Historical Events
- Aug 1 A papyrus offered to British Museum for £10,000 (forgery)
- Aug 1 Amsterdam's Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky gets electric lights
- Aug 1 Inland postal service begins in Great Britain
- Aug 12 The last quagga (zebra subspecies with less slashes) dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
- Aug 16 Dutch soccer club FC Dordrecht is established in Dort in the Western Netherlands (KNVB Cup 1914, 32)
- Aug 17 The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional
- Aug 23 Philadelphia Quakers make 27 errors against Providence Grays in 28-0 shutout defeat at Messer Street Grounds; wild pitches, walks, passed balls count as errors in MLB prior to 1888
US Men's Tennis Open
Aug 24 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport R.I.: Two-time defending champion Richard Sears wins 3rd straight title; beats James Dwight 6-2, 6-0, 9-7
Krakatoa: The World’s Mightiest Explosion
Aug 27 Krakatoa volcano, west of Java in Indonesia, erupts with a force of 200 megatons of TNT and kills approximately 40,000 people
First Carnegie Library
Aug 29 First Carnegie library financed by industrialist Andrew Carnegie opens in Dunfermline, Scotland, the 1st of 2,509 libraries built around the world
- Aug 29 Seismic sea waves created by Krakatoa eruption create a rise in English Channel 32 hrs after explosion
Famous Birthdays
- Aug 4 René Schickele, German-French writer, sometimes under nom de plume 'Sascha' (Erbe am Rhein), poet, and magazine editor (Weissen Blätter), born in Obernai, Alsace-Lorraine, German Empire (d. 1940)
- Aug 5 Frank Nelson, English politician and civil servant (head of the Special Operations Executive, 1940-42), born in Gloucestershire (d. 1966)
- Aug 6 Francesco Santoliquido, Italian composer, born in San Giorgio a Cremano, Naples, Italy (d. 1971)
- Aug 6 Scott Nearing, American sociologist, pacifist and author (The Good Life), born in Morris Run, Pennsylvania (d. 1983)
- Aug 7 Joachim Ringelnatz [Hans Bötticher], German writer and artist, born in Wurzen, Saxony (d. 1934)
- Aug 9 George Hoyt, American Basketball Hall of Fame referee (author "The Theory and Practice of Basketball Officiating"), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1962)
- Aug 10 Carlos Lavín, Chilean composer (Lamentaciones Huiliches), and ethnomusicologist, born in Santiago, Chile (d. 1962)
- Aug 11 Ernst Stadler, German poet (Der Aufbruch), born in Colmar, Alsace-Lorraine (d. 1914)
- Aug 12 Jan Schouten, Dutch co-founder of Daily Trouw (illegal resistance newspaper WWII) (d. 1963)
- Aug 12 Marion Lorne [MacDougall] American stage and Emmy Award-winning screen actress (Bewitched - "Aunt Clara"; Mister Peepers - "Mrs. Gurney"; The Graduate), born in West Pittston, Pennsylvania (d. 1968)
- Aug 12 Pauline Frederick, American actress (Thank You, Mr. Moto), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1938)
- Aug 14 Ernest Everett Just, African-American embryologist known for his pioneering work in the physiology of development, especially fertilization and cell division, born in Charleston, South Carolina (d. 1941)
- Aug 15 Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor and architect, born in Vrpolje, Croatia (d. 1962)
- Aug 19 (Gabrielle) "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (Chanel), born in Saumur, France (d. 1971)
- Aug 19 Elsie Ferguson, American film actress (Footlights, Scarlet Pages), born in New York City (d. 1961)
- Aug 19 José Mendes Cabeçadas, 95th Prime Minister of Portugal and 9th President of Portugal (d. 1965)
- Aug 19 Leonid Kulik, Russian mineralogist who led the first research expedition to study the Tunguska meteor site, the largest impact event in recorded history, born in Tartu, Estonia, Imperial Russia (d. 1942)
- Aug 23 Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, American army officer, born in Fort Walla Walla, Washington (d. 1953)
- Aug 28 E. E. Clive, Welsh actor (Night Must Fall, Dark Hour), born in Monmouthshire, Wales (d. 1940)
- Aug 30 Theo Van Doesburg [Christian Emil Marie Küpper], Dutch painter and architect (Style), born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1931)
Famous Deaths
- Aug 1 Karl Wilhelm Dindorf, classic scholar, dies
- Aug 19 Jeremiah S. Black, American statesman (US Attorney General 1857-60, US Secretary of State 1860-61), dies at 73
- Aug 27 August Friedrich Pott, German violinist, composer, and music professor, dies at 76
- Aug 30 Ángela Peralta, Mexican operatic soprano, harpist, pianist, and composer, dies of yellow fever at 38
