Historical Events
- Aug 1 Protesting Kenyan cancer survivors in Nairobi urge their government to declare a "nation disaster' in a country with only 35 oncologists for 40 million people
- Aug 2 Pedro Pierluisi sworn in as new Governor of Puerto Rico replacing Ricardo A. Rosselló
- Aug 2 Saudi Arabia announces news rules for women including allowing them to travel independently abroad without a male guardian's permission
- Aug 2 Seven-year-old boy operated on after 526 teeth found inside his mouth in Chennai, India
Music History
Aug 2 Singer songwriter Ed Sheeran's Divide tour becomes the most attended and highest grossing tour of all time overtaking U2 after 893 days on the road
- Aug 3 Suspected domestic terrorist shoots and kills 22 and injures 24 at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas
- Aug 4 Australian cricket batsman Steve Smith hits brilliant 142 following his 1st innings 144 in 1st Test v England at Edgbaston; only 4th batsman all-time to score more than 140 in each innings of a Test match
- Aug 4 British Open Women's Golf, Woburn GC: Hinako Shibuno of Japan wins her maiden major title in her first LPGA event; beats American Lizette Salas by 1 stroke
- Aug 4 Car explosion kills 20 with 47 injured in Cairo, Egypt, in terrorist-related incident
- Aug 4 China's central bank allows its currency to weaken under usual 7-1 ratio to the US dollar for first time in a decade in response to further US trade tariffs
- Aug 4 Frank Zapata is the first person to cross the English Channel by flyboard in 22 minutes
- Aug 4 Gunman kills nine and injures 27 at a bar in Dayton, Ohio, in 2nd mass shooting in 24 hours in the US
- Aug 5 Australian woman Kerry Robertson confirmed as the first person to use a new assisted dying law to end her life a month earlier in Victoria
- Aug 5 Brazilian drug dealer Clauvino da Silva tries and fails to escape Rio de Janeiro jail by dressing up as his teenage daughter in silicone mask and wig
- Aug 5 Indian government announces it is changing the status of Indian-controlled Kashmir from a state to a union territory, revoking Article 370 in response to security concerns
- Aug 5 July 2019 confirmed as world's hottest-ever month recorded according to Europe's Copernicus Programme
- Aug 5 Widespread strike in Hong Kong and demonstrations against Chinese policy towards the territory bring huge disruption, including cancelling 200 flights
- Aug 6 A quarter of humanity is running out of water with 17 countries under extreme water stress including Cape Town, Los Angeles and Bangalore, according to report by the World Resources Institute
- Aug 6 Barneys New York files for bankruptcy, amid figures 7,567 US retails stores have closed so far in 2019 compared to 5,864 in 2018
- Aug 6 Lawyer representing 800 boy scouts identify 350 sex abusers within Boy Scouts of America saying "It's the largest paedophile ring on earth"
- Aug 6 The Philippines declares a national dengue epidemic with 622 people killed and 146,000 cases so far in 2019
- Aug 6 US government imposes wide-ranging sanctions on the Venezuelan government
- Aug 7 Bodies of two teenagers at center of huge manhunt and suspected of killing three people on remote British Columbia roads found after apparent suicides
- Aug 7 Largest single-state immigration raid in Mississippi as nearly 700 people arrested
- Aug 7 Wanda Vazquez becomes Puerto Rico's third governor in a week after her predecessor Pedro Pierluisi is removed by the supreme court
- Aug 8 Nuclear accident at Russian nuclear-weapon testing site at closed city Sarov kills five scientists in mysterious circumstances
- Aug 9 Landslide from torrential rain kills 59 in Mon state, Myanmar, with 80,000 in emergency evacuation sites
- Aug 10 71 people die trying to siphon gas from an overturned tanker that explodes in Morogoro region, Tanzania
- Aug 10 Financier Jeffrey Epstein found dead of an apparent suicide in his jail cell in New York, while awaiting trail for sex trafficking charges
- Aug 10 Monsoon flooding in southern and western India kills at least 150 with 40 dead in Kerala state and 100,000 in emergency relief camps
- Aug 10 Rebel forces for the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council take control of the key port of Aden in Yemen's civil war
- Aug 10 Typhoon Lekima makes landfall in Zhejiang province, China, killing at least 32 with one million evacuated
- Aug 11 Argentine President Mauricio Macri suffers defeat in preliminary election to Alberto Fernández, prompting 20% fall in the value of the peso
- Aug 12 Baltimore Orioles concede 7 home runs in doubleheader defeats against NY Yankees to break the American League single season HRs allowed record with 248 and counting
- Aug 12 Beginning of the 'glitter revolution' in Mexico City when security chief showered with pink glitter in protest of violence against women after teenager raped by police
- Aug 12 Conservative Alejandro Giammattei elected president of Guatemala
- Aug 12 Hong Kong International Airport cancels all departures as thousands of anti-government protesters occupy the terminals
- Aug 12 Scientists say they are closer to an effective treatment for Ebola after new drug trial has 90% success rate in Democratic Republic of Congo
- Aug 13 Entertainment companies CBS and Viacom announce they will merge with a combined 28 billion revenue
- Aug 13 Measles cases have tripled worldwide in 2019 according to WHO with 364,808 reported against vs 129,239 in 2018
- Aug 14 "It is raining plastic," survey published, plastic found in 90% of rain samples taken in Colorado by the US Department of the Interior and US Geological Survey
- Aug 14 "The 1619 Project" produced by Nikole Hannah-Jones, to examine legacy of slavery in America, launched in "The New York Times Magazine"
- Aug 14 American rapper ASAP Rocky found guilty of assault in Stockholm and given a suspended sentence
- Aug 14 French woman Stephanie Frappart is the first woman to referee a major match in a European men's tournament - UEFA Super Cup Chelsea vs Liverpool in Istanbul
- Aug 14 Iowa congressman Steve King says without rape and incest "“Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" in video for "The Des Moines Register"
Sports History
Aug 14 Pakistan PM Imran Khan strongly criticizes India for revoking Kashmir's special status and putting it under lockdown in address in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir
- Aug 15 60th annual finger wrestling (Fingerhakeln) championships takes place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, part of Partenkirchner Festival week
- Aug 15 American Michael Gargiulo, found guilty of stabbing three women, killing two in Los Angeles, while awaiting trial for third killing
- Aug 15 Israel bars US Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from entering for supporting Palestinian-led boycott movement
- Aug 15 Whistleblower releases damaging report on General Electric titled "General Electric, a Bigger Fraud Than Enron" claiming $38 billion accountancy fraud
- Aug 16 Huge fire in Chalantika slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, destroys 1,200 houses and leaves up to 10,000 homeless
- Aug 17 Huge wildfires begin on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands prompting evacuation of 9,000 people
- Aug 17 Landmark power-sharing deal signed by military and civilian leaders celebrated in Khartoum, Sudan, with transitional government to take over Sept 1
- Aug 17 Suicide bombing at a wedding in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 63, with over 200 injured. The Islamic State claims responsibility
- Aug 18 1.7 million take part in pro-democracy protest peacefully in Hong Kong, a quarter of the population
- Aug 18 Iceland holds a funeral for the first glacier lost to climate change at site of Okjökull glacier
Event of Interest
Aug 18 US President Donald Trump confirms he is interested in buying Greenland for the US
- Aug 19 Evelyn Hernández cleared of killing her newborn baby in landmark case in a retrial in El Salvador
Al-Bashir Admits Corruption
Aug 19 Sudanese Ex-President Omar al-Bashir admits he has received $90 million from Saudi Arabian royals at the start of his corruption trial in Khartoum
- Aug 20 Computer systems in 22 small Texas towns hacked and held to ransom in coordinated attack prompts FBI investigation
Event of Interest
Aug 20 Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigns after Matteo Salvini calls for a no-confidence vote
- Aug 20 NASA confirms mission to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa to search for alien life, to launch 2025
- Aug 21 74,155 fires caused by land clearing are burning in the Amazon rain forest, the most ever recorded, according the Brazil's National Institute for Space Research
Meeting of Interest
Aug 21 German Chancellor challenges British PM Boris Johnson to find a solution to a no-deal Brexit in 30 days at their meeting in Berlin
The Rock Highest Paid Actor
Aug 21 The Rock [Dwayne Johnson] named highest paid actor for a second year in a row, earning $89.4m
- Aug 21 US President Donald Trump says Danish PM Mette Frederiksen was "nasty" to him over his interest in buying Greenland and cancels his trip to Denmark
- Aug 22 Bielefeld in Germany offers €1m prize to anyone in who can prove the town doesn't exit to disprove 25-year-old conspiracy theory
- Aug 22 Russia launches Fedor, the first life-sized robot, into space to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
- Aug 22 South Korea says it is leaving an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan in an escalation of the rift between the two countries
- Aug 23 Russia launches the 1st floating nuclear power station the Akademik Lomonosov from port of Murmansk
Bolsonaro Sends Army to Fight Amazon Fires
Aug 24 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro orders the army to help contain fires in the Amazon after widespread environmental destruction, wildlife loss and international criticism
- Aug 24 Britain's Prince Andrew denies knowing his friend Jeffrey Epstein was involved in sexual trafficking of underage girls after public accusations made against him
- Aug 24 US adventurer Victor Vescovo is the first person to visit the deepest point of every ocean when he reaches Molloy Hole, in the Arctic
- Aug 25 Ben Stokes with an unbeaten 135 leads England to a record run chase of 362-9 and victory over Australia in the 3rd cricket Test at Headingley, Leeds; keeps Ashes Series alive at 1-1
- Aug 25 Double Dave, a rare two-headed timber rattlesnake found in Pine Barrens forest, New Jersey
- Aug 25 NASA investigates possibly the 1st crime in space over astronaut Anne McClain illegally accessing bank a/c from space
Tour Championship
Aug 25 Tour Championship, Men's Golf, East Lake GC: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland wins by 4 strokes from Xander Schauffele; biggest winner's prize in golf, US$15m
Event of Interest
Aug 26 Indonesian President Joko Widodo proposes moving the country's sinking and over-crowded capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo (Kalimantan)
- Aug 26 Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay state of Oklahoma $572 million in 1st trial against opioid manufacturer
- Aug 26 Leo DiCaprio's environmental organization Earth Alliance donates $5m to fighting fires in the Amazon
- Aug 26 Meeting of the G7 agrees on $20 million aid package to fight fires in the Amazon in Biarritz
- Aug 27 At least 25 people killed in a fire at a bar, deliberately lit by gang members in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico
- Aug 27 Race car driver Jessi Combs dies while setting new fastest women's land speed record of 522.783 mph at Alvord Desert, Oregon (posthumously awarded 2020)
- Aug 28 British PM Boris Johnson prorogues parliament, suspending it for 5 weeks to limit opposition to a no deal Brexit, prompting a furious backlash
Greta Sails to NY
Aug 28 Climate change activist Greta Thunberg arrives in New York after sailing across the Atlantic in an emissions-free voyage
- Aug 28 Discovery of 3.8-million-year-old skull of early human ancestor Australopithecus anamensis, found by Yohannes Haile-Selassie, at Miro Dora, Ethiopia, upends previous evolutionary theory published in journal "Nature"
Italian Coalition Forms
Aug 28 New Italian coalition government formed of anti-establishment Five Star Movement and center-left Democratic Party ousting Matteo Salvini
- Aug 28 US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ends her campaign for president
- Aug 29 Discovery of world's largest child sacrifice site announced by archaeologists with 227 victims from Chimú culture in Huanchaco, Peru
- Aug 29 Scientists announce there is no single 'gay' gene with genetics accounting for at most 25% of same-sex behavior, in study published in "Science"
- Aug 30 Outlook for the Great Barrier Reef downgraded to very poor according to official Australian report
- Aug 30 Second interstellar comet ever detected by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov (later named 2I/Borisov)
- Aug 31 Gunman kills seven and injures 22 during high speed chase in Odessa, Texas
- Aug 31 India removes citizenship status from 1.9 million people in state of Assam, leaving them off its new National Register of Citizens
- Aug 31 Major track crash during Formula 2 race at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium kills Anthoine Hubert and critically injures Juan Manuel Correa
- Aug 31 Minnesota Twins smash 6 HRs in 10-7 loss to the Tigers in Detroit; break MLB record by hitting 268th home run of the season
- Aug 31 US missile attack in al-Qaeda jihadist training camp in Idlib province, Syria, kills 40
Famous Weddings
Dwayne Johnson
Aug 18 Actor The Rock [Dwayne Johnson] marries Lauren Hashian in Hawaii
- Aug 18 Actors Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson marry
Ellie Goulding
Aug 31 British pop singer Ellie Goulding (32) weds British art dealer Caspar Jopling (27) at York Minister in York, England
Famous Divorces
Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth
Aug 11 American singer Miley Cyrus (26) and Australian actor Liam Hemsworth (28) announce their separation and intention to divorce, after 8 months of marriage
Famous Deaths
- Aug 1 Barry Hughart, American author of fantasy novels (Bridge of Birds), dies at 85
- Aug 1 [Donn Alan] DA Pennebaker, American documentary filmmaker (Don't Look Back), dies at 94
- Aug 3 Cliff Branch, American Pro Football HOF wide receiver (Super Bowl 1976, 80, 84 Oakland/LA Raiders; 3 × First-team All-Pro; 4 × Pro Bowl), dies at 71
- Aug 3 Henri Belolo, French disco music producer and songwriter (The Village People; The Ritchie Family), dies at 82
- Aug 3 Joe Longthorne, English singer, impressionist, and television presenter, dies of cancer at 64
- Aug 3 Mike Troy, American swimmer (Olympics 2 x gold 200m butterfly, 4×200m freestyle relay 1960), dies at 78
- Aug 4 Nuon Chea, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader 'Brother Number Two', dies at 93
Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
Aug 5 American writer (Tar Baby, Beloved, Song of Solomon), first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize (2010), dies at 88
- Aug 6 Maurice Simon, American jazz saxophonist, dies at 90
- Aug 13 Kip Addotta, American stand-up comic, dies at 75
- Aug 14 (Graham) "Polly" Farmer, Australian rules footballer. 1953-71 (East Perth, Geelong, West Perth), dies at 84
- Aug 14 Ivo Malec, Croat-French composer (Miniatures pour Lewis Carroll; Lumina), dies at 94
- Aug 14 Reg Scarlett, West Indian cricket off-spinner (3 Tests 1960), dies at 84
- Aug 16 Anna Quayle, British actress (A Hard Day's Night; Stop the World - I Want to Get Off), dies at 86
- Aug 16 Felice Gimondi, Italian road cyclist (Tour de France 1965; Giro d'Italia 1967, 69, 76; Vuelta a España 1968), dies of a heart attack at 76
- Aug 16 Jim Hardy, American NFL quarterback, 1946-52 (Los Angeles Rams; Chicago Cardinals, Detroit Lions; Pro Bowl 1950), dies at 96
- Aug 16 Peter Fonda, American actor (Easy Rider, Ulee's Gold), dies at 79
- Aug 16 Princess Christina [Maria Christina], Dutch royal, singer, and dance therapist, dies of bone cancer at 72
- Aug 18 Jack Whitaker, American sportscaster (ABC, CBS), dies of natural causes at 95
- Aug 18 Kathleen Blanco, American politician, 1st female Governor of Louisiana (2004-08), dies from cancer at 76
- Aug 19 Larry "The Mole" Taylor, American session (The Monkees) and touring rock and blues bass player (Canned Heat - "On the Road Again"; John Mayall; Tom Waits), dies of cancer at 77
- Aug 20 Russ Conway, American sports journalist (Eagleson NHL scandal), dies of heart disease at 70
- Aug 21 Norma Croker, Australian sprinter (1st Olympic Gold from Queensland), dies at 84
- Aug 22 Bobby Dillon, American NFL defensive back (second to record 50 interceptions), dies of dementia at 89
David Koch (1940-2019)
Aug 23 American businessman and philanthropist (Koch Industries), dies at 79
- Aug 23 Mario Davidovsky, Argentine-American electro-acoustic composer (Synchronisms), dies at 85
- Aug 23 Sheila Steafel, South African British actress (The Frost Report), dies at 84
- Aug 25 Bob Bouber [Boris Blom], Dutch singer (ZZ & Masks), dies at 83
- Aug 25 Pál Benkő, Hungarian-American chess player, author (Grandmaster; record 8 US Open Championships), dies at 91
- Aug 25 Vince Naimoli, American businessman and MLB team owner (Tampa Bay Devil Rays), dies of progressive supranuclear palsy at 81
- Aug 27 Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambian Prime Minister (1962-70) and 1st President of the Gambia (1970-94), dies at 95
- Aug 27 Jessi Combs, American auto racer, television personality (women’s land speed class record [4 wheels] 2013, 16), dies in jet-powered high-speed race car crash at 39
- Aug 29 Randy Romero, American jockey (Breeder's Cup 1987-89; Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame 2010), dies from kidney and liver cancer at 61
- Aug 30 Franco Columbu, Italian bodybuilder, powerlifter, actor and author (Mr. Olympia 1976, 81), dies at 78
- Aug 30 Hans Rausing, Swedish-British industrial billionaire (Tetra Pak), and philanthropist, dies at 93
- Aug 30 Valerie Harper, American actress (The Mary Tyler Moore Show; Rhoda), dies of cancer at 80
- Aug 31 Wim Statius Muller, Curaçaoa conductor, pianist, and composer, dies at 89
