Famous Birthdays
Elisha Otis (1811-1861)
Aug 3 American founder of the Otis Elevator Company and inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails, born in Halifax, Vermont
- Aug 5 Ambroise Thomas, French opera composer (Mignon), and music professor, born in Metz, France (d. 1896)
- Aug 6 Judah P. Benjamin, American politician (1st practicing Jew to be elected to US Senate, Confederate Secretary of State and Secretary of War), born in Christiansted, Danish West Indies (d. 1884)
- Aug 17 Jan Hendrik Scholten, Dutch radical theologist (Free Will), born in Vieuten, Netherlands (d. 1885)
- Aug 20 Gilman Marston, American Brigadier General (Union Army) and politician (R-NH), born in Orford, New Hampshire (d. 1890)
- Aug 21 William Kelly, American inventor (pneumatic process of steelmaking), born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (d. 1888)
- Aug 25 Joseph Dana Webster, American civil engineer and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Hampton, New Hampshire (d. 1876)
- Aug 26 Danville Leadbetter, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1866)
- Aug 29 Henry Bergh, American social reformer who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and co-founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC), born in New York City (d. 1888)
- Aug 31 Goode Bryan, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Hancock County, Georgia (d. 1885)
- Aug 31 Théophile Gautier, French writer, historian and poet (Albertus, La Chanson de Roland, Émaux et camées), born in Tarbes, France (d. 1872)
Famous Weddings
- Aug 28 English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (19) elopes to Scotland with 1st wife Harriet Westbrook (16)
Famous Deaths
- Aug 2 William Williams, American merchant (signed US Declaration of Independence), dies at 80
- Aug 3 Sebastiaan C. Nederburgh, Dutch director-general of East Indies Co, dies at 49
- Aug 12 John Francis Edward Acton, French-born English Naval Commander and PM of Naples (remembered for his brutality towards French supporters), dies at 77
- Aug 18 Johann Heinrich Zang, German composer and organist, dies at 78
- Aug 20 Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, French admiral and explorer (Falkland Islands, Bougainville Island), dies at 81
