August 13

Sharpshooter Annie Oakley born (1860); Florence Nightingale, pioneer of modern nursing, dies (1910); Fidel Castro born (1926); Construction of the Berlin Wall begins (1961); Baseball great Mickey Mantle dies (1995); Celebrity chef Julia Child dies (2004).

August 12

Egyptian queen Cleopatra dies by suicide (30 BCE, estimated); James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies (1964); IBM personal computer is released (1981); Explorer Susan Hendrickson discovers SUE the Tyrannosaurus rex (1990); Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall dies (2014).

August 10

Louvre Museum opens in Paris, France (1793); Smithsonian Institution created (1846); First electric guitar patent awarded to Electro String Corporation (1937); "Wizard of Oz" movie premieres in Green Bay, Wisconsin (1939); Ruth Bader Ginsburg sworn in as Supreme Court justice (1993)

August 11

Author and historian Alex Haley born (1921); Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak born (1950); Actress Viola Davis born (1965); Final US ground combat troops leave South Vietnam during Vietnam War (1972); Robin Williams dies by suicide (2014).

August 8

Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph (1876); Writer Shirley Jackson dies (1965); President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (1974); Roger Federer born (1981); Olivia Newton-John dies (2022). 

August 9

The US drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing over 40,000 (1945); Singer Whitney Houston born (1963); Actress Sharon Tate, four others murdered by Manson Family (1969); Gerald Ford becomes US president as Richard Nixon resigns (1974); Musician Jerry Garcia dies (1995).

August 7

Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche born (1904); Operation Desert Shield preps the US to enter Gulf War (1990); US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed, killing 224 and wounding 4,500 (1998); Track and field star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone born (1999); Journalist Peter Jennings dies (2005).