On September 1, 1715, the sun set on the longest-reigning monarch in history. “The story of Louis XIV’s death is worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy,” writes the Palace of Versailles. His health started to decline on August 10 1715 upon his return from a hunting trip…
Read MoreOn August 31, 1997, one of the most beloved figures in the world lost her life, shocking a nation and stunning fans across the globe. Princess Diana, along with her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul, was involved in a high-speed car…
Read MoreOn August 29, 1966, in San Francisco, the Fab Four played their last planned concert, marking a major change in pop culture. Taking place at Candlestick Park the Beatles rocked to a crowd of 25,000 adoring fans in the final concert of Beatlemania. By…
Read MoreThe first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published in Great Britain on August 27, 1955, marking the beginning of what would become a global phenomenon. Conceived as a book to settle pub arguments, it quickly transformed into one of the most…
Read More“Rome, once the capital of the world, is now the grave of the Roman people,” wrote Saint Jerome of a cataclysm in 410 of a disaster that few could have predicted. On August 27 of that year, following 800 years of military domination and…
Read MoreOn August 26, 1883, the loudest sound ever recorded happened in Indonesia on a caldera situated in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The volcano known as Krakatoa erupted with such force that it…
Read MoreOn August 25, 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo debuted something to Venetian merchants that would make him both a legend and a heretic–his telescope. The Guardian writes, “A refinement of models first devised in the Netherlands, Galileo’s slim, brown stick was puny…
Read MoreOn August 24th, 1995, people lined up outside of Best Buy and other computer stores at midnight to buy the latest in computer programming, and no it wasn’t the next Playstation game or can’t-miss Nintendo system, or the latest iPod. The people were desperate…
Read MoreOn August 23, 1991, the world changed in ways that few could have predicted when the World Wide Web became publicly accessible, ushering in a new era of global communication, information sharing, and connectivity. Though the internet itself had existed for decades, it was…
Read MoreOn August 22, 1791, “The Pearl of the Antilles,” the French colony of Saint Domingue erupted in flames. The Haitain Revolution had begun as the enslaved held in bondage on the world wealthiest colony fought for their freedom. Spanning from 1791 to 1804, The…
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