Historical Events
- Aug 2 1st trial run of San Francisco cable car, Clay Street between Kearny and Jones
Event of Interest
Aug 4 Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, US 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the 1st time with the Sioux near the Tongue River. 1 man killed on each side.
Event of Interest
Aug 26 First free kindergarten in the U.S. started by Susan Blow in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri
- Aug 30 Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.
Famous Birthdays
- Aug 3 Albert Marie Leon Adolphe de Bassompierre, Belgian ambassador to Tokyo (1921-39) (d. 1956)
- Aug 4 Damaso Berenguer, Spanish soldier and politician (122nd Prime Minister of Spain), born in San Juan de los Remedios, Cuba (d. 1953)
- Aug 6 John Wesley Work Jr., 1st African-American collector of folk songs and spirituals, born in Nashville, Tennessee (or 1871) (d. 1925)
- Aug 6 Mary Carr Moore, American composer, born in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 1957)
- Aug 11 J. Rosamund Johnson, American composer ("Lift Every Voice And Sing"), born in Jacksonville, Florida (d. 1954)
- Aug 17 John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)
- Aug 18 Leo Slezak, Moravian dramatic tenor and actor (Othello; Zirkus Saran; Husaren heraus), born in Mährisch-Schönberg, Austria-Hungary (now Šumperk, Czech Republic) (d. 1946)
- Aug 18 Otto Harbach [Hauerbach], American librettist, lyricist (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes), and mentor to Oscar Hammerstein II, born in New York City (d. 1963)
- Aug 19 Fred Stone, renowned American circus performer and broadway actor (Alice Adams), born in Longmont, Colorado (d. 1959)
- Aug 20 Eliel Saarinen, Finnish-American architect (Helsinki Central Station; Cranbrook Educational Community (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan), designer, and educator, born in Rantasalmi, Grand Duchy of Finland (d. 1950) (d. 1950)
- Aug 20 William Henry Bell, English composer, born in St Albans, England (d. 1946)
- Aug 22 Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher, born in Sokółka, Poland (d. 1928)
- Aug 22 Karl Nef, Swiss musicologist, born in St. Gallen, Switzerland (d. 1935)
- Aug 26 Lee De Forest, American inventor (Audion vacuum (radio) tube), born in Council Bluffs, Iowa (d. 1961)
Famous Deaths
- Aug 2 Frank Mori, English composer, dies at 53
- Aug 4 Viktor Hartmann, Russian architect and painter, dies at 39
- Aug 16 Georg Hellmesberger Sr, Austrian violinist, conductor (Vienna Philharmonic, 1842-67), and composer, dies at 73
- Aug 26 Carl Wilhelm, German composer, dies at 57
- Aug 31 Charles Ferdinand Pahud, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies (1856-61), dies at 70
Greatest Generation
Silent Generation
Baby Boomer
Generation X
Millennial
Generation Z