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The US Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba-United States relations were broken off.
Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.
Sixty-one schoolgirls killed in Chencholai bombing by Sri Lankan Air Force air strike.
Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.
A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.
Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens in London.
An Ilyushin Il-62 airliner crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany, due to an in-flight fire, killing 156.
Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Viet Minh launches August Revolution amid the political confusion and power vacuum engulfing Vietnam.
Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).
World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when six Japanese bombers are shot down by Chinese fighters while raiding Chinese air bases.
Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last known public execution in the United States.
Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.
Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; it is not fully extinguished until September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2).
Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).
World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive designed to recover the lost province of Moselle from Germany.
U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.
Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish-Norwegian War.
Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony lead by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution.
The Spanish military Villasur expedition is wiped out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.
Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeats an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis.
Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.
Publication of the Mainz Psalter, the first book to feature a printed date of publication and printed colophon
Portuguese Crisis of 1383-85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by King John I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King John I.
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Carlsbad which is subsequently named after him.
War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.
Count Adolf VIII of Berg grants town privileges to Düsseldorf, the village on the banks of the Düssel.
Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan (traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
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