August 3, 2020 | SuzyQ
August 1, 1944. Anne Frank wrote her last entry into her diary. Three days later, Anne and her family were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps.
August 3, 1492. Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain, with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
August 6, 1945. The first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan by the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay.
August 7, 1964. During the Vietnam War, the controversial Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress, giving President Johnson authority "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."
August 9, 1945. The second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan.
August 13, 1961. The East German government closed the border between the east and west sectors of Berlin with barbed wire, which was eventually replaced by a 12 foot-high concrete wall.
August 14, 1941. The Atlantic Charter was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
August 15, 1945. Japan formally surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II.
August 16, 1896. Gold was discovered in a tributary of the Klondike River in Alaska.
August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
August 21, 1863. During the Civil War, William Quantrill led a Confederate guerilla group on an early morning attack on Lawrence, Kansas - a town known for its long support of abolition.
August 24, 79 A.D. Vesuvius, a volcano in southern Italy, erupted, destroying the cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum.
August 27, 1883. The volcanic island of Krakatoa erupted. Explosions were heard 2,000 miles away, and tidal waves killed 36,000 people on nearby islands.
August 28, 1963. Over 250,000 persons attended this civil rights rally in Washington, D.C. It was here that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech.
August 29, 1991. The Soviet Communist Party was suspended, following an unsuccessful coup earlier in the month. This ended their nearly 75 year rule of Russia.
August 31, 1980. The Polish trade union known as Solidarity, was formed in Gdansk, Poland. It was led by Lech Walesa and opposed Communist rule.
August 31, 1997. Britain's Princess Diana died from massive internal injuries suffered in a high-speed car crash.