What happened today
1815
Famous birthdays
1906
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on August 5
-
2012
A gunman in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, opens fire in a Sikh temple, killing six before committing suicide.
-
1997
The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, goes on trial.
-
1995
Croatian forces capture the city of Knin, a Serb stronghold, during Operation Storm.
-
1992
Four police officers are indicted on civil rights charges in the beating of Rodney King.
-
1981
President Ronald Reagan fires 11,500 striking air traffic controllers.
-
1975
Ami Foster, television actress (Punky Brewster); nominated eight times for Young Actress Award.
-
1974
President Richard Nixon admits he ordered a cover-up for political as well as national security reasons.
-
1964
President Lyndon Johnson begins bombing North Vietnam in retaliation for the Gulf of Tonkin incident and asks Congress to go to war against North Vietnam.
-
1962
Actress Marilyn Monroe dies under mysterious circumstances.
-
1951
The United Nations Command suspends armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.
-
1941
The German army completes taking 410,000 Russian prisoners in the Uman and Smolensk pockets in the Soviet Union.
-
1930
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
-
1923
Richard G. Kleindienst, one of the key officials who helped elect Richard Nixon to the presidency in 1969.
-
1921
Mustafa Kemal is appointed virtual ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
-
1916
The British navy defeats the Ottomans at the naval battle off Port Said, Egypt.