August
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1 August – the official birthday for all thoroughbred horses in the Southern Hemisphere.(see 1 January for Northern Hemisphere).
1 August 10BC – birth of Claudius, Roman Emperor. He was treated as an imbecile because he’d been born with a limp and slight deafness. As a result he was not seen as a threat by others and therefore survived the purges by Caligula and Tiberius. He was the last surviving man in his family following Caligula’s assassination, leading to him being declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard. He proved himself to be an able administrator and constructed many roads, aqueducts and canals across the empire. He successfully invaded Britain, something that previous emperors, including Caligula, had failed to do achieve. He was assassinated by poisoning, many believe by his wife. He was succeeded by his grand-nephew, Nero. Died 13 October 54AD.
1 August 1774 – Joseph Priestly discovers oxygen. Controversially, Carl Willhelm Scheele claims to have discovered oxygen in 1773, but did not publish his findings until 1777, well after Priestly published his own in 1775. Scheele claimed Priestly was an oxygen thief. Other claimants to the discovery of oxygen include Michal Sędziwój (in the 16th century) and Antoine Laurent Lavoisier who was working concurrently with Priestly and Scheele.
1 August 1794 – Whiskey Rebellion, which was a protest against a tax imposed by George Washington on the production of whiskey by grain growers.
1 August 1799 – France becomes the first country to introduce the metric system.
1 August 1834 – slavery officially abolished throughout the British Empire.
1 August 1882 – death of Henry Kendall, Australian poet. Born 18 April 1839.
1 August 1936 – Adolph Hitler opens the XI Olympiad in Berlin, Germany.
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2 August 216BC – 2nd Punic War, Battle of Cannae, in which Hannibal defeats the much larger Roman army.
2 August 1776 – the United States Declaration of Independence officially signed by 56 Congressional delegates who were not present on 4 July 1776, when 34 Congressional delegates signed and ratified it.
2 August 1934 – the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in the United States, levying $1 on commercial dealers of cannabis. It did not outlaw cannabis, but included hefty penalties if the Act was violated, namely five years imprisonment and a $2,000 fine. The Act was repealed in 1970.
2 August 1964 – the first Gulf of Tonkin Incident in which North Vietnamese troops fired on a US destroyer, the USS Maddox (the second incident allegedly occurred on 4 August 1964). The incident gave rise to the US Congress passing the ‘Gulf of Tonkin Resolution’ – officially the ‘Southeast Asia Resolution – which eventually led to the Vietnam War.
2 August 1997 – death of William Seward Burroughs, otherwise known as William S. Burroughs or William Lee, Beat Generation author, painter, spoken word performer. The beat generation rose to prominence in the 1950s and experimented with innovation in art, style, rules and drugs. Burroughs work includes Junkie, Queer, and Naked Lunch. Born on 5 February 1914 .
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3 August 1811 – birth of Elisha Graves Otis, American industrialist and founder of the Otis Elevator Company. In 1854, he put the finishing touches to his signature invention: a safety device to prevent elevators falling if the cable fails. Died 8 April 1861.
3 August 1905 – birth of Maggie Kuhn, activist and founder of the Gray Panthers, who campaigned for nursing home reform and opposed ageism. She also fought for human rights, social and economic justice, global peace, integration, and mental health issues. Died 22 April 1995.
3 August 1914 – World War I heats up: Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France, while Turkey signs a pact with Germany.
3 August 1914 – Formation of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches. It’s purpose was to help churches promote peace, disarmament,rights of racial and religious minorities, conscientious objection, arms control, and the League of Nations.
3 August 1963 – birth of James Hetfield, US rock star, member of Metallica.
3 August 1973 – birth of Patrick Wilson, American actor, from movies such as ‘the Alamo‘, ‘Watchmen‘, ‘The A-Team‘, ‘Phantom of the Opera‘ – with Gerard Butler and Emma Rossum.
3 August 1973 – Fire kills 51 people at an amusement park on the Isle of Man.
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4 August 1181 – Supernova (not the rock band), SN1181, observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was visible for 185 days. A supernova is the explosive death of a star, resulting in a nebula of illuminated gas.
4 August 1792 – birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet, considered to be one the finest lyric poets of all time. Died 8 July 1822.
4 August 1914 – World War I officially starts as Great Britain declares war on Germany in response to the German invasion of Belgium the day before.
4 August 1914 – United States declares its neutrality in World War I.
4 August 1929 – birth of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader. Died 11 November 2004.
4 August 1944 – German police and Gestapo officers arrest Jewish diarist, Anne Frank and her family, in Amsterdam. The family was eventually transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In March 1945 a typhus epidemic spread through the camp, claiming the Anne’s life. The camp was liberated only weeks later, in April 1945, by British troops. Anne Frank kept a diary which later was published and became a best seller.
4 August 1964 – the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident in which it was believed North Vietnamese troops fired on two US destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. It is now believed the second incident may have involved false radar images and not the North Vietnamese.
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5 August 910 – Battle of Tettenhall, in which King Edward and Earl Aethelred defeat the last of the Viking armies to raid England.
5 August 1305 – Scottish revolutionary, William Wallace, captured by English forces near Glasgow. He was transported to London for trial and execution.
5 August 1861 – the United States Army abolishes flogging and increases enlistment terms from 3 months to 2 years.
5 August 1884 – construction of the Statue of Liberty commences in New York City with the laying of the cornerstone.
5 August 1930 – birth of Neil Armstrong, astronaut, first man on the moon. Died 25 August 2012.
5 August 1944 – The Cowra Breakout – The largest prisoner-of-war escape in World War 2, when 1104 Japanese prisoners attempted to breakout of the Australian internment camp at Cowra, New South Wales. Four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese prisoners were killed during the manhunt. The remaining prisoners were captured and returned to prison.
5 August 1957 – the ‘Andy Capp’ comic strip makes its debut.
5 August 1962 – Marilyn Monroe found dead. She was 36 years old. It is believed she deliberately over-dosed on drugs, but questions remain around whether she administered it voluntarily or someone murdered her. Born 1 July 1926.
5 August 1966 – Datebook magazine quotes John Lennon controversially declaring that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus. Lennon had made the comment on 4 March 1966 in England, where no-one paid attention to it. When Datebook published it in August in the United States it caused an uproar. The full quote was ‘Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me‘.
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6 August 1661 – Holland sells Brazil to Portugal for 8 million guilders.
6 August 1806 – The Holy Roman Empire comes to an inglorious end at the hands of Napoleon.
6 August 1928 – birth of Andy Warhol. (Born Andrew Warhola). American artist who was a pioneer of pop art. American writer, Gore Vidal, once said, ‘Andy Warhol is the only genius I’ve ever known with an IQ of 60‘. Died 22 February 1987.
6 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 140,000 people died within the four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.
6 August 1965 – President Lydon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act which removed discriminatory voting practices against African Americans. Essentially it meant African Americans could vote freely, without having to meet qualifications that white Americans didn’t need to meet, such as literacy tests.
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7 August 1876 – birth of Mata Hari, (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), Dutch dancer, courtesan and spy. She was charged with espionage and executed by firing squad in France, after being accused of spying for Germany during World War I. Died 15 October 1917.
7 August 1964 – birth of John Birmingham, Australian author.
7 August 1987 – US long distance swimmer, Lynne Cox, swims the freezing Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union in an effort to warm the relationship between the USA and the USSR. Unlike the reception that Matthius Rust received in May 1987 for illegally entering the Soviet Union, Lynne Cox was welcomed by the Eskimos of the Diomede Islands and Soviet soldiers stationed there. Her effort was praised by the both US President Ronald Reagan and USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
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8 August 1864 – Formation of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.
8 August 1879 – birth of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary. Died 10 April 1919.
8 August 1945 – The Soviet Union declares war on the Empire of Japan and invades the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. In late, July 1945 Japan, naively, had been petitioning the neutral Soviets to broker a peace deal favourable to the Japanese. While the invasion violated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, it was in accordance with the secret Yalta Agreements that the Soviet Union made with the United States and the United Kingdom at the Crimea Conference held between 4-11 February 1945, in which Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender.
8 August 1953 – conclusion of negotiations for the 1953 London Debt Agreement which had begun on 27 February 1953, when West Germany was given debt relief by creditor nations, which included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United States, Yugoslavia and others. The debt of 32 billion marks (16 billion owed to the United States and 16 billion to other nations) had accumulated since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The London Agreement halved the debt to 15 billion marks to be paid out over 30 years. The repayments were capped at 3% of export earnings and were only required while West Germany had a trade surplus. This significantly boosted West Germany’s export market and directly resulted in Germany becoming an economic powerhouse.
8 August 1959 – death of Albert Namatjira, Australian Aboriginal artist. Born 28 July 1902.
8 August 1974 – USA President Richard Nixon resigns because of his impending impeachment for ‘obstruction of justice’, ‘abuse of power’, and ‘contempt of congress’, in relation to the Watergate Scandal.
8 August 1981 – birth of Roger Federer in Switzerland, champion tennis player.
8 August 1988 – The ‘8888’ Uprising in Burma, from which Aung Sun Suu Kyi gains popularity and becomes a national hero.
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9 August – World Indigenous Day – to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous populations. It also recognises the achievements and contributions that indigenous people make to improve world issues.
9 August 1936 – Jesse Owens, an African-American athlete, wins his 4th gold medal at the Berlin Olympics – much to Adolf Hitler’s chagrin. Hitler had hoped the games would show-case white Aryan ideals, and was disgusted that a black athlete had achieved more than the white athletes.
9 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Fat Boy’ on Nagasaki, Japan. It is estimated that between 60,000 to 80,000 people died within four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.
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10 August 587BC – Solomon’s Temple (also known as the ‘First Temple’) destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzer II during the Siege of Jerusalem. The temple was later rebuilt.
10 August 70AD – Solomon’s Temple (also known as the ‘Second Temple’) set alight by Roman Army, led by future Emperor Titus.
10 August 1628 – Swedish warship, Vasa, sinks only 1300 metres into her maiden voyage after a light gust of wind blew her over. 53 lives were lost. The Vasa had been commissioned by the King of Sweden in 1625, in order to compete in the war against Poland. In a case study that is the nightmare of project managers, the Vasa has come to represent scope-creep at its worst. The King continued adding and changing the scope of the design, including numerous changes to the length of the ship (108 feet, 111 feet, 120 feet, 135 feet). However, the most damaging scope changes were in relation to the guns. After increasing the size to 120 feet to carry 32 x 24-pound guns on a single deck, the King learned that Denmark was building a ship with twin gun decks, so he ordered the ship builder to scale up to 135 feet with two enclosed gun decks. Numerous changes to the quantity of guns were made, with the King finally settling on 64 x 24-pound guns, with 32 on each deck, plus several smaller guns. The upper deck had been built for 12-pound guns, so in the end 48 x 24-pound guns were installed (24 on each deck). The King then decided the Vasa had to look regal and demanded it be covered in hundreds of ornate, gilded carvings depicting biblical, mythical and historical themes. The heavy oak carvings added further weight to the already top-heavy ship. In a rush to get the ship into service, no stability tests were conducted. A test in 1961 indicated that the ship was so unstable that it would have listed at 10o. On its maiden voyage, it took a wind gust of 8 knots to blow it over. A lesson in poor project management and a warning against scope creep.
10 August 1960 – birth of José Domínguez Banderas, Spanish actor, otherwise known as Antonio Banderas.
10 August 1964 – Following the Gulf of Tonkin incidents on 2 and 4 August 1964, the US Congress passes ‘The Southeast Asia Resolution’ (the ‘Gulf of Tonkin Resolution’), which authorised the United States ‘to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom‘. The passage of this Resolution led to US involvement in the Vietnam War.
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11 August 3114BC – ok, so there is an argument that the month of August didn’t exist in 3114BC, but humour me … some mathemetician type has calculated the equivalent Mesoamerican date using the Gregorian calendar and determined that it was on this day that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, (aka the Mayan Calendar) came into being. It was used by a number of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. Oddly enough, the creation of the calendar wasn’t a problem. The problem has arisen with the lack of fore-thought on the end-date. Inconveniently, some inconsiderate Mesoamerican culture (let’s blame the Mayans) decided the calendar would end on 21 December 2012, which has caused a little consternation amongst some of the inhabitants of Earth, who fear the calendar ends on that date because the world ends on that date … considering that the earth has managed to survive beyond 21/12/12, speculation is rife that perhaps the calendar ended on that date because its creator got bored, or was called in for dinner, or went hunting sabre-tooth tigers and never returned …
11 August 480BC – death of Leonidas, King of Sparta, famous for the Battle of Thermopylae in which he led an Army of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans and managed to hold off Persian Army (estimated to be at least 100,000 strong) led by Xerxes. Leonidas was eventually over-run and killed. He would have been stoked to know a Hollywood movie would be made about him in 1962 and again in 2006. Born c. 540BC.
11 August 1897 – birth of Enid Blyton, British author of numerous series of children’s stories, including ‘Noddy‘, ‘Famous Five‘, and ‘Secret Seven‘. Died 28 November 1968.
11 August 1921 – birth of Alex Haley, U.S. author of ‘Roots‘, ‘Malcolm X‘. Died 10 February 1992.
11 August 1945 – Japan offers surrender, conditional on the retention of their Emperor, Hirohito. The U.S. rejects the offer, demanding that Emperor Hirohito subject himself to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
11 August 1946 – birth of Marilyn vos Savant, American columnist and listed by Guinness Book of World Records as having the world’s highest IQ. At the age of 10, she sat the Stanford-Binet Second Revision test, scoring 228 IQ. In the mid-1980s, she sat Hoeflin’s Mega Test, scoring 186 IQ. Doubt has been cast over the extrapolations used in the test, and because of the unreliability of IQ tests, Guinness Book of World Records no longer has the ‘highest recorded IQ’ category.
11 August 1994 – death of Peter Cushing OBE,English actor who mostly appeared in Hammer Horror films, including The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (in which he played vampire hunter, Van Helsing). Born 26 May 1913.
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12 August 30BC – Cleopatra VII, last Pharoah of Ancient Egypt, suicides after learning of the suicide of her lover, Mark Antony (after he lost the Battle of Actium to Emperor Octavian). She reportedly allowed herself to be bitten by an asp. Soon after, Egypt became a Roman province under Octavian.
12 August 1887 -birth of Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel prize-winning Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics. He was the author of many works in various fields of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. He paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics, and religion.[4] He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology. He is also known for his “Schrödinger’s cat” thought-experiment. Died 4 January 1961.
12 August 1964 – death of Ian Fleming, British author of the ‘James Bond’ novels. Born 28 May 1908.
12 August 2009 – death of Les Paul, (born Lester William Polsfuss) American musician and inventor of the solid body electric guitar. The popular Gibson Les Paul was designed in collaboration with him. Born 9 June 1915.
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13 August 1784 – British Parliament enacts ‘Pitt’s India Act’, which brought the East India company under the control of the British government.
13 August 1899 – birth of Alfred Hitchcock, English movie director and producer. Died 29 April 1980.
13 August 1926 – birth of Fidel Castro, former Cuban President. Died 25 November 2016.
13 August 1946 – death of Herbert George ‘H.G.’ Wells, British science fiction writer, author of The War of the Worlds, Time Machine, Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds. Born 21 September 1866.
13 August 1961 – construction of the Berlin Wall commences. Torn down 9 November 1989.
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14 August 1248 – construction begins on the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
14 August 1880 – construction of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany is finally completed … 632 years after commencement.
14 August 1947 – Pakistan Independence Day. At the stroke of midnight (14/15 August), India was partitioned and the nation of Pakistan created, independent of British and Indian rule.
14 August 1956 – death of Bertolt Brecht, German playwright, writer and theatre practitioner. Born 10 February 1898.
14 August 1963 – Considered to be the founding documents of Australia’s indigenous land rights (native title) movement, the first Bark Petition was presented to the Australian Government’s House of Representatives by Jock Nelson, Member for the Northern Territory on behalf of the Yolngu people of Yirrkala. The second Bark Petition was presented to the House of Representatives by then Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell. The petitions were ochre paintings on bark and signed by 13 clan leaders of the Yolngu region (Gove peninsula), protesting the Commonwealth Government granting mining rights to Nabalco on Yolngu land . The petitions resulted in a parliamentary inquiry that recommended compensation be paid to the Yolngu people. It was the first recognition of native title in Australia.
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15 August 1769 – birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor. Died 5 May 1821.
15 August 1945 – Japan announces its surrender to the Allies following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The official ‘Instrument of Surrender’ was signed on 2 September 1945.
15 August 1947 – India Independence Day. At the stroke of midnight (14/15 August), India was partitioned and granted independence from British rule.
15 – 18 August 1969 – the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (or just ‘Woodstock’), a festival of peace and music, was held over three days at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm, 69 kilometres south-west of the town of Woodstock in New York State. It featured artists such as Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, Mountain, the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Cosby Stills Nash and Young, Blood Sweat and Tears, Ten Years After. A number of high profile musicians declined to play, including The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Chicago, The Byrds, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Iron Butterfly and Joni Mitchell. Woodstock is still considered to be the ultimate rock and counter-cultural festival. The promoters hoped for 50,000 to attend and were caught unprepared when more than 500,000 people attended.
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16 August 1938 – death of Robert Johnson. American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. Legend has it that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and sold his soul in return for fame and fortune. One of the first musicians of the 20th century to join the 27 club. Born 8 May 1911.
16 August 1958 – birth of Madonna, American pop star, (born Madonna Louise Ciccone). The Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the biggest selling female recording artist of all time, with over 300 million records sold world-wide.
16 August 1962 – Ringo Starr becomes the new drummer for the Beatles, taking over from Peter Best who was sacked by the band. Ringo went on to fame and fortune, Best became a career public servant for 20 years, before forming the Peter Best Band.
16 August 1975 – Land is returned to Australia’s indigenous people for the first time by an Australian government. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (Australian Labor Party) returned land to Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji people, who are based southwest of Katherine, in the Northern Territory. The land was returned as freehold following years of campaigning that included a strike in 1966 at Wave Hill cattle station.
16 August 1977 – death of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. Born 8 January 1935.
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17 August 1786 – birth of Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, King of the Wild Frontier. Died 6 March 1836.
17 August 1896 – Bridget Driscoll becomes the first car accident fatality after being run over by a Benz car in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, London, England.
17 August 1908 – the world’s first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.
17 August 1930 – birth of Ted Hughes, English poet, children’s writer. Has been described as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes married American poet, Sylvia Plath in 1957. They separated in 1962 after she discovered he was having an affair with Assia Wevill, a German-born Jewish woman who escaped the Nazis during World War II. Plath suicided six months after the separation, at the age of 30. Plath had a history of suicide attempts and there is conjecture that her death could have been accidental as she had left a note to call her doctor. However, others believe the effort put into this attempt indicate that she intended to kill herself. Plath died from carbon monoxide poisoning after placing her head in a gas oven with the gas turned on. She had sealed the rooms between her and her sleeping children, with wet towels to ensure the gas didn’t harm the children. Hughes was devastated by her suicide and stopped writing poetry for three years. He had been having an affair with Assia Wevill and eventually had a child to her. Their daughter was named Alexandra Tatiana Elise (nicknamed ‘Shura’). In 1969, Wevill also suicided in the same manner as Sylvia Plath, by sealing the kitchen door and window, and turning on the gas stove. Whereas Plath had protected her children from the gas, Wevill gave 4 year old Shura a sleeping tablet mixed in a glass of water. Their bodies were found laying on a mattress in the kitchen. Some blamed Hughes for both suicides, alleging that he was abusive to both women. Hughes was unable to finish his poetry series, ‘The Crow’ after the death of Wevill. In 1970, he married Carol Orchard, who remained his wife until his death. From 1984, Hughes served as Poet Laureate. Died 28 October 1998.
17 August 1970 – Russia launches the Venera 7 spacecraft, which becomes the first man-made object to land on Venus (15 December 1970)
17 August 1980 – Azaria Chamberlain is reported missing at Ayers Rock, Northern Territory. Initially it was claimed that a dingo took her. In 1982, her mother, Lindy Chamberlain was tried for murder. Her husband, Michael, was charged for being an accessory after the fact. After three years in prison, Lindy was released after a piece of the baby’s clothing was found near a dingo’s lair. In 2012, a coroner confirmed the Chamberlain’s version of events that a dingo had taken Azaria.
17 August 1987 – death of Rudolf Hess, prominent Nazi politician who served as Deputy Fuhrer under Adolf Hitler. In 1941, Hess flew solo to Scotland in an effort to negotiate peace after being ignored by Hitler in various plans associated with the war. The flight was not sanctioned by Hitler. Hess was taken prisoner and charged with crimes against peace. He served a life sentence and remained in prison until his death. Born 26 April 1894.
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18 August – Vietnam Veterans’ Day. The day was originally Long Tan Day, which commemorated the anniversary of the Australian Army’s victory in the Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War on this day in 1966. During the battle, 108 Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought against 2,000 North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong troops. Eighteen Australian and New Zealand soldiers were killed and 24 wounded, while there were hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong deaths.
18 August 1931 – the flooded Yangtze River, China, peaks in what becomes the worst natural disaster of the 20th century, killing up to 3.7 million people.
18 August 1948 – Australia’s greatest cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman, plays his last game of test cricket. It was played at the Oval in Britain against the English cricket team. Bradman was bowled for a duck, which left him 4 runs short of a career average of 100 runs. Bradman’s first test was in 1928. Over his 20 year test career, he played 52 tests, scored 6,996 runs, with a top score of 334 and an average of 99.94. Throughout his first-grade career, he played 234 games, scored 28,067 runs, with a top score of 452 not out and an average of 95.14.
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19 August 14AD – death of Augustus Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire and first Roman Emperor. Born 23 September 63BC.
19 August 1662 – death of Blaise Pascal, controversial French mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer. Formulated ‘Pascal’s Triangle’, a tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, challenged Aristotle’s followers who claimed that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’. The computer programming language, ‘Pascal’, is named in his honour. Born 19 June 1623.
19 August 1900 – start of the first Olympic cricket match, played in Paris. It is the only Olympics in which cricket was played.
19 August 1919 – Afghanistan Independence Day, in which Afghanistan declared its independence from Britain.
19 August – World Humanitarian Day – a day to recognise those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. 19 August was chosen because it is the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative for Secretary-General to Iraq and 21 of his colleagues. The day seeks to draw attention to humanitarian needs worldwide and the importance of international cooperation in meeting these needs.
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20 August 1866 – American Civil War formally ends.
20 August 1940 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, states ‘never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few‘, in relation to the Royal Air Force who was repelling German attacks on the United Kingdom in the Battle of Britain.
20 August 1948 – birth of Robert Plant, British rock singer, musician and songwriter. During the 1960’s, Plant sang with a number of bands, including The Crawling King Snakes, Listen, Band of Joy and Hobbstweedle. In 1968, Jimmy Page of successful blues band, The Yardbirds (which had previously featured Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck), convinced Plant to front his new band, The New Yardbirds. Page and Plant began writing songs for the new band, as well as playing some of the Yardbirds classics, such as Dazed and Confused, and For Your Love. Towards the end of 1968, the band was renamed Led Zeppelin. Musicologist Robert Walser stated, ‘Led Zeppelin’s sound was marked by speed and power, unusual rhythmic patterns, contrasting terraced dynamics, singer Robert Plant’s wailing vocals, and guitarist Jimmy Page’s heavily distorted crunch‘. Led Zeppelin has been widely regarded as the forerunner of Heavy Metal.
20 August 1966 – birth of Dimebag Darrell, (born Darrell Lance Abbott), American musician, founding member of Pantera. Dimebag was shot dead on stage on 8 December 2004 while playing for Damageplan.
20 August 1968 – the USSR and a number of other Warsaw Pact nations, invade Czechoslovakia to halt the ‘Prague Spring’ liberalisation reforms being implemented by the Czech leader, Alexander Dubček. This invasion caused a significant rift in support by Communists across the globe and condemnation by many non-Communist nations, leading to a weakening of communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular.
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21 August 1940 – death of Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronshtein). Russian Marxist revolutionary, Soviet politician, founder and first leader of the Red Army. Major figure in the Bolshevik victory during the Russian Civil War. After the Russian Revolution Trotsky became the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He was opposed to Joseph Stalin. He was expelled from the Communist Party in November 1927 and deported from the Soviet Union in 1929. Trotsky relocated to Mexico where he continued his opposition to Stalin. Trotsky was assassinated by ice-pick wielding Rámon Mercader in Mexico on the orders of Stalin. Trotskyism is a form of Marxism which is based on Trotsky’s ideas and opposed to Stalinism. Born 7 November 1879.
21 August 1952 – birth of Joe Strummer, co-founder, guitarist, lyricist and vocalist with UK punk band, The Clash. Died 22 December 2002.
21 August 1970 – birth of Fred Durst, American rock vocalist with Limp Bizkit.
21 August – International Day of Lucid Dreaming. For further information check out this podcast on ABC radio
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22 August 565 – St Columba claims to see a monster in Loch Ness.
22 August 1572 – attempted assassination of Admiral de Coligny, a leading Heugonet Protestant, in Paris. The following day, the main suspects (the Guises, who were the Cardinal of Lorraine and his nephews) broke into Coligny’s room and dragged him from his sickbed, killed him and threw him from the window. The event triggered the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre on 23-24 August 1572.
22 August 1770 – Captain James Cook sets foot on the east cost of Australia.
22 August 1864 – signing of the First Geneva Convention (for ‘Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field’)
22 August 1917 – birth of John Lee Hooker, American blues guitarist. Died 21 June 2001.
22 August 1920 – birth of Ray Bradbury, American fantasy, science-fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. Author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustratred Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes. The movie Butterfly Effect uses a similar theory to that described in Bradbury’s short-story A Sound of Thunder. In one scene, a Sound of Thunder pennant is hanging on the dormitory door of the main character, Evan. Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was named after Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury was not happy with this and pressured Moore to change the title, which Moore refused to do. Died 5 June 2012.
22 August 1963 – birth of Tori Amos, American pianist/singer.
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23 August 1305 – Sir William Wallace, leader of Scottish rebellion, executed for high treason in England.
23-24 August 1572 – St Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Part of the French Wars of Religion, the massacre was a undertaken against Huguenot Protestants by Catholics following the assassination of Admiral de Coligny by the Guises (Cardinal of Lorraine and his nephews). Two leading Huguenot princes, Henry of Navarre and his cousin, the Prince of Conde) were spared their lives by converting to Catholicism. French Catholic peasants attacked Protestants during August to October. The exact death toll is unknown and depends on who reports it. Catholics claim it was 2,000. Protestants claim it was 70,000.
23 August 1791 – St Domingue Slave Revolt – commencing 21 August, the slaves of St Domingue (now known as Haiti) revolted against the French colonial government, plunging the country into civil war. This revolt was the catalyst for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
23 August 1948 – death of José Paronella. He was born on 26 February 1887 in Catalonia, northern Spain. In 1913, Paronella travelled to Innisfail, Queensland, to establish himself before bringing his fiance, Matilda, over to join him. Eleven years later he returned for her, only to find that she’d married someone else. José was determined to return to Australia with a wife, so proposed to Matilda’s younger sister, Margarita, and the couple travelled to Australia 12 months later. José purchased 5 hectares (13 acres) of land at Mena Creek where the couple commenced building their dream home, which ended up being a regal Catalan-style castle. They planted more than 7,000 trees around the property and in 1933, built North Queensland’s first hydro-electric plant to power the property. They built a 47 step stair case, tennis courts, a pavilion with turret-topped balconies, a movie theatre which they transformed into a ball-room with live bands that people from surrounding areas could enjoy for dances, a museum that housed collections of coins, pistols, dolls, timbers and keepsakes. He also excavated a tunnel through a small hill on the property. It was never completed, but he had intended on it becoming a ‘tunnel of love’. He and Margarita had two children. Margarita died in 1967. In 1979 the castle was ravaged by fire, leaving on the walls and turrets standing. In 1986, the park was further damaged from Cyclone Winifred. In 1993, the park was partially restored. The park again suffered damage in 2006 when Cyclone Larry struck. In 2009, the hydro-electric plant was rebuilt. Today, visitors can tour the grounds and walk through what would have been the ‘tunnel of love’, which is now inhabited by ghost bats. The property is heritage-listed and a fascinating and spectacular part of North Queensland’s history.
23 August 1946 – birth of Keith Moon, British musician, drummer for ‘The Who’. Died 7 September 1978.
23 August – International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The United Nations chose this date as it is the anniversary of the St Domingue Slave Revolt.
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24 August 79AD – eruption of Mt Vesuvius, Italy, completely destroying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. The cities were buried under approximately 75m of tephra. The initial eruption produced a cloud of ash and pumice ranging from 15km to 30km high. It is estimated that 16,000 people perished.
24 August 479 – Fall of the Roman Empire as Visigoths conquer Rome.
24 August 1759 – birth of William Wilberforce. English politician, philanthropist and leader of the slave trade abolition movement. In 1785 he became an evangelical Christian, which transformed his life to focus on philanthropy and human rights. For 20 years he pursued the abolition of slavery, eventually culminating in the passage of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act 1807. Died 29 July 1833.
24 August 1936 – establishment of the Australian Antarctic Territory.
24 August 1954 – Communist Party outlawed in the United States with the passing of the Communist Control Act.
24 August 1995 – Microsoft launches Windows 95. Bill Gates is embarrassed during a demonstration of the product, when his audience experiences the infamous ‘blue screen of death’.
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25 August 325 – conclusion of the First Council of Nicea, a cabal of 1800 bishops convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I (Constantine the Great) to gain consensus within the church for various doctrinal issues, such as the divinity of Christ, the Holy Trinity and the date for Easter which were articulated in the ‘Creed of Nicea’. The Council was officially opened on 20 May 325.
25 August 1227 – death of Genghis Khan, founder and emperor of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest, contiguous empire in history. At its peak, it covered stretched from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan, and included Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent, the Iranian Plateau and the Middle East. It covered 24 million km2 (16% of the Earth’s total land area) and had a population of over 100 million. Born circa 1162.
25 August 1330 – Antipope Nicolaas V overthrows himself by presenting a confession of sins to Pope John XXII, who absolved him. Nicolaas V had previously been excommunicated by Pope John XXII. After his absolution, Nicolaas V was held in ‘honourable imprisonment’ in the papal palace at Avignon until his death in 1333.
25 August 1949 – birth of Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz) in Haifa, Israel. American rock guitarist and song-writer. Co-founder of Kiss.
25 August 1991 – founding of computer operating system, Linux, by Linus Torvalds.
25 August 2012 – death of Neil Armstrong. First man to walk on the moon. Born 5 August 1930.
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26 August 580 – toilet paper invented by the Chinese.
26 August 1910 – birth of Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) in Yugoslavia, winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work in the slums of Calcutta. On 4 September 2016, she became Saint Mother Teresa in a canonisation ceremony conducted by Pope Francis. Died 5 September 1997.
26 August 1946 – George Orwell’s revolutionary novel, Animal Farm, is published.
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27 August 1883 – the world’s biggest recorded explosion occurs on Krakatoa, an Indonesian island as a volcano erupts, killing between 36,000 and 120,000 people. The noise is heard in Perth, Western Australia, 3,500km away and Mauritius, 4,800km away where it was thought to be cannon fire. Tsunamis up to 30m high were recorded. It generated a cloud of ash 27km high. In the 12 months after the explosion, global temperatures fell by 1.2oC. The explosion darkened the sky for years afterward.
27 August 1908 – birth of Sir Donald Bradman (The Don), Australia’s (and arguably, the world’s) greatest cricketer. In his last Test, Bradman’s batting average was 101.39 runs per innings, but on the second ball he faced, he was bowled for a duck (zero), reducing his batting average to 99.94. It is the highest batting average in test cricket. Died 25 February 2001.
27 August 1975 – death of Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia. Although Selassie was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, Rastafarians believe that he is the Messiah returned. Born 23 July 1892.
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28 August 1837 – Worcestershire Sauce manufactured by John Lea and William Perrins.
28 August 1963 – Martin Luther King Jr gives his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech to 250,000 civil rights activists in Washington DC, in which he called for an end to racism.
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29 August 29AD – John the Baptist beheaded.
29 August 1991 – the Supreme Soviet of the USSR suspends the Communist Party. The Soviet Union was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991.
29 August 2001 – death of Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan, in a helicopter crash near Maroochydore, Queensland. Lead singer of Australian band, Skyhooks. Born 2 January 1952.
29 August 2005 – Hurricane Katrina strikes southeastern United States with wind speeds reaching 280km/h. New Orleans is one of the worst hit areas. At least 1,836 people died in the storm and subsequent flooding.
29 August 2012 – Hurricane Isaac strikes southeastern United States with wind speeds reaching 130km/h, making landfall in Louisiana, leaving at least 400,000 houses in New Orleans without power.
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30 August 580 – birth of Muhammad, prophet and founder of Islam.
30 August 1146 – European leaders optimistically outlaw the cross-bow with the belief that it will end war for evermore. The ban was flouted and cross-bows continued to be used until they were replaced by fire-arms in the 16th century.
30 August 2003 – Death of Charles Bronson, American actor. Born 3 November 1921 as Charles Dennis Buchinsky.
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31 August 12AD – birth of Caligula, also known as Gaius Caesar, 3rd Roman Emperor from 37 – 41AD. Died 24 January 41AD. First Roman Emperor to be assassinated following a conspiracy to restore the Roman Republic. While the plot to kill Caligula succeeds, the restoration of the Republic fails when the Praetorian Guard appoint Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, as Emperor.
31 August 1897 – Thomas Edison granted a patent for the world’s first movie camera, the Kinetograph. The patented incorporated a number of inventions related to the capture of moving pictures, including the kinetoscope.
31 August 1928 – birth of James Coburn, actor (‘The Great Escape‘, ‘The Magnificent Seven‘). Died 18 November 2002.
31 August 1997 – death of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris. Born 1 July 1961.