Historical Events
- Aug 24 The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history
Famous Birthdays
- Aug 8 Cécile Chaminade, French pianist and 1st female composer awarded with Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (1913), born in Paris, France (d. 1944)
- Aug 8 Henry Fairfield Osborn, American paleontologist, geologist (founded US Eugenics Society), born in Fairfield, Connecticut (d. 1935)
- Aug 14 Max Wagenknecht, German composer, born in Woldisch Tychow, Pomerania, Free State of Prussia (now Tychowo, Poland) (d. 1922)
- Aug 15 Albert Ballin, German inventor and shipping tycoon, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1918)
- Aug 18 Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian Catholic prelate and the fourth vicar apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1926)
- Aug 22 Ned Hanlon, American Baseball HOF center fielder (NL pennant 1887 Detroit Wolverines) and manager (5 × NL pennant Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas), born in Montville, Connecticut (d. 1937)
- Aug 29 Sandford Schultz, English cricket all-rounder (1 Test, 1 wicket, 20 runs; Cambridge University, Lancashire CCC), born in Birkenhead, England (d. 1937)
Famous Deaths
- Aug 1 Charles Turner, engraver, dies
- Aug 3 Eugène Sue, French novelist (b. 1804)
- Aug 10 John Wilson Croker, politician
- Aug 11 Marshall Hall, English physician, physiologist and early neurologist (physiology of reflex function), dies of a throat infection at 67
- Aug 12 William Conybeare, English geologist (fossils of plesiosaur dinosaur), dies at 70
- Aug 26 Adolf Schlagintweit, German botanist and explorer (Tarimbekken, executed in Kashgar after being mistaken for a spy at 28
- Aug 27 Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American poet, literary critic and editor, dies of tuberculosis at 42
