Events

• 295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War.
• 947 – Abu Yazid, a Kharijite rebel leader, is defeated and killed in the Hodna Mountains in modern-day Algeria by Fatimid forces.
• 1153 – Baldwin III of Jerusalem takes control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende, and also captures Ascalon.
• 1504 – In Ireland, the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) and Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds fight in the Battle of Knockdoe.
• 1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships, an act later known as “Holmes’s Bonfire”.
• 1745 – Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan: The start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as “the 45”.
• 1745 – Ottoman-Persian War: In the Battle of Kars, the Ottoman army is routed by Persian forces led by Nader Shah.
• 1759 – Battle of Lagos Naval battle during the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France.
• 1772 – Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d’état, in which he assumes power and enacts a new constitution that divides power between the Riksdag and the King.
• 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks: The last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning the nickname “Old Ironsides”.
• 1813 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina’s Second Triumvirate.
• 1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre’s photographic process is a gift “free to the world”.
• 1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.
• 1862 – American Indian Wars: During an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
• 1920 – The Tambov Rebellion breaks out, in response to the Bolshevik policy of Prodrazvyorstka.
• 1936 – The Great Purge of the Soviet Union begins when the first of the Moscow Trials is convened.
• 1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.
• 1941 – Germany and Romania sign the Tiraspol Agreement, rendering the region of Transnistria under control of the latter.
• 1942 – World War II: Operation Jubilee: The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, France and fails, many Canadians are killed or captured. The operation was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy.
• 1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
• 1945 – August Revolution: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
• 1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
• 1960 – Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
• 1965 – Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture.
• 1980 – Otłoczyn railway accident: In Poland’s worst post-war railway accident, 67 people lose their lives and a further 62 are injured.
• 1981 – Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
• 1989 – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
• 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.
• 2002 – Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
• 2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
• 2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.
• Afghan Independence Day, commemorates the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919, granting independence from Britain (Afghanistan).
• August Revolution Commemoration Day (Vietnam).

People (Births)

• 1590 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (d. 1649).
• 1711 – Edward Boscawen, English admiral and politician (d. 1761).
• 1719 – Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1791).
• 1878 – Manuel L. Quezon, Filipino soldier, lawyer, and politician, 2nd President of the Philippines (d. 1944).
• 1883 – José Mendes Cabeçadas, Portuguese admiral and politician, 9th President of Portugal (d. 1965).
• 1907 – Thruston Ballard Morton, American soldier and politician (d. 1982).
• 1913 – Peter Kemp, Indian-English soldier and author (d. 1993).
• 1934 – David Durenberger, American soldier, lawyer, and politician.
• 1946 – Charles Bolden, American general and astronaut.
• 1977 – Iban Mayo, Spanish cyclist.
• 1987 – Nick Driebergen, Dutch swimmer.
• 1994 – Nafissatou Thiam, Belgian pentathlete and heptathlete.

People (Deaths)

• 947 – Abu Yazid, Kharijite rebel leader (b. 873).
• 1541 – Vincenzo Cappello, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1469).
• 1691 – Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, Ottoman commander and politician, 117th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1637).
• 1808 – Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Swedish admiral and shipbuilder (b. 1721).
• 1957 – David Bomberg, English soldier and painter (b. 1890).
• 1970 – Paweł Jasienica, Polish soldier and historian (b. 1909).