August 1 - Roman Emperor Claudius I, who made Britain a province, was born in 10 B.C.
- Scholar Lorenzo Valla, who proved that the Donation of Emperor Constantine - the Pope's claim to the ownership of Italy - was a forgery, died in 1457.
August 6 - Niccolo Salvi, the sculptor of Rome's Fountain of Trevi was born in 1762.
August 8 - Emperor Hadrian becomes Emperor at the death of Trajan in 117 A.D. Imperial Italy was at its greatest expanse.
August 10 - Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the political genius behind the reunification of Italy, was born in Torino in 1810.
August 15 - Napoleon Buonaparte was born in 1769.
August 17 - The first transatlantic balloon flight was completed by Ben Abruzzo and partners in 1978.
August 19 - Emperor Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire, dies after a 40-year reign, at Nola in 14 A.D.
August 23 - The last cavalry charge of WWII was successfully undertaken by an Italian Army battalion in 1942 against a Soviet brigade of 2,000 infantrymen on the Russian front.
- Italian-Americans Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in 1927 by the State of Massachusetts after a travesty of a trial and despite international appeals.
August 24 - Pompeii and Herculaneum are buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
August 25 - Andy Varipapi, who developed bowling into a professional sport, died in 1984, at age 93.
August 27 - Duke Alessandro Farnese, Italian general in the Spanish Army was born in 1545. He was scheduled to land and complete the conquest of England with the ill-fated Spanish Armada in 1588.
August 31 - Educator Maria Montessori was born in 1870.
Back to the home page