/year

August 25 in history

240 sourced entries recorded on August 25, from 79 CE to 2024 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 450Pulcheria is forced to marry and co-rule the Eastern Roman Empire. She gives the imperial diadem to the Illyrian (or Thracian) officer and senator Marcian, age 58, and is crowned as empress in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, in the first religious coronation ceremony.source
  • 766Emperor Constantine V publicly humiliates 19 high-ranking officials in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, after discovering a plot against him. He executes the leaders, Constantine Podopagouros and his brother Strategios, and blinds and exiles the rest.source
  • 1075Council of London: Archbishop Lanfranc instigates the movement of English bishoprics. One of these is the bishopric of Sherborne and Wilton which is moved to Old Sarum.source
  • 1191August 25–26 – Richard I leads a fast-moving advance-guard and establishes a strong position at the fortress near Merle before Saladin arrives. He then hurries back to support the rearguard, to regain contact with the Crusader forces. Richard reorganizes his marching column. The elite Templar and Hospitaller knights hold the van and rearguard, while Richard and a central mass of knights are screened on their landward left side by dense ranks of well-armoured infantry, whose panoply makes them almost immune to Muslim missile attacks.source
  • 1200Eager to make peace with Aymer Taillefer, count of Angoulême, John marries 15-year-old Isabella of Angoulême at Bordeaux. In order to remarry, John needs to abandon his first wife, Isabella of Gloucester. John accomplishes this by arguing that he has failed to get the necessary papal dispensation to marry Isabella of Gloucester.source
  • 1248Louis IX departs from Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles with a French expeditionary force (some 10,000 men) transported by 100 ships. An English detachment (some 5,000 men) under William Longespée the Younger, grandson of King Henry III, and his mistress Ida de Tosny follows close behind with 36 transport ships.source
  • 1248The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, archbishop of Utrecht, after the town has been pillaged by a local robber baron.source
  • 1256In Bologna, slavery and serfdom are abolished; this event is recorded in the document called Liber Paradisus (or Heaven Book).source
  • 1324War of Metz: In Western Europe, the "Four Lords", King John of Bohemia ("the Blind"), his uncle Baldwin, Archbishop of Trier, Count Edward I, Count of Bar and Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine ("the Fighter") meet at Remich (in modern-day Luxembourg) and make plans to work jointly on besieging the city of Metz (in modern-day France).source
  • 1330James Douglas, Lord of Douglas killed while fighting in Spainsource
  • 1368Count Gottfried IV of Ambsbe, who has no children, sells Arnsberg to the Duchy of Westphalia by way of the Archbishop of Köln, for 30,000 guilders, allowing Westphalia to complete its reunification.source
  • 1381Queen Joanna I of Naples surrenders the kingdom to Carlo di Durazzo, Duke of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, who had been able to start an invasion of Naples after the excommunication and order of deposition of Joanna by order of Pope Urban VI]. The Duke then takes the throne as King Carlo III.source
  • 1406China's Imperial Court sends a delegation to Inwa, capital of the Kingdom of Ava (now part of Myanmar) to persuade King Minkhaung I to cease attacking the Shan States, particularly Mohnyin.source
  • 1449The French recapture Verneuil after the Siege of Verneuil from July 19 – August 25, 1449.source
  • 1515Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founds Havana, Cuba.source
  • 1537The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.source
  • 1543(24th day of 7th month of Tenbun 12) The first Europeans arrive in Japan and introduce firearms to the Asian monarchy, as the Chinese pirate Wang Zhi escorts Portuguese traders to in Tanegashima island in southern Kyushu. The first European visitors include António Mota, António Peixoto, Francisco Zeimoto, and Fernão Mendes Pinto.source
  • 1543The first Europeans and firearms arrive in Japansource
  • 1566The vandalism of the Beeldenstorm reaches Leiden.source
  • 1580Battle of Alcântara: Spanish armies, led by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, defending the claim of King Philip II of Spain to the Portuguese throne, defeat the armies of Portuguese claimant António, Prior of Crato.source
  • 1580Battle of Glenmalure in the Second Desmond Rebellion: An Irish Catholic force made up of the Gaelic clans led by Fiach McHugh O'Byrne and James Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass of the Pale, defeat the English Army under the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Grey, at the O'Byrne's mountain stronghold of Glenmalure. Francis Cosby is among the English dead.source
  • 1594San Luis, in the Viceroyalty of Peru (now in Argentina), is founded by Luis Jufré de Loaysa y Meneses.source
  • 1609Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian officials.source
  • 1630Sinhalese–Portuguese War: In the Battle of Randeniwela on the island of Sri Lanka, King Senarat of Kandy leads more than 35,000 troops in killing most of an attack force led by Portuguese Ceylon governor Constantino de Sá de Noronha.source
  • 1635The Great Colonial Hurricane strikes Narragansett Bay as a possible Category 3 hurricane, killing over 46 people.source
  • 1636August 25 (August 15 Old Style) – The covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts Bay Colony is first signed.source
  • 1637Eighty Years' War: A force of 17,000 Spanish troops, led by the Spanish Netherlands Governor-General, Don Fernando de Austria, recaptures the city of Venlo from the Dutch Republic after a five-day siege.source
  • 1654Russia routs the Polish Army in the Battle of Shepeleviche.source
  • 1654French forces defeat the Army of Flanders in the Battle of Arrassource
  • 1667In China, 14-year-old Xuanye, the Kangxi Emperor, participates in an ascension ceremony to take full power to rule China, bringing an end to the domination of the "Four Regents" who had been ruling in his name when he had first inherited the throne at the age of 6. The move comes shortly after the August 12 death of one of the regents, Sonin, when it becomes clear that the regents were planning to expand their power in advance of Kangxi's coming of age.source
  • 1669The day after the verdicts at the Mora witch trial in Sweden, 14 women and one man are publicly beheaded after having confessed to various crimes involving the use of "enchanted tools" on behalf of the Devil. Another 47 are convicted and taken away for a later execution.source
  • 1682Following the Bideford witch trial, three women (probably) become the penultimate known to be hanged for witchcraft in England, at Exeter.source
  • 1682following the Bideford witch trial, three women become (probably) the penultimate known to be hanged for witchcraft in England, at Exeter.source
  • 1683The Earl of Limerick, Irishman Thomas Dongan, takes office as the new British Colonial Governor of the Province of New York and makes major reforms to restore public order and rescue the province from bankruptcy.source
  • 1685The Bloody Assizes begin in Winchester: Lord Chief Justice of England George Jeffreys tries over 1000 of Monmouth's rebels and condemns them to death or transportation.source
  • 168525 August to 23 September – Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys holds the Bloody Assizes to try Monmouth's supporters, beginning at Winchester and ending at Wells. Over a thousand receive sentences of hanging or transportation.source
  • 1698Peter the Great arrives back in Moscow; General Patrick Gordon has already crushed the Streltsy Uprising, with 341 rebels sentenced to be decapitated.source
  • 1727Herbert Mackworth inherits the Gnoll estate, Neath, on his father's death.source
  • 1730French Protestant Marie Durand is imprisoned in the Tower of Constance at Aigues-Mortes for her defiance of the Roman Catholic government, and is kept captive for the next 38 years. During her incarceration, she continues to resist converting to Catholicism as a condition of release. She is finally set free on April 14, 1768 and lives 8 more years.source
  • 1752The first group of the United Brethren church, commonly called the Moravians, leaves Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on a mission to find 100,000 acres of land on which to build "Villages of the Lord" for German emigres to settle upon in America; after a 450 mile journey, they arrive in Edenton, North Carolina on September 10 and eventually purchase the Wachovia Tract, a set of lands in the western North Carolina colony.source
  • 1758Seven Years' War – Battle of Zorndorf: Frederick halts the Russian army of Count Wilhelm Fermor near the Oder.source
  • 1758Seven Years' War – Wilhelm Fermor's troops are defeated by Frederick near the Oder during the Battle of Zorndorf.source
  • 1762The first Drottningholm Palace Theatre burns down.source
  • 1786The Great Agricultural Commission (Den Store Landbokommision) is set up with the task of rethinking the relationship between landowners and tenant farmers. It is formally abolished in 1816 but is inactive from 1802.source
  • 1795British forces capture Trincomalee, Ceylon.source
  • 1805Treaty of Bogenhausen is concluded between France and Bavaria forming a military alliancesource
  • 1805A. C. Gamél us founded when Augustin Cyrille Gamél opens a delicacy shop on Østergade in Copenhagen.source
  • 1810August 20–27 – Battle of Grand Port: The French defeat a Royal Navy frigate squadron attempting to blockade a harbour on Isle de France (Mauritius).source
  • 1819Salon of 1819 opens in Paris. Amongst the exhibits is The Raft of the Medusa.source
  • 1824The Legislative Council of New South Wales sits for the first time.source
  • 1825Uruguay is declared independent of the Empire of Brazil by the Thirty-Three Orientals, a militant revolutionary group led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja.source
  • 1830Belgian Revolution beginssource
  • 1830The Belgian Revolution begins in Brussels with revolts against King William I of the Netherlands.source
  • 1835In the U.S., The New York Sun prints the first of six installments of the Great Moon Hoax.source
  • 1835The Great Moon Hoax begins.source
  • 1835Prisons Act aims to secure greater uniformity in practice across prisons in England and Wales and introduces Inspectors of Prisons.source
  • 1839dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian Confederationsource
  • 1840Two Ngarrindjeri men are hanged on the Coorong in front of their tribe after being convicted in a drumhead court-martial of the murders of all 26 crew and passengers of the Maria shipwreck, Major Thomas O'Halloran, South Australian Police Commissioner, presiding and passing sentence.source
  • 1857Obscene Publications Act makes the sale of obscene material a statutory offence.source
  • 1860The Stone's Prairie Riot takes place in Payson and Plainville, Illinois between the Republican Wide Awakes and armed Democratic supporters of Stephen A. Douglas.source
  • 1860Montreal's Victoria Bridge opens.source
  • 1861St. John's Church in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen is consecrated at a ceremony attended by King Frederik VII. It is first church to be built outside the city's old fortification ring when it was decommissioned.source
  • 1865The Shergotty meteorite Mars meteorite falls in Sherghati, Gaya, Bihar in India.source
  • 1873A cyclone hits Cape Breton Island, killing 500 and causing much damage.source
  • 1875Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.source
  • 1881Edinburgh Royal Review of Volunteers ("The Wet Review"): Large numbers of Volunteer Forces from all over Scotland parade before Queen Victoria in Holyrood Park on a day of prolonged heavy rainfall.source
  • 1898700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece, leading to the establishment of the autonomous Cretan State.source
  • 1907August 24–31 – The International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam meets in the Netherlands.source
  • 1912The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, was founded.source
  • 1914Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary, after Vienna refused to withdraw the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth from Qingdao.source
  • 1914Burning of Leuven University Library.source
  • 1916U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation creating the National Park Service.source
  • 1920August 13–25 – Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw – The Red Army is defeated.source
  • 1920August 19–25 – Second Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise up against the Germans.source
  • 1920Captain Euan Dickson makes the first aerial crossing of Cook Strait, from Christchurch to Upper Hutt, in an Avro 504K.source
  • 1921The Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in United States history and the country's largest peacetime armed uprising, begins in Logan County, West Virginia as part of the Coal Wars, continuing until September 2.source
  • 1925The French complete their evacuation of the Ruhr region of Germany.source
  • 1925In Kastamonu Atatürk made a speech on traditional costume and expressed his preference for western style hatsource
  • 1926Pavlos Kountouriotis announces that dictatorship has ended in Greece, and he is now the president.source
  • 1927August 24–25 – The 1927 Nova Scotia hurricane hits the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, causing massive damage and at least 56 deaths.source
  • 1927The 6.8 Muk Tainan earthquake shook southwestern Taiwan, killing 9–30 and injuring 27–100.source
  • 1928Canada's first major air disaster occurred when bad weather caused a BC Airways Ford Trimotor plane to crash in Puget Sound, Washingtonsource
  • 1933The Haavara Agreement is signed between Nazi Germany, the Zionist Federation of Germany and the Anglo-Palestine Bank, allowing approximately 60,000 German Jews to leave Germany and move to Palestine.source
  • 1933The Diexi earthquake shakes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.source
  • 19331933 Diexi earthquakesource
  • 1935The Treaty of Establishment, Commerce and Navigation is signed between Iran and the USSR.source
  • 19391939 Coventry bombing: An Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England, killing 5 people.source
  • 1939The Ariostazo failed coup attempt occurs.source
  • 1939The German Foreign Ministry cuts off all telegraph and telephone communication with the outside world, in accordance with the plan for Fall Weiß. At approximately 1830 Central European time, Adolf Hitler postpones Fall Weiß for 5 days, after receiving a message from Benito Mussolini that he will not honor the Pact of Steel if Germany attacks Poland, and because Chamberlain's government has not fallen as a result of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Some units already in their forward positions (the attack is scheduled for 0430 the next day) do not get the word in time and attack various targets along the border. This same day, Neville Chamberlain gives Edward Rydz-Śmigły his "ironclad guarantee" of assistance if Poland is attacked by Germany.source
  • 1940WWII: The first Bombing of Berlin is carried out, by the British Royal Air Force.source
  • 1944The Red Ball Express convoy system begins operation, supplying tons of materiel to Allied forces in France.source
  • 1945Bảo Đại abdicates as Emperor of Vietnam, ending 2,000 years of dynastic and monarchic rule in the country and 143 years of the Nguyễn dynasty.source
  • 1945Paris marks the first anniversary of its liberation.source
  • 19481948 North Korean parliamentary electionsource
  • 1948The HUAC holds its first-ever televised congressional hearing, featuring "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.source
  • 1949Gene Simmons, Israeli-American musician, lead singer and bass guitarist of Kiss.source
  • 1950August 22 – August 30 - Rail workers strike shuts down much of the Canadian economysource
  • 1953The French general strike ends.source
  • 1955The last Soviet Army forces leave Austria.source
  • 1958Instant noodles go on sale for the first time in Japan.source
  • 1960The 1960 Summer Olympic Games begin in Rome.source
  • 196025 August–11 September – Malaya competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. Nine competitors, all men, took part in eleven events in four sports.source
  • 1961João Goulart replaces Jânio Quadros as President of Brazil (he is ousted in 1964).source
  • 1964August 24–27 – The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City nominates incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson for a full term, and U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate.source
  • 1968August 22–30 – 1968 Democratic National Convention protests: Police clash with anti-Vietnam War protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which nominates Hubert Humphrey for U.S. president and Edmund Muskie for vice president. The riots and subsequent trials are an essential part of the activism of the Youth International Party.source
  • 1971Bangladesh and eastern Bengal are flooded; thousands flee the area.source
  • 1973Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon: Two Australian girls go missing whilst attending an Australian rules football match at the Adelaide Oval, never to be seen again.source
  • 1975The Victoria Falls Conference between Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and the United African National Council is held in a South African Railways coach on the Victoria Falls Bridge, officiated by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and South African Prime Minister John Vorster.source
  • 1975An Australian women's soccer team captained by Pat O'Connor are defeated by Thailand 3-2 in Hong Kong in a Group A match of the 1975 Asian Cup Ladies Football Tournament. The Australian team are a representative team consisting mostly of players from suburban Sydney club St George-Budapest, but were not official international players until they were controversially recognised in 2024 as the first Matildas which prompts anger and disappointment from former Matildas who describe the decision as disrespectful to the women who were formally chosen to represent Australia from 1978 onwards. The decision to elevate the 1975 team to official status also results in Tarita Yvonne Peters (who played under the name Stacey Tracy) becoming the first women's Indigenous player to represent Australia, a title which was previously held by Karen Menzies.source
  • 1976Jacques Chirac resigns as Prime Minister of France; he is succeeded by Raymond Barre.source
  • 1976Landslide disaster in Sau Mau Ping, Hong Kong.source
  • 1977Radio Shack’s new TRS-80 Micro Computer System uses a computer keyboard to plug into an included 64 column video monitor, programmed by cassette tapes played on a home cassette player, shown at the Boston Computer Show on August 25, 1977. From left, visitors Robert Lundgren of Des Plaines, Illinois, Malcolm MacLeod of Montreal, and Radio Shack salesman Steven Carlozzi of Brockton, Massachusettssource
  • 1978Tropical Storms severely battered the northern Philippines and Manila, killing more than 50 persons.source
  • 1983August 23–29: Hurricane Barry.source
  • 198525 August–22 September – The Indian cricket team tours in Sri Lanka.source
  • 1985Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes in the United States, killing all 8 on board, including thirteen-year-old American celebrity schoolgirl Samantha Smith.source
  • 1986Shahjalal University of Science and Technology was established.source
  • 1989Voyager 2 makes its closest approach to Neptune and its largest moon Triton.source
  • 1990United Nations Security Council Resolution 665 issued authorizing a blockade on Iraq and leading to International sanctions against Iraq, which were largely enforced until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.source
  • 1991Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Serbian forces begin an attack on the Croatian town of Vukovar.source
  • 1991Linus Torvalds posts messages to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix, regarding the new operating system kernel he has developed, called Linux.source
  • 1991Michael Schumacher, regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in history, makes his Formula One debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.source
  • 1993Boris Yeltsin, on an official state visit to Poland, lays a wreath at the Katyn memorial.source
  • 1996August 16–25: Five athletes from Armenia competed at the 1996 Summer Paralympics.source
  • 2002August 22–September 4 – Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, makes landfall, killing at least 236 people.source
  • 2003The Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.source
  • 2003Car bombs explode at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, claiming 54 lives and injuring 244 others. Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for the attack. The attack causes an escalation in the Kashmir conflict.source
  • 2007Pakistan successfully test-fires a new cruise missile named Hatf-VIII (or Ra'ad) capable of carrying nuclear payloads across a range of 350 km.source
  • 2008Israel releases 199 Palestinian Arab prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, as the United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, visits the area.source
  • 2010August 14–26 – Lithuania achieved 19th place in 2010 Summer Youth Olympics with 5 medal (3 golden and 2 bronze)source
  • 2011August 20–28 – Libyan rebels take control of the capital Tripoli, effectively overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi.source
  • 2012The Voyager 1 space probe becomes the first human-made object to successfully exit the Solar System and enter Interstellar space, and to an extent, becoming the first Interstellar probe, pioneering Interstellar exploration.source
  • 2014Boko Haram declares an Islamic state in areas of Nigeria under its control.source
  • 2017ongoing – A military operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar "seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.source
  • 2017August 25–30 – Hurricane Harvey strikes the United States as a Category 4 hurricane, causing catastrophic damage to the Houston metropolitan area, mostly due to record-breaking floods. At least 108 deaths are recorded, and total damage reaches $125 billion (2017 USD), making Harvey the costliest natural disaster in United States history, tied with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.source
  • 2018The amateur boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul takes place at Manchester Arena, the fight is dubbed as the biggest amateur boxing match in history.source
  • 20192019 Beirut drone crash: According to Lebanese officials, two Israeli drones attack Beirut, Lebanon. One crashed into the roof of the Hezbollah Media Center, about 45 minutes before the second exploded in the air and damaged the building. It is the first such incident between Israel and Lebanon since the 2006 Lebanon War.source
  • 20192019 Beirut drone crash: two drones, alleged to be from Israel by Lebanese authorities, crashed in the Dahieh district of Beirut. The first drone crashed into Hezbollah's Media Center, and the second drone exploded mid-air 45 minutes later. This was the first such incident between Lebanon and Israel since the 2006 war between them.source
  • 2020Guyvanho, nicknamed "the butcher of Nouabale Ndoki", was sentenced to 30 years in prison for ivory trafficking and attempted murder of park rangers.source
  • 2021August 24–September 5 – The 2020 Summer Paralympics were held in Tokyo, Japan. They were originally scheduled for 25 August–6 September 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.source
  • 2024The Israel Defense Forces begin a series of preemptive strikes against targets in the south of Lebanon.source

Births

  • 1292Chu Văn An, Vietnamese physician and mandarin (died 1370)source
  • 1298Gongwon, Korean queen consort of Goryeo (died 1380)source
  • 1467Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 2nd Duke of Alburquerque, Spanish duke (died 1526)source
  • 1473Margaret of Münsterberg, Duchess consort and regent of Anhalt (died 1530)source
  • 1491Innocenzo Cybo, Catholic cardinal (died 1550)source
  • 1509Ippolito II d'Este, Italian cardinal and statesman (died 1572)source
  • 1530Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV), Tsar of Russia (died 1584)source
  • 1540Lady Catherine Grey, English noblewoman, potential successor to the throne (died 1568)source
  • 1560Pak Chin, Korean naval commander (died 1597)source
  • 1605Philipp Moritz, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noble (died 1638)source
  • 1636Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart, French military man, brother of Madame de Montespan (died 1688)source
  • 1678Jacques Caffieri, sculptor (died 1755)source
  • 1707King Louis I of Spain (died 1724)source
  • 1707Louis I of Spain (died 1724)source
  • 1724George Stubbs, English painter (died 1806)source
  • 1744Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (died 1803)source
  • 1767Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French revolutionary (d.1794)source
  • 1786King Ludwig I of Bavaria (died 1868)source
  • 1793John Neal, American writer, critic, and women's rights activist (died 1876)source
  • 1793John Neal, writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist (died 1876)source
  • 1828Jane Stanford, American philanthropist, co-founder of Stanford University, first lady of California (died 1905)source
  • 1836Bret Harte, American writer (died 1902)source
  • 1841Emil Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1917)source
  • 1845King Ludwig II of Bavaria (died 1886)source
  • 1912Erich Honecker, East German politician (died 1994)source
  • 1918Leonard Bernstein, American composer, conductor (died 1990)source
  • 1919George Wallace, American politician, 45th Governor of Alabama (died 1998)source
  • 1921Brian Moore, novelist (died 1999).source
  • 1934Hsiao Teng-tzang, Ministry of Justice (1988–1989)source
  • 1954Elvis Costello, English singer-songwritersource

Deaths

  • 79Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and scientist (born AD 23)source
  • 79Caesius Bassus, Roman poet (died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius)source
  • 79Drusilla, daughter of Herod (died in the eruption of Vesuvius)source
  • 274Yang Yan (or Qiongzhi), Chinese empress (born 238)source
  • 306Maginus, Christian hermit and martyrsource
  • 383Gratian, Roman Emperor (assassinated) (born 359)source
  • 383Emperor Gratian, age 24, is assassinated at Lugdunum (modern-day Lyon), leaving a young widow Laeta. Pannonia and Africa maintain their allegiance to co-emperor Valentinian II, now 12, whose mother, Justina, rules in his name.source
  • 471Gennadius I, patriarch of Constantinoplesource
  • 766Strategios Podopagouros, Byzantine generalsource
  • 766Constantine Podopagouros, Byzantine officialsource
  • 985Dietrich of Haldensleben, German margravesource
  • 1036Pilgrim, archbishop of Colognesource
  • 1054Fujiwara no Michimasa, Japanese nobleman (born 992)source
  • 1091Sisnando Davides, Mozarab military leadersource
  • 1192Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (born 1142)source
  • 1227Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empiresource
  • 1258George Mouzalon, Byzantine high officialsource
  • 1258George Mouzalon is assassinated in Magnesia ad Sipylum, as part of a conspiracy led by Byzantine nobles, under future Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.source
  • 1270Alphonso of Brienne (born c. 1225)source
  • 1270King Louis IX of France (born 1214)source
  • 1271Joan of Toulouse, French noblewoman (born 1220)source
  • 1282Thomas de Cantilupe, English bishop (born 1218)source
  • 1298Albert II, Duke of Saxony, German nobleman and co-rulersource
  • 1303Ninshō, Japanese monk, disciple and priest (born 1217)source
  • 1327Demasq Kaja, Ilkhanate member of the Chobanid Familysource
  • 1327Demasq Kaja, Viceroy of Azerbaijan and of Iraq in the Ilkhanate, the Mongol Empire's area of control in the Middle East, is killed in Soltaniyeh after trying to escape arrest on orders of the Ilkhan, Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan. Abu Sa'id had concluded that Demasq's father, Amir Chūpān, was attempting to take over the Ilkhanate.source
  • 1330On or about this date, Sir James Douglas, Scottish guerilla leader during the Wars of Scottish Independence (born circa 1286)source
  • 1339Henry de Cobham, 1st Baron Cobham (born 1260)source
  • 1368Andrea Orcagna, Italian painter, sculptor and architectsource
  • 1482Queen Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI of England (born 1430)source
  • 1482Margaret of Anjou, French noblewoman and Queen of England between 1445 to1461.(b.1430)source
  • 1485William Catesby, supporter of Richard III (executed) (born 1450)source
  • 1554Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English politician (born 1473)source
  • 1592William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) (born 1532)source
  • 1600Hosokawa Gracia, Japanese noblewoman (born 1563)source
  • 1603Ahmad al-Mansur, Sultan of the Saadi Dynasty (born 1549)source
  • 1624Luis Sotelo, Spanish Franciscan friar (born 1574)source
  • 1636Bhai Gurdas, Sikh religious figure (born 1551)source
  • 1648Joseph Calasanz, Spanish priest and founder of Piarists (born 1557)source
  • 1688Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer and Governor of Jamaica (born c. 1635)source
  • 1698Fleetwood Sheppard, English poet (born 1634)source
  • 1699Christian V of Denmark, King of Denmark and Norway (born 1646)source
  • 1699Christian V, King of Denmark–Norway since 1670, dies and is succeeded by his son, Frederick IV (to 1730).source
  • 1699Christian V of Denmark (born 1646)source
  • 1699Christian V (born 1646).source
  • 1706Lord John Hay, soldier (born c. 1668)source
  • 1727Sir Humphrey Mackworth, industrialist and politician, 70source
  • 1742Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (born 1704)source
  • 1774Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (born 1714)source
  • 1776David Hume, Scottish philosopher (born 1711)source
  • 1776Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume dies in Edinburgh.source
  • 1791José Iglesias de la Casa (born 1748)source
  • 1800Elizabeth Montagu, English literary critic (born 1718)source
  • 1819James Watt, Scottish inventor (born 1736)source
  • 1822William Herschel, German-born British astronomer (born 1738)source
  • 1822William Herschel, German-born British astronomer (born 1738)source
  • 1867Michael Faraday, English chemist and physicist (born 1791)source
  • 1897Juan Idiarte Borda, President, assassinatedsource
  • 1900Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, writer (born 1844)source
  • 1936Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician (born 1883)source
  • 1936Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev and Ivan Nikitich Smirnovsource
  • 1967Stanley Bruce, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (born 1883)source
  • 1984Truman Capote, 59, American screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and journalist, co-founder of New Journalism, liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple drug intoxicationsource
  • 1992August 24–28 – Hurricane Andrew hits south Florida and Louisiana and dissipates over the Tennessee valley when it merges with a storm system; 23 are killed.source
  • 20012001 Marsh Harbour Cessna 402 crash: Eight people including singer and actress Aaliyah, and several members of her entourage are killed after their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff at Marsh Harbour Airport.source
  • 2001Aaliyah, 22, American alternative R&B singer (Are You That Somebody?, Try Again) and actress (Romeo Must Die, Queen of the Damned), plane crash.source
  • 2005Reyhan Angelova, Bulgarian singer (n. 1986)source
  • 2012Neil Armstrong, 82, American astronaut, first person to walk on the Moon, complications from surgery.source
  • 2018John McCain, 81, American politician and Navy officer, member of the U.S. Senate (since 1987) and House of Representatives (1983–1987), glioblastoma.source