| 1 August 1096 | Byzantine Empire [Crusades (1095–1272)] | The ‘People's Crusade’, a poorly armed and ill-disciplined peasant army led by Peter the Hermit, arrives in Constantinople. |
| 1 August 1137 | France [administration] | King Louis VI the Fat of France dies; he is succeeded by his son, Louis VII. |
| 1 August 1291 | Holy Roman Empire, Swiss Confederation [political events] | The Three Forest Cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden (in modern Switzerland) form a defensive league against the Habsburgs. |
| 1 August 1464 | Florence [births and deaths] | Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, financier and statesman, dies in Careggi, near Florence, Italy (74). |
| 1–2 August 1589 | France, Spain [political events] | King Henry III of France is stabbed at St Cloud, Paris, France, by Jacques Clément, a fanatical Jacobin monk. On his deathbed the next day he recognizes King Henry of Navarre as his successor. This ends the reign of the House of Valois and inaugurates that of the House of Bourbon. King Philip II of Spain lays claim to the French throne for his daughter Isabella through her mother Elizabeth Valois, Henry III's sister. |
| 1 August 1714 | Britain, Hanover, Germany, Holy Roman Empire [administration] | Following the death of Queen Anne of England, she is succeeded by George Ludwig, elector of Hanover and great-grandson of James I of England, as George I (the electress Sophia having died on 8 June). |
| 1 August 1714 | Britain [births and deaths] | Queen Anne, last Stuart monarch of Great Britain and Ireland 1702–14, dies in London, England (49). |
| 1 August 1759 | France, Prussia, UK [Seven Years War (1754–62)] | French forces are decisively defeated by a Prussian army under Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, King Frederick II the Great of Prussia's most experienced general, and Lord George Sackville, commander of the British contingent, at Minden, Germany. |
| 1 August 1769 | France [births and deaths] | Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte), French general, First Consul 1799–1804, and emperor of France 1804–15, born in Ajaccio, Corsica (–1821). |
| 1 August 1774 | England [chemistry] | English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers the element oxygen (atomic number 8). |
| 1 August 1793 | France [weights and measures] | The first metric weight system is introduced, in France. |
| 1 August 1798 | UK, France, Egypt-Ottoman [French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801)] | A British fleet under the English admiral Horatio Nelson destroys the French Toulon fleet in Aboukir Bay, Egypt, (‘the Battle of the Nile’) cutting the French army's communications with Europe and establishing British naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. |
| 1 August 1819 | USA [births and deaths] | Herman Melville, US novelist, short-story writer, and poet who writes Moby Dick, born in New York City (–1891). |
| 1 August 1834 | UK [law and government] | Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, thanks largely to the efforts of the English philanthropist and politician William Wilberforce. |
| 1 August 1894 | Korea, Japan, China [wars] | Japan declares war on China over the right of influence in Korea. |
| 1 August 1914 | Germany, Russian Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | Germany declares war on Russia. |
| 1–16 August 1936 | Germany [Olympic Games] | The 11th Olympic Games are held in Berlin, Germany. Germany wins 33 gold medals; the USA, 24; Hungary, 10; Italy, 8; Finland and France, 7 each; Sweden and Holland, 6 each; Japan, 5. The US black American athlete Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals, in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump, and the 4 × 100-metre relay. Jack Lovelock of New Zealand wins the 1,500 metres title in a world record time of 3 minutes 47.8 seconds. A selection of highlights is shown live and viewed by an estimated 150,000 people in the public viewing rooms in Berlin. |
| 1 August 1950 | Belgium [legislation] | King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favour of his son, Prince Baudouin, who acts as head of state from 11 August to 17 July 1951, when he is crowned king. |
| 1 August 1956 | East Germany [births and deaths] | Bertolt Brecht, German poet and playwright, dies in East Berlin, East Germany (now Berlin, Germany) (58). |
| 1 August 1956 | USA [medicine] | Drug manufacturers in the USA begin to market the poliomyelitis vaccine developed by Dr Jonas E Salk. |
| 1 August 1965 | UK [health and medicine] | Cigarette advertising is banned on British television. |
| 1 August 1971 | USA [popular music] | George Harrison, joined by Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan, performs in the Benefit for Bangladesh in Madison Square Gardens, New York City. |
| 1 August 1975 | Europe [space exploration] | The European Space Agency is founded in Paris, France, to undertake research and develop technologies for use in space. |
| 1 August 1976 | Trinidad and Tobago [decolonization] | Trinidad and Tobago, having achieved independence from Britain in 1962, gain the status of republic within the Commonwealth. |
| 1 August 1981 | USA [popular music] | With a target audience aged 12–34, and an estimated 2.5 million subscribers, the MTV (music television) channel is launched, with the video of the Buggles' single ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. |
| 1 August 1987 | UK [television] | The first advertisements for condoms appear on British television. |
| 1 August 1996 | USA, France [Olympic Games] | At the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, Michael Johnson of the USA becomes the first man to win both the 200 metres and 400 metres titles at the same Games. In the 200 metres final he sets a new 200 metres world record time of 19.32 sec, breaking his own old record by.34 sec. On the same day, Marie-José Pérec of France becomes only the second woman to achieve the women's 200 metres and 400 metres double. |
| 1 August 2006 | Cuba [political events] | For the first time in 47 years, President Fidel Castro of communist Cuba announces that he is handing over political power temporarily to his brother Raúl, the defence minister, following intestinal surgery. |
