1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “”Little Boy””, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people were killed instantly.
1181 – Supernova observed by Chinese & Japanese astronomers
1497 – Italian explorer John Cabot returns to Bristol from North America (Newfoundland) – first European to do so since the Vikings
1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal
1675 – Russian Tsar Alexis bans foreign hair styles to those below the nobility
1685 – King Louis XIV’s Code Noir decree, policing slavery in French colonies is first adopted by the Sovereign Council of Martinique
1774 – Founder of the Shaker Movement, Mother Ann Lee, arrives in NY
1787 – At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia debate began on the first draft of the U.S. Constitution.
1806 – Holy Roman Empire ends; it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Francis II renounces the title, becoming Emperor of Austria
1815 – US flotilla ends piracy by Algiers, Tunis & Tripoli
1825 – Bolivia declared independence from Peru.
1854 – Congress passes Confiscation Act
1855 – Election riots known as “”Bloody Monday”” in Louisville, KY https://www.leoweekly.com/2018/08/bloody-monday-immigrant-hatred-163-years-ago/
1890 – Cy Young achieved his first major league victory. He would accumulate 511 in his career.
1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation
1912 – The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum.
1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia. Serbia declared war against Germany.
1914 – Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the French Foreign Legion, becoming the first American to fight in World War I.
1926 – Warner Brothers premiered its Vitaphone system in New York. The movie was “Don Juan,” starring John Barrymore.
1929 – Young Plan, which sought to settle German reparations debts after World War I, is agreed
1930 – Supreme Court Justice John Force Crater disappears in NYC
1934 – US troops leave Haiti, which had been occupied since 1915
1942 – Hermann Goering proclaims occupied areas “thoroughly empty to plunder”
1944 – Deportation of 70,000 jews from Lodz Poland to Auschwitz begins
1945 – The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named “Little Boy” was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed. (8:16am Japanese time)
1946 – US officially submits to jurisdiction of World Court
1952 – Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest pitcher to complete a major league baseball game.
1953 – Future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Ted Williams returns to Red Sox from military service in Korea
1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1962 – Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.
1964 – Prometheus, the world’s oldest tree aged at least 4,862 years old, is accidentally cut down in Nevada, USA
1965 – The Voting Rights Act was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1969 – The first fair ball to be hit completely out of Dodger Stadium occurred. Willie “Pops” Stargell, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hit the ball 506 feet from home plate.
1981 – Fire fighters in Indianapolis, IN, answered a false alarm. When they returned to their station it was ablaze due to a grease fire.
1985 – The 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing brought tens of thousands of Japanese and foreigners to Hiroshima.
1986 – William J. Schroeder died. He lived 620 days with the Jarvik-7 manmade heart. He was the world’s longest surviving recipient of a permanent artificial heart.
1988 – “Tompkins Square Park Police Riot” in New York City. A riot erupted in Tompkins Square Park when police attempted to enforce a newly-passed curfew for the park. Bystanders, artists, residents, homeless people and political activists were caught up in the police action that took place on the night of August 6 and the early morning of August 7
1990 – The U.N. Security Council ordered a worldwide trade embargo with Iraq. The embargo was to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait.
1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1995 – Thousands of glowing lanterns were set afloat in rivers in Hiroshima, Japan, on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bombing.
1996 – NASA announced the discovery of evidence of primitive life on Mars. The evidence came in the form of a meteorite that was found in Antarctica. The meteorite was believed to have come from Mars and contained a fossil.
1997 – Apple Computer and Microsoft agreed to share technology in a deal giving Microsoft a stake in Apple’s survival.
1998 – Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S. President Clinton.
2001 – White House briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S. delivered to George W. Bush. This document foreshadowed the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2002 – Marquis de la Fayette is made Honorary Citizen of the United States
2007 – One day after an executive shakeup, Bear Stearns sends letter to clients reassuring them that the company is financially secure . Rest assured, Bear Stearns has seen challenging markets before and has the experience and expertise to serve you well. The firm said
2009 – A poll finds 61% of Americans believe their country was correct to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2011 – A helicopter containing members of Navy SEAL 6 is shot down in Afghanistan killing 38
2012 – The Mars rover Curiosity landed on the floor of Gale Crater. The Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on November 26, 2011.
2013 – 18 people are killed and 55 are wounded by a car bomb explosion in Damascus, Syria
2013 – 25 people are killed and 60 are wounded by a series of car bombs in Baghdad, Iraq
2018 – Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify remove conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from their platforms
2019 – A quarter of humanity is running out of water with 17 countries under extreme water stress including Cape Town, Los Angeles and Bangalore, according to report by the World Resources Institute
2019 – Lawyer representing 800 boy scouts identify 350 sex abusers within Boy Scouts of America saying “It’s the largest paedophile ring on earth
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
