Events

• 79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

• 1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason by Edward I of England.

• 1328 – Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.

• 1514 – Battle of Chaldiran ended with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, Safavids founder.

• 1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.

• 1555 – Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands.

• 1595 – Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.

• 1708 – Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.

• 1775 – King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion.

• 1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it wasn’t accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years.

• 1793 – French Revolution: a levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention.

• 1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.

• 1813 – At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.

• 1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.

• 1858 – The Round Oak rail accident occurs in Brierley Hill in the Black Country, England. It is 'Arguably the worst disaster ever to occur on british railways'.

• 1864 – The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.

• 1866 – Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.

• 1873 – Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opened.

• 1896 – First Cry of the Philippine Revolution is made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila.

• 1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented.

• 1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.

• 1914 – World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.

• 1921 – British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber estuary. Of her 49 British and American training crew, only 4 survive.

• 1923 – Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

• 1927 – Sacco and Vanzetti are executed.

• 1929 – Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, continuing until the next day, resulted in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

• 1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.

• 1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

• 1942 – World War II: The last cavalry charge in history takes place at Izbushensky.

• 1943 – World War II: Kharkov liberated.

• 1944 – World War II: Marseille liberated.

• 1944 – World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

• 1944 – Freckleton Air Disaster – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.

• 1946 – Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein.

• 1948 – World Council of Churches is formed.

• 1954 – First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

• 1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.

• 1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

• 1975 – Successful Communist coup in Laos.

• 1977 – The Gossamer Condor wins the Kremer prize for human powered flight.

• 1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.

• 1982 – Bachir Gemayel is elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.

• 1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.

• 1989 – Hungary: the last communist government open the Iron curtain and causes the exodus of thousands of Eastern Germans to West Germany via Hungary (September 11).

• 1989 – Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way).

• 1989 – 1,645 Australian domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute.

• 1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

• 1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

• 1990 – West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.

• 1994 – Eugene Bullard, The only black pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

• 1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled 'A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.'

• 2000 – A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.

• 2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who is abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.

Births

• 1486 – Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (d. 1566)

• 1524 – François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (d. 1590)

• 1623 – Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish Socinian theologist (d. 1675)

• 1724 – Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)

• 1741 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French explorer (d. 1788)

• 1754 – King Louis XVI of France (d. 1793)

• 1769 – Georges Cuvier, French biologist and statesman (d. 1832)

• 1783 – William Tierney Clark, English civil engineer (d. 1852)

• 1785 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d. 1819)

• 1805 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman (d. 1893)

• 1814 – James Roosevelt Bayley, American religious leader (d. 1877)

• 1829 – Moritz Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1920)

• 1836 – Marie Henriette of Austria, Queen of the Belgians (d. 1902)

• 1843 – William Southam, Canadian newspaper publisher (d. 1932)

• 1846 – Alexander Milne Calder, American sculptor (d. 1923)

• 1847 – Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927)

• 1849 – William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor (d. 1903)

• 1852 – Arnold Toynbee, English economist and social reformer (d. 1883)

• 1852 – Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia. (d. 1913)

• 1854 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish/German composer (d. 1925)

• 1864 – Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936)

• 1868 – Edgar Lee Masters, American author (d. 1950)

• 1875 – William Eccles, English radio pioneer (d. 1966)

• 1875 – Eugene Lanceray, Russian artist (d. 1946)

• 1880 – Alexander Grin, Russian writer (d. 1932)

• 1883 – Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, American general (d. 1953)

• 1884 – Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)

• 1884 – Ogden L. Mills, American Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1937)

• 1900 – Ernst Krenek, Austrian-born composer (d. 1991)

• 1900 – Malvina Reynolds, American folk singer/songwriter (d. 1978)

• 1901 – John Sherman Cooper, American politician (d. 1991)

• 1901 – Guy Bush, Major League Baseball pitcher (d. 1985)

• 1903 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)

• 1905 – Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)

• 1908 – Hannah Frank, Scottish artist (d. 2008)

• 1909 – Syd Buller, English cricketer (d. 1970)

• 1910 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (d. 1979)

• 1910 – Lonny Frey, American baseball player

• 1911 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian ski-jumper (d. 1998)

• 1912 – Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor (d. 1996)

• 1917 – Tex Williams, American singer (d. 1985)

• 1919 – Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin, Russian mathematician (d. 1984)

• 1921 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner

• 1921 – Sam Cook, England cricketer (d. 1996)

• 1922 – Jean Darling, American child actress

• 1922 – Pierre Gauvreau, French Canadian painter, television writer and producer

• 1922 – George Kell, American baseball player (d. 2009)

• 1923 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (d. 2003)

• 1924 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer (d. 2005)

• 1924 – Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel laureate

• 1925 – Robert Mulligan, American film director (d. 2008)

• 1926 – Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist, (d. 2006)

• 1927 – Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator

• 1927 – Martial Solal, French jazz pianist and composer

• 1928 – Marian Seldes, American actress

• 1929 – Vera Miles, American actress

• 1930 – Michel Rocard, French politician

• 1931 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• 1932 – Houari Boumedienne, President of Algeria (d. 1978)

• 1932 – Mark Russell, American comedian and political commentator

• 1933 – Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

• 1933 – Pete Wilson, American politician

• 1934 – Barbara Eden, American actress and singer

• 1934 – Sonny Jurgensen, American football player

• 1936 – Henry Lee Lucas, American serial killer (d. 2001)

• 1943 – Nelson DeMille, American novelist

• 1944 – Antonia Novello, former United States Surgeon General

• 1945 – Rayfield Wright, American football player

• 1946 – Keith Moon, English musician (The Who) (d. 1978)

• 1947 – Willy Russell, British playwright

• 1947 – David Robb, British actor

• 1948 – Andrei Pleşu, Romanian writer, essayist

• 1948 – Daniel Ruettiger, American motivational speaker

• 1949 – Katiana Balanika, Greek actress and singer

• 1949 – Geoff Capes, English strongman

• 1949 – Shelley Long, American actress

• 1949 – Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor

• 1951 – Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (d. 2004)

• 1951 – Allan Bristow, American basketball head coach

• 1951 – Queen Noor of Jordan

• 1951 – Jimi Jamison, American singer (Survivor)

• 1952 – Vicky Leandros, Greek singer and politician

• 1953 – Bobby G, British singer (Bucks Fizz)

• 1954 – Charles Busch, American director, writer, actor and drag queen

• 1956 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)

• 1956 – Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, Norwegian politician

• 1956 – Skipp Sudduth, American actor

• 1957 – Tasos Mitropoulos, Greek footballer and politician

• 1958 – Julio Franco, Dominican baseball player

• 1959 – George Kalovelonis, Greek tennis player

• 1960 – Rodney Alan Greenblat, American graphic artist

• 1960 – Chris Potter, Canadian actor

• 1961 – Dean DeLeo, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)

• 1961 – Gary Mabbutt, English footballer

• 1962 – Martin Cauchon, Canadian politician

• 1963 – Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player

• 1963 – Kenny Wallace, American race car driver

• 1963 – Park Chan-wook, Korean director and screenwriter

• 1963 – Richard Illingworth, England cricketer

• 1964 – Johan Bruyneel, Belgian cyclist

• 1964 – Kong Hee, Singaporean pastor

• 1964 – Yoshikazu Taru, Japanese professional wrestler

• 1964 – Wendy Pepper, American designer

• 1965 – Roger Avary, Canadian screenwriter, director, and producer

• 1966 – Rik Smits, Dutch-American basketball player

• 1967 – Richard Petrie, New Zealand cricketer

• 1968 – Chris DiMarco, American golfer

• 1969 – Keith Tyson, English artist

• 1969 – Jeremy Schaap, American sportswriter

• 1969 – Geneviève Brouillette, Quebec television and film actress

• 1970 – Jay Mohr, American actor and comedian

• 1970 – River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993)

• 1970 – Lawrence Frank, American basketball coach

• 1970 – Brad Mehldau, American pianist

• 1971 – Demetrio Albertini, Italian footballer

• 1971 – BoneCrusher, American rapper

• 1972 – Martin Grainger, English footballer

• 1972 – Raul Casanova, Puerto Rican baseball player

• 1972 – Mark Butcher, England cricketer

• 1973 – Casey Blake, American baseball player

• 1973 – Kerry Walmsley, New Zealand cricketer

• 1973 – Malaika Arora Khan, Indian actress and model

• 1974 – Ray Park, Scottish actor

• 1974 – Seth Binzer, aka Shifty Shellshock, American musician (Crazy Town)

• 1974 – Benjamin Limo, Kenyan runner

• 1974 – Christian Beranek, American graphic novelist and actor

• 1975 – Eliza Carthy, English singer and fiddler

• 1975 – Sean Marks, New Zealander-born basketball player

• 1975 – Jarkko Ruutu, Finnish ice hockey player

• 1976 – Scott Caan, American actor

• 1976 – Pat Garrity, American basketball player

• 1977 – Douglas Sequeira, Costa Rican footballer

• 1978 – Kobe Bryant, American basketball player

• 1978 – Julian Casablancas, American singer (The Strokes)

• 1979 – Edgar Sosa, Mexican boxer

• 1979 – Ritchie Neville, British musician

• 1980 – Denny Bautista, Dominican baseball player

• 1980 – Rex Grossman, American football player

• 1981 – Stephan Loboué, Ivorian footballer

• 1981 – Carmen Luvana, American pornographic actress.

• 1981 – Carlos Cuéllar, Spanish footballer

• 1982 – Natalie Coughlin, American swimmer

• 1982 – Scott Palguta, American soccer player

• 1983 – Sun Ming Ming, Chinese basketball player

• 1984 – Glen Johnson, English footballer

• 1986 – Neil Cicierega, American cartoonist and musician

• 1987 – Nikki Gil, Filipina actress and host

Deaths

• 93 – Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (b. 40)

• 634 – Abu Bakr, Arabian caliph (b. 578)

• 1106 – Magnus, Duke of Saxony (b. 1045)

• 1176 – Emperor Rokujo of Japan (b. 1164)

• 1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot (b. 1272)

• 1387 – King Olav IV of Norway (b. 1370)

• 1507 – Jean Molinet, French writer (b. 1435)

• 1519 – Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot (b. 1465)

• 1540 – Guillaume Budé, French scholar (b. 1467)

• 1591 – Luis Ponce de León, Spanish poet and mystic (b. 1527)

• 1618 – Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)

• 1628 – George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1592)

• 1652 – John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)

• 1706 – Colonel Edward Nott, Esq., British Crown Governor of Virginia (b. 1654)

• 1723 – Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (b. 1639)

• 1806 – Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (b. 1736)

• 1813 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)

• 1819 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)

• 1853 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)

• 1867 – Auguste-Marseille Barthélemy, French poet (b. 1796)

• 1892 – Deodoro da Fonseca, 1^st President of Brazil (b. 1827)

• 1926 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)

• 1927 – Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (b. 1891)

• 1927 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (b. 1888)

• 1937 – Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)

• 1955 – Reginald Tate, British actor (b. 1896)

• 1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (b. 1895)

• 1962 – Walter Anderson, German folklorist (b. 1885)

• 1962 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (b. 1892)

• 1963 – Glen Gray, American jazz musician and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra (b. 1900)

• 1966 – Francis X. Bushman, American actor (b. 1883)

• 1967 – Georges Berger, Belgian racing driver (b. 1918)

• 1971 – The original Shamu, Sea World orca

• 1974 – Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist (b. 1888)

• 1977 – Naum Gabo, Russian artist (b. 1890)

• 1982 – Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)

• 1987 – Didier Pironi, French racing car driver (b. 1952)

• 1989 – Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese writer and academic (b. 1944)

• 1989 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (b. 1927)

• 1990 – David Rose, American composer and orchestra leader (b. 1910)

• 1995 – Dwayne Goettel, Canadian musician (Skinny Puppy)(b. 1964)

• 1997 – John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)

• 1999 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (b. 1926)

• 1999 – James White, Northern Irish writer (b. 1928)

• 2000 – John Anthony Kaiser, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1932)

• 2001 – Kathleen Freeman, American actress (b. 1919)

• 2001 – Peter Maas, American novelist (b. 1929)

• 2002 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American baseball player (b. 1922)

• 2003 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (b. 1946)

• 2003 – Jack Dyer, Australian rules footballer (b. 1913)

• 2003 – John Geoghan, American Catholic priest (b. 1935)

• 2005 – Brock Peters, American actor (b. 1927)

• 2005 – Ninjalicious, Canadian author and urban explorer (b. 1973)

• 2006 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1928)

• 2007 – Robert Symonds, American actor (b. 1926)

• 2008 – John Russell, British-born American art critic and author (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances

• Roman festivals – Vulcanalia.

• RC Saints – Saint Rose of Lima, Philip Benitius

• European Union – Remembrance Day for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes

• Swaziland – Umhlanga Day.

• Ukraine – Flag Day.

• International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Places

• 23 August, a commune in Constanţa County, Romania

• 23 August, a village in Zăvoi Commune, Caraş-Severin County, Romania

• 23 August, a village in Malovăţ Commune, Mehedinţi County, Romania