6th August 1926 - The American Olympic athlete, Gertrude Ederle, became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. It took her 14 hours, 39 minutes to swim the 56 kilometers from France to England. She held the record for 35 years. 1945 - The world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. An […]

5th August 1858 - After several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean was completed. 1962 - Marilyn Monroe was found dead. 1973 - Three people were killed and 55 wounded when two gunmen opened fire in a crowded passenger lounge at Athens airport.

4th August  1914 - Germany declared war on Belgium 1914 - Britain declared war on Germany. 1914 - The US declared neutrality. A woman gives flowers to a German soldier leaving for the front, Berlin, August 1914 pic.twitter.com/AbpfIdFCN9— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) August 5, 2014 1944 - Anne Frank was arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police […]

3rd August 2001 - A car bomb exploded in a busy west London street, injuring seven people. 2003 - The Anglican Church in America voted to approve the appointment of an openly gay bishop. 2008 - Nobel literature prize winner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who revealed the horror of Stalin's camps to the world, died aged 89.

1st August 1907 - Robert Baden-Powell opened the first experimental Scout camp on Brownsea Island. 20 scouts attended. 1908 - Lloyd George introduced the Old Age Pensions Act that provided between 1s. and 5s. a week to people over seventy. These pensions were only paid to citizens on incomes that were not over 12s.

31st July 1498 - On his third voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus "discovered" the island of Trinidad. 1703 - Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel. He had ruthlessly satirised the High Church Tories in a pamphlet, but allegedly, instead of throwing rotten veg and fruit at […]