August 1
Events
Pre-1600
- 30 BC - Octavian enters Alexandria, Egypt, executes Marcus Antonius Antyllus, and brings the city under the control of the Roman Republic.
- AD 69 - Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis.
- 527 - Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
- 607 - Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China.
- 902 - Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabid army, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
- 1203 - Isaac II Angelos, restored Byzantine Emperor, declares his son Alexios IV Angelos co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade.
- 1291 - The Old Swiss Confederacy is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.
- 1469 - Louis XI of France founds the chivalric order called the Order of Saint Michael in Amboise.
- 1498 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
- 1571 - The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus is concluded, by the surrender of Famagusta.
1601–1900
- 1620 - Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way of England.
- 1664 - Ottoman forces are defeated in the battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
- 1714 - George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history.
- 1759 - Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.
- 1774 - British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- 1798 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile : Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
- 1800 - The Acts of Union 1800 are passed which merge the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1801 - First Barbary War: The American schooner captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.
- 1834 - Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, although it remains legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.
- 1834 - Construction begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston Upon Hull.
- 1842 - The Lombard Street riot erupts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
- 1849 - Joven Daniel wrecks at the coast of Araucanía, Chile, leading to allegations that local Mapuche tribes murdered survivors and kidnapped Elisa Bravo.
- 1855 - The first ascent of Monte Rosa, the second highest summit in the Alps.
- 1863 - At the suggestion of Senator J. V. Snellman and the order of Emperor Alexander II, full rights are promised to the Finnish language by a language regulation in the Grand Duchy of Finland.
- 1876 - Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
- 1893 - Henry Perky patents shredded wheat.
- 1894 - The Empire of Japan and Qing China declare war on each other after a week of fighting over Korea, formally inaugurating the First Sino-Japanese War.
1901–present
- 1907 - The start of the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.
- 1911 - Harriet Quimby takes her pilot's test and becomes the first U.S. woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator's certificate.
- 1914 - World War I: The German Empire declares war on the Russian Empire.
- 1914 - World War I: The Swiss Army mobilizes because of World War I.
- 1915 - Patrick Pearse gives his famous speech "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace" at O'Donovan Rossa's funeral in Dublin.
- 1927 - The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
- 1933 - Anti-Fascist activists Bruno Tesch, Walter Möller, Karl Wolff and August Lütgens are executed by the Nazi regime in Altona.
- 1936 - The Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
- 1937 - Josip Broz Tito reads the resolution "Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH" to the constitutive congress of KPH in woods near Samobor.
- 1943 - World War II: Operation Tidal Wave, also known as "Black Sunday", was a failed American attempt to destroy Romanian oil fields.
- 1944 - World War II: The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi German occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
- 1946 - Leaders of the Russian Liberation Army, a force of Russian prisoners of war that collaborated with Nazi Germany, are executed in Moscow, Soviet Union for treason.
- 1950 - Guam is organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States as the President Harry S. Truman signs the Guam Organic Act.
- 1957 - The United States and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
- 1960 - Dahomey declares independence from France.
- 1960 - Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
- 1961 - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara orders the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the nation's first centralized military espionage organization.
- 1964 - The former Belgian Congo is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 1965 - Frank Herbert's novel, Dune was published for the first time. It was named as the world's best-selling science fiction novel in 2003.
- 1966 - Charles Whitman kills 15 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.
- 1966 - Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
- 1968 - The coronation of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei, is held.
- 1971 - The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by former Beatle George Harrison, is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
- 1974 - Cyprus dispute: The United Nations Security Council authorizes the UNFICYP to create the "Green Line", dividing Cyprus into two zones.
- 1975 - The final act of the CSCE meeting is signed in Helsinki, Finland.
- 1976 - Niki Lauda has a severe accident that almost claims his life at the German Grand Prix at Nürburgring.
- 1980 - Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President of Iceland and becomes the world's first democratically elected female head of state.
- 1980 - A train crash kills 18 people and injures over 170 more in County Cork, Ireland.
- 1981 - MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
- 1984 - Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England.
- 1988 - A British soldier was killed in the Inglis Barracks bombing in London, England.
- 1990 - A plane crash in the Karabakh Range kills 46 people.
- 1993 - The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 comes to a peak.
- 1998 - Puntland, an autonomous state in northeastern Somalia, was officially established following a constitutional conference in Garowe, Issims and tribal chiefs agreed to create a self-declared government until Somalia recovered.
- 2004 - A supermarket fire kills 424 people and injures 360 others in Asunción, Paraguay.
- 2007 - The I-35W Mississippi River bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.
- 2008 - The Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway begins operation as the fastest commuter rail system in the world.
- 2008 - Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.
- 2017 - A suicide attack on a mosque in Herat, Afghanistan kills 20 people.
- 2023 - Former US President Donald Trump is indicted for his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, his third indictment in 2023.
Births
Pre-1600
- 10 BC - Claudius, Roman emperor
- 126 - Pertinax, Roman emperor
- 845 - Sugawara no Michizane, Japanese scholar and politician
- 992 - Hyeonjong of Goryeo, Korean king
- 1068 - Emperor Taizu of Jin, Chinese emperor
- 1313 - Kōgon, Japanese emperor
- 1377 - Go-Komatsu, Japanese emperor
- 1385 - John Fitzalan, 6th Earl of Arundel
- 1410 - John IV, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count
- 1492 - Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince
- 1520 - Sigismund II, Polish king
- 1545 - Andrew Melville, Scottish theologian and scholar
- 1555 - Edward Kelley, English spirit medium
- 1579 - Luis Vélez de Guevara, Spanish author and playwright
1601–1900
- 1626 - Sabbatai Zevi, Montenegrin rabbi and theorist
- 1630 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English politician, Lord High Treasurer
- 1659 - Sebastiano Ricci, Italian painter
- 1713 - Charles I, German duke and prince
- 1714 - Richard Wilson, Welsh painter and academic
- 1738 - Jacques François Dugommier, French general
- 1744 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier, biologist, and academic
- 1770 - William Clark, American soldier, explorer, and politician, 4th Governor of Missouri Territory
- 1779 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, author, and poet
- 1779 - Lorenz Oken, German-Swiss botanist, biologist, and ornithologist
- 1809 - William B. Travis, American colonel and lawyer
- 1815 - Richard Henry Dana Jr., American lawyer and politician
- 1818 - Maria Mitchell, American astronomer and academic
- 1819 - Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer, and poet
- 1831 - Antonio Cotogni, Italian opera singer and educator
- 1843 - Robert Todd Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 35th United States Secretary of War
- 1856 - George Coulthard, Australian footballer and cricketer
- 1858 - Gaston Doumergue, French lawyer and politician, 13th President of France
- 1858 - Hans Rott, Austrian organist and composer
- 1860 - Bazil Assan, Romanian engineer and explorer
- 1861 - Sammy Jones, Australian cricketer
- 1865 - Isobel Lilian Gloag, English painter
- 1871 - John Lester, American cricketer and soccer player
- 1877 - George Hackenschmidt, Estonian-English wrestler and strongman
- 1878 - Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, Greek physician and politician, Prime Minister of Greece
- 1881 - Otto Toeplitz, German mathematician and academic
- 1885 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1889 - Walter Gerlach, German physicist and academic
- 1891 - Karl Kobelt, Swiss lawyer and politician, 52nd President of the Swiss Confederation
- 1893 - Alexander of Greece
- 1894 - Ottavio Bottecchia, Italian cyclist
- 1898 - Morris Stoloff, American composer and musical director
- 1899 - Raymond Mays, English race car driver and businessman
- 1900 - Otto Nothling, Australian cricketer and rugby player