398End of the Gildonic rebellion after Gildo's forces are defeated by forces loyal to Western Roman Emperor Honorius under Gildo's brother Mascezel and Gildo's subsequent death.
432Election of pope Sixtus III following the death of pope Celestine I four days prior.
768Antipope Constantine II is arrested by primicerius Christopher and Lombard troops sent to aid him by king Desiderius.
781The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: Sixth day of the seventh month of the first year of the Ten'o (天応) era).
1009Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
1201Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
1423Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant: A Franco-Scottish army is defeated by the Anglo-Burgundians at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1667The treaty of Breda ends the second Anglo-Dutch War and grants England in possession of New Amsterdam.
1703Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
1715Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
1741Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
1763Odawa Chief Pontiac's forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac's War.
1777The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States."
1790The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
1856Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.
1865The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
1874Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.
1917World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
1932The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
1938Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
1938Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
1941The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question."
1941World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
1948Is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.
1964Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
1966The pleasure cruiser MV Darlwyne disappears off the Cornwall coast with the loss of all 31 aboard.
1970Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
1972The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.
1973A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723, crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, killing 89.
1975The Troubles: Three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.
1987A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people.
1988Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
1991The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.
1992Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 113 people on board.
1992China General Aviation Flight 7552 crashes during takeoff from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108.
1992Space Shuttle program: Atlantis is launched on STS-46 to deploy the European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System.
1997FedEx Express Flight 14 crashes at Newark International Airport, injuring five.
1999Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon's surface.
2006Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
2007Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
2008East Coast Jets Flight 81 crashes near Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in Owatonna, Minnesota, killing all eight people on board.
2012Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
2014Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.
2020A De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser collide over Soldotna, Alaska, killing all seven people on board both aircraft, including state representative Gary Knopp.
Nacimientos (217)
1143Emperor Nijō of Japan (died 1165)
1396Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (died 1467)
1526Augustus, Elector of Saxony (died 1586)
1527Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1576)
1595Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (died 1641)
1598Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor (died 1654)
1686Charles of France, Duke of Berry (died 1714)
1702Jean Denis Attiret, French missionary and painter (died 1768)
1704Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (died 1752)
1718John Canton, English physicist and academic (died 1772)
1724Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer and author (died 1801)
1759Ignaz Anton von Indermauer, Austrian nobleman and government official (died 1796)
1777Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine priest and politician (died 1849)
1796Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Czech-French actor and mime (died 1846)
1800Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and academic (died 1882)
1803John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, designed the USS Monitor, the first ironclad warship of the US Navy (died 1889).
1816George Henry Thomas, American general (died 1870)
1826Juhani Aataminpoika, Finnish serial killer (died 1854)
1826William S. Clark, American colonel and politician (died 1886)
2022Bill Russell, NBA Hall of Fame player and coach (born 1934)
2023Angus Cloud, American actor (born 1998)
2024Paul Bucha, United States Army Medal of Honor recipient (born 1943)
2024Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian politician, political leader of Hamas (born 1962/1963)
2026Glenn A. Baker, Australian journalist and author (born 1952)
2026Franco Baresi, Italian footballer (born 1960)
2026Jakob Butturff, American bowler (born 1994)
Celebraciones (7)
Earliest day on which the Feast of Kamál (Perfection) can fall, while August 1 is the latest; observed on the first day of the eighth month of the Baháʼí calendar. (Baháʼí Faith)
End of the Trinity term (sitting of the High Court of Justice of England)
Lā Hae Hawaiʻi Day (Hawaii, United States), and its related observance:
Sovereignty Restoration Day (Hawaiian sovereignty movement)
Martyrdom Day of Shahid Udham Singh (Haryana and Punjab, India)