August has witnessed a number of significant events throughout history – from exciting scientific discoveries to the introduction of Coca-Cola in the UK.
From Roman times to the present day, read on to find out what other historical events happened this month…
24 historic events that happened in August
1st August, 1774
English chemist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen after successfully separating it as a single chemical element rather than a mix of gasses.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) had previously suggested that the air we breathe must contain something vital to life and various medieval alchemists tried to find it – but no one had been successful until Priestley.
2nd August, 1100
King William II (Rufus) was killed by a crossbow arrow while hunting in the New Forest. William was the third of William the Conqueror’s four sons. He was known to be fairly barbaric and wasn’t a very popular king.
While most historians say the king’s death was an accident, the reported behaviour of William’s companions immediately after his death has given others reason to speculate, as not one raised an alarm or sent for help – they simply fled the scene.
The king’s ghost is still said to haunt the woods today and there’s an iron-clad stone – ‘The Rufus Stone’ – that marks the alleged spot where he was killed.
3rd August, 1926
Britain’s first set of electric traffic lights appeared on the streets of Piccadilly, London.
In 1868, railway signalling engineer J.P Knight had installed the first trial traffic device outside the Houses of Parliament to regulate the increasing amount of horse-drawn traffic. However, because his invention was operated by gas, it soon exploded and killed a patrolling policeman.
Unfortunately, gas explosions continued to destroy traffic light devices up until 1932!
4th August, 1693
According to popular legend, Champagne is said to have been invented on this day by French monk Dom Pierre Pérignon. And even now, Dom Pérignon remains a popular brand of vintage Champagne.
While historians say that it’s unlikely that champagne was invented on this exact date, what we do know is that Pérignon made huge contributions to the development of modern champagne. He was responsible for creating the technique that finally produced a successful white wine from red wine grapes.
This was a huge step forward from the wines of medieval and Renaissance Europe, which tended to be almost entirely red and almost always still.
4th August, 1914
Britain declared war on Germany in support of France and Belgium, as well as on Turkey for her alliance with Germany.
The declaration was a result of Germany’s refusal to remove troops from neutral Belgium. In 1839, the United Kingdom, France, and Prussia (later Germany) had signed the Treaty of London, which guaranteed Belgium’s sovereignty.
4th August, 1944
After more than two years since she and her family moved into their hiding annex, Anne Frank was arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police. The arrest was the result of a tip-off from an informer who has never been identified.
The only member of the Frank family to survive the Holocaust was Anne’s father, Otto. He later worked diligently to fulfil his daughter’s wish of having a novel published about her time in hiding based on her diary. Otto Frank succeeded and The Secret Annex (later Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl) was first published in 1947.
6th August, 1881
Sir Alexander Flemming was born in Scotland. Flemming would become the pharmacologist and Nobel Prize winning-physician who discovered penicillin.
Fleming’s breakthrough had a significant impact on not only the world of science but on the use of medicine, and on mankind in general.
6th August, 1945
The United States became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, another was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan announced its surrender a few days after.
Although the atomic bombs marked the end of the Second World War, many historians believe they also ignited the Cold War.
8th August, 1963
Britain’s Great Train Robbery – arguably the most famous heist in British history – in which £2.6m was stolen from Royal Mail took place.
Five career criminals, led by antique dealer Bruce Reynolds, tampered with a railway signal which forced a Post Office mail train travelling from Glasgow to London Euston to stop. After taking control of the train and attacking the driver, they drove it to a prearranged meeting point and loaded the money into a truck.
The £2.6m they stole is equivalent to £60.5m today.
9th August, 48 BC
In the Battle of Pharsalus near central Greece, Julius Caesar defeated Pompey the Great.
The battle was one of the most decisive in world history because it ended the 500-year period of the Roman Republic and launched the 500-year era of the Roman Empire. This meant the rule of the Senate was replaced by Emperors.
9th August, 1483
The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Rome, was opened for its first mass. The chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and 1481.
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel later became one of the Italian artist Michelangelo’s finest works, as well as one of the most significant artistic accomplishments in human history. Michelangelo painted the chapel’s ceiling between 1508 and 1512 under the patronage of Pope Julius II.
13th August, 1964
Gwynne Owen and Peter Anthony Allen became the last criminals to be executed in the UK after murdering a friend for money.
Due to an increasingly liberal public, people were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with killing criminals. Some historians and criminologists believe that just a few weeks delay would have been enough to save the two men from their fate.
13th August, 1961
Construction of the Berlin Wall began by the communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany).
After the Second World War, Germany had been divided into separate countries. East Germany became communist under the control of the Soviet Union, and West Germany was a democratic country allied with Britain, France, and the United States.
The Berlin Wall’s purpose was to prevent the population of East Berlin from escaping to West Berlin. In many ways, it was the ideal symbol of the ‘Iron Curtain’ that separated the communist countries of Eastern Europe from the democratic Western countries during the Cold War.
16th August, 1819
Up to 60,000 working-class people from the towns and villages of what is today, Greater Manchester, marched to St. Peter’s Field in the centre of the city. They were protesting for political representation at a time when only wealthy landowners could vote.
The peaceful protest soon turned sinister when Manchester magistrates ordered a private militia paid for by the rich to storm the crowd with cavalry swords. Eighteen people are estimated to have died and over 650 were injured in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre.
Historians believe the event paved the way for parliamentary democracy.
18th August, 1940
Known as ‘The Hardest Day of the Second World War’, this was the day during The Battle of Britain that saw the highest losses of aircraft on both sides. One hundred and thirty-six British and 100 German aircraft are thought to have been damaged or destroyed.
22nd August, 565
According to biographers, the Loch Ness monster was said to be spotted for the first time by St. Columba while he was on his way to visit the king of the northern Picts, near Inverness.
Although accounts of this aquatic beast living in Loch Ness date back around 1,500 years, all attempts to find any concrete evidence of its existence have failed. Nevertheless, this hasn’t discouraged the public’s continued enthusiasm to hear any news about ‘Nessie’.
22nd August, 1485
Richard III became the last English king to die in battle. He was defeated by Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire. Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII after his victory.
The new Tudor dynasty would rule over England for the next one hundred years.
22nd August, 1642
The English Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians began. It was largely the result of disagreements over religion, the king’s economic policies, and his use of power.
In 1649, the victorious Parliamentarians sentenced King Charles I to death on charges of treason. The king’s execution resulted in the only period of republican rule in British history, during which Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
24th August, 1875
Matthew Webb began his attempt to swim from Dover in Kent to Calais, France. He arrived in Calais at 10.40am the following morning having been in the water for 22 hours, and became the first person to swim the English Channel.
Webb set a popular trend and these days around 300 people take on the challenge each year.
24th August, 2008
The Summer Olympics in Beijing became the most-watched event on television ever. Between the 8th and 24th of August, nearly five billion people (70% of the world’s population) watched.
27th August, 1900
Britain’s first long-distance bus service began between London and Leeds. The journey time was a whopping two days.
28th August, 1833
After years of campaigning and suffering, the Slavery Abolition Act was given Royal Assent in Britain. Slavery was abolished in the majority of British colonies and around 800,000 slaves in the Caribbean – as well as South Africa and a small amount in Canada – were freed.
The act came into force on 1st August the following year, but it wasn’t until 1838 that slavery was fully abolished throughout Britain and its colonies. Unfortunately, a few territories had been excluded and some ex-slaves in the Caribbean had been forced to become apprentices (working for former masters for a very low wage).
31st August, 1900
Originally created in 1886, Coca-Cola was sold for the first time in Britain when Charles Candler, son of Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler, brought five gallons of syrup with him on a visit to London.
However, Coca-Cola didn’t go on sale regularly until the early 1920s – first at outlets around London like Selfridges and the London Coliseum.
Today, the ever-popular drink is available to buy in every country in the world, except two: Cuba and North Korea.
31st August, 1997
Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris. After leaving the Ritz Hotel with her partner, Dodi Al Fayed, a swarm of paparazzi on motorcycles began aggressively tailing their car at high speed.
In the words of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Diana was ‘the people’s princess’. She used her celebrity status to raise awareness of a number of important causes – including leprosy, mental health, and domestic abuse.
Diana made headlines in 1987 when she intentionally shook hands with an AIDS patient – working to dispel the common myth that HIV/AIDS could be spread through touch.
Final thoughts…
It’s fun to think about what events were happening on this day throughout history. From Britain’s most famous heist to the birth of the Roman Empire, many exciting historical events happened in August.
For more history-related content, head over to the art and culture section of our website where you’ll find unmissable history films, historic sites to visit, and other monthly history articles. Or, if you prefer something a little more interactive, why not check out the upcoming history talks on Rest Less Events?