“I leave this rule for others when I’m dead, Be always sure you’re right — THEN GO AHEAD!” —Davy Crockett
August 10
612 BC – Estimated date of the fall of Nineveh, then the world’s largest city and capital of the Assyrian Empire.
30 BC – Egyptian queen Cleopatra commits suicide following the defeat of her lover Marc Antony, to escape being a captive of Octavian (Caesar Augustus).
August 11
3114 BC – Reported date of the start of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
1357 – King Joao I of Portugal is born, “who preserved his country’s independence from Castile and initiated Portugal’s overseas expansion. He was the founder of the Aviz” dynasty.
1919 – Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie dies.
1988 – Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda is formed by Osama bin Laden.
August 12
1121 – Georgian forces conquer Muslim troops at the Battle of Didgori.
1827 – English poet William Blake dies.
1881 – Legendary director and producer Cecil B. DeMille is born.
1908 – Henry Ford’s first Model T automobile is built.
1930 – Evil Nazi collaborator, billionaire, and Marxist globalist George Soros is born.
1982 – American actor Henry Fonda dies.
August 13
1521 – Hernán Cortés’s Spanish forces capture Aztec capital Tenochtitlán.
1860 – Iconic Wild West markswoman Annie Oakley is born.
1899 – Brilliant British director Alfred Hitchcock is born.
1910 – Influential British nurse Florence Nightingale dies.
1937 – The Battle of Shanghai begins, as the Japanese launch a war with China that will snowball into WWII.
1946 – English science fiction writer HG Wells dies.
August 14
1040 – King Duncan I of Scotland is killed while fighting the forces of his cousin Macbeth, who then takes the throne; inspiration for Shakespeare’s play.
1480 – Muslim Ottomans, having conquered the Italian city of Otranto, martyr 800 Christians as part of a slaughter of some 12,000 inhabitants.
1765 – The Patriot organization that would become the Revolution-launching Sons of Liberty is formed. Read more.
1862 – Abraham Lincoln meets with a coalition of black Americans to determine if freed slaves should relocate to a colony outside the US. Lincoln’s meetings with black Americans were always cordial, and marked a significant historical moment when black leaders became welcome at the White House.
1914 – WWI: British Expeditionary Force arrives in Le Havre, France.
1945 – V-J Day: the day the Japanese surrender to the Allies was announced, ending WWII. Millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed by Japan in the course of the war, but peace was finally within reach. Read more.
August 15
1057 – King Macbeth of Scotland is killed by Malcolm Canmore, son of the king whom Macbeth had previously killed.
1461 – The Empire of Trebizond, offshoot of the Romano-Byzantine Empire, falls to the Ottomans.
1620 – The Mayflower and the Speedwell set sail from England with passengers (most famously the people we now call Pilgrims) looking for a new life in America.
1769 – Future military leader and dictatorial French emperor Napoleon is born.
1863 – The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between Japanese samurai and British forces.
1939 – The film “Wizard of Oz” premieres.
1998 – The terrorist Omagh bombing in Ireland, “the single deadliest atrocity in the history of the Troubles,” kills 29 people.
August 16
1501 – Michelangelo receives a contract to sculpt the magnificent statue David.
1777 – Battle of Bennington: American Revolutionaries win a key victory.
1780 – Battle of Camden: British Banastre “the Butcher” Tarleton beats American Revolutionaries.
1888 – Guerilla commander TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, is born.
1948 – Baseball icon Babe Ruth dies.
1956 – Actor Bela Lugosi, most famous for portraying Dracula, dies.
1977 – Elvis Presley, “King of Rock and Roll,” dies.
August 17
1786 – Davy Crockett is born. He “was a legendary American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. Nicknamed the ‘King of the Wild Frontier,’ he is most well-known for the ‘tall tales’ told about his exploits, his real-life opposition to the [bad] treatment of Native American Indians, and his involvement in the Texas Revolution.” Died heroically while defending the Alamo from Mexican troops.
1786 – King Frederick “the Great” of Prussia dies.
1850 – José de San Martín, revolutionary leader in South America, dies.
1920 – Iconic Irish actress Maureen O’Hara is born.
1983 – American lyricist Ira Gershwin dies.
1987 – Former Nazi leader Rudolf Hess is found strangled to death in prison.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.
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Author: Catherine Salgado
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