Historical Events
- Aug 2 1st mailboxes installed in Boston and NYC streets
- Aug 2 Government of India transferred from East India Company to the British Crown
1st Transatlantic Telegraph Cable
Aug 5 First transatlantic telegraph cable lands at Trinity Bay, Newfoundland spearheaded by Cyrus West Field (will fail after 3 weeks)
Historic Invention
Aug 16 Britain's Queen Victoria telegraphs US President James Buchanan for 1st time by transatlantic telegraph cable, he replies "it is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle."
- Aug 17 1st bank in Hawaii opens
- Aug 18 Netherlands & Japan sign trade agreement
- Aug 20 Rudolf Virchov's groundbreaking medical text "Cellular Pathology" is published in Berlin, establishing the basis for modern medical science [1]
- Aug 21 1st Lincoln-Douglas debate in Illinois
- Aug 24 Richmond "Daily Dispatch" reports 90 blacks arrested for learning
Famous Birthdays
- Aug 1 Hans Rott, Austrian composer and organist, born in Vienna, Austrian Empire (d. 1884)
- Aug 1 Paul Barth, German philosopher and sociologist, born in Oleśnica, Poland (d. 1922)
- Aug 2 Catharina van Rennes, Dutch composer, born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1940)
- Aug 2 Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Queen consort of William and Regent of the Netherlands, born in Arolsen Castle, Arolsen, Waldeck and Pyrmont, German Confederation (d. 1934)
- Aug 2 William Watson, British poet (Prince's Quest, Father of Forest), born in Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire (d. 1935)
- Aug 6 Albert Fuchs, Swiss-German composer, born in Basel, Switzerland (d. 1910)
Christiaan Eijkman (1858-1930)
Aug 11 Dutch physician and bacteriologist (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1929), born in Nijkerk, Netherlands
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria (1858-1889)
Aug 21 Crown Prince of Austria and heir apparent to the Imperial throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, born in Schloss Laxenburg, Lower Austria, Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Aug 27 Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician and glottologist, born in Spinetta, Piedmont, Italy (d. 1932)
