- 3114 BC August 13, 3114 BC, is the start of the Maya calendar according to the Lounsbury correlation
- 523 St John I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1099 Raniero elected as Pope Paschal II
- 1326 Neopagan religious figure Aradia de Toscano initiated into a Dianic witchcraft cult; goes on to found tradition of Stregheria (according to Wicca writer Raven Grimassi)
- 1505 The 7th Portuguese Armada to India arrives at Mombasa Island, a major Arab trading port on the Swahili coast, and proceeds to sack and plunder the city into submission
- 1516 The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan
Cortés Captures Cuauhtémoc
1521 Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan, bringing the Aztec Empire to an end
- 1536 Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku-ji Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536)
Servetus Arrested
1553 Spanish theologian and physician Michael Servetus is arrested as a heretic in Geneva, put on trial the next day, eventually found guilty of heresy, and burned to death
- 1578 Duke Frans of Anjou recognized as protector of Netherlands
Eastward Hoe
1605 Controversial play "Eastward Hoe" by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston premieres at the Blackfriars Theatre, London, landing two of the authors in prison for offending the King James I [date approximate]
Jamestown's First Days
1608 John Smith's story of Jamestown's first days submitted for publication
Chief Minister Richelieu
1624 Cardinal Richelieu is appointed Chief Minister of France by Louis XIII
Wallenstein Dismissed
1630 Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II dismisses his supreme commander Albrecht von Wallenstein
Mars' South Polar Cap
1642 Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Mars's southern polar cap
- 1645 The Second Treaty of Brömsebro is signed between Sweden and Denmark-Norway, ending the Torstenson War
Battle of Blenheim
1704 Battle of Blenheim (Second Battle of Höchstädt): A combined British, German and Dutch army led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, decisively beats the French and Bavarians
- 1740 Hunger strike in Rotterdam
- 1784 British parliament accepts East India Company Act 1784, bringing the East India Company's rule in India under the control of the British Government.
- 1788 Prussia joins the Anglo-Dutch alliance to form the Triple Alliance to prevent the spread of the Russo-Swedish War of 1788-90
French Royals Imprisoned
1792 Revolutionaries imprison French royals, including Marie Antoinette
- 1799 British fleet under Lord Seymour overthrows Suriname
- 1814 Anglo-Dutch Treaty: Cape of Good Hope is formally ceded to the British, and the transportation of slaves is prohibited
- 1852 Steamer "Atlantic" crossing Lake Erie from Buffalo to Detroit collides with a fishing boat and sinks with 250 aboard
- 1864 Battle of Deep Bottom, Virginia (Strawberry Plains) and Fussell's Mill, Virginia
- 1868 Earthquake kills 25,000 and causes $300 million of damage in Peru and Ecuador
Ring Cycle Opens Bayreuth
1876 The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opens with the first complete performance of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle
Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway
1886 John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, uses a silver hammer to drive a gold spike, officially completing the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island in British Columbia
Capture of Manila
1898 US forces under Admiral George Dewey capture Manila during Spanish–American War
- 1902 English cricket team beats Australia by one wicket in a famous victory at The Oval in London
Brownsville Affair
1906 Black soldiers are accused of raiding Brownsville in Texas; despite support from local commanding officers, President Theodore Roosevelt orders dishonorable discharge for 167 soldiers; all are cleared of wrongdoing in 1972, 165 posthumously
- 1906 Chicago Cubs pitcher Jack Taylor ends a streak of completing 202 MLB games (187 complete, 15 relief) against the Brooklyn Superbas in the third inning of an 11-3 win at Washington Park, NYC
- 1907 First taxicabs, imported by Harry N. Allen, operate in New York City
Edward VII meets Franz Joseph
1908 King Edward VII of Great Britain meets Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria at Ischl; the King tries to persuade the Emperor to advise Germany against aggressive anti-British policies
A Royal Fantasy!
1913 Otto Witte, German acrobat and fantasist, is purportedly crowned King of Albania
- 1914 Carl Wickman begins Greyhound, the first US bus line, in Minnesota
- 1914 German army occupies forts in Liege, Belgium
- 1917 A revolt in Catalonia, the province in northeast Spain that has long seen itself as independent
- 1917 Milt Stock (2), Fred Luderus (2), and Possum Whitted of the Philadelphia Phillies steal five bases in an inning in a 3-0 win against Boston at Braves Field
- 1918 Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is established as a public company in Germany
- 1919 American thoroughbred racehorse Man o' War's only defeat in a 21-start career; Upset wins the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
Pan-African Flag
1920 Flag designed by Marcus Garvey, consisting of three horizontal stripes of red, black, and green, is adopted as the Pan-African flag
Dulcy
1921 Simon Kaufman and Marc Connelly's comedic play "Dulcy" premieres in New York City
Gustav Stresemann Chancellor
1923 Gustav Stresemann becomes the premier of the German coalition government
President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
1923 Turkish National Congress selects Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as the first President of Turkey
- 1923 US Steel Corp initiates an 8-hour workday
- 1926 Enrique Tirabocchi of Argentina becomes the first to swim the English Channel from France to England (record 16 hours 33 minutes)
- 1928 Soviet Union Spartakiad Games begins
- 1931 Cincinnati Reds second baseman Tony Cuccinello goes 6 for 6 in 17-3 rout of Boston at Braves Field
Hitler Refuses Hindenburg Proposal
1932 Adolf Hitler refuses President von Hindenburg's proposal to become Vice-Chancellor of Germany
Ruffing's Winning HR
1932 Yankees pitcher Red Ruffing becomes the first MLB pitcher since 1906 to hit an extra-inning, game-winning home run in New York's 1-0 win over the Senators in Washington
- 1933 Jacques van Egmond becomes world champion amateur cyclist
- 1935 Roller derby is born when the Transcontinental Roller Derby begins at Chicago Coliseum
- 1936 Americans Dorothy Poynton-Hill and Velma Dunn take the gold and silver medals in the 10 m platform diving at the Berlin Olympics
- 1936 Nida Senff and Rie Mastenbroek make it a Dutch 1-2 in the women’s 100 m backstroke final at the Berlin Olympics
- 1936 Rie Mastenbroek of the Netherlands swims an Olympic record of 1:05.9 to win the women's 100 m freestyle at the Berlin Olympics, beating Jeannette Campbell of Argentina by 0.5 seconds
- 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces start the Battle of Shanghai, a three-month conflict involving over one million troops
- 1939 Yankees set AL shutout margin record with a 21-0 victory over the A's
Eagle Day
1940 Battle of Britain: Hermann Goering's "Adlertag" (Eagle Day) offensive takes place, intending to destroy the Royal Air Force; 47-48 German aircraft are shot down, and the RAF loses 25 planes
- 1941 The Red Army evacuates Smolensk, Russia, as the German Army advances
Manhattan Project Begins
1942 The Manhattan Project commences under the direction of US General Leslie Groves with the aim of developing an atomic bomb
- 1943 The Red army recaptures Spas-Demensk from the German army in Kaluga Oblast, Russia
Jackie Gleason Les Tremayne Show
1944 "The Jackie Gleason - Les Tremayne Show" premieres on NBC radio
Meeting of Allied Generals
1944 Allied generals Bernard Montgomery, Miles Dempsey and Omar Bradley discuss a future breakthrough in the European theatre during World War II
- 1944 British 8th Army occupies Florence
- 1946 Britain diverts illegal immigrants bound for Palestine to Cyprus
- 1948 Gunnar Gren scores twice as Sweden beats Yugoslavia 3-1 to win the football gold medal at the London Olympics
- 1948 Hungarian boxer László Papp wins the first of three consecutive Olympic gold medals, defeating British middleweight Johnny Wright on points at the London Games
- 1948 José Beyaert of France wins the cycling road race at the London Olympics; Belgium takes gold in the team section, beating Great Britain and France
Satchel Paige Pitches 1st MLB Game
1948 Satchel Paige, at 42, pitches his first major league complete game as Cleveland defeats the White Sox 5-0 in Chicago
- 1948 The United States successfully defends its Olympic basketball title with a 65-21 win over France at the London Games
- 1948 Three Finnish gymnasts tie for the gold medal in the pommel horse section at the London Olympics; Paavo Aaltonen, Veikko Huhtanen, and Heikki Savolainen are all awarded gold
US Aid Vietnamese Regime
1950 US President Harry Truman gives military aid to Vietnamese regime of Bảo Đại
- 1951 Great Britain and Iraq sign a new oil contract
- 1952 Blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton records the song "Hound Dog," written a day earlier especially for her by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller at Radio Recorders Studio in Los Angeles, California
- 1953 4-5 million French people go on strike against austerity measures
Government Contract Compliance Committee
1953 US President Dwight Eisenhower establishes Government Contract Compliance Committee
- 1954 21st NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Detroit 31, All-Stars 6 (93,470 attendees)
Baseball Record
1955 Larry Doby ends the American League record of 167 errorless games in the outfield
Don't Be Cruel
1956 Elvis Presley releases the music single "Don't Be Cruel"
- 1956 WBIR TV channel 10 in Knoxville, TN (CBS) begins broadcasting
Baseball History
1958 MLB Cleveland Indians' right fielder Rocky Colavito makes his pitching debut, hurling three hitless innings, Detroit 3, Cleveland 2
Campaneris Does it All
1962 Bert Campaneris of Daytona Beach (FSL) pitches with both arms and plays all nine positions
- 1963 Dave DeBusschere pitches a shutout against the Cleveland Indians
- 1963 US Customs agents confiscate 21 gold coins from Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas
- 1963 Warren Spahn sets the left-hander strikeout record at 2,382
- 1964 First broadcast by Trans World Radio on Bonaire
- 1966 Longview, Texas, radio station KLUE is struck by lightning the day after holding a "Beatles Bonfire," knocking an engineer unconscious and causing extensive damage to equipment
Bonnie and Clyde
1967 "Bonnie and Clyde" crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway is released
- 1967 WQLN TV channel 54 in Erie, Pennsylvania (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1969 Baltimore Oriole Jim Palmer no-hits the Oakland A's, 8-0
Bowie Kuhn
1969 Temporary Commissioner Bowie Kuhn is elected for a 7-year term as MLB Commissioner by a unanimous vote
- 1970 Pamphlet bombs that scatter revolutionary African National Congress propaganda leaflets explode in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Back Seat of My Car
1971 Paul and Linda McCartney release the single "Back Seat of My Car"
- 1972 Dutch KRO-TV transmits the 440th and last episode of the American western series "Bonanza"
- 1975 Bayardo Bar attack: Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers carry out a gun and bomb attack on a pub in Belfast frequented by Ulster Volunteer Force commanders; 4 Protestant civilians and 1 UVF member are killed
- 1976 South Africa pledges support for a negotiated settlement in Rhodesia
- 1977 Canadian guitarist Randy Bachman quits the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and they then disband
- 1977 First test glide of Space Shuttle
- 1978 Bomb attack in Beirut kills 175
- 1979 MLB St. Louis Cardinals' Lou Brock becomes the 14th MLB player to achieve 3,000 hits
- 1980 Surinamese President Johan Ferrier is ousted
- 1980 Tatyana Kazankina of the USSR sets a world record in the women's 1,500 meter with a time of 3:52.47 in Moscow, USSR
- 1981 American swimmer Mary T. Meagher breaks her own world women's 200 m butterfly record with a time of 2:05.96 in Brown Deer, Wisconsin
- 1981 Last broadcast of "The Waltons" on CBS-TV
- 1981 Test cricket debut of Mike Whitney for Australia against England at Old Trafford
- 1984 Morocco and Libya sign the Arabic-African Union treaty
- 1985 South African Defence Force soldiers, traveling in a convoy of more than ten armored vehicles, surround the Thaba-Jabula High School in Soweto and arrest 200 students during a clampdown on school boycotts
- 1986 KRE-AM in Berkeley, CA, changes call letters to KBLX (now KBFN)
- 1987 Cardinals outfield sets record of no putouts in a 4-2 win in 13 innings
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
1987 Jackie Joyner-Kersee ties the world record long jump with a 24 feet 5½ inches (7.46 m) jump
- 1988 Boston Red Sox win an AL record of 24 consecutive home games
- 1988 Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit opens
- 1988 Ronald J. Dossenbach sets a world record for pedaling across Canada from Vancouver, BC, to Halifax, NS, in 13 days, 15 hours, and 4 minutes
- 1988 US beats Jamaica 5-1 in the second round of the 1990 World Cup qualifiers
- 1989 Two hot-air balloons crash at Alice Springs, Australia, killing 13 people
- 1989 US space shuttle STS-28 lands
Curtis Mayfield Paralyzed
1990 American soul singer Curtis Mayfield becomes paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment falls on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York; although unable to perform live, he continues to compose, sing, and record
- 1991 American Michael Ray Barrowman swims a world record in the 200 m breaststroke (2:10.60) at the World Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- 1991 Ruffhouse/Columbia Records releases "Cypress Hill", the debut studio album by American hip-hop music group Cypress Hill; it achieves double-platinum status with over 2 million units sold
- 1991 US Vice-President Dan Quayle makes a speech attacking lawyers at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association
- 1993 Hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, collapses, 114 killed
Baseball History
1993 MLB Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Rickey Henderson pays Turner Ward $25,000 for his uniform number 24
South Park
1997 Animated TV sitcom "South Park" debuts on Comedy Central
- 1997 Boston Red Sox trade Mike Stanley back to the NY Yankees
- 1997 MLB San Diego Padres trade outfielder Rickey Henderson to Anaheim Angels
- 2004 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi
- 2004 28th Olympic Games open in Athens, Greece
- 2004 Black Friday crackdown by the Maldivian National Security Service on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Malé, Maldives
- 2004 Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida, and devastates the surrounding area
Baseball Record
2006 Cleveland Indians first baseman Travis Hafner ties Don Mattingly's MLB record of six grand slams in a season when he homers off Kansas City's Luke Hudson
Three Record Golds in One Day
2008 American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins three gold medals, all in world record time, in one day at the Beijing Olympics: 200 m IM (1:54.23), 200 m butterfly (1:52.03), and 4x200m freestyle relay (6:58.56)
- 2008 Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice wraps up the medley double at the Beijing Olympics as she swims a world record of 2:08.45 to win the 200 m individual medley gold medal
- 2008 Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini sets a new world record of 1:54.82 to claim the 200 m freestyle gold medal at the Beijing Olympics; runner-up Sara Isaković becomes Slovenia's first Olympic swim medal winner
- 2012 Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus is stripped of her shot-put gold medal after failing a drug test
Crash My Party
2013 "Crash My Party," the fourth studio album by Luke Bryan, is released (Billboard Album of the Year 2014)
- 2014 Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani is the first woman to win the Fields Medal in mathematics
- 2014 The Israeli and Palestinian ceasefire agreed to on August 8 is extended for another 120 hours to provide time for further negotiations
- 2015 76 people are killed and 212 are wounded by an ISIL truck bomb in Baghdad, Iraq
Julian Assange Allegations Dropped
2015 Swedish prosecutors announce they are dropping allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sexual molestation and coercion
- 2016 American swimmer Michael Phelps ends his career at the Rio Olympics as part of the winning 4 x 100 m medley relay, his record 23rd gold medal
- 2016 Great Britain sets a world record of 3:14.051 to comfortably beat the United States in the women's cycling team pursuit at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
Thompson Wins 100m Gold
2016 Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson wins the women's 100 m gold in 10.71 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; American Tori Bowie finishes second in 10.83, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica finishes third in 10.86
- 2016 New York Yankees rookies Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge hit back-to-back home runs in their first Major League plate appearances in an 8-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium, NYC
- 2016 The dominant Great Britain men's crew wins the eight at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; US scores a comfortable win over GB in the women's eight
Grace Mugabe Accused
2017 Grace Mugabe, wife of the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is accused of assault in Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2017 Gunmen kill at least 18 at a café in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Islamic extremists are blamed
- 2017 More than 60 children are reported to have died at Gorakhpur Hospital, India, prompting an investigation
- 2019 Entertainment companies CBS and Viacom announce they will merge with a combined $28 billion in revenue
- 2019 Measles cases triple worldwide in 2019 according to WHO, with 364,808 reported compared to 129,239 in 2018
- 2020 Israel strikes a historic deal with the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations, and Israel suspends plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank
- 2020 New details about the enormous "Terror Crocodile" (Deinosuchus), the size of a bus with teeth as big as bananas, that lived during the late Cretaceous period (75-84 million years ago) in North America are published [1]
- 2023 Suspected airstrike on Finote Selam in Ethiopia's Amhara region kills at least 26 people as government forces fight the Fano paramilitary force [1]
- 2025 Sean Dunn (37) is charged with felony assault three days after hurling expletives, invectives, and a submarine-sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C. [1]
