August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining.

Events

500-1899

• 527 - Justinian I becomes Byzantine Emperor.
• 1291 - The Swiss Confederation is formed.
• 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella drive the Jews out of Spain.
• 1461 - Edward IV crowned king of England.
• 1498 - Christopher Columbus is the first European to visit Venezuela.
• 1619 - First African slaves landed in Jamestown, Virginia.
• 1774 - The element oxygen is discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph Priestley.
• 1776 - Formal signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• 1794 - The Whiskey Rebellion begins in Pennsylvania.
• 1798 - Battle of the Nile starts between French and British fleets.
• 1820 - London's Regent's Canal opens.
• 1831 - London Bridge opens.
• 1832 - Black Hawk War ends.
• 1834 - Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
• 1838 - Slaves in Trinidad and Tobago are emancipated.
• 1864 - Foundation of Elgin Watch Company in Elgin, Illinois
• 1876 - Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
• 1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.

1900-1999

• 1902 - The United States buys the rights to the Panama Canal from France.
• 1907 - First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island.
• 1914 - Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I.
• 1927 - The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China.
• 1936 - The Berlin Olympic Games are opened.
• 1941 - The first Jeep is produced.
• 1944 - Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
• 1944 - Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
• 1957 - The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
• 1960 - Benin declares independence from France
• 1961 - Six Flags Over Texas, the first Six Flags park, opens.
• 1965 - Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announces her engagement to Claus von Amsberg.
• 1966 - Charles Whitman kills 15 people shooting from a tower at the University of Texas in Austin, in the United States, before being killed by the police.
• 1966 - Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official People's Republic of China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
• 1967 - Israel annexes East Jerusalem.
• 1970 - Powder Ridge Rock Festival
• 1971 - George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in New York City features, among others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell.
• 1981 - First broadcasts by MTV. The first video played was Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles.
• 1994 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirm rumours that they had married eleven weeks earlier.
• 1996 - Olympic Games: Michael Johnson wins the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds, beating the old world record by over 0.3 seconds.

2000-2099

• 2001 - In talks between the government and representatives of the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia, an agreement is reached on the position of the Albanian language in the Republic.
• 2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
• 2004 - 215 people are killed and 300 injured in a supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay.
• 2005 - German spelling reform of 1996 to be formally implemented

Births

In the Southern Hemisphere, August 1 is the Horse's Birthday, the day all horses are considered to have been born for recordkeeping and competition purposes. January 1 is the equivalent in the Northern Hemisphere.

10 BC-AD 1899

• 10 BC - Claudius, Roman emperor (d. AD 54)
• 126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (d. 193)
• 1744 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, scientist (d. 1829)
• 1770 - William Clark, explorer (d. 1838)
• 1779 - Francis Scott Key, writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (d. 1843)
• 1815 - Richard Henry Dana, Jr., lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)
• 1818 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer (d. 1889)
• 1819 - Herman Melville, writer (d. 1891)
• 1858 - Hans Rott, composer (d. 1884)
• 1885 - George de Hevesy, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry 1943 (d. 1966)
• 1891 - Karl Kobelt, Swiss politician (d. 1968)

1900-1999

• 1921 - Jack Kramer (tennis player), tennis star
• 1922 - Arthur Hill , actor
• 1922 - Pat McDonald, soap opera actress (d. 1990)
• 1925 - Ernst Jandl, writer (d. 2000)
• 1927 - Raymond Leppard, English conductor
• 1930 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)
• 1931 - Tom Wilson, cartoonist (Ziggy)
• 1932 - Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)
• 1933 - Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian
• 1936 - Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer
• 1937 - Al D'Amato, U.S. senator from New York
• 1942 - Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)
• 1942 - Sjoukje Dijkstra , figure skater
• 1946 - Fiona Stanley, epidemiologist
• 1950 - Jim Carroll, poet, actor
• 1953 - Robert Cray, blues singer
• 1955 - Trevor Berbick, boxer
• 1956 - Tom Leykis, radio personality
• 1959 - Joe Elliott, rock and roll musician (Def Leppard)
• 1960 - Chuck D, rapper (Public Enemy)
• 1960 - Richard Roeper, columnist for Chicago Sun-Times, film critic partner of Roger Ebert
• 1963 - Coolio, rapper
• 1965 - Sam Mendes, film director
• 1973 - Tempestt Bledsoe, actress
• 1975 - Omar Bakht , friendly guy
• 1978 - Edgerrin James, American football player
• 1981 - Ashley Parker Angel , singer

Deaths

300-1899

• 371 - St Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop
• 1137 - King Louis VI of France (b. 1081)
• 1227 - Shimazu Tadahisa, the first of Shimazu clan and Japanese warlord (b. 1179)
• 1464 - Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1386)
• 1598 - Abraham Ortelius, cartographer (b. 1527)
• 1714 - Queen Anne of Great Britain
• 1836 - James Madison, President of the United States from 1809 to 1817 (b. 1751)
• 1876 - Wild Bill Hickock , gunfighter
• 1889 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer

1900-1999

• 1917 - Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, Montana
• 1923 - Warren G. Harding, United States President (b. 1865)
• 1964 - Johnny Burnett, singer (b. 1934)
• 1970 - Frances Farmer, actress (b. 1913)
• 1973 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, composer
• 1977 - Gary Powers, pilot (b. 1929)
• 1981 - Paddy Chayefsky, writer (b. 1923)
• 1989 - John Ogdon, English pianist (b. 1937)
• 1990 - Graham Young, British serial killer, (b. 1947)
• 1992 - Mikhail Tal, world chess champion (b. 1936)
• 1999 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, writer (b. 1897)

2000-2099

• 2001 - Korey Stringer, American football player (b. 1974)
• 2003 - Guy Thys, Belgian national football coach
• 2003 - Marie Trintignant, French actress
• 2004 - Philip Hauge Abelson physicist co-discoverer of Neptunium (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances

• Orthodox Christianity - Procession of the Cross
• Angola - Armed Forces Day
• Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago - Emancipation Day
• Benin - National Day
• People's Republic of China - Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Liberation Army
• Democratic Republic of Congo - Parent's Day
• Nicaragua - Fiesta Day
• Rastafarianism - Celebration of the liberation of Haile Selassie from slavery
• Switzerland - National Day
• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Kamál (Perfection) - First day of the eighth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• Lughnasadh - Lá Lúnasa, the traditional first day of Autumn in Ireland.
• Lammas - Neopagan festival of Lammas
• Lebanon - Army's Day (Eid al-Jaysh)
• Yorkshire, United Kingdom - Yorkshire Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 31 - August 2 - July 1 - September 1 -- listing of all days