1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright.

1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden.

 DaveInVA wrote:Almost irrelevant detail...he announced his intention to resign on the 8th.  He actually resigned effective Noon ET, Aug 9th, 1974. 

40 years ago today Nixon resigned...

1884—Birthday of noted poet Sarah Teasdale.

1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the photo that becomes the cover of the Beatles album Abbey Road.

1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight.

1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the King of Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal

1576 – The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on Ven, Denmark.

2012 – NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.

1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

1964 – Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down.

1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.

August the Fifth, 1966

Give due honor to the coolest of the Beatles, in my opinion...2:55 - 4:59..."which one of his was on Revolver?" 

1934—Birth of Wendell Berry—noted poet, essayist, author, and farmer.

1962 – Apartheid in South Africa: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.