EVENTS
- 1933 – United Airlines Boeing 247 explosion. In one of the oldest unsolved cases in aviation history, the airplane which was flying from Newark, New Jersey to Oakland California exploded mid-air and crashed near Chesterton, Indiana. All 7 passengers and crew members died in the incident. To this day, it is not known what and who caused the explosion.
- 1954 – Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi, Vietnam, after the withdrawal of French troops, in accordance with armistice terms ending the seven-year struggle between Communist Vietnamese and the French.
- 1964 – The Tokyo Summer Olympics Begin. 93 countries participated in the first Olympics to be held in Asia. As a tribute to the horrors of the Second World War, Yoshinori Sakai, who was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day an atomic bomb destroyed the city, was chosen as the torchbearer to light the Olympic flame during the opening. The Tokyo Olympics was also the first Olympic Games that used satellites – Syncom 3 in the United States and Relay 1 in Europe – to telecast the games. Some of the games were also broadcasted in color for the first time.
- 1967 – Outer Space Treaty is enforced. Also known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, it regulated the exploration and use of outer space and created the field of international space law. The treaty declared that outer space and all celestial bodies were the common heritage of mankind and could not be claimed by any one nation.
- 1970 – Fiji gains its independence
- 1971 – The London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona after being sold, taken apart, shipped, and rebuilt.
- 1973 – Spiro Agnew becomes the second Vice President of the United States to resign
- 1979 – The Pac-Man arcade game is first released
- 2010 – The Country of Netherlands Antilles is dissolved. The Caribbean Dutch dependency, also sometimes known as the Dutch Antilles, was formed in 1954. The dissolution came after a series of referendums to become independent states within the Kingdom of the Netherlands were passed on the Islands of Curaçao, St Maarten, Bonaire, and Saba.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1813 – Giuseppe Verdi (Opera composer)
- 1861 – Fridtjof Nansen (Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1930 – Harold Pinter (English playwright, screenwriter, director, actor, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1958 – Tanya Tucker (Country Singer)
- 1969 – Brett Favre (NFL Quarterback)
- 1973 – Mario Lopez (Actor)
- 1974 – Dale Ernhardt Jr ((Nascar Driver)
- 1979 – Mya (Singer)
DEATHS
- 1875 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (Russian poet, author, playwright)
- 1985 – Orson Welles (American actor, director, producer, screenwriter)
- 2004 – Christopher Reeve (American actor)
- 2009 – Stephen Gately (Irish singer-songwriter, dancer, actor)
- 2010 – Solomon Burke (American singer-songwriter)