August 3
From the Spanish port of Palos, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets sail in command of three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, on a journey to find a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. – 1492.
The U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. – 1958.
CBS-TV news shows pictures of men from the First Battalion, Ninth Marines setting fire to huts in the village of Cam Na, six miles west of Da Nang, despite reports that the Viet Cong already had fled the area. The film report sparked indignation and condemnation of the U.S. policy in Vietnam both at home and overseas. – 1965.
August 4
The Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps. – 1944.
August 5
U.S. president Abraham Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agree to impose a three percent tax on annual incomes more than $800.. – 1861.
After several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean is completed, a feat accomplished largely through the efforts of American merchant Cyrus West Field. – 1868.
U.S. president Ronald Reagan begins firing 11,359 air-traffic controllers on strike in violation of his order for them to return to work. The controllers complained of difficult working conditions and a lack of recognition of the pressures they face. – 1981.
August 6
At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. – 1890.
At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 individuals are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. – 1945.
August 7
In Newburgh, N. Y., General George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Continental Army, creates the “Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver, with the word Merit stitched across the face in silver. The badge was to be presented to soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action” and permitted its wearer to pass guards and sentinels without challenge. – 1782.
Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti. Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents. – 1947.
August 8
During World War II, six German saboteurs who secretly entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil infrastructure are executed by the United States for spying. – 1942.
President Harry S Truman signs the United Nations Charter and the United States becomes the first nation to complete the ratification process and join the new international organization. – 1945.
Cesar Chavez is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by president Bill Clinton, to become the first Mexican-American to receive the honor. – 1994.
August 9
In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians. The victory left the Eastern Roman Empire nearly defenseless. – 379.
Twenty individuals, including at least nine firefighters, are killed in Boston’s worst fire. It consumes 65 downtown acres and 776 buildings in more than 12 hours. – 1872.
A second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. – 1945.
Richard M. Nixon officially ends his term as president of the United States. Minutes later, vice president Gerald R. Ford is sworn in as the 38th U.S. president. – 1974.