Events

Up to 1900 
 3113 B.C.  Maya Calendar, started on this date (some sources give August 11). It ends either on December 21 or 23, 2012. Although some people thought the world would end in 2012, life continued as normal.
 29 BC  Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
 523  John succeeds Hormisdas as Pope.
 582  Maurice becomes Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.
 1099  Paschal II is elected Pope.
 1315  Louis X of France marries Clemence d'Anjou.
 1326  Aradia de Toscano, according to legend/folklore, is initiated into a Dianic witchcraft cult, subsequently founds the tradition of Stregheria later known as the Malandanti.
 1415  Henry V of England lands at Chef-en-Caux, France with 8000 men.
 1516  Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain signed. In it, Francis recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
 1521  Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés
 1532  The Duchy of Brittany absorbed into the Kingdom of France.
 1536  Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
 1553  Michael Servetus arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.
 1624  Louis XIII of France appoints Cardinal Richelieu as Prime Minister.
 1704  War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.
 1762  Seven Years' War: British forces take Havana in the then-Spanish colony of Cuba.
 1779  American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of US Naval Forces before the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
 1792  Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal and declared an enemy of the people.
 1806  The United Kingdom takes control of the Cape Colony in present-day South Africa from the Netherlands.
 1809  Battle of Bergisel: Tyroleans under Andreas Hofer defeat the French.
 1814  The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.
 1826  Scotsman Alexander Gordon Laing enters Timbuktu, at the first time that a European is known to have arrived there.
 1831  Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse which he believes is a sign of God. 8 days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
 1868  A large earthquake strikes near Arica (then in Peru, now in Chile), causing an estimated 25,000 casualties and a tsunami that causes damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
 1878  The Luray Caverns in Northwest Virginia are discovered.
 1898  Spanish-American War: Spanish and US forces engage in a mock battle in Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrenders in order to keep the city out of Filipino hands.
 1898  Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.

1901  2000 
 1905  Norway holds a referendum in favour of dissolving the union with Sweden.
 1913  Otto Witte, an acrobat, is crowned King of Albania.
 1913  Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
 1918  Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
 1918  BMW is founded as a public company in Germany.
 1920  Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw begins, lasts till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
 1923  First major seagoing ship arrives at Gdynia, newly constructed Polish seaport.
 1923  Gustav Stresemann forms Germany's first "Grand Coalition" government.
 1935  The wall of the dam Alla Sella Zerbino breaks in the Ligurian Appenines in Italy. Flooding in Molare and Ovada kills over 100 or more.
 1937  The Japanese attack Shanghai, China.
 1940  World War II: Battle of Britain begins - The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.
 1942  Walt Disney's fifth animated feature, Bambi, premiers.
 1948  Austria joins UNESCO.
 1952  West Germany and Japan join the International Monetary Fund.
 1954  The national anthem of Pakistan - Qaumi Taranah - is broadcast for the first time.
 1960  The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
 1961  The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to stop its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West. The Berlin Wall is built as a result.
 1964  Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West, becoming the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.
 1968  Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate Greek military leader George Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
 1969  The three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, are released from a 3-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.
 1977  Members of the British National Front clash with anti-National Front demonstrators in Lewisham, London. 111 people are injured and 214 arrested.
 1978  150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.
 1984  The new International Airport of Jakarta is opened.
 1987  U.S. President Ronald Reagan assumes responsibility for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.
 1996  Marc Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin and Lelièvre were arrested.
 1997  South Park debuts on Comedy Central.
 1999  The rising sun flag, already in use since 1868, becomes the official Flag of Japan.

From 2001 
 2001  The Arena auf Schalke is opened, as the home of the football team FC Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
 2002  Major flooding occurs in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in what is referred to there as the "Flood of the Century".
 2004  Games of the XXVIII Olympiad opens in Athens, Greece.
 2004  Hurricane Charley, a category 4 storm, strikes the Fort Myers, Florida, area.
 2004  Black Friday crackdown by NSS on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé.
 2004  156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
 2008  American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the Olympic Games' individual gold medal record.
 2008  South Ossetian War: Russian troops occupy the Georgian city of Gori.

Births

Up to 1900 
 582  Arnulf of Metz, French bishop and saint (d. 640)
 1311  King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon (d. 1350)
 1625  Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician and physicist (d. 1698)
 1651  Balthasar Permoser, German sculptor (d. 1732)
 1666  William Wotton, English scholar (d. 1727)
 1700  Heinrich von Bruhl, German politician (d. 1763) 
 1717  Louis François, Prince of Conti, French prince (d. 1776)
 1743  Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (d. 1808)
 1752  Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily (d. 1814)
 1757  James Gillray, British caricaturist (d. 1815)
 1762  Therione de Mericourt, French revolutionary (d. 1817)
 1790  William Wentworth, Australian explorer and politician (d. 1872)
 1792  Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen consort of William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1849)
 1800  Ippolito Rosellini, Italian Egyptologist (d. 1843)
 1802  Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian writer (d. 1850)
 1803  Vladimir Odoyevsky, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1869)
 1810  Christian C. A. Lange, Norwegian historian and archivist (d. 1861)
 1814  Anders Jonas Angstrom, Swedish astronomer and physicist (d. 1874)
 1818  Lucy Stone, American Women's Rights activist (d. 1893)
 1819  Aurelio Saffi, Italian politician (d. 1890)
 1819  George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist (d. 1903)
 1820  George Grove, English musicologist (d. 1900)
 1842  Albert Sorel, French writer and historian (d. 1906)
 1851  Felix Adler, German-born American educator (d. 1933)
 1852  Christian Krohg, Norwegian painter (d. 1925)
 1853  Antonio Salandra, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1931)
 1857  Henri Pittier, Swiss-Venezuelan naturalist and biologist (d. 1950)
 1860  Annie Oakley, American sharp shooter (d. 1926)
 1866  Giovanni Agnelli, Italian industrialist and founder of Fiat (d. 1945)
 1867  William Craigie, Scottish philologist and lexicographer (d. 1957)
 1867  George Luks, American painter (d. 1933)
 1869  Tony Garnier, French architect and urban planner (d. 1948)
 1871  Karl Liebknecht, German political activist (d. 1919)
 1872  Richard Willstaetter, German chemist (d. 1942)
 1873  Christian Rakovsky, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1941)
 1879  John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
 1887  Julius Freed, American investor and banker (d. 1952)
 1888  John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor (d. 1946)
 1889  Camillien Houde, 34th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1958)
 1890  Li Zongren, Chinese politician (d. 1969)
 1895  Bert Lahr, American actor (d. 1967)
 1898  Jean Borotra, French tennis player (d. 1994)
 1898  Regis Toomey, American actor (d. 1991)
 1899  Alfred Hitchcock, English movie director (d. 1980)
 1899  Soledad Mexia, Mexican-American supercentenarian (d. 2013)

1901  1950 
 1904  Felix Wankel, German engineer and inventor (d. 1988)
 1904  Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, American actor (d. 1999)
 1907  Basil Spence, Scottish architect (d. 1976)
 1907  William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, English politician (d. 1966)
 1908  Gene Raymond, American actor (d. 1998)
 1911  Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza (d. 2003)
 1912  Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist (d. 1991)
 1913  Makarios III, Archbishop and President of Cyprus (d. 1977)
 1913  Fred Davis, English snooker player (d. 1998)
 1914  Luis Mariano, Basque operetta singer (d. 1970)
 1918  Frederick Sanger, English chemist and two-time Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
 1918  Noor Hassanali, 2nd President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2006)
 1919  George Shearing, British jazz pianist (d. 2011)
 1920  Neville Brand, American actor (d. 1992)
 1921  Jimmy McCracklin, American blues musician (d. 2012)
 1925  Benny Bailey, American jazz trumpeter
 1925  José Sazatornil, Spanish actor (d. 2015)
 1926  Fidel Castro, President of Cuba (d. 2016)
 1928  Pedro Pedrossian, Brazilian politician (d. 2017)
 1930  Tomás Borge, Nicaraguan politician (d. 2012)
 1930  Bernard Manning, English comedian (d. 2007)
 1930  Eddie Marlin, American wrestler and promoter (d. 2019)
 1931  Norman Read, New Zealand athlete (d. 1994)
 1933  Madhur Jaffrey, Indian actress and cookery writer
 1933  Joycelyn Elders, 15th Surgeon General of the United States
 1934  Gyoji Matsumoto, Japanese footballer
 1936  Vyjayanthimala, Indian actress, dancer, singer and politician
 1937  James David Santini, American politician (d. 2015)
 1938  Dave "Baby" Cortez, American pianist
 1940  Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (d. 2000)
 1940  Dirk Sager, German journalist (d. 2014)
 1941  Ambrogio Fogar, Italian sailor, writer, rally driver and all-round adventurer and television presenter (d. 2005)
 1941  Henning Voscherau, German politician (d. 2016)
 1941  Susan Jameson, English actress
 1942  Sheila Armstrong, English soprano
 1944  Kevin Tighe, American actor
 1945  Lars Engqvist, Swedish politician
 1945  Howard Marks, Welsh drug smuggler (d. 2016)
 1946  Janet Yellen, American economist, 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve
 1947  Margareta Winberg, Swedish politician
 1948  Roberto Micheletti, Honduran politician
 1949  Philippe Petit, French high wire artist
 1949  Bobby Clarke, Canadian ice hockey player

1951  1975 
 1951  Dan Fogelberg, American musician (d. 2007)
 1952  Hughie Thomasson, American guitarist
 1953  Carla Bodendorf, German athlete
 1953  Thomas Pogge, German philosopher
 1955  Mulgrew Miller, American pianist (d. 2013)
 1955  Paul Greengrass, American director
 1958  Feargal Sharkey, Northern Irish singer
 1959  Andreas Ravelli, Swedish footballer
 1959  Thomas Ravelli, Swedish footballer
 1959  Michael Bradley, Irish musician
 1960  Phil Taylor, English darts player
 1960  Janusz Kurtyka, Polish historian (d. 2010)
 1961  Christos Christodolou, Greek basketball player
 1961  Cary Stayner, American serial killer
 1961  Chad Brown, American poker player and actor (d. 2014)
 1962  Manuel Valls, Spanish-born French politician, Prime Minister of France
 1962  John Slattery, American actor
 1963  Valerie Plame, American CIA agent and author
 1963  Sridevi, Indian actress (d. 2018)
 1964  Debi Mazar, American actress
 1965  Hayato Matsuo, Japanese composer and conductor
 1966  Shayne Corson, Canadian ice hockey player
 1966  Scooter Barry, American basketball player
 1969  Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
 1970  Casiano Delvalle, Paraguayan footballer
 1970  Alan Shearer, English footballer
 1971  Moritz Bleibtreu, German actor
 1972  Michael Sinterniklaas, French-American actor, director and screenwriter
 1972  Hani Hanjour, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2001)
 1975  Joe Perry, English snooker player
 1975  Marty Turco, Canadian ice hockey goaltender

From 1976 
 1978  Benjani Mwaruwari, Zimbabwean footballer
 1980  Irina Berezhna, Ukrainian politician (d. 2017)
 1982  Sarah Huckabee Sanders, 29th White House Press Secretary
 1982  Sebastian Stan, Romanian-American actor
 1982  Shani Davis, American speed skater
 1982  Kalenna Harper, American singer-songwriter
 1983  Thomas Schwall, American ski jumper
 1984  Niko Kranjcar, Croatian footballer
 1984  James Morrison, British singer
 1984  L'Aura, Italian singer-songwriter, composer, violinist and pianist
 1984  Alona Bondarenko, Ukrainian tennis player
 1984  Colin Fleming, Scottish tennis player
 1985  Olubayo Adefemi, Nigerian footballer
 1985  Lacey Brown, American singer-songwriter
 1985  Mattia Pasini, Italian motorcycle racer
 1988  Keith Benson, American basketball player
 1989  Justin Greene, American basketball player
 1990  Shila Amzah, Malaysian singer-songwriter and actress
 1990  Elise Christie, Scottish short-track speed skater
 1990  DeMarcus Collins, American basketball player
 1990  Sae Miyazawa, Japanese singer (AKB48)
 1991  Alexander Kacaniklic, Swedish footballer
 1993  Johnny Gaudreau, American ice hockey player
 1994  Filip Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player
 2000  Piper Reese, American internet celebrity and actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 586  Radegund, Queen consort of Clotaire I
 604  Emperor Wen of Sui of China (b. 541)
 612  Eudokia, Byzantine Empress (b. 580)
 900  Zwentibold, last King of Lotharingia (b. 870)
 1134  Irene of Hungary (b. 1088)
 1382  Eleanor of Aragon, queen of John I of Castile (b. 1358)
 1447  Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (b. 1392)
 1667  Jeremy Taylor, Irish writer and bishop (b. 1613)
 1686  Louis Maimbourg, historian (b. 1610)
 1744  John Cruger, Dutch-born American politician and 39th Mayor of New York City (b. 1678)
 1749  Johann Elias Schlegel, German poet and critic (b. 1719)
 1826  René Laënnec, French physician (b. 1781)
 1863  Eugène Delacroix, French painter (b. 1798)
 1865  Ignaz Semmelweis, Austrian-Hungarian physician (b. 1818)
 1884  Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington (b. 1807)

1901  2000 
 1910  Florence Nightingale, English nurse (b. 1820)
 1912  Jules Massenet, French composer (b. 1842)
 1913  August Bebel, German politician (b. 1840)
 1917  Eduard Buchner, German chemist (b. 1860)
 1933  Hasan Prishtina, Albanian politician (b. 1873)
 1934  Mary Hunter Austin, American writer (b. 1868)
 1946  H. G. Wells, English writer (b. 1866)
 1948  Elaine Hammerstein, American actress (b. 1897)
 1958  Francis J. McCormick, American football player, basketball player and coach (b. 1903)
 1958  Otto Witte, German acrobat and claimant to the throne of Albania (b. 1868)
 1965  Ikeda Hayato, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1899)
 1977  Henry Williamson, English writer (b. 1895)
 1982  Joe Tex, American musician (b. 1933)
 1984  Tigran Petrosian, Armenian chess player (b. 1929).
 1989  Tim Richmond, American race car driver (b. 1955)
 1991  James Roosevelt, American politician (b. 1907)
 1994  Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer (b. 1905)
 1995  Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer (b. 1963)
 1995  Mickey Mantle, American Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1931)
 1995  Jan Křesadlo, Czech-born writer (b. 1926)
 1996  David Tudor, pianist and composer (b. 1926).
 1996  António de Spínola, Portuguese general and politician (b. 1910)
 1998  Nino Ferrer, Italian-French singer and composer (b. 1934)
 1998  Waneta Hoyt, American serial killer (b. 1946)
 1999  Ignatz Bubis, German Jewish leader (b. 1927)

From 2001 
 2003  Lothar Emmerich, German footballer (b. 1941)
 2004  Julia Child, American chef and television personality (b. 1912)
 2005  David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1942)
 2007  Yone Minegawa, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1893)
 2007  Phil Rizzuto, American baseball player (b. 1917)
 2008  Henri Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1904)
 2008  Sandy Allen, American, world's tallest woman (b. 1953)
 2009  Les Paul, American musician (b. 1915)
 2010  Lance Cade, American professional wrestler (b. 1981)
 2012  Helen Gurley Brown, American writer, publisher and businesswoman (b. 1922)
 2012  Johnny Pesky, American baseball player and coach (b. 1919)
 2013  Lothar Bisky, German politician (b. 1941)
 2013  Jean Vincent, French footballer (b. 1930)
 2014  Eduardo Campos, Brazilian politician (b. 1965)
 2014  Robert Bruce Smith, IV, American music expert, writer, historian and poet (b. 1945)
 2015  Bob Fillion, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1920)
 2016  Kenny Baker, British actor (b. 1934)
 2016  Joyce Carol Thomas, American poet and playwright (b. 1938)
 2016  Françoise Mallet-Joris, Belgian writer (b. 1930)
 2017  Aung Shwe, Burmese politician and general (b. 1918)
 2017  Joseph Bologna, American actor (b. 1934)
 2018  Somnath Chatterjee, Indian politician (b. 1929)
 2018  Jim Neidhart, American professional wrestler (b. 1955)
 2018  Powell A. Moore, American politician (b. 1938)
 2019  Cecilia Caballero Blanco, First Lady of Colombia (b. 1913)
 2019  Nadia Toffa, Italian journalist and television presenter (b. 1979)

Observances 
 Independence Day (Central African Republic)
 International Lefthanders Day
 Lao Issara - Day of the Free Laos
 Women's Day (Tunisia)

Days of the year