• 1183 - Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
• 1385 - Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385: Battle of Aljubarrota - Portuguese forces commanded by King João I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King Juan I.
• 1598 - Nine Years War: Battle of the Yellow Ford - Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
• 1842 - Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
• 1846 - The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
• 1848 - Oregon Territory organized by Act of U.S. Congress.
• 1880 - Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, completed.
• 1885 - Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
• 1893 - France introduces motor vehicle registration.
• 1897 - The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
• 1900 - A joint European-Japanese-United States force (Eight-Nation Alliance) occupies Beijing, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
• 1901 - The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
• 1908 - First beauty contest held in Folkestone, England.
• 1911 - United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
• 1912 - United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya resigned three years earlier.
• 1921 - Tannu Tuva, later Tuvinian People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Russia).
• 1925 - The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is completed and goes on line.
• 1933 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).
• 1935 - United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired.
• 1936 - Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
• 1937 - The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers were shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases, hence, 14 August has thus become acknoledged and celebrated as Chinese Air Force Day.
• 1941 - World War II - Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
• 1945 - Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).
• 1947 - Pakistan gains Independence from the British Indian Empire under the administration of United Kingdom and joins the British Commonwealth.
• 1967 - UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
• 1969 - United Kingdom troops deploy in Northern Ireland.
• 1972 - An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
• 1973 - The constitution of 1973 comes into effect in Pakistan
• 1976 - The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.
• 1980 - Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
• 1994 - Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.
• 2003 - Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
• 2007 - The 2007 Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 400 people.

Births