August 18th in History
1966: The 'Cultural Revolution' in China begins
1993: Waring factions in Yugoslavia agree to place Sarajevo under UN control


August 18th birthdays
1750: Antonio Salieri, Italian composer
1830: Franz Joseph I, Austro-Hungarian emperor
1922: Shelley Winters, American actress
1933: Roman Polanski, Polish director
1937: Robert Redford, American actor and director

August 19th in History
1969: British army takes over policing of Northern Ireland
1973: George Papadopoulos becomes the first president of Greece
1991: A coup attempts to remove President Gorbachev from power in the Soviet Union


August 19th birthdays
1631: John Dryden, English poet, dramatist and satire writer
1883: Gabrielle (aka Coco) Chanel, French designer
1902: Ogden Nash, American humorist
1940: Jill St John, American actress
1945: Bill Clinton, 45th US President

August 20th in History
1914: German forces invade Brussels
1968: Russian and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia


August 20th birthdays
1833: Benjamin Harrison, Former (23rd) US President
1890: H.P Lovecraft, American writer
1942: Isaac Hayes, American film actor

August 21st in History
1900: Allied forces overun Peking's inner city
1915: Italy declares war on Turkey
1958: Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the United States of America
1963: Martial law imposed in South Vietnam
1984: Widespread arrests on the eve of South African coloured elections
1986: A report on the Chernobyl disaster blames 'human error'
1991: Attempted coup against Mikial Gorbachev stopped by Boris Yeltsin


August 21st birthdays
1904: Count Baise, US bandleader and jazz player
1938: Kenny Rogers, American singer/songwriter

August 22nd in History
1642: English Civil War begins
1788: British create the settlement of Sierra Leone, Africa, for freed slaves
1864: International Red Cross formed in Geneva, Switzerland
1911: Mona Lisa' stolen from the Louvre art gallery, Paris


August 22nd birthdays
1862: Claude Debussy, French composer of 'Clair de lune'
1893: Dorothy Parker, American writer and humorist
1908: Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer
1920: Ray Bradbury, American author; 'The Martian Chronicles'

August 23rd in History
1793: In France, the first ever national conscription introduced for unmarried men from ages 18 to 25
1914: Emperor of Japan declares war on Germany
1940: German bombers begin night time attacks (The Blitz) on London


August 23rd birthdays
1912: Gene Kelly, Hollywood song and dance man, also producer/director
1947: Willy Russell, Playwright; 'Educating Rita' and Shirley Valentine'
1949: Shelly Long, American actress

August 24th in History
1981: Mark Chapman begins a life sentence for killing 'Beatles' legend John Lennon


August 24th birthdays
1724: George Stubbs, British painter
1789: James Wedell, Scottish Antarctic explorer
1872: Sir Max Beerbohm, British writer and caricaturist
1948: Jean Michel Jarre, French 'electronic music' musician
1957: Stephen Fry, British writer and comedian

August 25th in History
1981: The spacecraft Voyager 2 flies past the planet Saturn
1988: Romanian Chess master Mihai Suba and his son defect to the West during an international tournament in London


August 25th birthdays
1530: Ivan the Terrible, Crowned as first Tsar of Russia in 1547
1918: Leonard Bernstein, Composer and conductor
1930: Sean Connery, Scottish actor
1938: Frederick Forsyth, British Author

August 26th in History
1346: Battle of Crecy, between English and French forces
1920: US Women given the right to vote


August 26th birthdays
1740: Joseph Montgolfier, With his brother invented the hot air balloon
1875: John Buchan, Scottish author

August 27th in History
1883: The volcano Krakatoa erupts and  the resulting explosion is heard 2200 miles away in Australia.
1915: Italy declares war on Germany
1976: British MP John Stonehouse resigns following his conviction for theft and fraud
1986: US Air Force reveals they accidentally dropped a hydrogen bomb on New Mexico in 1957, which did not detonate


August 27th birthdays
1882: Samuel Goldwyn, Co-founder of the MGM film studios in Hollywood
1899: C.S Forester, English novelist
1910: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Nobel Peace Prize winner