Unix Timestamp: 997228800
Wednesday, August 8. 2001, 12:00:00 AM UTC

August 24 – The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.

A strong earthquake of 6.7 magnitude hits near the island of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu at 9:18 a.m. local time.//abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2284655 (ABC News)//earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/usrcb2.php (USGS)

The draft EU constitution could lead to the establishment of foreign-owned private health care and educational services. //www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20030808IE4

SCO v. IBM Linux lawsuit: IBM furnishes more information on their SCO countersuit and states that they have Novell support. //www.vnunet.com/News/1142898//www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22052.html//www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2003/08/07/rtr1052693.html

Accountancy scandals: WorldCom announced it had discovered discovered earlier.

The Confederate submarine "H.L. Hunley" is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.

Confederate submarine "H.L. Hunley" is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.

The first Callatis Festival, the largest music culture festival in Romania, is held.

The Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built at the time, collapses.

8888 Uprising: Thousands of protesters in Burma, now known as "Myanmar", are killed during anti-government demonstrations.

The Senegalese political party "PAI-Rénovation" is legally recognized, becoming the third legal party in the country.

Ten thousand Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland.

As part of the ABA-NBA merger agreement, a dispersal draft was conducted to assign teams for the players on the two ABA franchises which had folded.

Watergate scandal: U.S.PresidentRichard Nixon announces his resignation (effective August 9).

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded in Bangkok, Thailand.

A Rolling Stonesgig in Scheveningen gets out of control. Riot police end the gig after about 15 minutes, upon which spectators start to fight the riot police.

The Great Train Robbery of 1963 takes place in Buckinghamshire, England.

A flood in Taiwan kills 2,000.

262 miners die in a fire in a coalmine in Marcinelle, Belgium.

Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb.

Winston Churchill supports idea of a pan-European army allied with Canada and the U.S.

Bhutan becomes independent

WWII: In Washington, DC, six Germans would-be saboteurs are executed. (Two others are cooperative and receive sentences of life imprisonment instead one is spared because of his relatively young age. Those imprisoned are freed a few years after the end of the war.)

"Start", led by the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5–3. Eight of them are later arrested and tortured, and at least four are killed.

Walt Disney's animated film "Bambi" premieres in the United Kingdom.

Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.

Quit India resolution is passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India.

Walt Disney's fifth animated film, Bambi, is released in the United States.

WWII: Wilhelm Keitel signs the Aufbau Ost directive, which eventually leads to the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Japan occupies Beijing.

The Wehrmacht swears a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler.

The Ku Klux Klan demonstrate their popularity by holding a parade in Washington DC as many as 40,000 male and female members of the Klan march down Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1925, an estimated 5,000,000 members belong to the Ku Klux Klan, making it the largest fraternal organization in the United States.

WWI ndash Battle of Amiens: Canadian and Australian troops begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff later calls this the black day of the German Army.

Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

The "Republic of Ploieşti", an uprising against DomnitorCarol of Romania, fails.

American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis refuses the request upon receipt).

Austria crushes the Hungarian rebellion with Russian aid.

During a meeting held in Nauvoo, the Quorum of the Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is chosen as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Beta Theta Pi fraternity is founded in Oxford, Ohio.

France: The Prince de Polignac succeeds the Vicomte de Martignac as Prime Minister of France.

Seventy disciples of Vilna Gaon arrive in Palestine.

King Louis XVI of France agrees to convene the Estates-General meeting in May 1789, the first time since 1614.

Mont Blanc is climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat.

The first recorded town cricket match at Horsham in England is played.

James Cook departs from Plymouth on his first voyage of discovery.

The hot air balloon of Bartolomeu de Gusmão flies in Portugal.

Late summer ndash A Russian army invades Estonia and besieges the town of Narva.

August 18OS) ndash Peace of Travendal concluded between the Swedish Empire, Denmark-Norway and Holstein-Gottorp in Traventhal. On the same day, Augustus II, King of Poland, and Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, enter the war against Sweden.

The Wren Building is started in Williamsburg, Virginia (completed in 1700).

August ndash Bombardment of Brussels.

In the American colonies, a Dutch battle fleet of 23 ships demands the surrender of New York City.

10 ndash Battle of Scheveningen: The final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War is fought, between the fleets of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces off the Texel the English navy gains a tactical victory over the Dutch fleet.

November ndash John Casor flees Anthony Johnson's farm, sparking the legal basis for slavery in the United States.

Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh completes Book VIII of "Leabhar na nGenealach", in Galway, within days of an outbreak of the plague.

Battle of Dungan\\'s Hill: Irish forces are defeated by English Parliamentary forces.

November ndash Battle of Knocknanauss: An Irish confederate force is destroyed by the army of Parliament Alasdair MacColla is killed.

Battle of Dungan's Hill: Irish forces are defeated by English Parliamentary forces.

Mysterious rain of frogs in Weil der Stadt

The Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu) in Japan forbids foreigners other than Chinese from traveling freely or trading outside of the ports of Nagasaki and Hirado.Arano, Yasunori. The Formation of a Japanocentric World Order.

September ndash Sakazaki Naomori of IwamiTsuwano han fails to kidnap Princess Sen and commits suicide.

August 9 ndash The Spanish are unable to reach the coast of Flanders to meet up with the army of the Duke of Parma. The Duke of Medina Sidonia decides to return to Spain.

John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in his quest for the Northwest Passage.

Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo in the service of Miguel López de Legazpi begins conquest of the Kingdom of Maynila.

The Andean population of Peru reaches 1.3 million.

The Peace of Saint-Germain ends the Third War of Religion in France. Again, the Huguenots are promised religious freedom and political autonomy.

Andrea Palladio publishes "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura" in Venice.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry known to be in existence in London. By the early 21st century it will be the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain.

Andrea Palladio publishes "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura" in Venice.

9 ndash England and France declare war.ref name=CBH

Battle of Tenochtitlan: Hernán Cortés and allied local Indians defeat the Aztec forces of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec Emperor.

King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland.

An earthquake destroys the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the seven wonders of the world.

The oldest surviving bell in the clocks atop the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is built.

The Scots Parliament creates a law allowing women to propose marriage to men during leap years men who refuse such proposals are required to pay a fine to the spurned bride-to-be.

Work is begun on the construction of Mob Quad in Merton College, Oxford.

Pope Nicholas IV proclaims a crusade against King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, who had lost credibility by favoring his semi-pagan Cuman subjects and in general refusing to conform to the social standards of western Europe.

Battle of Lihula: The Estonians defeat the invading Swedes.

Peter Waldo is converted to Christianity and founds the Waldensians.

Algebraic chess notation is first recorded.

Saint Thomas Becket is buried at Canterbury and canonized.

The construction of a canile which will become the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins.

Abd al-Malik succeeds Al-Mansur, chief minister of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba, Spain

Treaty of Meerssen: Charles the Bald and Louis the German divide Lotharingia among themselves.