Historical Events
Brigham Young Leads the Mormons
Aug 8 Brigham Young chosen as head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints following the death of Joseph Smith
- Aug 29 1st white-indian lacrosse game in Montreal, Indians win
Famous Birthdays
Menelik II (1844-1913)
Aug 17 Emperor of Ethiopia (1889-1913) and Negus/King of Shewa (1866–89), born in Angolalla, Ethiopia
- Aug 22 George Washington De Long, American Arctic Explorer whose disastrous expedition provided evidence to support the theory of trans-Arctic oceanic drift, born in New York City (d. 1881)
- Aug 29 Edward Carpenter, English poet and philosopher (Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure), born in Hove, Sussex, England (d. 1929)
- Aug 30 Friedrich Ratzel, German social-geographer (Lebensraum), born in Karlsruhe, Germany (d. 1904)
Famous Deaths
- Aug 4 Jakob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman, dies at 71
- Aug 10 Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia, youngest daughter and fourth child of Tsar Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, and his wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, dies at 19
- Aug 11 Jernej Kopitar, Slovene philologist and linguist (Slavic Grammatica), dies at 63
- Aug 14 Henry Francis Cary, translator (Dante), dies
- Aug 29 Edmund Ignatius Rice, Irish founder of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers (b. 1762)
- Aug 30 Francis Baily, English astronomer and describer of "Baily's Beads" during solar eclipse, dies at 70
