• 1942 – Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)
• 1942 – Sjoukje Dijkstra, Dutch figure skater
• 1946 – Fiona Stanley, Australian epidemiologist
• 1950 – Jim Carroll, poet, actor
• 1953 – Robert Cray, blues singer
• 1955 – Trevor Berbick, Jamaican boxer
• 1956 – Tom Leykis, radio personality
• 1959 – Joe Elliott, rock and roll musician (Def Leppard)
• 1960 – Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy)
• 1960  – Richard Roeper, columnist for Chicago Sun-Times, film critic partner of Roger Ebert
• 1963 – Coolio, rapper
• 1965 – Sam Mendes, film director
• 1973 – Tempestt Bledsoe, actress
• 1978 – Edgerrin James, American football player
• 1981 – Ashley Parker Angel, singer

Deaths

• 371 – St Eusebius of Vercelli, Italian bishop
• 1137 – King Louis VI of France (b. 1081)
• 1227 – Shimazu Tadahisa, the first of Shimazu clan and Japanese warlord (b. 1179)
• 1464 – Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1386)
• 1598 – Abraham Ortelius, Belgian cartographer (b. 1527)
• 1714 – Queen Anne of Great Britain
• 1836 – James Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 1817 (b. 1751)
• 1889 – Maria Mitchell, American astronomer
• 1917 – Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, Montana
• 1918 – John Riley Banister, law officer, cowboy and Texas Ranger (b. 1854)
• 1923 – Warren G. Harding, United States President (b. 1865)
• 1964 – Johnny Burnette, rockabilly singer (b. 1934)
• 1970 – Frances Farmer, actress (b. 1913)
• 1973 – Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer
• 1977 – Gary Powers, U-2 pilot (b. 1929)
• 1981 – Paddy Chayefsky, American writer (b. 1923)
• 1989 – John Ogdon, English pianist (b. 1937)
• 1990 – Graham Young, British serial killer, (b. 1947)
• 1992 – Mikhail Tal, Latvian world chess champion (b. 1936)
• 1996 – Frida Boccara, French singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner (b. 1940)
• 1999 – Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Anglo-Indian writer (b. 1897)
• 2001 – Korey Stringer, American football player (b. 1974)
• 2003 – Guy Thys, Belgian national football coach
• 2003 – Marie Trintignant, French actress
• 2004 – Philip Hauge Abelson physicist co-discoverer of Neptunium (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances

• Orthodox Christianity – Procession of the Cross
• Angola – Armed Forces Day
• Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago – Emancipation Day
• Benin – National Day
• People's Republic of China – Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Liberation Army
• Democratic Republic of Congo – Parent's Day
• Nicaragua – Fiesta Day
• Rastafarianism – Celebration of the liberation of Haile Selassie from slavery
• Switzerland – National Day
• Bahá'í Faith – Feast of Kamál (Perfection) – First day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• Lughnasadh – Lá Lúnasa, the traditional first day of Autumn in Ireland.
• Lammas – Neopagan festival of Lammas
• Lebanon – Army's Day (Eid al-Jaysh)
• Yorkshire, United Kingdom – Yorkshire Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 31 – August 2 – July 1 – September 1 — listing of all days