South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies.
11 August 1984
“We begin bombing in five minutes”: United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.
10 August 2001
The 2001 Angola train attack occurred, causing 252 deaths.
9 August 48 BC
Caesar’s Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
8 August 1969
At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the iconic photo that becomes the cover image of the Beatles’ album Abbey Road.
7 August 1858
The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College.
6 August 2015
A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.
5 August 2003
A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
4 August 2007
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft is launched.
3 August 2019
Twenty-three people are killed and 23 injured in a shooting in El Paso, Texas.