On this day in the year:
475 – The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna.
489 – Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
663 – Silla–Tang armies crush the Baekje restoration attempt and force Yamato Japan to withdraw from Korea in the Battle of Baekgang.
1189 – Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan.
1521 – The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
1524 – The Kaqchikel Maya rebel against their former Spanish allies during the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.
1542 – Turkish–Portuguese War (1538–57): Battle of Wofla: The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed.
1565 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sights land near St. Augustine, Florida and founds the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States.
1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
1619 – Election of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor.
1640 – Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn.
1648 – Siege of Colchester ended when Royalists Forces surrender to the Parliamentary Forces after eleven weeks, during the English Civil War.
1709 – Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
1789 – William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus.
1810 – Battle of Grand Port: The French accept the surrender of a British Navy fleet.
1830 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in US railroads.
1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most of the British Empire.
1845 – The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.
1849 – After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria.
1859 – The Carrington event disrupts electrical telegraph services and causes aurora to shine so brightly that they are seen clearly over the Earth's middle latitudes.
1861 – American Civil War: Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days.
1862 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas. The battle ends on August 30.
1867 – The United States takes possession of the (at this point unoccupied) Midway Atoll.
1879 – Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
1898 – Caleb Bradham invents the carbonated soft drink that will later be called "Pepsi-Cola".
1901 – Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. The first American private school in the country.
1909 – A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.
1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
1914 – World War I: The Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
1914 – World War I: German troops take the city of Namur in Belgium.
1916 – World War I: Germany declares war on Romania.
1916 – World War I: Italy declares war on Germany.
1917 – Ten Suffragettes are arrested while picketing the White House.
1924 – The Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
1931 – France and the Soviet Union sign a treaty of non-aggression.
1937 – Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
1943 – World War II: In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation starts.
1944 – World War II: Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
1955 – Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent Civil Rights Movement.
1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.
1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech
1963 – Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan apartment, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights.
1964 – The Philadelphia race riot begins.
1968 – Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.
1979 – An IRA bomb explodes at the Grote Markt in Brussels.
1988 – Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy-five are killed and 346 seriously injured.
1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
1990 – An F5 tornado strikes the Illinois cities of Plainfield and Joliet, killing 29 people.
1993 – The Galileo spacecraft discovers a moon, later named Dactyl, around 243 Ida, the first known asteroid moon.
1998 – Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.
1998 – Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa.
