I often wonder what significant anniversaries are due at some point in the future as some of them might be of interest as triggers for blog posts or visits somewhere. However, it is often difficult to find out quickly what events have significant anniversaries - hence this section on the website.
By "significant anniversaries", I mean dates that are not, for example, the 73rd anniversary of something, but the 50th, 100th, 200th etc.
It should help to flag up interesting events.
Anniversaries during August 2020
Note: This page lists ALL anniversaries, not just the key dates.
For that more useful list, click here.
| Anniversary | Details |
| 189th | A new London Bridge opens. (1st Aug 1831) |
| 182nd | Non-labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated. (1st Aug 1838) |
| 180th | Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated. (1st Aug 1840) |
| 150th | Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London. (1st Aug 1870) |
| 47th | A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man. (1st Aug 1973) |
| 4th | Permission is given to enlarge the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks in northern England. (1st Aug 2016) |
| 5th | Singer and television star Cilla Black, whose showbiz career spanned over fifty years, dies at her villa in Spain, at the age of 72 years. (1st Aug 2015) |
| 306th | George, elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain following the death of Queen Anne. (1st Aug 1714) |
| 45th | The government's anti-inflation policy came into full effect. During the year, inflation reached 24.2% - the second highest since records began in 1750 and the highest since 1800. (1st Aug 1975) |
| 55th | Cigarette advertising is banned on British television. (1st Aug 1965) |
| 205th | William Smith publishes the first national geological map of the UK, A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland. (1st Aug 1815) |
| 305th | First Doggett's Coat and Badge rowing race held on the River Thames. (1st Aug 1715) |
| 74th | The establishment of a National Land Fund to secure culturally significant property for the nation as a memorial to the dead of World War II. (1st Aug 1946) |
| 10th | A scheme which allows parents to check if someone with access to their children is a sex offender, will be extended to cover the whole of England and Wales by spring 2011 after proving successful in four pilot areas. (1st Aug 2010) |
| 62nd | Premiere of Carry on Sergeant, the first Carry On film. (1st Aug 1958) |
| 102nd | Education Act raises the school leaving age in England and Wales to fourteen. (1st Aug 1918) |
| 16th | The University of Surrey Roehampton becomes Roehampton University. (1st Aug 2004) |
| 14th | The first modern solely Gaelic-medium school to offer secondary education is opened at Woodside in Glasgow. (1st Aug 2006) |
| 12th | Barry George was acquitted of the murder of Jill Dando. (1st Aug 2008) |
| 11th | A metal detectorist discovers the Shrewsbury Hoard, about 10,000 Roman coins. (1st Aug 2009) |
| -2nd | The Hinkley Point B nuclear power station in Somerset reaches the end of its working life. (1st Aug 2022) |
| -1st | Four of the eight cooling towers at Eggborough power station, a former coal power plant in Yorkshire, are demolished. (1st Aug 2021) |
| 3rd | The Duke of Edinburgh carries out his final official engagement before retiring from public duties at age 96. (2nd Aug 2017) |
| 54th | Spanish government forbids overflights of British military aircraft. (2nd Aug 1966) |
| 18th | 2002 Barrow-in-Furness legionellosis outbreak: First fatality in an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Barrow-in-Furness which results in seven deaths and 172 cases throughout the month, ranking it as the worst in the UK's history and fifth-worst worldwide. (2nd Aug 2002) |
| -2nd | A man allegedly found with a crossbow in the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day 2021 is charged under the 1842 Treason Act with threatening to alarm or injure the Queen. (2nd Aug 2022) |
| 989th | Olaf II of Norway is canonised as Saint Olaf by Grimketel, the English Bishop of Selsey. (3rd Aug 1031) |
| 76th | The Education Act, promoted by Rab Butler, creates a Tripartite System of secondary education in England and Wales with Secondary Modern, Technical, and Grammar schools, entrance being determined in most cases by the results of the Eleven plus exam. (3rd Aug 1944) |
| 131st | Opening of Hawarden Bridge, Wales. (3rd Aug 1889) |
| 100th | London Underground's Central Line starts carrying passengers between Wood Lane and Ealing Broadway. (3rd Aug 1920) |
| 65th | English language premiere of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, directed by Peter Hall, opens at the Arts Theatre, London. (3rd Aug 1955) |
| 104th | The musical comedy Chu Chin Chow, premieres at His Majesty's Theatre in London. It will run for five years and a total of 2,238 performances, a record that will stand for nearly 40 years. (3rd Aug 1916) |
| 10th | The President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, arrived in the United Kingdom for a five-day visit as the two countries disagreed about recent comments by David Cameron on "the export of terror". (3rd Aug 2010) |
| 17th | Police use the taser for the first time. (3rd Aug 2003) |
| -2nd | As a prolonged dry spell continues in Southern England, a hosepipe ban is announced for Kent and Sussex from 12 August. (3rd Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Marks and Spencer announces that it will stop selling disposable barbecues "to help protect open spaces and reduce the risk of fires". (3rd Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser who helped steer the UK through the COVID-19 pandemic, announces he will step down from the role in April 2023. (3rd Aug 2022) |
| 755th | Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham - the army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies. (4th Aug 1265) |
| 693rd | First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England. (4th Aug 1327) |
| 316th | War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles. (4th Aug 1704) |
| 118th | The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens. (4th Aug 1902) |
| 56th | The first portable televisions go on sale. (4th Aug 1964) |
| 66th | Maiden flight of the English Electric Lightning P-1 supersonic fighter plane. (4th Aug 1954) |
| 86th | British Empire Games opens in London. (4th Aug 1934) |
| 54th | The Kray Twins are questioned in connection with a murder in London. (4th Aug 1966) |
| 304th | George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton, under sentence of death for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, escapes from the Tower of London and flees into exile on the continent. (4th Aug 1716) |
| 9th | Downing Street launched a new e-petition website to encourage the public to prompt parliamentary debate on topics they feel are important. Several of the initial petitions concerned proposals for and against restoring the death penalty, last used in the UK in 1964. (4th Aug 2011) |
| 19th | Oxford United move into their new 12,500-seat Kassam Stadium near the city's Blackbird Leys estate. Work on the stadium had started in 1996 but halted the following year due to the club's financial problems. The stadium will initially have three stands but a fourth stand could be built in the future to take the capacity to 15,000. (4th Aug 2001) |
| 18th | 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing in Soham, Cambridgeshire. (4th Aug 2002) |
| -2nd | The Bank of England raises its base interest rate from 1.25% to 1.75%, the biggest increase in 27 years. The Bank also warns that inflation could reach 13% later in the year and that the British economy may enter a recession. (4th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | COVID-19 in the UK: The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommends that all 16 and 17-year-olds should be offered a first vaccine dose, meaning 1.4 million teenagers would be eligible. The rollout begins two days later. (4th Aug 2021) |
| 1378th | Battle of Maserfield - Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria. (5th Aug 0642) |
| 1110th | The last major Danish army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Earl Aethelred of Mercia. (5th Aug 0910) |
| 920th | Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. (5th Aug 1100) |
| 715th | William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed. (5th Aug 1305) |
| 632nd | The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near Otterburn. (5th Aug 1388) |
| 437th | Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland. (5th Aug 1583) |
| 420th | The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England) takes place. (5th Aug 1600) |
| 400th | The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America. (5th Aug 1620) |
| 239th | The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place. (5th Aug 1781) |
| 106th | World War I: the German minelayer Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) of the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion. (5th Aug 1914) |
| 57th | The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty. (5th Aug 1963) |
| 7th | The world's first lab-grown burger - produced from bovine stem cells - is cooked and eaten at a news conference in London. (5th Aug 2013) |
| 75th | The Giles family cartoon first appears in the Sunday Express. (5th Aug 1945) |
| 44th | The Great Clock of Westminster (or Big Ben) suffers internal damage and stops running for over nine months. (5th Aug 1976) |
| 177th | Sarah Dazley, the last woman to be executed in public in England, is hanged for murder outside Bedford Prison (5th Aug 1843) |
| 1st | The historic shipyard Harland and Wolff, which built the RMS Titanic and other well-known ships, ceases trading. (5th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | Network Rail management staff belonging to the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association vote to accept a 4% pay rise. (5th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The Unite union announces that 1,900 workers at Felixstowe Docks, one of the UK's largest ports, will stage an eight-day strike from 21 August after rejecting a 7% pay rise from the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company. (5th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows another drop in the number of people in the UK with COVID-19, with 2.6 million cases in the week up to 26 July, a fall of over half a million from 3.2 million the previous week. (5th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | It is confirmed that a software outage affecting some NHS services, such as NHS 111, the previous day was the result of software hackers. (5th Aug 2022) |
| 159th | The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria. (6th Aug 1861) |
| 94th | Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel. (6th Aug 1926) |
| 114th | Elephant & Castle station on the London Underground's Bakerloo Line opens. (6th Aug 1906) |
| 55th | Peter Watkins' The War Game, a television drama-documentary depicting the aftermath of a nuclear attack on the UK, is pulled from its planned transmission as BBC1's The Wednesday Play for political reasons. It will go on to win the 1966 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. (6th Aug 1965) |
| 44th | The last Postmaster General, John Stonehouse, is sentenced to seven years in jail for fraud. (6th Aug 1976) |
| 74th | Family allowance introduced, a cash benefit paid to mothers. (6th Aug 1946) |
| 74th | Free milk provided in UK state schools to all pupils under the age of 18. (6th Aug 1946) |
| 84th | An underground explosion at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery in South Yorkshire kills 58. (6th Aug 1936) |
| 9th | The 2011 English riots began. (6th Aug 2011) |
| 11th | Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who is gravely ill, is granted release from prison on compassionate grounds. (6th Aug 2009) |
| -2nd | 12-year-old Archie Battersbee dies after his life support machine is switched off, following a series of legal challenges by his parents attempting to keep him alive. (6th Aug 2022) |
| 141st | The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester. (7th Aug 1879) |
| 255th | Armed mutiny at Maidstone County Gaol. (7th Aug 1765) |
| 94th | The first British Grand Prix held at the Brooklands circuit near Weybridge. (7th Aug 1926) |
| 104th | August bank holiday abandoned. (7th Aug 1916) |
| 19th | The government takes an unprecedented step with the £27million nationalisation of a private hospital near Harley Street in London. (7th Aug 2001) |
| -1st | COVID-19 in the UK: With some exceptions, such as compulsory mask wearing in certain settings, most remaining pandemic related restrictions conclude in Wales. (7th Aug 2021) |
| 517th | King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland. (8th Aug 1503) |
| 432nd | Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines - The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England. (8th Aug 1588) |
| 373rd | The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungans Hill - English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces. (8th Aug 1647) |
| 57th | Great Train Robbery: in England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes. (8th Aug 1963) |
| 9th | The Royal Navy appointed its first female warship commander. Lieutenant Commander Sarah West, 39, will take control of HMS Portland in May 2012. (8th Aug 2011) |
| 10th | Government plans to scrap free school milk for the under-fives across the UK are abandoned by David Cameron amid fears it would remind voters of the "Thatcher, Milk Snatcher" episode of Edward Heath's 1970-1974 government. (8th Aug 2010) |
| 52nd | Royal Navy Leander-class frigate HMS Scylla is launched at Devonport, the last ship to be built in a Royal Dockyard. (8th Aug 1968) |
| -2nd | As the UK prepares for another heatwave, the UK Health Security Agency issues a level 3 heat health alert for central and southern England effective from 9 to 13 August. (8th Aug 2022) |
| 118th | Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. (9th Aug 1902) |
| 49th | The Troubles: The British security forces in Northern Ireland launch Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested and interned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed in the violence that followed. (9th Aug 1971) |
| 64th | Art exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London includes Richard Hamilton's collage Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, considered to be one of the earliest works of pop art. (9th Aug 1956) |
| 74th | The Arts Council is incorporated by Royal Charter. (9th Aug 1946) |
| 702nd | Treaty of Leake between Edward II and Earl of Lancaster, agreeing on control of administration. (9th Aug 1318) |
| 1st | A major power blackout hits parts of England and Wales, affecting nearly a million people and causing widespread travel disruption. (9th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | Thames Water announces plans to introduce a hosepipe ban for its 15 million customers, with a start date to be confirmed. (9th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | COVID-19 in the UK: The bulk of pandemic related restrictions are removed in Scotland. Rules that remain include compulsory mask wearing in some locations and restrictions surrounding the administration of schools in the early part of the new academic year. (9th Aug 2021) |
| -1st | The UK imposes a new package of trade, financial and aviation sanctions on Belarus, in response to continued human rights violations and the undermining of democracy by the Lukashenko regime. (9th Aug 2021) |
| 1029th | Battle of Maldon: the English, led by Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex, are defeated by a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon in Essex. (10th Aug 0991) |
| 345th | The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London is laid. (10th Aug 1675) |
| 106th | All suffragette prisoners released unconditionally. (10th Aug 1914) |
| 104th | The official documentary propaganda film The Battle of the Somme is premičred in London. In the first six weeks of general release (from 20 August) 20 million people view it. (10th Aug 1916) |
| 1st | Richard Braine is elected as leader of the UK Independence Party, succeeding Gerard Batten. (10th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | A meeting of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommends an urgent polio vaccine booster campaign for children aged one to nine in London, following detection of the virus in 116 samples of wastewater. (10th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | A lawsuit is filed in New York against Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexually abusing Virginia Giuffre. (10th Aug 2021) |
| -1st | A fire at the Bilsdale transmitting station cuts off TV and radio services for 1 million people across North Yorkshire, Teesside and part of County Durham. (10th Aug 2021) |
| 688th | Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor - Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar are routed by Edward Balliol. (11th Aug 1332) |
| 52nd | British Rail's last steam train service runs on the standard gauge: steam locomotives make the 314-mile return passenger journey from Liverpool to Carlisle before being dispatched to the scrapyard or preservation. (11th Aug 1968) |
| 106th | World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit. (12th Aug 1914) |
| 56th | Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England. (12th Aug 1964) |
| 87th | Winston Churchill makes his first public speech warning of the dangers of German rearmament. (12th Aug 1933) |
| 206th | The last hanging under the Black Act in England — William Potter for cutting down an orchard; the judge petitions for reprieve. (12th Aug 1814) |
| 54th | Three policemen are shot dead in Shepherd's Bush, West London, while sitting in their patrol car in Braybrook Street. (12th Aug 1966) |
| 79th | Dudley suffers five fatalities when a second landmine is dropped in the town. (12th Aug 1941) |
| -2nd | A drought is declared in large parts of Central, Southern and Eastern England. (12th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The ONS reports that the UK economy shrank by 0.1% between April and June. (12th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Tesco announces an increase in automated self-checkout services within its larger stores, following successful trials. (12th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | Six people, including the suspected gunman, are killed in a shooting in Plymouth. It is the first fatal mass shooting in the UK since 2010. (12th Aug 2021) |
| 206th | The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London. (13th Aug 1814) |
| 107th | First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley. (13th Aug 1913) |
| 43rd | Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries. (13th Aug 1977) |
| 56th | Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West, the last executions to take place in the British Isles. (13th Aug 1964) |
| 96th | The government forces the charges against John Ross Campbell to be dropped leading to a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons. (13th Aug 1924) |
| 206th | The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 is signed in London, returning most possessions of the Dutch Empire acquired by the UK since 1803 to the Netherlands. (13th Aug 1814) |
| 204th | An earthquake in Aberdeen is the strongest ever in Scotland. (13th Aug 1816) |
| 82nd | Great Britain and the United States contest the inaugural Amateur World Series in baseball, played in the north of England. Britain wins every match. (13th Aug 1938) |
| -2nd | 2022 United Kingdom railway strikes: Members of the train drivers' union ASLEF stage a 24-hour strike, disrupting train services across much of the UK mainland, with some areas such as London and Birmingham running no trains at all. (13th Aug 2022) |
| 2nd | A man is arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car is driven into people and cyclists outside the Houses of Parliament, causing injuries to three of them, before crashing into security barriers. (14th Aug 2018) |
| 204th | The UK formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa. (14th Aug 1816) |
| 132nd | An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London. (14th Aug 1888) |
| 79th | World War II - Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims. (14th Aug 1941) |
| 53rd | UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal. (14th Aug 1967) |
| 51st | Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland. (14th Aug 1969) |
| 131st | London dockers strike for a minimum wage of sixpence an hour ("The dockers' tanner"). The strike lasts a month. (14th Aug 1889) |
| 6th | Police search a Berkshire property belonging to Cliff Richard in relation to an alleged historical sex offense. (14th Aug 2014) |
| 45th | Hampstead entered the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169 mm. (14th Aug 1975) |
| 44th | 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland. (14th Aug 1976) |
| 11th | Britain imposes direct rule on the Turks and Caicos Islands after an inquiry found evidence of government corruption. (14th Aug 2009) |
| -2nd | 2022 United Kingdom heatwaves: The prolonged period of extreme heat across the UK draws to an end, with lower temperatures and thunderstorms in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which are forecast to spread into England and Wales the following day. Flash flooding is expected in some areas, due to the parched ground. (14th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The Crown Prosecution Service confirms that six people who were charged with breaching lockdown rules after attending demonstrations in the wake of the March 2021 murder of Sarah Everard will not be prosecuted. (14th Aug 2022) |
| 980th | King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland. (15th Aug 1040) |
| 963rd | King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada. (15th Aug 1057) |
| 421st | Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass - Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle. (15th Aug 1599) |
| 79th | Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower of London at 7:12 am, making him the last person to be executed at the Tower for treason. (15th Aug 1941) |
| 68th | A flash flood drenches the town of Lynmouth, England, killing 34 people. (15th Aug 1952) |
| 57th | Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland. (15th Aug 1963) |
| 157th | Bombardment of Kagoshima: Royal Navy bombards the town of Kagoshima in Japan in retribution after the Namamugi Incident of 1862. (15th Aug 1863) |
| 75th | V-J Day is celebrated in the UK. (15th Aug 1945) |
| 8th | Virgin Trains boss Richard Branson says the operator will "almost definitely" back out of bidding for future rail licences after losing the InterCity West Coast franchise to FirstGroup, the UK's largest rail operator. (15th Aug 2012) |
| -2nd | COVID-19 vaccination in the UK: The UK becomes the first country to approve an updated Moderna vaccine that offers protection against the original COVID-19 virus, as well as the Omicron variant. (15th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The Cabinet Office announces the launch of an emergency warning system to send alerts about severe weather and other life-threatening events to mobile phones. The system will launch in October and cover England, Scotland and Wales. (15th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Scotland becomes the first country in the world to make free sanitary products available to women after legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament comes into force. (15th Aug 2022) |
| 507th | Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) - King Henry VIII of England defeats French Forces who are then forced to retreat. (16th Aug 1513) |
| 201st | Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. (16th Aug 1819) |
| 162nd | U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. (16th Aug 1858) |
| 107th | Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary. (16th Aug 1913) |
| 3rd | The Royal Navy's new £3bn aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, arrives in her home port of Portsmouth for the first time. (16th Aug 2017) |
| 4th | The world's largest ever wind farm, consisting of 300 turbines producing 1.8 gigawatts of clean energy, is approved for construction off the Yorkshire coast. (16th Aug 2016) |
| 75th | In the House of Commons, Leader of the Opposition Winston Churchill speaks of an "Iron Curtain" descending across Europe. (16th Aug 1945) |
| 79th | HMS Mercury Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire. (16th Aug 1941) |
| 1st | The Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Fund (known as Oyak) announces that it plans to take over British Steel by the end of the year. (16th Aug 2019) |
| 16th | Boscastle flood of 2004: flash floods destroy buildings and wash cars out to sea in Cornwall. (16th Aug 2004) |
| -2nd | NHS England confirms it is extending its bowel cancer screening programme to all adults over the age of 58. (16th Aug 2022) |
| 87th | Release of the film The Private Life of Henry VIII. Charles Laughton later receives an Academy Award for the title role, making this the first British film to win an Oscar. (17th Aug 1933) |
| 4th | The Airlander 10 hybrid airship, the world's largest aircraft at 92m (302ft) in length and 38,000 m (1,300,000 cu ft) in volume, has its maiden civilian flight in Bedfordshire. (17th Aug 2016) |
| 5th | The London Borough of Lambeth becomes the first council in the United Kingdom to ban the use of laughing gas for recreational use. (17th Aug 2015) |
| 75th | George Orwell's Animal Farm published. (17th Aug 1945) |
| 64th | Scotland Yard are called to Eastbourne to investigate the activities of society doctor John Bodkin Adams. The case is reported around the world and press reports claim up to 400 patients may have been murdered. (17th Aug 1956) |
| -2nd | UK cost of living crisis: Inflation rises again, from 9.4% to 10.1%, driven by the ongoing surge in food and energy prices. It now stands at the highest level since February 1982. (17th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Heavy rain brings flash flooding to southern England. (17th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | The Office for National Statistics reports that UK job vacancies reached a record high of 953,000 in the three months to July, while average pay rose 7.4 percent. (17th Aug 2021) |
| 237th | A huge fireball meteor is seen across the United Kingdom as it passes over the east coast. (18th Aug 1783) |
| 62nd | Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He became first among 39 competitors. (18th Aug 1958) |
| 85th | Last service held in Mardale church in the Lake District prior to the village's flooding to create Haweswater Reservoir. (18th Aug 1935) |
| 54th | Tay Road Bridge opens. (18th Aug 1966) |
| 79th | National Fire Service established. (18th Aug 1941) |
| 1st | The three remaining cooling towers at Didcot power station, a focal point of the Oxfordshire skyline for 50 years, are demolished. An electricity pole is damaged in the collapse, leaving at least 40,000 homes without power. (18th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | The first post-COVID A Level results are published in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the number of students receiving A* grades lower than in 2021, but higher than in 2019 when the last public examinations were sat; 36.4% of A Levels were marked at A* and A in 2022, compared with 44.8% in 2021. (18th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The latest in a series of strikes is held by rail workers, with only 20% of train services running. RMT boss Mick Lynch warns that the dispute could go on "indefinitely" unless a pay settlement is reached. (18th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Independent MP Margaret Ferrier pleads guilty to breaching COVID-19 rules after being told to self isolate in September 2020. (18th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | Parliament is recalled from its summer recess to discuss the situation in Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. (18th Aug 2021) |
| -1st | The government announces a citizens' resettlement scheme for 5,000 Afghan nationals who are at risk due to the current crisis, which could be expanded to 20,000 in the longer term. (18th Aug 2021) |
| 459th | An 18-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France. (19th Aug 1561) |
| 408th | The "Samlesbury witches", three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused for practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in English history. (19th Aug 1612) |
| 275th | Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan - the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as "the 45". (19th Aug 1745) |
| 261st | Battle of Lagos Naval battle during the Seven Year's War between Britain and France. (19th Aug 1759) |
| -1st | COVID-19 vaccination in the UK: Health Secretary Sajid Javid announces a vaccine booster scheme, with adults over 50 likely to be offered a third dose, beginning in September with the most vulnerable groups. (19th Aug 2021) |
| 162nd | Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory. (20th Aug 1858) |
| 80th | British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few". (20th Aug 1940) |
| 76th | American Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery is wrecked off the Nore in the Thames Estuary with around 1,400 tonnes of explosives on board, never recovered. (20th Aug 1944) |
| 156th | John Alexander Reina Newlands produces the first periodic table of the chemical elements. (20th Aug 1864) |
| 8th | Former Polly Peck tycoon Asil Nadir is found guilty on three counts of stealing millions of pounds from his company by a jury at London's Old Bailey. (20th Aug 2012) |
| 9th | A pilot died when an RAF Red Arrows aeroplane crashed at the Bournemouth Air Festival following a display. (20th Aug 2011) |
| 42nd | gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London. (20th Aug 1978) |
| 152nd | Abergele train disaster kills 32 passengers and a fireman. (20th Aug 1868) |
| 15th | The Ricoh Arena, a 32,500-seat multi-purpose stadium in Coventry, is opened. Owned by the local council, Coventry City F.C. are its key tenants and it is also likely to be used as a concert venue. Japanese electrical goods manufacturer Ricoh purchased the stadium's naming rights in a multimillion-pound deal last year. (20th Aug 2005) |
| 11th | The Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill grants release to the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, stating that Megrahi is in the final stages of terminal prostate cancer. (20th Aug 2009) |
| -2nd | A sixth one-day strike is held by railway workers belonging to the RMT union. (20th Aug 2022) |
| -1st | The SNP and Scottish Greens announce a new power sharing arrangement, which includes a commitment to hold a referendum on Scottish independence after the Covid pandemic has passed and within the next five years. (20th Aug 2021) |
| 331st | The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland. (21st Aug 1689) |
| 250th | James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. (21st Aug 1770) |
| 3rd | The chimes of Big Ben fall silent as a four-year renovation of the building begins. (21st Aug 2017) |
| -2nd | Dock workers at Felixstowe, which handles half of the UK's container cargo, walk out for eight days in a dispute over pay, their first strike in 30 years. (21st Aug 2022) |
| 1455th | St. Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland. (22nd Aug 0565) |
| 882nd | Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England. (22nd Aug 1138) |
| 535th | The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet. (22nd Aug 1485) |
| 378th | Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War begins. (22nd Aug 1642) |
| 240th | James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage). (22nd Aug 1780) |
| 88th | The BBC first experiments with television broadcasting (22nd Aug 1932) |
| 5th | An RAF Hawker Hunter crashes into vehicles on the A27 near Shoreham in West Sussex during the Shoreham Airshow; eleven people are killed and fourteen injured. (22nd Aug 2015) |
| 56th | Match of the Day first airs on BBC Two television. (22nd Aug 1964) |
| 279th | George Frideric Handel starts work on the oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens. (22nd Aug 1741) |
| 602nd | Hundred Years' War: English capture Cherbourg. (22nd Aug 1418) |
| -2nd | Olivia Pratt-Korbel, 9, is mistakenly shot by a masked gunman in Liverpool, and is pronounced dead later the same day. The intended target of the attack was a 35-year-old man who has criminal convictions for drug dealing and burglary. (22nd Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Barristers in England and Wales vote overwhelmingly for an indefinite, uninterrupted strike to begin on 5 September, delaying thousands of cases. (22nd Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The Liberal Democrats accuse water companies of failing to properly monitor sewage discharges at beaches, following pollution warnings at more than 40 locations the previous week. (22nd Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Almost 1,300 migrants cross the English Channel in 27 boats, setting a new record for crossings in a single day. (22nd Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | A £5 billion class action claim against Sony is made at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging that the PlayStation Store engages in monopolisation and price gouging. (22nd Aug 2022) |
| -1st | The two chimney stacks, the main boiler house and bunker bay are demolished in a controlled demolition at Ferrybridge Power Station in Knottingley, West Yorkshire. (22nd Aug 2021) |
| 715th | Sir William Wallace is executed for High Treason at Smithfield in London. (23rd Aug 1305) |
| 370th | Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards. (23rd Aug 1650) |
| 245th | King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion. (23rd Aug 1775) |
| 181st | The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War. (23rd Aug 1839) |
| 162nd | The Round Oak rail accident occurs in Brierley Hill in the Black Country, England. It is 'Arguably the worst disaster ever to occur on British railways'. (23rd Aug 1858) |
| 147th | Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opened. (23rd Aug 1873) |
| 99th | British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber estuary. Of her 49 British and American training crew, only 4 survive. (23rd Aug 1921) |
| 82nd | English cricketer Len Hutton sets a world record for the highest individual Test innings of 364, during a Test match against Australia. (23rd Aug 1938) |
| 76th | Freckleton Air Disaster - A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people. (23rd Aug 1944) |
| 7th | A Super Puma L2 helicopter crashes near Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Islands, resulting in four fatalities among the oil rig workers being carried. Operation of the helicopter model is globally suspended. (23rd Aug 2013) |
| -2nd | A drought is declared in the West Midlands. (23rd Aug 2022) |
| 820th | King John of England marries Isabella of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral. (24th Aug 1200) |
| 805th | Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid. (24th Aug 1215) |
| 412th | The first official English representative to India lands in Surat. (24th Aug 1608) |
| 358th | The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer. (24th Aug 1662) |
| 206th | British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings. (24th Aug 1814) |
| 189th | Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle. (24th Aug 1831) |
| 145th | Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim the English Channel (24th Aug 1875) |
| 89th | Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government. (24th Aug 1931) |
| 71st | The treaty creating NATO goes into effect. (24th Aug 1949) |
| 483rd | The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed. (24th Aug 1537) |
| 81st | Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to 'defence regulations'. Parliament recalled, Army reservists called up and Civil Defence workers placed on alert. (24th Aug 1939) |
| 54th | Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is first staged, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (24th Aug 1966) |
| 81st | The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power. (25th Aug 1939) |
| 97th | Maine Road football stadium, one of the largest sports stadiums in Britain, opens in Moss Side, Manchester, as the new home of Manchester City. (25th Aug 1923) |
| 42nd | U.S. Army Sergeant Walter Robinson "walks" across the English Channel in 11 hours 30 minutes, using homemade water shoes. (25th Aug 1978) |
| 1st | The UK experiences its hottest late August bank holiday weekend on record, with temperatures reaching 33.3C (91.9F) in west London. The record for August bank holiday Monday is also broken the following day. (25th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | The Royal Entomological Society reports a huge recovery in the number of large blue butterflies in south-west England, following a successful conservation project. Estimated at 20,000 insects, this colony is now the largest in Europe. (25th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Train drivers at Chiltern Railways, Northern Trains and TransPennine Express belonging to the ASLEF union vote to take strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions. (25th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | The first post-pandemic GCSE results are published, and highlight a difference in performance between the regions, with a third of exam results in London being top grades, while the number is a fifth in the north of England. (25th Aug 2022) |
| 674th | Hundred Years' War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy. (26th Aug 1346) |
| 252nd | Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour. (26th Aug 1768) |
| 107th | Dublin Lock-out: Members of James Larkin's Irish Transport and General Workers' Union begin strike action in defiance of the dismissal of trade union members by Dublin United Tramways. (26th Aug 1913) |
| 131st | The Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act for the first time imposes criminal penalties to deter child abuse. (26th Aug 1889) |
| 84th | Signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty which requires the withdrawal of British troops and recognises Egypt as a sovereign state. (26th Aug 1936) |
| 92nd | in Paisley, May Donoghue finds the remains of a snail in her ginger beer, leading to the landmark negligence case Donoghue v. Stevenson. (26th Aug 1928) |
| 1st | The UK's biggest ever fracking-related tremor is recorded, with a magnitude of 2.9 reported at a Cuadrilla site near Blackpool. (26th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | Ofgem announces an 80% rise in the price cap on household energy bills, from £1,971 to £3,549. Martin Lewis describes the increase as "catastrophic" and warns that people will die without more government help. The Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, acknowledges the seriousness of the situation and insists that "help is coming". (26th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | 115,000 postal workers at the Royal Mail stage a walk out in a dispute over pay, with additional strikes planned for 31 August, 8 and 9 September. (26th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | 43 protestors are arrested during a Just Stop Oil protest and blockade in London. (26th Aug 2022) |
| 848th | Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned as junior king and queen of England. (27th Aug 1172) |
| 41st | A Provisional IRA bomb kills Louis Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Shortly after, 18 British Army soldiers are killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland (27th Aug 1979) |
| 65th | Guinness Book of Records first published (27th Aug 1955) |
| 204th | Britain and the Netherlands bombard Algiers in an attempt to suppress slavery by the North African Barbary states. (27th Aug 1816) |
| -1st | The last evacuation flight for British nationals and Afghans who are eligible for resettlement in the UK leaves Hamid Karzai International Airport. The UK government later confirms that all British soldiers, diplomats and other officials have been removed from Afghanistan by the following day. (27th Aug 2021) |
| 380th | Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn. (28th Aug 1640) |
| 187th | The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives Royal Assent, abolishing slavery through most the British Empire. (28th Aug 1833) |
| 106th | World War I: the Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight. (28th Aug 1914) |
| 231st | William Herschel discovers Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. (28th Aug 1789) |
| 6th | Invincible-class aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (R06) is decommissioned at Portsmouth as the Royal Navy's oldest active ship, leaving the country without an operational 'carrier for at least six years. (28th Aug 2014) |
| 2nd | Former SNP leader Alex Salmond resigns from the party to avoid internal division amid sexual misconduct claims, which he denies. (29th Aug 2018) |
| 670th | Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships. (29th Aug 1350) |
| 189th | Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction. (29th Aug 1831) |
| 90th | The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland. (29th Aug 1930) |
| 70th | Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to bolster the US presence there. (29th Aug 1950) |
| 46th | Thames Valley Police broke up the Windsor Free Festival. (29th Aug 1974) |
| 8th | Opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games, which end on 9 September. (29th Aug 2012) |
| 54th | The Beatles play their very last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. (29th Aug 1966) |
| 62nd | Project Emily: The first United States Thor missile is delivered to the UK, for operation by No. 77 Squadron RAF at RAF Feltwell. (29th Aug 1958) |
| 1st | Ruth Davidson resigns as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. (29th Aug 2019) |
| -2nd | The Notting Hill Carnival returns for the first time since 2019. The event is marred by a number of violent incidents, including the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man. (29th Aug 2022) |
| 229th | HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on a reef the previous day. (30th Aug 1791) |
| 221st | The entire Dutch fleet is captured by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars. (30th Aug 1799) |
| 96th | Britain accepts the Dawes Plan for receiving German war reparations. (30th Aug 1924) |
| 81st | Evacuation of children from major UK cities begins. (30th Aug 1939) |
| 131st | Official opening of Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office in London. (30th Aug 1889) |
| 44th | 100 police officers and 60 carnival-goers are injured during riots at the Notting Hill Carnival. (30th Aug 1976) |
| 79th | First official 'Shetland bus' clandestine mission using Norwegian fishing boats between Shetland and German-occupied Norway. (30th Aug 1941) |
| 62nd | Notting Hill race riots in London. (30th Aug 1958) |
| 62nd | Southern Television, the ITV franchise for South Central and South East England goes on the air. (30th Aug 1958) |
| 102nd | strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition. (30th Aug 1918) |
| -2nd | A drought is declared in South West England, covering Bristol, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Dorset and parts of Wiltshire. (30th Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Eurostar announces it is to suspend train services between London and Disneyland Paris from 5 June 2023 to concentrate on its core routes. (30th Aug 2022) |
| 598th | King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France. His son, Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months. (31st Aug 1422) |
| 132nd | Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims. (31st Aug 1888) |
| 107th | Dublin Lock-out: The Dublin Metropolitan Police kill one demonstrator and injure 400 in dispersing a demonstration in Sackville Street. (31st Aug 1913) |
| 305th | Opening of Old Dock, Liverpool, the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock. (31st Aug 1715) |
| 74th | League football resumes, having been suspended during World War II. (31st Aug 1946) |
| -2nd | Buckingham Palace confirms that the Queen will appoint the next Prime Minister at Balmoral, breaking with tradition by not returning to London to make the appointment. (31st Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | Hornsea Project 2 becomes operational in the North Sea, with 165 turbines providing 1.4 GW, making it the world's biggest wind farm. (31st Aug 2022) |
| -2nd | By the end of August, pound sterling has experienced its biggest monthly fall since 2016, sliding 5% against the US dollar to reach $1.16 on the currency markets. (31st Aug 2022) |
| -1st | BBC journalist Sarah Rainsford returns to the UK after being permanently expelled from Russia for "the protection of the security of Russia". (31st Aug 2021) |
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