Aug 22, 565 – Columba, an Irish abbot (father) and missionary is today known for reports of seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
Aug 26, 1498 – Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà .
Aug 23, 1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
Aug 25, 1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
Aug 28, 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
Aug 27, 1776 – Battle of Long Island: In what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
Aug 22, 1780 – James Cook’s ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed in Hawaii during the voyage).
Aug 23, 1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted in the United States, and only lasts for four years.
Aug 24, 1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House, the Capitol and many other buildings are set ablaze.
Aug 25, 1830 – With riots erupting and shops being looted, The Belgian Revolution begins. This conflict led to the secession of the southern provinces (mainly the former Southern Netherlands) from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium.
Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and “Tsar of All the Russias” from 1547 until his death in 1584.
Aug 22, 1851 – The first America’s Cup is won by the yacht America.
Aug 27, 1883 – Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions destroy the island of Krakatoa and cause years of climate change.
Aug 28, 1898 – Caleb Bradham invents the carbonated soft drink that will later be called “Pepsi-Cola”.
Aug 24, 1909 – Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
Aug 26, 1920 – The 19th amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.
Aug 24, 1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the American Communist Party.
Aug 23, 1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
Births
Aug 25, 1530 – Ivan the Terrible, Russian ruler (d. 1584)
Aug 26, 1740 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, invented the hot air balloon
Aug 23, 1846 – Alexander Milne Calder, Scottish-American sculptor (d. 1923). He was the father of Alexander Calder know for his mobiles. He sculpted the statue of George Washington in Washington Square park in Greenwich Village
In 1941, Curious George was originally called ‘Zozo’ in the UK to avoid offending King George VI
Aug 22, 1848 – Melville Elijah Stone, American publisher, founded the Chicago Daily News (d. 1929)
Aug 23, 1890 – Harry Frank Guggenheim, businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday
Aug 24, 1898 – Malcolm Cowley, American novelist, poet, literary critic
Aug 22, 1904 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese soldier and politician, 1st Vice-Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1997)
Aug 24, 1911 – Michel Pablo, Egyptian-Greek Trotskyist leader (d. 1996)
Aug 27, 1916 – Gordon Bashford, English engineer, co-designed the Range Rover
Aug 25, 1930 – Crispin Tickell, English academic and diplomat,
August 28, 1932 – Yakir Aharonov, Israeli professor of Theoretical Physics
Deaths
Aug 28, 632 – Fatimah, Saudi Arabian daughter of Muhammad (b. 605)
Aug 24, 1773 – George Lyttelton, English poet and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1709)
Aug 27, 1782 – John Laurens, American Revolutionary and Congressman (b.1754)
Aug 22, 1828 – Franz Joseph Gall, Austrian neuroanatomist and physiologist (b. 1758). He was a pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain.
Aug 27, 1875 – William Chapman Ralston, American businessman and financier, founded the Bank of California (b. 1826)
August 25, 1886 – Zinovios Valvis, Greek lawyer and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1791)
August 23, 1892 – Deodoro da Fonseca, first President of Brazil (b. 1827)
August 28, 1903 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and architect, co-designed Central Park (b. 1822)
August 22, 1967 – Gregory Goodwin Pincus, American biologist and academic, co-created the birth-control pill (b. 1903)
August 26, 1974 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (b. 1902)
August 26, 1977 – H. A. Rey, German-American author and illustrator, created Curious George (b. 1898)