History of Today 05 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 05 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 05 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 05 August 2026, 01:00 AM

Important Events on 05 August in History

05 Aug 2024: Following the non-cooperation movement against the government of Bangladesh, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees the country, ending her rule of 15 consecutive years and a total of almost two decades. The date is also known as 36 July. Read more
05 Aug 2021: Australia's second most populous state Victoria enters its sixth COVID-19 lockdown, enacting stage four restrictions statewide in reaction to six new COVID-19 cases recorded that morning. Read more
05 Aug 2019: The revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir (state) occurred and the state was bifurcated into two union territories (Jammu and Kashmir (union territory) and Ladakh). Read more
05 Aug 2015: The Environmental Protection Agency at Gold King Mine waste water spill releases three million gallons of heavy metal toxin tailings and waste water into the Animas River in Colorado. Read more
05 Aug 2012: The Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting took place in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six victims; the perpetrator committed suicide after being wounded by police. Read more
05 Aug 2010: The Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground for 69 days. Read more
05 Aug 2010: Ten members of International Assistance Mission Nuristan Eye Camp team are killed by persons unknown in Kuran wa Munjan District of Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan. Read more
05 Aug 2008: The New England Revolution win the 2008 North American SuperLiga final against the Houston Dynamo. Read more
05 Aug 2003: A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150. Read more
05 Aug 1995: Yugoslav Wars: The city of Knin, Croatia, a significant Serb stronghold, is taken by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated in Croatia as Victory Day. Read more
05 Aug 1984: A Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes on approach to Zia International Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing all 49 people on board. Read more
05 Aug 1981: President Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work. Read more
05 Aug 1979: In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake the Bala Hissar uprising against the Leninist government. Read more
05 Aug 1974: Watergate scandal: President Richard Nixon, under orders of the US Supreme Court, releases the "Smoking Gun" tape, recorded on June 23, 1972, clearly revealing his actions in covering up and interfering investigations into the break-in. His political support vanishes completely. Read more
05 Aug 1973: Mars 6 is launched from the USSR. Read more
05 Aug 1971: The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean. Read more
05 Aug 1969: The Lonesome Cowboys police raid occurs in Atlanta, Georgia, leading to the creation of the Georgia Gay Liberation Front. Read more
05 Aug 1966: A group of red guards at Experimental High in Beijing, including Deng Rong and Liu Pingping, daughters of Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi respectively, beat the deputy vice principal, Bian Zhongyun, to death with sticks after accusing her of counter-revolutionary revisionism, producing one of the first fatalities of the Cultural Revolution. Read more
05 Aug 1965: The Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals. Read more
05 Aug 1964: Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow: American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Read more
05 Aug 1963: Cold War: The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Read more
05 Aug 1962: Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990. Read more
05 Aug 1962: American actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home from a drug overdose. Read more
05 Aug 1960: Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France. Read more
05 Aug 1957: American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network. Read more
05 Aug 1949: In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000. Read more
05 Aug 1949: In Montana, 12 smokejumper firefighters and 1 US Forest Service fire guard are killed in the Mann Gulch Fire. Read more
05 Aug 1944: World War II: At least 1,104 Japanese POWs in Australia attempt to escape from a camp at Cowra, New South Wales; 545 temporarily succeed but are later either killed, commit suicide, or are recaptured. Read more
05 Aug 1944: World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp (Gęsiówka) in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners. Read more
05 Aug 1944: World War II: The Nazis begin a week-long massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland. Read more
05 Aug 1940: World War II: The Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia. Read more
05 Aug 1939: The Thirteen Roses: Thirteen female members of the Unified Socialist Youth are executed by Francoist forces in Madrid, Spain. Read more
05 Aug 1931: Judge and Nazi Party member Werner Best drews the Boxheim Documents, which described a violent takeover of the government by the NSDAP. Read more
05 Aug 1926: Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping. Read more
05 Aug 1925: Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge of the Welsh language that is at the time in danger of dying out. Read more
05 Aug 1916: World War I: Battle of Romani: Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula. Read more
05 Aug 1914: World War I: The German minelayer SS Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion. Read more
05 Aug 1914: World War I: The guns of Point Nepean fort at Port Phillip Heads in Victoria (Australia) fire across the bows of the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer SS Pfalz which is attempting to leave the Port of Melbourne in ignorance of the declaration of war and she is detained; this is said to be the first Allied shot of the War. Read more
05 Aug 1914: In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed. Read more
05 Aug 1906: Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional monarchy. Read more
05 Aug 1901: Peter O'Connor sets the first World Athletics recognised long jump world record of 24 ft 11.75 in (7.6137 m), a record that would stand for 20 years. Read more
05 Aug 1888: Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008. Read more
05 Aug 1884: The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor. Read more
05 Aug 1882: Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, today known as ExxonMobil, is established officially. The company would later grow to become the holder of all Standard Oil companies and the entity at the center of the breakup of Standard Oil. Read more
05 Aug 1874: Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom. Read more
05 Aug 1864: American Civil War: The Battle of Mobile Bay begins at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports. Read more
05 Aug 1862: American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge: Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops attempt to take the city, but are driven back by fire from Union gunboats. Read more
05 Aug 1861: American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872). Read more
05 Aug 1861: The United States Army abolishes flogging. Read more
05 Aug 1860: Charles XV of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim. Read more
05 Aug 1858: Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month. Read more
05 Aug 1824: Greek War of Independence: Konstantinos Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces in the Battle of Samos. Read more
05 Aug 1816: The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore. Read more

Famous Births on 05 August

05 Aug 2008: Hudson Meek, American actor (died 2024) Hudson Joseph Meek was an American child actor, known for his role as young Baby in the 2017 film Baby Driver. Read more
05 Aug 2004: Gavi, Spanish footballer Pablo Martín Páez Gavira, known as Gavi, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team. Read more
05 Aug 2003: Toni Shaw, British Paralympic swimmer Toni Stephanie Shaw is a British Paralympic swimmer. In 2019 she set the world record time for the S9 200m butterfly, and was also part of the team that set a new world record for the 4 × 100 m medley relay. At the 2020 Summer Paralympics, she won a bronze medal in the women's 400 metre freestyle S9 event and later went on to win gold at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships, becoming the World Champion. She is a three-time World Champion and two-time European Champion. Read more
05 Aug 2001: Anthony Edwards, American basketball player Anthony Jermal Edwards, nicknamed "Ant-Man" or simply "Ant", is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A shooting guard, Edwards played college basketball for the Georgia Bulldogs and was selected with the first overall pick by the Timberwolves in the 2020 NBA draft. He is a four-time NBA All-Star, a two-time All-NBA Second Team selection, and won a gold medal on the 2024 U.S. Olympic team. Read more
05 Aug 2000: Tom Gilbert, Australian rugby league player Tom Gilbert is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who captains and plays as a second-row, lock or prop forward for the Dolphins in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the North Qld Cowboys in the NRL and has also represented Queensland in the State of Origin series. Read more
05 Aug 1999: Kim Si-hyeon, South Korean singer Kim Si-hyeon, known mononymously as Sihyeon, is a South Korean singer and actress. She is the leader and vocalist of girl group Everglow, formed by Yuehua Entertainment. Read more
05 Aug 1998: Adam Doueihi, Australian-Lebanese rugby league player Adam Doueihi is a Lebanon international rugby league footballer who plays as a utility for the Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League. Read more
05 Aug 1997: Jack Cogger, Australian rugby league player Jack Cogger is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a halfback or five-eighth for the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League. Read more
05 Aug 1997: Olivia Holt, American actress and singer Olivia Hastings Holt is an American actress and singer-songwriter. Her accolades include nominations for three Teen Choice Awards. She is known for portraying Kim Crawford in the Disney XD series Kickin' It, and Tandy Bowen / Dagger in the Freeform series Cloak & Dagger, the Disney XD series Spider-Man, and the Hulu series Runaways. In 2021, she portrayed Kate Wallis in Cruel Summer. Read more
05 Aug 1997: Wang Yibo, Chinese dancer, singer and actor Wang Yibo is a Chinese actor, dancer, singer, professional road motorcycle racer and racing driver. He debuted as a member of South Korean-Chinese boyband Uniq in 2014. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in television series Love Actually (2017), Gank Your Heart (2019), The Untamed (2019), Legend of Fei (2020), Luoyang (2021), Being a Hero (2022) and War of Faith (2024). He made his big screen lead role debut in 2023, starring in Hidden Blade, Born to Fly and One and Only. His performances have earned him multiple acting nominations at various film awards, including the Golden Rooster Awards, Huabiao Awards and Asian Film Awards. Wang was ranked 9th on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 in 2020, and 2nd in 2021. Read more
05 Aug 1997: Yungblud, English musician and actor Dominic Richard Harrison, known professionally as Yungblud, is an English musician and actor. In 2018, he released his debut EP Yungblud, followed by his first full-length album 21st Century Liability. In 2019, he released his second EP, The Underrated Youth, and the following year, he released his second studio album, Weird!, which peaked at the top of the UK Albums Chart and reached number 75 on the US Billboard 200. His third album, titled Yungblud like his first EP, was released in 2022 and reached number 1 on the UK Album Charts, as well as number 45 on the Billboard 200 and number 7 on the U.S. Top Rock Albums chart. Read more
05 Aug 1996: Takakeishō Mitsunobu, Japanese sumo wrestler Takakeishō Takanobu is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Ashiya, Hyōgo. He made his professional debut in September 2014, and reached the highest makuuchi division in January 2017 after 14 tournaments. He won his first championship in the top division in November 2018, four years after his debut. Takakeishō wrestled for Tokiwayama stable, and his highest rank was ōzeki, which he first reached in May 2019. He earned seven special prizes and three gold stars for defeating yokozuna. He won his second championship in November 2020, his third one in January 2023, and his fourth one in September 2023. Consecutive losing tournaments in 2024 resulted in his demotion to sekiwake. He withdrew from the September 2024 tournament after a series of losses, and subsequently announced his retirement. He is now a coach under the elder name Minatogawa. Read more
05 Aug 1996: Cho Seung-youn, South Korean singer-songwriter and rapper Cho Seung-youn, known professionally as Woodz (우즈), is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer. He rose to fame as the main rapper of the South Korean-Chinese boy band Uniq, formed by Yuehua Entertainment in 2014, before co-founding the musical collectives M.O.L.A in 2015 and Drinkcolor in 2016. He co-founded his personal production team, Team HOW, in 2018. He is a former member of the South Korean boy group X1. Read more
05 Aug 1995: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Danish footballer Pierre-Emile Kordt Højbjerg is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for and captains both Ligue 1 club Marseille and the Denmark national team. Read more
05 Aug 1994: Natalia García, Spanish rhythmic gymnast Natalia García Timofeeva is a retired Spanish rhythmic gymnast who was a member of Spain's national rhythmic gymnastics team from 2008 until her retirement in 2021. She has been 5 times nation champion counting all categories: 1 in alevín (2005), 2 in children, 1 in junior (2008) and 1 in junior honor (2009). She has also been 6 times national silver medalist as a senior and won bronze in 2019. She retired on 13 November 2021 at the 6th Ciutat International Trophy in Barcelona after more than 20 years in the world of gymnastics. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Esteban Gutiérrez, Mexican race car driver Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez is a Mexican former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from 2013 to 2016. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Wi Ha-joon, South Korean actor Wi Hyun-yi, known professionally as Wi Ha-joon (위하준), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his role as Hwang Jun-ho in Squid Game (2021–2025). Wi has also starred in the films Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018), Shark: The Beginning (2021) and Midnight (2021), as well as the television series Something in the Rain (2018), Romance Is a Bonus Book (2019), 18 Again (2020), Bad and Crazy (2021), Little Women (2022), The Worst of Evil (2023), and The Midnight Romance in Hagwon (2024). In 2022, Wi was named one of GQ Korea's Men of the Year. Wi is managed by MSTeam Entertainment. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Konrad Hurrell, Tongan rugby league player Konileti "Konrad" Hurrell, born on August 5 1991, in Tongatapu (Tonga), is a former Tongan international rugby league footballer. A powerful centre renowned for his destructive runs and ability to break the defensive line, he began his professional career in the National Rugby League with the New Zealand Warriors in 2012, where he quickly established himself as one of the most impactful three-quarters in the Australian competition. After a notable spell with the Gold Coast Titans, he moved to Super League in 2019 with the Leeds Rhinos, and later St Helens, with whom he won several major titles, including the Challenge Cup (2020), the Super League (2022) and the World Club Challenge (2023). His performances earned him two selections in the Super League Dream Team, in 2019 and 2020. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Daniëlle van de Donk, Dutch footballer Daniëlle van de Donk is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Super League club London City Lionesses and the Netherlands national team. She helped her national team to win the UEFA Euro 2017 and finish second at the 2019 FIFA World Cup. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Andreas Weimann, Austrian footballer Andreas Weimann is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a forward or attacking midfielder who is currently a free agent. He also plays for the Austria national team. Read more
05 Aug 1989: Ryan Bertrand, English footballer Ryan Dominic Bertrand is an English former professional footballer who played as a left-back. Read more
05 Aug 1989: Mathieu Manset, French footballer Mathieu Manset is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for 18 clubs in 8 countries during his career. Read more
05 Aug 1988: Michael Jamieson, Scottish-English swimmer Michael Jamieson is a Scottish former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain at the Olympics, FINA world championships and European championships, and Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. Jamieson won the silver medal in the men's 200-metre breaststroke at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He now runs his own swimming academy in Glasgow. Read more
05 Aug 1988: Federica Pellegrini, Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini is an Italian retired swimmer. A native of Mirano, in the former province of Venice, she won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Pellegrini became the first woman ever to break the 4-minute barrier in the 400 m freestyle with a time of 3:59.15. She also held the women's 200 meters freestyle world record. Read more
05 Aug 1987: Orce Gjorgjievski, Macedonian politician Dr Orce Gjorgjievski is a Macedonian politician currently serving as mayor of Skopje. He previously served as mayor and councilor of the Kisela Voda Municipality. Read more
05 Aug 1986: Paula Creamer, American golfer Paula Creamer is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. As a professional, she has won 12 tournaments, including 10 LPGA Tour events. Creamer has been as high as number 2 in the Women's World Golf Rankings. She was the 2010 U.S. Women's Open champion. As of the end of the 2023 season, Creamer was 19th on the all-time LPGA career money list with earnings of $12,161,187. Read more
05 Aug 1986: Kathrin Zettel, Austrian skier Kathrin Zettel is an Austrian retired World Cup alpine ski racer. She won many races and took a bronze medal in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. In 2021 she was a partner in a company creating domestic size wind turbines in lower Austria. Read more
05 Aug 1985: Laurent Ciman, Belgian footballer Laurent Franco Ciman is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a defender, who currently serves as an assistant coach with Canadian Premier League club FC Supra du Québec. Read more
05 Aug 1985: Salomon Kalou, Ivorian footballer Salomon Armand Magloire Kalou is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a forward or winger. Read more
05 Aug 1985: Gil Vermouth, Israeli footballer Gil Vermouth is an Israeli former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger. Read more
05 Aug 1985: Erkan Zengin, Swedish footballer Erkan Zengin is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a winger. Born in Turkey, he played for the Sweden national team. Read more
05 Aug 1984: Steve Matai, New Zealand rugby league player Stephen Matai is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the National Rugby League from 2005 to 2016. A New Zealand national representative centre, he played for Australian club the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. Matai helped the Sea Eagles win the 2008 and 2011 Premierships. He was also part of the New Zealand national squad that won the nation's maiden title at the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. Known particularly for his uncompromising defence, in 2020, Matai was voted the NRL's hardest hitter over the previous 30 years. Read more
05 Aug 1982: Jamie Houston, English-German rugby player Jamie Ben Houston is a retired German international rugby union player, having played for the SC 1880 Frankfurt in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team. He most recently was coach of RG Heidelberg in the Rugby-Bundesliga. Read more
05 Aug 1982: Lolo Jones, American hurdler Lori Susan "Lolo" Jones is an American hurdler and bobsledder who specializes in the 60-meter and 100-meter hurdles. She won three NCAA titles and garnered 11 All-American honors while at Louisiana State University. She won indoor national titles in 2007, 2008, and 2009 in the 60-meter hurdles, with gold medals at the World Indoor Championship in 2008 and 2010, and won outdoor national titles in 2008 and 2010 in the 100-meter hurdles. Read more
05 Aug 1982: Michele Pazienza, Italian footballer Michele Pazienza is an Italian football coach and a former player who played as a defensive midfielder. Read more
05 Aug 1982: Jeff Robson, Australian rugby league player Jeff Robson is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Parramatta Eels. He played primarily as a halfback. Read more
05 Aug 1982: Pete Sell, American mixed martial artist Peter 'Drago' Sell, is an American mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Welterweight division. A professional competitor since 2002, he has formerly competed for the UFC, and was a competitor on The Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback. Read more
05 Aug 1981: David Clarke, English ice hockey player David Clarke is a retired British ice hockey player and a former member of the British national ice hockey team squad. Read more
05 Aug 1981: Carl Crawford, American baseball player Carl Demonte Crawford, nicknamed "the Perfect Storm", is an American former professional baseball left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. He batted and threw left-handed. Read more
05 Aug 1981: Maik Franz, German footballer Maik Franz is a German former footballer. Read more
05 Aug 1981: Erik Guay, Canadian skier Erik Guay is a Canadian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Racing out of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Guay won the World Cup season title in super-G in 2010 and was the world champion in downhill in 2011, as well as in the super-G in 2017. With 25 World Cup podiums, he is the career leader for Canada. Read more
05 Aug 1981: Travie McCoy, American rapper, singer, and songwriter Travis Lazarus "Travie" McCoy is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, which he formed in 1997 with his classmate Matt McGinley, after the two became acquainted with the East Coast punk rock scene. Read more
05 Aug 1981: Anna Rawson, Australian golfer Anna Rawson is an Australian model and former professional golfer. She played on the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour. Read more
05 Aug 1981: Rachel Scott, American murder victim, inspired the Rachel's Challenge (died 1999) Rachel Joy Scott was an American student who was the first victim of the Columbine High School massacre, in which twelve other students and one teacher were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who then committed suicide. During the time of the massacre, Scott was eating lunch with her friend Richard Castaldo outside the school, when Eric Harris shot her four times with a Hi-Point 995. Castaldo survived, but Scott died from the injuries she sustained. Her body was left outside and was not retrieved until the following morning. Read more
05 Aug 1980: Wayne Bridge, English footballer Wayne Michael Bridge is an English former professional footballer who played as a left back. Read more
05 Aug 1980: Salvador Cabañas, Paraguayan footballer Salvador Cabañas Ortega is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a striker internationally for the senior Paraguay national team, and earlier for the national U17 and U20 teams. Read more
05 Aug 1980: Jason Culina, Australian footballer Jason Culina is an Australian soccer coach and former player. He played in two FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup tournaments for the Australia national team. At club level, Culina had a nine-year spell in the Netherlands, winning four Eredivisie titles. Read more
05 Aug 1980: Jesse Williams, American actor, director, producer, and political activist Jesse Wesley Williams is an American actor, director, producer, and activist best known as Dr. Jackson Avery on Grey's Anatomy. He has also appeared in films such as The Cabin in the Woods (2012) and The Butler (2013). He provided voice acting and motion capture for Markus in the video game Detroit: Become Human (2018). Read more
05 Aug 1979: David Healy, Irish footballer David Jonathan Healy is a Northern Irish football manager and former professional footballer who is in charge at NIFL Premiership club Linfield. A striker during his playing career, he is the men's all-time leading scorer for Northern Ireland with 36 goals. Read more
05 Aug 1978: Cosmin Bărcăuan, Romanian footballer and manager Cosmin Bărcăuan is a Romanian former football player and current coach. Read more
05 Aug 1978: Kim Gevaert, Belgian sprinter Kim Gevaert is a former sprinter and Olympic champion from Belgium. Read more
05 Aug 1978: Harel Levy, Israeli tennis player Harel Levy is a retired Israeli professional tennis player, and the current captain of Israel's Davis Cup team. He reached the final of the 2000 Toronto Masters and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 30, with his best doubles ranking being World No. 71 in May 2008. Levy was a key factor in Israel's semifinal run in the 2009 Davis Cup. Read more
05 Aug 1977: Eric Hinske, American baseball player and coach Eric Scott Hinske is an American professional baseball coach and former outfielder and first baseman. Hinske played in the major leagues from 2002 to 2013 with the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks at third base, first base, left field, and right field. He won the 2002 AL Rookie of the Year Award with the Blue Jays. He has also been a coach for the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels. Read more
05 Aug 1977: Mark Mulder, American baseball player and sportscaster Mark Alan Mulder is an American former professional baseball player. A left-handed starting pitcher, Mulder pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. He is a two-time All-Star. Read more
05 Aug 1977: Michael Walsh, English footballer Michael Shane Walsh is an English former footballer who spent twelve years as a professional in the Football League. A defender, he made a total of 319 appearances in league and cup competitions. Read more
05 Aug 1976: Jeff Friesen, Canadian ice hockey player Jeffrey Daryl Friesen is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played over 800 games in the National Hockey League, spending roughly half his career with the San Jose Sharks, who drafted him in the 1994 NHL entry draft. The rest of his career was spent with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals, and Calgary Flames. He won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2003. Read more
05 Aug 1976: Marians Pahars, Latvian footballer and manager Marians Pahars is a Latvian professional football manager and a former player. Read more
05 Aug 1976: Remi Sølvberg, Norwegian politician Remi Alexander Sølvberg is a Norwegian politician and member of the Storting. A member of the Red Party, he was elected to represent Østfold at the 2025 parliamentary election. Read more
05 Aug 1976: Eugen Trică, Romanian footballer and manager Eugen Trică is a Romanian professional manager and former footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
05 Aug 1975: Dan Hipgrave, English guitarist and journalist Daniel Hipgrave is an English musician and writer, best known as the guitarist of the post-Britpop/alternative rock band Toploader. Read more
05 Aug 1975: Josep Jufré, Spanish cyclist Josep Jufré Pou is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 1999 and 2011. He turned professional with Recer–Boavista in 1999, and finished his career with Astana in 2011. Read more
05 Aug 1975: Eicca Toppinen, Finnish cellist and composer Eino Matti "Eicca" Toppinen is a Finnish cellist, songwriter, producer, and arranger. In 1993 he formed the quartet Apocalyptica. Read more
05 Aug 1974: Alvin Ceccoli, Australian footballer Alvin Ceccoli is an Australian footballer who played for three A-League clubs and was capped internationally for Australia. Read more
05 Aug 1974: Kajol, Indian film actress Kajol Vishal Devgan, known mononymously as Kajol, is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including seven Filmfare Awards. In 2011, Kajol received Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award by the government of India. Read more
05 Aug 1974: Olle Kullinger, Swedish footballer Olle Kullinger is a Swedish retired footballer. Read more
05 Aug 1974: Antoine Sibierski, French footballer Antoine Sibierski is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He started his career at hometown club Lille, going on to play for Auxerre, Nantes, with whom he won the Coupe de France twice, and Lens. He then moved to England and played for Manchester City, Newcastle United, with whom he won the UEFA Intertoto Cup, Wigan Athletic, and Norwich City. At international level, he made three appearances for France at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He is currently Sporting Director of Troyes. Read more
05 Aug 1973: Paul Carige, Australian rugby league player Paul Carige is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s. He played for the Illawarra Steelers, Parramatta Eels, and the Salford City Reds. He mostly played at centre, but occasionally he played the odd game at fullback or wing. Read more
05 Aug 1973: Justin Marshall, New Zealand rugby player and sportscaster Justin Warren Marshall is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He played 81 games for the New Zealand All Blacks between 1995 and 2005. Read more
05 Aug 1972: Ikuto Hidaka, Japanese wrestler Ikuto Hidaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently performing for Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah). Hidaka was the regular partner of Minoru Fujita, with whom he has held the Zero1-Max International Lightweight Tag Team and Intercontinental Tag Team Titles, making them the only team to do so. He has also worked for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Read more
05 Aug 1972: Aaqib Javed, Pakistani cricketer and coach Aaqib Javed is a Pakistani former international cricketer and the current head coach of Pakistani cricket team in all formats. He is also a member of the Men's National Selection Committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board. He was a right-handed fast-medium pace bowler with the ability to swing the ball both ways. He played 22 Tests and 163 One Day Internationals for Pakistan between 1988 and 1998. He was a part of the Pakistan team which won the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Read more
05 Aug 1972: Darren Shahlavi, English-American actor and martial artist (died 2015) Darren Majian Shahlavi was an English actor, martial artist and stuntman. Read more
05 Aug 1972: Jon Sleightholme, English rugby player Jonathan Mark Sleightholme is a former rugby union player who played on the wing for Grimsby, Hull Ionians Wakefield, Bath, Northampton Saints, Yorkshire, England Sevens and England. Read more
05 Aug 1972: Theodore Whitmore, Jamaican footballer and manager Theodore Eccleston Whitmore, OD, is a Jamaican former professional footballer. He is the former head coach of Jamaica national team. Read more
05 Aug 1972: Christian Olde Wolbers, Belgian-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer Christian Francis Olde Wolbers is a Belgian musician, record producer, and songwriter. He is the current bassist and backing vocalist of the rap metal/nu metal band Powerflo. He is also a former bassist of the thrash metal band Vio-lence and hardcore punk/crossover thrash band Beowülf, and a former bassist, guitarist and backing vocalist of the industrial metal band Fear Factory. Read more
05 Aug 1971: Valdis Dombrovskis, Latvian academic and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis is a Latvian politician serving as European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, and Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification. He previously served as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People (2019-2024), European Commissioner for Trade (2020-2024). European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (2016-2020) and Prime Minister of Latvia from 2009 to 2014. Read more
05 Aug 1969: Jackie Doyle-Price, English politician Dame Jacqueline Doyle-Price is a British former Conservative Party politician and former civil servant who was member of parliament (MP) for Thurrock from 2010 to 2024. She was first elected as MP in the 2010 general election and was defeated in the 2024 general election. Read more
05 Aug 1969: Vasbert Drakes, Barbadian cricketer Vasbert Conniel Drakes is a former West Indian cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He was a right-arm fast bowler and handy right-hand lower order batsman. Read more
05 Aug 1969: Venkatesh Prasad, Indian cricketer and coach Venkatesh Prasad is an Indian Cricket Kannada Commentator, coach and former professional cricketer who played Tests and One Day Internationals. He made his debut in 1994. Primarily a right-arm medium-fast bowler, Prasad was noted for his bowling combination with Javagal Srinath. He was a part of the squad which finished as runners-up at the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy. Read more
05 Aug 1969: Rob Scott, Australian rower Robert Geoffrey Scott is an Australian businessman and former national champion and national representative rower. Since 2017 he has been Managing Director and Chief Executive of Wesfarmers, the Perth-headquartered publicly listed industrial and retail conglomerate, which in 2016 was Australia's largest company by revenue and Australia's largest employer. As a sweep-oared heavyweight rower Scott was a national champion, an eight-time crewman in West Australian King's Cup eights and a four-time Australian representative at World Rowing Championships. He is a dual Olympian oarsman who won a silver medal in a coxless pair at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Terri Clark, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Terri Lynn Sauson, known professionally as Terri Clark, is a Canadian country music singer who has had success in both Canada and the United States. Signed to Mercury Records in 1995, she released her self-titled debut that year. Both it and its two follow-ups, 1996's Just the Same and 1998's How I Feel, were certified platinum in both countries, and produced several Top Ten country hits. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Funkmaster Flex, American DJ, radio and television host, rapper, and record producer Aston George Taylor Jr., professionally known as Funkmaster "Funk" Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Hot 97 in New York, which was a dance radio station at the time. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Kendo Kashin, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist Tokimitsu Ishizawa, better known by his ring name Kendo Kashin, is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a two time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, a one time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, and the winner of the 1999 Best of the Super Juniors. He is also known for his forays into mixed martial arts, most notably for Pride Fighting Championship (Pride), where he defeated Gracie Jiu Jitsu fighter Ryan Gracie at PRIDE 15. He currently wrestles for Pro Wrestling Noah. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Marine Le Pen, French lawyer and politician Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen is a French lawyer and politician who served as the president of the far-right National Rally party from 2011 to 2021. She ran for the French presidency in the 2012, 2017, and 2022 presidential elections. Le Pen has been the member of the French National Assembly for the 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais since 2017 and also has been parliamentary party leader of the National Rally in the Assembly since June 2022. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Oleh Luzhnyi, Ukrainian footballer and manager Oleh Romanovych Luzhnyi is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Colin McRae, Scottish race car driver (died 2007) Colin Steele McRae was a British rally driver. He was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and in 1995 became the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title. Read more
05 Aug 1968: John Olerud, American baseball player John Garrett Olerud Jr. is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1989 through 2005, most prominently as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays team that won two consecutive World Series championships in 1992 and 1993. He also played for the New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox. Read more
05 Aug 1967: Matthew Caws, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Matthew Rorison Caws is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Nada Surf. Caws is also a member of the indie rock duo Minor Alps, alongside Juliana Hatfield. Read more
05 Aug 1967: Vladyslav Gorai, Ukrainian tenor Vladyslav Vikentiiovych Gorai or Horay was a Ukrainian operatic tenor. Based at the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre, he appeared internationally. He portrayed the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto and Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème, but also performed contemporary opera such as the world premiere of Oleksandr Rodin's Kateryna in Odesa in September 2022. Read more
05 Aug 1966: James Gunn, American filmmaker James Francis Gunn Jr. is an American filmmaker. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with Tromeo and Juliet (1996). He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film Slither (2006), and moving to the superhero genre with Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Read more
05 Aug 1966: Jennifer Finch, American singer, bass player, and photographer (died 2026) Jennifer Finch, born Erin Michelle Fredin was an American musician, designer and photographer most notable for being the primary bass player of the punk rock band L7. Active in L7 from 1986 to 1996, and again from 2014 to 2026, Finch also wrote music and performed with her bands OtherStarPeople and The Shocker in the interim before joining the reunited L7 in 2014. Read more
05 Aug 1966: Jonathan Silverman, American actor and producer Jonathan Elihu Silverman is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the comedy films Brighton Beach Memoirs, Weekend at Bernie's, and its sequel Weekend at Bernie's II as well as his starring role in the TV series The Single Guy. Read more
05 Aug 1965: Jeff Coffin, American saxophonist and composer Jeff Stanley Coffin is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. He is a three-time Grammy Award winner as a member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he performed from 1997 until 2010. In July 2008, Coffin began touring with Dave Matthews Band and joined the group in 2009 following the death of founding member LeRoi Moore. He also leads his group Jeff Coffin & the Mu'tet. Read more
05 Aug 1965: Motoi Sakuraba, Japanese keyboard player and composer Motoi Sakuraba is a Japanese composer and keyboardist. Sakuraba is known for his numerous contributions in video games, including the Tales, Star Ocean, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Golden Sun, and Dark Souls series, as well as several other anime series, television dramas, and progressive rock albums. Read more
05 Aug 1964: Rory Morrison, English journalist (died 2013) Rory David Morrison was a newsreader and continuity announcer for BBC Radio 4. Read more
05 Aug 1964: Adam Yauch, American rapper and director (died 2012) Adam Nathaniel Yauch, also known as MCA, was an American rapper, bassist, filmmaker, activist, and founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. He directed many of the band's music videos and did much of their promotional photography, often using the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér. Read more
05 Aug 1963: Steve Lee, Swiss singer-songwriter (died 2010) Steve Lee was a Swiss musician, best known as the vocalist of the band Gotthard. Read more
05 Aug 1963: Ingmar De Vos, Belgian sports administrator Ingmar De Vos is a Belgian professional sports manager serving as the thirteenth and current President of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI). He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and currently serves as President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). Educated in sports management, business administration and international law, he began his career in mainstream politics before working for the Belgian Equestrian Federation and supported that nation's equestrian teams at the Olympics and the FEI World Equestrian Games. He was one of the founders of the European Equestrian Federation and became secretary-general of the FEI in 2011 prior to being elected President of the organisation in 2014. Read more
05 Aug 1963: Mark Strong, English actor Mark Strong is an English actor. Strong is known for his starring roles on stage as well as for his villainous roles in historical dramas and franchise films. He has received accolades including a Laurence Olivier Award and a BAFTA TV Award as well as nominations for two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Read more
05 Aug 1962: Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-American basketball player and coach Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American professional basketball coach and former player who currently serves as an assistant coach for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He spent most of his 17-year playing career as the starting center for the New York Knicks before ending his playing career with brief stints with the Seattle SuperSonics and Orlando Magic, each tenure only lasting one season. Ewing is regarded as one of the greatest Knicks players of all time, playing a dominant role in New York's 1990s success, and becoming an NBA champion with the team in 2026 in a front office role. Read more
05 Aug 1962: Otis Thorpe, American basketball player Otis Henry Thorpe is an American former professional basketball player who played for several teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an NBA All-Star in 1992 and won an NBA championship with the Houston Rockets in 1994. Read more
05 Aug 1961: Janet McTeer, English actress Janet McTeer is an English actress. She began her career training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before earning acclaim for playing diverse roles on stage and screen in both period pieces and modern dramas. She has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2008 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to drama. Read more
05 Aug 1961: Athula Samarasekera, Sri Lankan cricketer and coach Maitipage Athula Rohitha Samarasekera is a Sri Lankan Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He was a hard hitting opening batsman and a medium fast bowler, who played four Tests and 39 One Day Internationals between 1983 and 1994. Read more
05 Aug 1961: Mark O'Connor, American violinist/fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor is an American fiddle player, composer, guitarist, and mandolinist whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards and was a member of three influential musical ensembles: the David Grisman Quintet, The Dregs, and Strength in Numbers. Read more
05 Aug 1961: Tim Wilson, American comedian, singer-songwriter, and guitarist (died 2014) Timothy Collins Wilson was an American comedian and country music artist, whose act combined stand-up comedy and original songs. Read more
05 Aug 1960: David Baldacci, American lawyer and author David Baldacci is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers. His novels are published in over 45 languages and published in over 80 countries, having sold over 130 million copies worldwide. Read more
05 Aug 1959: Pete Burns, English singer-songwriter (died 2016) Peter Jozzeppi Burns was an English singer, songwriter and television personality. Read more
05 Aug 1959: Pat Smear, American guitarist and songwriter Georg Albert Ruthenberg, better known by his stage name Pat Smear, is an American musician who plays guitar for Foo Fighters. He was the lead guitarist and co-founder of the Los Angeles–based punk band Germs and a touring guitarist for Nirvana. He joined Foo Fighters in 1994 and left the band in 1997, before rejoining as a touring guitarist in 2005 and being promoted back to a full-time member in 2010. Read more
05 Aug 1958: Ulla Salzgeber, German equestrian Ulla Salzgeber is a German equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of dressage. Competing in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, she won two team gold medals, one individual silver and one individual bronze. She also won numerous medals at the World Equestrian Games, Dressage World Cup and European Dressage Championships. After the retirement of her Olympic horse, Rusty, after the 2004 Games, and unexpected death of her second international-level mount in 2005, Salzgeber struggled to find a new Grand Prix-level horse. Read more
05 Aug 1957: Larry Corowa, Australian rugby league player Larry John Corowa MBE is an Indigenous Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. An Australian international and New South Wales representative winger, he played club football at the Balmain Tigers for six seasons between 1978 and 1983, with two games for the Gold Coast Seagulls in the 1991 New South Wales Rugby League Premiership. Playing on the wing, Corowa became one of Rugby League's most prolific try scorers of his era. He is one of a select few players to have scored more than a try a game in a season of football in Australia. Read more
05 Aug 1957: David Gill, English businessman David Alan Gill is a British football executive, formerly chief executive of Manchester United and a vice-chairman of The Football Association. He served as vice-chairman of the G-14 management committee until the G-14 was disbanded. He sat on the UEFA Executive Committee as of 2013. Gill was elected as a FIFA vice-president sitting on the FIFA Council in 2015; rejecting this position in protest at Sepp Blatter until Blatter announced his resignation as FIFA president, following the 2015 FIFA corruption case. Read more
05 Aug 1956: Christopher Chessun, English Anglican bishop Christopher Thomas James Chessun is a British Anglican bishop. He became Bishop of Southwark in the Church of England in 2011. Read more
05 Aug 1956: Jerry Ciccoritti, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Jerry Ciccoritti is a Canadian director. Read more
05 Aug 1956: Maureen McCormick, American actress Maureen Denise McCormick is an American actress, singer and author, best known for her role as Marcia Brady on the ABC television sitcom The Brady Bunch (1969–1974). She reprised the role in several of its various spin-offs and films, including The Brady Kids, The Brady Bunch Hour, The Brady Brides and A Very Brady Christmas (1988). Read more
05 Aug 1955: Eddie Ojeda, American guitarist and songwriter Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda is an American musician best known as a guitarist of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. He was a member of the band's classic lineup. Read more
05 Aug 1953: Rick Mahler, American baseball player and coach (died 2005) Richard Keith Mahler was an American starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds (1989–1990) and Montreal Expos (1991). His brother Mickey was a major league pitcher as well; the two were Braves teammates in 1979. The brothers had also played together for the Triple-A Richmond Braves. Read more
05 Aug 1952: Tamás Faragó, Hungarian water polo player Tamás Faragó is a former Hungarian water polo player. He competed in all major international tournaments between 1970 and 1980 and won three medals at the Summer Olympics and five at the world and European championships. He was the top goalscorer at the 1976 Olympics, with 22 goals. After retiring from competitions he became a water polo coach, guiding Hungary's junior and women's national teams. In 1993 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and in 2005 he was voted the Hungarian coach of the year. Read more
05 Aug 1952: John Jarratt, Australian actor and producer John Jarratt is an Australian television film actor, producer and director and TV presenter who rose to fame through his work in the Australian New Wave. He has appeared in a number of film roles including Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Summer City (1977), The Odd Angry Shot (1979), We of the Never Never (1982), Next of Kin (1982), and Dark Age (1987). He portrayed the antagonist Mick Taylor in the Wolf Creek franchise. He voiced the protagonist's father, Jack Hunter, in an audio drama adaptation of The Phoenix Files. He is also known for his recurring role in the drama series McLeod's Daughters. Read more
05 Aug 1952: Louis Walsh, Irish talent manager Michael Louis Vincent Walsh is an Irish music manager and television personality. He has managed Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s and 2000s. He has also served as a judge on television talent competition shows, including Popstars (2001–2002), You're a Star (2003–2004), The X Factor, and Ireland's Got Talent (2018–2019). In 2024, Walsh was a contestant on the twenty-third series of the reality show Celebrity Big Brother. Read more
05 Aug 1951: Samantha Sang, Australian pop singer Cheryl Lau Sang, known professionally as Samantha Sang, is an Australian singer. She had an earlier career as a teenage singer under the stage name Cheryl Gray, before adopting the stage name she is more widely known as in 1969. She first received nationwide recognition in Australia in 1967, after releasing the top ten single "You Made Me What I Am". Read more
05 Aug 1950: Luiz Gushiken, Brazilian trade union leader and politician (died 2013) Luiz Gushiken was a Brazilian union leader and politician. He was formerly the head of the social communication office of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration, a position which carried a ministerial rank. He was a second-generation Ryukyuan-Brazilian, with Ryukyuan parents from Okinawa. Read more
05 Aug 1950: Mahendra Karma, Indian lawyer and politician (died 2013) Mahendra Karma was an Indian political leader belonging to Indian National Congress from Chhattisgarh. He was the leader of the opposition in the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha from 2004 to 2008. In 2005, he played a top role in organising the Salwa Judum movement against Naxalites, a Maoist group in Chhattisgarh. He was a Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Ajit Jogi cabinet since the state formation in 2000 to 2004. He was assassinated by Naxalites on 25 May 2013 in the 2013 Naxal attack in Darbha valley while returning from a Parivartan Rally meeting organised by his party in Sukma. Read more
05 Aug 1948: Ray Clemence, English footballer and manager (died 2020) Raymond Neal Clemence was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is one of the few players to have made over 1,000 career appearances. Read more
05 Aug 1948: Barbara Flynn, English actress Barbara Joy Flynn is an English actress. She first came to prominence playing Freda Ashton in the ITV drama series A Family at War (1970–1972). She went on to play the milk woman in the BBC comedy Open All Hours (1976–1985), Jill Swinburne in The Beiderbecke Trilogy (1985–1988), Dr. Rose Marie in the BBC series A Very Peculiar Practice (1986–1988), Judith Fitzgerald in the ITV drama Cracker (1993–1995), and Mrs. Jamieson in Cranford (2007–2009). In 2021, she appeared in Doctor Who: Flux as Tecteun, a founder of Time Lord society and The Doctor's adoptive mother. Starting in 2023, she acted in Beyond Paradise, playing the mother of the detective's girlfriend. This included some episodes in 2024 where she was reunited with Peter Davison, her A Very Peculiar Practice co-star. Read more
05 Aug 1948: David Hungate, American bass guitarist, producer, and arranger William David Hungate is an American retired bassist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his Toto bandmates, Hungate did sessions on a number of hit albums of the 1970s, including Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees album and Alice Cooper's From the Inside album. Read more
05 Aug 1948: Shin Takamatsu, Japanese architect and academic Shin Takamatsu is a Japanese architect. After obtaining his PhD from the Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto University in 1980, he held various academic positions: lecturer at Osaka University of Arts in 1981, associate professor at Kyoto Seika University in 1987, professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University in 1997 and professor emeritus at Kyoto University in 2013. Takamatsu's futuristic designs often incorporate anthropomorphic or mechanical imagery. Read more
05 Aug 1947: Angry Anderson, Australian singer and actor Gary Stephen "Angry" Anderson is an Australian rock singer, songwriter, television personality and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and the longest-tenured remaining member of Australian hard rock band Rose Tattoo since 1976. He is also a past member of rock bands Buster Brown and the Party Boys. As a solo artist, he is best known for his debut single "Suddenly" (1987), which achieved international success—peaking at number 2 on the Australian Music Report, number 31 on the Belgian Ultratop 50, number 11 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, number 3 on the Irish Singles Chart, number 69 on the Netherlands Singles Chart, and number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, respectively. Read more
05 Aug 1947: Bernie Carbo, American baseball player Bernardo Carbo is an American former professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He began his career with the Cincinnati Reds, and went on to play with five other teams, including two stints with the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. Read more
05 Aug 1947: France A. Córdova, American astrophysicist and academic France Anne-Dominic Córdova is an American astrophysicist. She served as the 11th president of Purdue University from 2007 to 2012 and as the 14th director of the National Science Foundation from 2014 to 2020. She currently serves as the president of the Science Philanthropy Alliance. Read more
05 Aug 1947: Rick Derringer, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2025) Richard Dean Zehringer, known professionally as Rick Derringer, was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He gained success in the 1960s with his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, "Hang On Sloopy", became a number-one hit in 1965 and is regarded as a classic track from the garage rock era. The McCoys had seven songs chart in the top 100, including covers of "Fever" and "Come On, Let's Go". After releasing All American Boy, Derringer established a career as a solo artist. Read more
05 Aug 1947: Greg Leskiw, Canadian guitarist and songwriter Gregory Leskiw is a Canadian guitarist and vocalist best known for playing rhythm guitar and singing background vocals on recordings and in concert with the Guess Who from 1970 to 1972. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Bruce Coslet, American football player and coach Bruce Noel Coslet is an American former professional football player and coach. A tight end, he played for the University of the Pacific and in 1969 debuted with the American Football League (AFL)'s Cincinnati Bengals. He played for the Bengals in the National Football League (NFL) through 1976. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Shirley Ann Jackson, American physicist Shirley Ann Jackson is an African American physicist and the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is the first African American woman to earn a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics. She is also the second African American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Rick van der Linden, Dutch keyboard player and songwriter (died 2006) Rick van der Linden was a Dutch composer and keyboardist. Van der Linden first gained fame as a member of Ekseption, but he played in several other bands including most notably Trace, as well as solo. Van der Linden was best known for his reworkings of classical music in a pop music domain, often with jazz improvisations. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Bob McCarthy, Australian rugby league player and coach Robert John McCarthy MBE is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, New South Wales and for the Australian national side. He later coached in Brisbane, taking Souths Magpies to a premiership in 1981 and coaching the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants upon their entry to the Winfield Cup. Since 2001 he has been the chairman of both the Australian and NSW state selection panels. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Erika Slezak, American actress Erika Alma Slezak is an American actress, best known for her role as Victoria "Viki" Lord on the American daytime soap opera One Life to Live from 1971 through the television finale in 2012 and again in the online revival in 2013. She is one of the longest-serving serial actors in American media. For her portrayal of Viki, she won six Daytime Emmy Awards, the most of any daytime drama actress. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Xavier Trias, Spanish pediatrician and politician, 118th Mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias i Vidal de Llobatera is a Catalan politician, member of Together for Catalonia and was Mayor of Barcelona from July 2011 to June 2015. Among other responsibilities to the Government of Catalonia, he was Minister of Health and of the Presidency for various Jordi Pujol Governments. Read more
05 Aug 1945: Loni Anderson, American actress (died 2025) Loni Kaye Anderson was an American actress. She is best known for playing receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982), which earned her nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and two Emmy Awards. Read more
05 Aug 1944: Christopher Gunning, English composer (died 2023) Christopher Gunning was an English composer of concert works and music for films and television. Read more
05 Aug 1943: Nelson Briles, American baseball player (died 2005) Nelson Kelley Briles was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. A hard thrower whose best pitch was a slider, he exhibited excellent control. Briles batted and threw right-handed. He was a starting pitcher on World Series champions with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1967 and Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971. Read more
05 Aug 1943: Sammi Smith, American country music singer-songwriter (died 2005) Jewel Fay "Sammi" Smith was an American country music singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 1971 crossover hit "Help Me Make It Through the Night", which was written by Kris Kristofferson. She became one of the few women in the outlaw country movement during the 1970s. Read more
05 Aug 1942: Joe Boyd, American record producer, founded Hannibal Records Joe Boyd is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, R.E.M., Vashti Bunyan, John and Beverley Martyn, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Billy Bragg, James Booker, 10,000 Maniacs, and Muzsikás. He was also one of the founders of the highly influential nightclub venue UFO. Read more
05 Aug 1941: Bob Clark, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2007) Benjamin Robert Clark was an American film director and screenwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was responsible for some of the most successful films in Canadian film history such as Black Christmas (1974), Murder by Decree (1979), Tribute (1980), Porky's (1981) and A Christmas Story (1983). He won a trio of Genie Awards with two additional nominations. Read more
05 Aug 1941: Leonid Kizim, Ukrainian general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2010) Leonid Denisovich Kizim was a Soviet cosmonaut. Read more
05 Aug 1941: Airto Moreira, Brazilian-American drummer and composer Airto Guimorvan Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer, composer and percussionist. He is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the Brazilian ensemble Quarteto Novo, he moved to the United States and worked in jazz fusion with Miles Davis, Return to Forever, Weather Report and Santana. Read more
05 Aug 1940: Bobby Braddock, American country music songwriter, musician, and producer Robert Valentine Braddock is an American country songwriter and record producer. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Braddock has contributed numerous hit songs during more than 40 years in the industry, including 13 number-one hit singles. Read more
05 Aug 1940: Roman Gabriel, American football player, coach, and actor (died 2024) Roman Ildonzo Gabriel Jr. was an American professional football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the NC State Wolfpack, earning first-team All-American honors twice. Gabriel was the second overall pick in the 1962 NFL draft and played 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, followed by five seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was notable for being the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL and the first and only Asian American to win the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, which he received in 1969. Read more
05 Aug 1940: Rick Huxley, English bass player (died 2013) The Dave Clark Five, also known as the DC5, were an English rock and roll band formed in 1958 in Tottenham, London. Drummer Dave Clark was the group's leader, producer and co-songwriter. In January 1964, they had their first UK top-ten single, "Glad All Over", which knocked the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK Singles Chart. It peaked at No. 6 in the United States in April 1964. Although this was their only UK No. 1, they topped the US chart in December 1965, with their cover of Bobby Day's "Over and Over". Their other UK top-ten hits include "Bits and Pieces", "Can't You See That She's Mine", "Catch Us If You Can", "Everybody Knows", "The Red Balloon", "Good Old Rock 'n' Roll", and a version of Chet Powers' "Get Together". Read more
05 Aug 1939: Roger Clark, English race car driver (died 1998) Roger Albert Clark, MBE was a British rally driver during the 1960s and '70s, and the first competitor from his country to win a World Rally Championship (WRC) event when he triumphed at the 1976 RAC Rally. Read more
05 Aug 1939: Carmen Salinas, Mexican actress and politician (died 2021) Carmen Salinas Lozano was a Mexican actress, impressionist, comedian, politician, and theatre entrepreneur. She was associated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) during her later career as a politician. Read more
05 Aug 1937: Herb Brooks, American ice hockey player and coach (died 2003) Herbert Paul Brooks was an American ice hockey player and coach. His most notable achievement came in 1980 as head coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team at Lake Placid. Brooks' team upset the heavily favored Soviet team in a match that came to be known as the "Miracle on Ice". Read more
05 Aug 1937: Brian G. Marsden, English-American astronomer and academic (died 2010) Brian Geoffrey Marsden was a British astronomer and the longtime director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Read more
05 Aug 1936: Nikolai Baturin, Estonian author and playwright (died 2019) Nikolai Baturin was an Estonian award-winning novelist and playwright. Read more
05 Aug 1936: John Saxon, American actor (died 2020) John Saxon was an American actor and martial artist who worked on more than 200 film and television projects during a span of 60 years. He was known for his work in Westerns and horror films, often playing police officers and detectives. Read more
05 Aug 1935: Michael Ballhaus, German director and cinematographer (died 2017) Michael Ballhaus, ASC was a German cinematographer and filmmaker, known for his collaborations with directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols, and James L. Brooks. He was nominated three times each for the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography, and won two German Film Awards. Read more
05 Aug 1935: Peter Inge, Baron Inge, English field marshal (died 2022) Field Marshal Peter Anthony Inge, Baron Inge was a senior British Army officer. He was the Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, from 1992 to 1994 and then served as Chief of the Defence Staff before retiring in 1997. Early in his military career he saw action during the Malayan Emergency and Operation Banner in Northern Ireland, and later in his career he provided advice to the British Government during the Bosnian War. Read more
05 Aug 1935: Roy Benavidez, American soldier, Medal of Honor Winner (died 1998) Master Sergeant Raul Perez "Roy" Benavidez was a United States Army soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valorous actions in combat near Lộc Ninh, South Vietnam on May 2, 1968, while serving as a member of the United States Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War. Read more
05 Aug 1934: Karl Johan Åström, Swedish engineer and theorist Karl Johan Åström is a Swedish control theorist, who has made contributions to the fields of control theory and control engineering, computer control and adaptive control. In 1965, he described a general framework of Markov decision processes with incomplete information, what ultimately led to the notion of a Partially observable Markov decision process. Read more
05 Aug 1934: Wendell Berry, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist Wendell Erdman Berry is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of The Gift of Good Land (1981) and The Unsettling of America (1977). His attention to the culture and economy of rural communities is also found in the novels and stories of Port William, such as A Place on Earth (1967), Jayber Crow (2000), and That Distant Land (2004). Read more
05 Aug 1934: Gay Byrne, Irish radio and television host (died 2019) Gabriel Mary Byrne was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was as the first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. The Late Late Show is the world's longest-running live chat show. He was affectionately known as "Uncle Gay", "Gaybo" or "Uncle Gaybo". His time working in Britain with Granada Television saw him become the first person to introduce the Beatles on-screen, and Byrne was later the first to introduce Boyzone on-screen in 1993. According to Byrne, Paul McCartney asked him to be the Beatles' agent during a sound check for his show but he declined the offer. Read more
05 Aug 1932: Tera de Marez Oyens, Dutch pianist and composer (died 1996) Tera de Marez Oyens was a Dutch composer. Read more
05 Aug 1932: Vladimir Fedoseyev, Russian conductor Vladimir Ivanovich Fedoseyev is a Soviet and Russian conductor, bayanist, teacher. People's Artist of the USSR (1980). Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1989) and the Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1970). Full Commander of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland". Artistic director and chief conductor of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra since 1974. Read more
05 Aug 1931: Tom Hafey, Australian footballer and coach (died 2014) Thomas Stanley Raymond Hafey was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He then became one of the VFL's longest-serving and most successful coaches, guiding Richmond to four VFL premierships before also having stints at Collingwood, Geelong and finally Sydney.Hafey was an inaugural inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, named coach of Richmond's team of the century in 1998, and given the AFL Coaches Association "Coaching Legend Award" in 2011.
He was renowned for his fitness and toughness even in his elderly years when he would still run rings around his juniors. He would do over 700 push-ups and crunches a day every day since he started playing in the VFL. Read more
05 Aug 1930: Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut, first man to walk on the Moon (died 2012) Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, as the commander of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, became the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot and university professor. Read more
05 Aug 1930: Damita Jo DeBlanc, American comedian, actress, and singer (died 1998) Damita Jo DeBlanc, known professionally as Damita Jo, was an American singer and comedian. Her second marriage was to her manager James "Biddy" Wood in 1961. Read more
05 Aug 1930: Richie Ginther, American race car driver (died 1989) Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther was an American racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1960 to 1967. He recorded the first Formula One win for both Honda and Goodyear at the Mexican Grand Prix in 1965. Read more
05 Aug 1930: Michal Kováč, Slovak lawyer and politician, 1st President of Slovakia (died 2016) Michal Kováč was the first president of Slovakia, having served from 1993 through 1998. Read more
05 Aug 1929: Don Matheson, American soldier, police officer, and actor (died 2014) Don Matheson was an American soldier and policeman who later became a television actor, perhaps best known for his continuing role in Irwin Allen's series Land of the Giants. Read more
05 Aug 1929: John H. Moore II, American lawyer and judge (died 2013) John Henry Moore II was an American lawyer and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Read more
05 Aug 1926: Betsy Jolas, French composer Elizabeth MacDonald Jolas is a French and American composer. Read more
05 Aug 1926: Jeri Southern, American jazz singer and pianist (died 1991) Jeri Southern was an American jazz singer and pianist. Read more
05 Aug 1923: Devan Nair, Malaysian-Singaporean union leader and politician, 3rd President of Singapore (died 2005) Chengara Veetil Devan Nair was a Singaporean union leader and politician who served as the third president of Singapore from 1981 until his resignation in 1985. Read more
05 Aug 1922: L. Tom Perry, American businessman and religious leader (died 2015) Lowell Tom Perry was an American businessman and religious leader who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1974 until his death. Read more
05 Aug 1922: Frank Stranahan, American golfer (died 2013) Frank Richard Stranahan was an American sportsman. He had significant success in both amateur and professional golf. He was ranked number one in his weight class in powerlifting, from 1945 to 1954, and he became known on the golf course and off as the "Toledo strongman" long before the modern game of golf and fitness. After he retired from tournament golf in the early 1960s, he became a prolific long-distance runner, competing in 102 marathons. Read more
05 Aug 1921: Terry Becker, American actor, director, and producer (died 2014) Terry Becker was an American film and television actor, director and producer. Read more
05 Aug 1920: George Tooker, American painter and academic (died 2011) George Clair Tooker, Jr. was an American figurative painter. His works are associated with magic realism, social realism, photorealism, and surrealism. His subjects are depicted naturally as in a photograph, but the images use flat tones, an ambiguous perspective, and alarming juxtapositions to suggest an imagined or dreamed reality. He did not agree with the association of his work with Magic realism or Surrealism, as he said, "I am after painting reality impressed on the mind so hard that it returns as a dream, but I am not after painting dreams as such, or fantasy." In 1968, he was elected to the National Academy of Design and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Tooker was one of nine recipients of the National Medal of Arts in 2007. Read more
05 Aug 1919: Rosalind Hicks, British literary guardian and the only child of author, Agatha Christie (died 2004) Rosalind Margaret Clarissa Hicks was the only child of author Agatha Christie. Read more
05 Aug 1918: Tom Drake, American actor and singer (died 1982) Tom Drake was an American actor. Drake made films starting in 1940 and continuing until the mid-1970s, and also made TV acting appearances. Read more
05 Aug 1918: Betty Oliphant, English-Canadian ballerina, co-founded Canada's National Ballet School (died 2004) Nancy Elizabeth Oliphant was a co-founder of the National Ballet School of Canada. Read more
05 Aug 1916: Peter Viereck, American poet and academic (died 2006) Peter Robert Edwin Viereck was an American writer, poet, and professor of history at Mount Holyoke College. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1949 for Terror and Decorum, a collection of poetry. In 1955 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florence. Read more
05 Aug 1914: Parley Baer, American actor (died 2002) Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Chester" in the radio version of Gunsmoke, and as the Mayor of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show, as well as Arthur J. Henson in The Addams Family as the Mayor, an insurance executive and as the city controller. Read more
05 Aug 1912: Abbé Pierre, French priest and humanitarian (died 2007) Abbé Pierre (born Henri Marie Joseph Grouès; was a French Catholic priest. He was a member of the Resistance during World War II and deputy of the Popular Republican Movement. In 1949, he founded the Emmaus movement, with the goal of helping poor and homeless people. For several decades, he was one of the most popular public figures in France. Allegations that he had sexually abused dozens of women, as well as several underage girls, emerged in 2024 and 2025. Read more
05 Aug 1911: Robert Taylor, American actor and singer (died 1969) Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor and singer who was one of the most popular leading men of his era. Read more
05 Aug 1910: Bruno Coquatrix, French songwriter and manager (died 1979) Bruno Coquatrix was a French record producer, the owner and manager of Olympia in Paris from 1954 until his death in 1979. Read more
05 Aug 1910: Herminio Masantonio, Argentinian footballer (died 1956) Herminio Masantonio was an Argentine football centre-forward. He played most of his career for Huracán and represented Argentina at international level. Read more
05 Aug 1908: Harold Holt, Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1967) Harold Edward Holt was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and held various ministerial positions from 1949 to 1966 in the governments of Robert Menzies and Arthur Fadden. Read more
05 Aug 1908: Jose Garcia Villa, Filipino short story writer and poet (died 1997) José García Villa was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken. He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rhyme scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet. He used the pen name Doveglion, based on the characters he derived from his own works. These animals were also explored by another poet, E. E. Cummings, in "Doveglion, Adventures in Value", a poem dedicated to Villa. Read more
05 Aug 1906: Joan Hickson, English actress (died 1998) Joan Bogle Butler, known professionally as Joan Hickson, was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks. Read more
05 Aug 1906: John Huston, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1987) John Marcellus Huston was an American and Irish filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning five decades, he wrote the screenplays for many of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, as well as a nomination for a BAFTA Award. He also received the BAFTA Fellowship in 1980, a Special Lion for the Overall Work in 1985, and a Silver Lion in 1953. Read more
05 Aug 1905: Wassily Leontief, German-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1999) Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief was a Russian-American economist known for his research on input–output analysis and how changes in one economic sector may affect other sectors. Read more
05 Aug 1904: Kenneth V. Thimann, English-American botanist and microbiologist (died 1997) Kenneth Vivian Thimann was an English-American plant physiologist and microbiologist known for his studies of plant hormones, which were widely influential in agriculture and horticulture. He isolated and determined the structure of auxin, the first known plant hormone. He spent most of his early career (1935–1965) at Harvard University, and his later career (1965–1989) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is credited with identifying indole-3-acetic acid as an auxin. Read more
05 Aug 1901: Claude Autant-Lara, French director, screenwriter, and politician (died 2000) Claude Autant-Lara was a French film director, screenwriter, set designer and costume designer who worked in films for over 50 years. His films were often adapted from literary sources and sometimes expressed provocative attitudes. His career was frequently marked by controversy. In his late 80s he was elected to the European Parliament as a member for the far-right French National Front; he stepped down in the wake of outrage after he made antisemitic statements. Read more
05 Aug 1900: Rudolf Schottlaender, German philosopher, classical philologist and translator (died 1988) Rudolf Schottlaender was a German philosopher, classical philologist, translator and political publicist of Jewish descent. Read more
05 Aug 1897: Roberta Dodd Crawford, American soprano and educator (died 1954) Roberta Dodd Crawford was an African-American lyric soprano and voice instructor who performed throughout the United States and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Roberta was born in Bonham, Texas before studying singing in Nashville, Chicago, and Paris. While in Paris, she married Prince Kojo Tovalou Houénou of Dahomey. When Houénou died in a French prison, Roberta was left without access to their marriage funds and returned to Paris where she lived through the Nazi occupation from 1940 until 1944. After the war, she returned to Texas where she died in 1954 in Dallas. Read more
05 Aug 1897: Aksel Larsen, Danish lawyer and politician (died 1972) Aksel Larsen was a Danish politician who was chairman of the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP), and chairman and founder of the Socialist People's Party. He is remembered today for his long service in the Communist Party of Denmark, for his time as a concentration camp inmate at Sachsenhausen, and for being the founder of the Socialist People's Party. Read more
05 Aug 1890: Naum Gabo, Russian-American sculptor (died 1977) Naum Gabo was a Russian and American constructivist sculptor and theorist. He was a key figure in the Russian avant-garde and the subsequent development of 20th-century sculpture. Read more
05 Aug 1890: Erich Kleiber, Austrian conductor and director (died 1956) Erich Kleiber was an Austrian, later Argentine, conductor, known for his interpretations of the Western classics and as an advocate of Neue Musik. Read more
05 Aug 1889: Conrad Aiken, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet (died 1973) Conrad Potter Aiken was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short stories, novels, literary criticism, a play, and an autobiography. Read more
05 Aug 1887: Reginald Owen, English-American actor and singer (died 1972) John Reginald Owen was a British actor, known for his many roles in British and American films and television programmes. Read more
05 Aug 1882: Anne Acheson, Irish sculptor (died 1962) Anne Crawford Acheson was a British-Irish sculptor. She and Elinor Hallé invented plaster casts for soldier's broken limbs. Acheson exhibited at the Royal Academy and internationally. She was awarded the CBE in 1919. During the First World War she worked for the Surgical Requisites Association at Mulberry Walk in Chelsea, London. Acheson received the Gleichen Memorial Award in 1938. She divided her time between London and Glenavy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Read more
05 Aug 1880: Gertrude Rush, American lawyer and jurist (died 1962) Gertrude Elzora Durden Rush was the first African-American female lawyer in Iowa, admitted to the Iowa bar in 1918. She helped found the National Bar Association in 1925. Read more
05 Aug 1880: Ruth Sawyer, American author and educator (died 1970) Ruth Sawyer was an American storyteller and a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She is best known as the author of Roller Skates, which won the 1937 Newbery Medal. She received the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 1965 for her lifetime achievement in children's literature. Read more
05 Aug 1877: Tom Thomson, Canadian painter (died 1917) Thomas John Thomson was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His works consist almost entirely of landscapes, depicting trees, skies, lakes, and rivers. He used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and colour of the Ontario landscape. Read more
05 Aug 1876: Mary Ritter Beard, American historian and activist (died 1958) Mary Ritter Beard was an American historian, author, women's suffrage activist, and women's history archivist who was also a lifelong advocate of social justice. As a Progressive Era reformer, Beard was active in both the labor and women's rights movements. She also authored several books on women's role in history including On Understanding Women (1931), America Through Women's Eyes, and Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities (1946), her major work. In addition, she collaborated with her husband, historian Charles Austin Beard, as coauthor of seven textbooks, most notably The Rise of American Civilization (1927), two volumes, and America in Midpassage: A Study of the Idea of Civilization (1939) and The American Spirit (1942), the third and fourth volume of The Rise of American Civilization series. A standalone book, Basic History of the United States, was their best-selling work. Read more
05 Aug 1874: Wesley Clair Mitchell, American economist and academic (died 1948) Wesley Clair Mitchell was an American economist known for his empirical work on business cycles and for guiding the National Bureau of Economic Research in its first decades. Read more
05 Aug 1874: Horace Rawlins, English golfer (died 1935) Horace Thomas Rawlins was an English professional golfer who won the first U.S. Open Championship at Newport Country Club in October 1895. Read more
05 Aug 1872: Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian physician, bacteriologist, and epidemiologist, founded the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (died 1917) Oswaldo Gonçalves Cruz, was a Brazilian physician, pioneer bacteriologist, epidemiologist and public health officer and the founder of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. Read more
05 Aug 1868: Oskar Merikanto, Finnish pianist and composer (died 1924) Oskar Merikanto was a Finnish composer, music critic, pianist, and organist. Read more
05 Aug 1866: Carl Harries, German chemist and academic (died 1923) Carl Dietrich Harries was a German chemist born in Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, Prussia. He received his doctorate in 1892. In 1900, he married Hertha von Siemens, daughter of the electrical genius Werner von Siemens, and the inventor of one of the earliest ozone generators. In 1904, he moved as full professor to the University of Kiel, where he remained until 1916. During that time he published numerous papers on ozonolysis. His major publication detailing ozonolysis was published in Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1905, 343, 311. Dissatisfied with academic life and having failed to obtain either of two positions at universities, he left academia to become director of research at Siemens and Halske. He died on 3 November 1923 of complications following surgery for cancer. He was buried at Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery near Berlin. Read more
05 Aug 1866: Harry Trott, Australian cricketer (died 1917) George Henry Stevens Trott was an Australian cricketer who played 24 Test matches as an all-rounder between 1888 and 1898. Although Trott was a versatile batsman, spin bowler and outstanding fielder, "it is as a captain that he is best remembered, an understanding judge of human nature". After a period of some instability and ill discipline in Australian cricket, he was the first in a succession of assertive Australian captains that included Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill, who restored the prestige of the Test team. Respected by teammates and opponents alike for his cricketing judgement, Trott was quick to pick up a weakness in opponents. A right-handed batsman, he was known for his sound defence and vigorous hitting. His slow leg-spin bowling was often able to deceive batsmen through subtle variations of pace and flight, but allowed opposition batsmen to score quickly. Read more
05 Aug 1862: Joseph Merrick, English man with severe deformities (died 1890) Joseph Carey Merrick was an English man known for his severe physical deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "The Elephant Man", and then went to live at the London Hospital, in Whitechapel, after meeting the surgeon Sir Frederick Treves. Despite his challenges, Merrick created detailed artistic works, such as intricate models of buildings, and became well known in London society. Read more
05 Aug 1860: Louis Wain, English artist (died 1939) Louis William Wain was an English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphised cats and kittens. Read more
05 Aug 1850: Guy de Maupassant, French short story writer, novelist, and poet (died 1893) Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story and associated with the naturalist literary school of thought, depicting human lives, destinies, and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms. Read more
05 Aug 1844: Ilya Repin, Russian painter and sculptor (died 1930) Ilya Yefimovich Repin was a Ukrainian-born Russian painter. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century. His major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga (1873), Religious Procession in Kursk Province (1880–1883), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885), and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880–1891). Repin is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading Russian literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov, and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship. Read more
05 Aug 1843: James Scott Skinner, Scottish violinist and composer (died 1927) James Scott Skinner was a Scottish dancing master, violinist, fiddler and composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential fiddlers in Scottish traditional music, and was known as "the Strathspey King". Read more
05 Aug 1833: Carola of Vasa (died 1907) Carola of Vasa, was by birth a titular princess of Sweden and styled Princess of Vasa as member of the House of Holstein-Gottorp, and by marriage the last Queen of Saxony. Read more
05 Aug 1828: Louise of the Netherlands (died 1871) Louise of the Netherlands, also called Lovisa, was Queen of Sweden and Norway from 8 July 1859 until her death in 1871 as the wife of King Charles XV & IV. Read more
05 Aug 1827: Deodoro da Fonseca, Brazilian field marshal and politician, 1st President of Brazil (died 1892) Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca was a Brazilian politician and military officer who served as the head of provisional government and the first president of Brazil. He was born in Alagoas in a military family, followed a military career, and became a national figure. Fonseca took office as provisional president after heading a military coup that deposed Emperor Pedro II and established the First Brazilian Republic in 1889, disestablishing the Empire. After his election in 1891, he stepped down the same year under great political pressure when he dissolved the National Congress. He died less than a year later. Read more
05 Aug 1815: Edward John Eyre, English explorer and politician, Governor of Jamaica (died 1901) Edward John Eyre was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand's New Munster province, and Governor of Jamaica. He was at the centre of a protracted controversy over his response to the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion. Read more
05 Aug 1813: Ivar Aasen, Norwegian poet and linguist (died 1896) Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet. He was best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from various dialects. Read more
05 Aug 1811: Ambroise Thomas, French composer (died 1896) Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868). Read more
05 Aug 1802: Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (died 1829) Niels Henrik Abel was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals. This question was one of the outstanding open problems of his day, and had been unresolved for over 250 years. He was also an innovator in the field of elliptic functions and the discoverer of Abelian functions. He made his discoveries while living in poverty and died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis. Read more

Notable Deaths on 05 August

05 Aug 2025: Col Joye, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937) Colin Frederick Jacobsen, better known by his stage name Col Joye, was an Australian pioneer rock and pop singer-songwriter, musician and entrepreneur with a career spanning almost sixty-seven years, starting from the late 1950s. Read more
05 Aug 2022: Judith Durham, Australian singer-songwriter (born 1943) Judith Durham was an Australian singer, songwriter and musician who became the lead singer of the Australian folk music group the Seekers in 1962. Read more
05 Aug 2022: Cherie Gil, Filipino actress (born 1963) Evangeline Rose Gil Eigenmann, known professionally as Cherie Gil, was a Filipino actress and singer. With a career spanning nearly 50 years, she was dubbed the "La Primera Contravida" for her acting prowess which landed her numerous antagonistic roles on film, television, and the stage. Read more
05 Aug 2022: Ali Haydar, Syrian army officer (born 1932) Ali Haydar, known as the "Father of the Syrian Special Forces", was a Syrian military officer who was the commander of the Syrian Special Forces for 26 years. He was a close confidant to President Hafez al-Assad and one of the members of Assad's inner circle. Born in the village of Hallet Ara, Haydar was a member of the Ba'ath Party from his youth. He was commissioned into the Syrian Army in 1952 after a stint studying at the Homs Military Academy. After the Ba'ath Party seized power in a 1963 coup d'état, Haydar was put in charge of Syria's special forces and supported al-Assad in his rise to the presidency. During this time he was deployed to Lebanon during their civil war. Haydar opposed the 1984 coup d'état attempt led by Rifaat al-Assad, instead remaining loyal to Hafez al-Assad. After suffering an aneurysm and leaving his post in 1988, he returned to lead the special forces again in the early 1990s. At the time a Major General, he was formally removed from his position and then imprisoned in August 1994, though he was treated well during his brief prison stay and was released without a trial or public humiliation. Haydar died in Latakia at the age of 90. Read more
05 Aug 2022: Issey Miyake, Japanese fashion designer (born 1938) Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer. He was known for his technology-driven clothing designs, notably the Pleats, Please line, exhibitions and fragrances such as L'eau d'Issey. Read more
05 Aug 2022: Dillon Quirke, Irish hurler (born 1998) Dillon Quirke was an Irish hurler who played for Tipperary Senior Championship club Clonoulty–Rossmore and at inter-county level with the Tipperary senior hurling team. Read more
05 Aug 2020: Hawa Abdi, Somali human rights activist and physician (born 1947) Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe was a Somali human rights activist and physician. She was the founder and chairperson of the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation (DHAF), a non-profit organization. Read more
05 Aug 2019: Toni Morrison, American author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel laureate (born 1931). Chloe Anthony Wofford "Toni" Morrison was an American novelist and editor. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987). Read more
05 Aug 2018: Alan Rabinowitz, American zoologist (born 1953) Alan Robert Rabinowitz was an American zoologist who served as the president, CEO, and chief scientist at Panthera Corporation, a nonprofit conservation organization devoted to protecting the world's 40 wild cat species. Called the "Indiana Jones of Wildlife Protection" by Time, he studied jaguars, clouded leopards, Asiatic leopards, tigers, Sumatran rhinos, bears, leopard cats, raccoons, cervidae, and civets. Read more
05 Aug 2015: Arthur Walter James, English journalist and politician (born 1912) Arthur Walter James was a British journalist and Liberal Party politician. Read more
05 Aug 2015: Tony Millington, Welsh footballer (born 1943) Anthony Horace Millington was a Welsh footballer who played as a goalkeeper for West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace, Peterborough United and Swansea City in the 1960s and 1970s and made 21 international appearances for Wales. His career ended in 1975 following a car accident and he later became the disability officer at Wrexham A.F.C. He was the brother of Grenville Millington, who played in goal for Rhyl and Chester. Read more
05 Aug 2014: Harold J. Greene, American general (born 1962) Harold Joseph "Harry" Greene was an American military officer. During his time with the United States Army, he held various commands associated with engineering and logistical support for American and coalition troops in Afghanistan. At the time of his death, he was the deputy commanding general of the Combined Security Transition Command. Read more
05 Aug 2014: Vladimir Orlov, Russian author (born 1936) Vladimir Viktorovich Orlov was a Russian novelist, notable for his fantasy novel Danilov, the Violist. Read more
05 Aug 2014: Chapman Pincher, Indian-English historian, journalist, and author (born 1914) Henry Chapman Pincher was an English journalist, historian and novelist whose writing mainly focused on espionage and related matters, after some early books on scientific subjects. Read more
05 Aug 2014: Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, American physician and academic, 11th Surgeon General of the United States (born 1927) Jesse Leonard Steinfeld was an American physician and public health official. He was appointed the eleventh surgeon general of the United States from 1969 to 1973. Read more
05 Aug 2013: Ruth Asawa, American sculptor and educator (born 1926) Ruth Aiko Asawa was an American modernist artist primarily known for her abstract looped-wire sculptures inspired by natural and organic forms. In addition to her three-dimensional work, Asawa created figurative and abstract drawings and prints influenced by nature, particularly flowers and plants. Read more
05 Aug 2013: Shawn Burr, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1966) Shawn Christopher Burr was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger. Burr played in the NHL for parts of 16 seasons from 1985 to 2000. Read more
05 Aug 2013: Willie Dunn, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1942) William Lawrence Dunn was a Canadian singer-songwriter, film director and politician. Born in Montreal, he was of mixed Mi'kmaq and Scottish/Irish background. Dunn often highlighted indigenous issues in his work. Read more
05 Aug 2013: Roy Rubin, American basketball player and coach (born 1925) Roy Rubin was a former college and professional basketball coach. Read more
05 Aug 2013: May Song Vang, American activist (born 1951) May Song Vang was an American Hmong community leader and activist. She was the widow of General Vang Pao, a former member of the Royal Lao Army and prominent Hmong American leader, who died in 2011. May Song Vang became a more prominent symbol of the Hmong American community in California and the rest of the United States after the death of her husband. Read more
05 Aug 2013: Rob Wyda, American commander and judge (born 1959) Rob Wyda was the District Judge of Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, one of the largest magisterial districts in Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1999, he was elected three times. He announced his candidacy for a seat on the Pennsylvania Superior Court in March 2013, but withdrew a few weeks later. Read more
05 Aug 2012: Erwin Axer, Polish director and screenwriter (born 1917) Erwin Axer was a Polish theatre director, writer and university professor. A long-time head of Teatr Współczesny in Warsaw, he also staged numerous plays abroad, notably in German-speaking countries, in the US and Leningrad (USSR). Laureate of Witkacy Prize – Critics' Circle Award (1993). Read more
05 Aug 2012: Michel Daerden, Belgian lawyer and politician (born 1949) Michel Daerden was a francophone Belgian politician, a member of the Parti Socialiste, and a finance auditor. Read more
05 Aug 2012: Fred Matua, American football player (born 1984) Fred Matua was an American football guard. After playing college football for Southern California, he was selected by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL draft. He was also a member of the Lions, Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins, Florida Tuskers, and Omaha Nighthawks. Read more
05 Aug 2012: Martin E. Segal, Russian-American businessman, co-founded Film Society of Lincoln Center (born 1916) Martin Eli Segal was a Russian-born American businessman who co-founded the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1969 with two other Lincoln Center executives, William F. May and Schuyler G. Chapin. He also served as the Film Society's founding president and CEO until 1978. Segal was founding chair of the Commission for Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Assistance Center, and the New York International Festival of the Arts. Read more
05 Aug 2012: Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-Mexican singer-songwriter and actress (born 1919) María Isabel Anita Carmen de Jesús Vargas Lizano, known professionally as Chavela Vargas, was a Mexican singer, songwriter and actress. She gained widespread recognition for her distinctive interpretations of Mexican rancheras. However, her impact extends beyond this genre, encompassing various styles within popular Latin American music. Read more
05 Aug 2012: Roland Charles Wagner, French author and translator (born 1960) Roland C. Wagner was a French writer of humorous science fiction. Since his professional debut in 1981, he wrote around one hundred novellas and around fifty novels. He was the only writer to have received the Prix Rosny-Aîné seven times, as well as many other awards. Read more
05 Aug 2011: Andrzej Lepper, Polish farmer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland (born 1954) Andrzej Zbigniew Lepper was a Polish politician, farmer, and trade unionist who led the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, an agrarian populist party that, between 2005 and 2007, was the third-largest political party in Poland; in 2006, he briefly formed a coalition government alongside the ruling Law and Justice party, serving in the roles of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. He also served as Deputy Marshal of the Sejm in 2001 and from 2005 to 2006. Read more
05 Aug 2011: Aziz Shavershian, Australian bodybuilder (born 1989) Aziz Sergeyevich Shavershian, better known as Zyzz, was an Australian bodybuilder and model. He established a cult following after posting videos of himself on YouTube, starting in 2007. Read more
05 Aug 2009: Budd Schulberg, American author, screenwriter, and producer (born 1914) Budd Schulberg was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) and The Harder They Fall (1947), as well as his screenplays for On the Waterfront (1954) and A Face in the Crowd (1957), receiving an Academy Award for the former. Read more
05 Aug 2008: Neil Bartlett, English-American chemist and academic (born 1932) Neil Bartlett was a British chemist who specialized in fluorine and compounds containing fluorine, and became famous for creating the first noble gas compounds. He taught chemistry at the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley. Read more
05 Aug 2008: Reg Lindsay, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1929) Reginald John Lindsay OAM was an Australian country music singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and radio and television personality. He won three Golden Guitar Awards and wrote more than 500 songs in his 50-year music career. Lindsay recorded over 65 albums and 250 singles. Reg made his first trip to Nashville in June 1968 and recorded his first Nashville EP on this historic trip. Read more
05 Aug 2007: Jean-Marie Lustiger, French cardinal (born 1926) Jean-Marie Aron Lustiger was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Paris from 1981 until his resignation in 2005. He was made a cardinal in 1983 by Pope John Paul II. His life is depicted in the 2013 film Le métis de Dieu. Read more
05 Aug 2007: Florian Pittiș, Romanian actor, singer, director, and producer (born 1943) Florian Pittiș was a Romanian stage and television actor, theatre director, folk music singer, and radio producer. Read more
05 Aug 2005: Polina Astakhova, Russian gymnast and coach (born 1936) Polina Ghrighorievna Astakhova was a Soviet and Ukrainian artistic gymnast. She won ten medals at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics. Read more
05 Aug 2005: Jim O'Hora, American football player and coach (born 1915) James Joseph O’Hora was an American college football coach for over 30 years. Read more
05 Aug 2005: Raul Roco, Filipino lawyer and politician, 31st Filipino Secretary of Education (born 1941) Raul Sagarbarria Roco was a Filipino politician. He was the founder and presidential nominee of Aksyon Demokratiko, which he founded in 1997 as a vehicle for his presidential bid in 1998 and his second one in 2004. He was a former constitutional delegate, congressman, senator and Secretary of Education under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Read more
05 Aug 2005: Eddie Jenkins, Welsh footballer (born 1909) Edwin Jonathan Jenkins was a Welsh professional footballer. He began his professional career with Cardiff City, making his debut for the club in February 1930. After two seasons as a reserve, he featured regularly for the club in the Third Division South between 1932 and 1934, making 87 appearances in all competitions before being released. He later played for Bristol City and Newport County before retiring. Read more
05 Aug 2002: Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (born 1982) Joshua Ryan Evans was an American actor who became known for his role of Timmy Lenox in the soap opera Passions. Evans was aged 17 to 20 during his tenure on Passions, but had the appearance and voice of a small child due to achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. He was 3 feet 2 inches (97 cm) tall. Read more
05 Aug 2002: Chick Hearn, American sportscaster (born 1916) Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years, as well as the team's assistant general manager for seven years beginning in 1972. Hearn was the first broadcaster named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Hearn is remembered for his rapid fire, staccato broadcasting style, associated with colorful phrases such as slam dunk, air ball, and no harm, no foul that have become common basketball vernacular. Hearn broadcast 3,338 consecutive Lakers games starting on November 21, 1965.
Most of Hearn's games in the television era were simulcast on both radio and television, even after most teams chose to use different announcers for the different media. Read more
05 Aug 2002: Franco Lucentini, Italian journalist and author (born 1920) Franco Lucentini was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies. Read more
05 Aug 2002: Darrell Porter, American baseball player (born 1952) Darrell Ray Porter was an American professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1971 to 1987 for the Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas Rangers. The four-time All-Star was known for his excellent defensive skills and power hitting ability.
He struggled with, but was never able to overcome, a substance abuse problem, yet went on to become the most valuable player of the 1982 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Porter died from accidental drug toxicity in 2002 at the age of 50. Read more
05 Aug 2002: Matt Robinson, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1937) Matthew Thomas Robinson Jr. was an American actor, writer and television producer. Robinson was the first actor to portray the character of Gordon Robinson on the PBS children's TV program Sesame Street. When Sesame Street began in 1969, not only did Robinson play Gordon, but he also provided the voice of the puppet Roosevelt Franklin and was one of the show's producers. He left the show in 1972. In later years, when producers needed a last name for the Gordon character, then played by Hal Miller and later Roscoe Orman, they used Matt's last name. Read more
05 Aug 2001: Otema Allimadi, Ugandan politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Uganda (born 1929) Erifasi Otema Allimadi was a Ugandan politician who served as the country's Foreign Minister (1979–1980) in the UNLF government and later on as the country's third Prime Minister of Uganda (1980–1985) in the UPC government. Read more
05 Aug 2001: Christopher Skase, Australian-Spanish businessman (born 1948) Christopher Charles Skase was an Australian businessman who later became one of his country's most wanted fugitives, after his business empire crashed spectacularly and he fled to Mallorca, Spain. Read more
05 Aug 2000: Otto Buchsbaum, Austrian-Brazilian journalist and activist (born 1920) Otto Buchsbaum was born in Vienna, Austria. He moved to Brazil in 1939. In 1967, he led, together with his wife, Florence Buchsbaum, the movement "Teatro ao Encontro do Povo", whose aim was to offer theater shows to the people, trying to discuss their lives and the world. He founded, in the 1970s, the politico-ecological movement "Resistência Ecológica" and also ran the newspaper Abertura Cultural, which was the mainstay of the movement. Read more
05 Aug 2000: Tullio Crali, Montenegrin-Italian pilot and painter (born 1910) Tullio Crali was a Dalmatian Italian artist associated with Futurism. A self-taught painter, he was a late adherent to the movement, not joining until 1929. He is noted for realistic paintings that combine "speed, aerial mechanisation and the mechanics of aerial warfare", though in a long career he painted in other styles as well. Read more
05 Aug 2000: Lala Amarnath, Indian cricketer (born 1911) Lala Amarnath Bhardwaj was an Indian cricketer. He is considered to be the father figure of Indian cricket. He scored the first ever century for India in Test Cricket in 1933. He was independent India's first cricket captain and captained India in their first Test series win against Pakistan in 1952. Read more
05 Aug 2000: Alec Guinness, English actor (born 1914) Sir Alec Guinness was an English actor. In the BFI listing of the 100 most important British films of the 20th century, he was the single most noted actor, represented across nine films—six in starring roles and three in supporting roles—including five directed by David Lean and four from Ealing Studios. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Tony Award and a Volpi Cup. In 1959, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980 and the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 1989. Read more
05 Aug 1998: Otto Kretschmer, German naval officer and submariner (born 1912) Otto Kretschmer was a German naval officer and submariner in World War II and the Cold War. Read more
05 Aug 1998: Todor Zhivkov, Bulgarian commander and politician, 36th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (born 1911) Todor Hristov Zhivkov was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1956 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He was the longest-serving leader in the Eastern Bloc, the longest-serving leader within the Warsaw Pact and the longest-serving non-royal ruler in Bulgarian history. Read more
05 Aug 1994: Menachem Avidom, Israeli composer (born 1908) Menachem Avidom was an Israeli composer. His Hebrew surname is the combination of the names of his daughters Daniella and Miriam. Read more
05 Aug 1994: Alain de Changy, Belgian race car driver (born 1922) Alain Carpentier de Changy was a racing driver from Belgium. His single Formula One World Championship Grand Prix attempt was at the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix with a Cooper run by Ecurie Nationale Belge, but he failed to qualify. He was more successful in sports car racing. Read more
05 Aug 1992: Robert Muldoon, New Zealand politician, 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1921) Sir Robert David Muldoon was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st prime minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while leader of the National Party. Departing from National Party convention, Muldoon was a right-wing populist and economic nationalist, with a distinctive public persona described as reactionary, aggressive, and abrasive. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Paul Brown, American football player and coach (born 1908) Paul Eugene Brown was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), the National Football League (NFL), and the American Football League (AFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Cleveland Browns, a team named after him, and later co-founded the Cincinnati Bengals. His teams won seven league championships in a professional coaching career spanning 25 seasons. Read more
05 Aug 1991: Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, founded Honda (born 1906) Soichiro Honda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. In 1948, he established Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and oversaw its expansion from a wooden shack manufacturing bicycle motors to a multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer. Read more
05 Aug 1987: Georg Gaßmann, German politician, Mayor of Marburg (born 1910) Georg Gaßmann was a German politician. Read more
05 Aug 1985: Arnold Horween, American football player and coach (born 1898) Arnold Horween was an American football player and coach. He played and coached both collegiately for Harvard University and professionally in the National Football League (NFL). Read more
05 Aug 1984: Richard Burton, Welsh actor (born 1925) Richard Walter Burton was a Welsh actor. Read more
05 Aug 1983: Judy Canova, American actress and comedian (born 1913) Judy Canova, born Juliette Canova, was an American comedienne, actress, singer, and radio personality who appeared on Broadway and in films. She hosted her own eponymous network radio program, a popular series broadcast from 1943 to 1955. Read more
05 Aug 1983: Joan Robinson, English economist and author (born 1903) Joan Violet Robinson was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge School" in most of its guises in the 20th century. She started out as a Marshallian, became one of the earliest and most ardent Keynesians after 1936, and ended up as a leader of the neo-Ricardian and post-Keynesian schools. Read more
05 Aug 1980: Harold L. Runnels, American soldier and politician (born 1924) Harold Lowell Runnels was an American businessman and politician who served five terms as a U.S. representative from New Mexico from 1971 to 1978. Read more
05 Aug 1978: Jesse Haines, American baseball player and coach (born 1893) Jesse Joseph Haines, nicknamed "Pop", was an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). After a lengthy stint in minor league baseball, he played briefly in 1918, then from 1920 to 1937. He spent nearly his entire major league career with the Cardinals. Haines pitched on three World Series championship teams. Though he had a kind personality off the field, Haines was known as a fiery competitor during games. Read more
05 Aug 1968: Luther Perkins, American guitarist (born 1928) Luther Monroe Perkins Jr. was an American country music guitarist best known as a member of the Tennessee Three, the backing band for singer Johnny Cash. Perkins was an iconic figure in what would become known as rockabilly music. His creatively simple, sparsely embellished, rhythmic use of Fender Esquire, Jazzmaster, and Jaguar guitars is credited with creating Cash's signature "boom-chicka-boom" style. Read more
05 Aug 1964: Moa Martinson, Swedish author (born 1890) Moa Martinson was one of Sweden's most noted authors of proletarian literature. Her ambition was to change society with her authorship and to portray the conditions of the working class, and also the personal development of women. Her works were about motherhood, love, poverty, politics, religion, urbanization and the hard living conditions of the working-class woman. Read more
05 Aug 1964: Art Ross, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1886) Arthur Howey Ross was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and executive from 1905 until 1954. Regarded as one of the best defenders of his era by his peers, he was one of the first to skate with the puck up the ice rather than pass it to a forward. He was on Stanley Cup championship teams twice in a playing career that lasted thirteen seasons; in January 1907 with the Kenora Thistles and 1908 with the Montreal Wanderers. Like other players of the time, Ross played for several different teams and leagues, and is noted for his time with the Wanderers while they were members of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and its successor, the National Hockey League (NHL). In 1911, he led one of the first organized player strikes over increased pay. When the Wanderers' home arena burned down in January 1918, the team ceased operations and Ross retired as a player. Read more
05 Aug 1963: Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer (born 1898) Salvador Bacarisse Chinoria was a Spanish composer. Read more
05 Aug 1960: Arthur Meighen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Canada (born 1874) Arthur Meighen was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Canada from 1920 to 1921 and from June to September 1926. He led the Conservative Party from 1920 to 1926 and from 1941 to 1942. Read more
05 Aug 1959: Edgar Guest, English-American journalist and poet (born 1881) Edgar Albert Guest was a British-born American poet who became known as the People's Poet. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life. Read more
05 Aug 1957: Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877) Heinrich Otto Wieland was a German chemist. He won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the bile acids. Read more
05 Aug 1955: Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress and singer (born 1909) Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, known professionally as Carmen Miranda, was a Portuguese-born Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress. Nicknamed "the Brazilian Bombshell," she was known for her signature fruit hat outfits that she wore in her American films. Read more
05 Aug 1952: Sameera Moussa, Egyptian physicist and academic (born 1917) Sameera Moussa or Samira Musa Ali was an Egyptian atomic scientist and physicist, she is the first female Egyptian nuclear physicist. Moussa held a doctorate in atomic radiation. Read more
05 Aug 1948: Montagu Toller, English cricketer and lawyer (born 1871) Montagu Henry Toller was an English cricketer who played for both Devon and Somerset in the late 19th century. He made six first-class appearances for Somerset, all in 1897, but was predominantly a good club cricketer. In 1900, he was part of the Devon Wanderers team that represented Great Britain in the 1900 Summer Olympics, the only time cricket has featured in the Olympics. Read more
05 Aug 1946: Wilhelm Marx, German lawyer and politician, 17th Chancellor of Germany (born 1863) Wilhelm Marx was a German judge, lawyer, and politician who twice served as chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic, from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1928. He also briefly held the position of Minister-President of Prussia in 1925. A leading figure in the Centre Party, he served as its chairman from 1922 to 1928. With a total tenure of three years and 73 days, he was the longest-serving chancellor of the Weimar Republic. Read more
05 Aug 1944: Maurice Turnbull, Welsh cricketer and rugby player (born 1906) Maurice Joseph Lawson Turnbull was a Welsh cricketer who played in nine Test matches for the England cricket team between 1930 and 1936. Read more
05 Aug 1939: Béla Jankovich, Hungarian economist and politician, Minister of Education of Hungary (born 1865) Béla Jankovich de Vadas et Jeszenicze was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Religion and Education between 1913 and 1917. He studied in the Theresianum of Vienna, University of Budapest, University College London and Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. Between 1891 and 1893 he travelled around the world, he went to the United States, to China and Japan. After his returning to home he farmed on his possessions of Tésa. Read more
05 Aug 1935: David Townsend, American art director and set designer (born 1891) David Wood Townsend was an American art director. Read more
05 Aug 1933: Charles Harold Davis, American painter and academic (born 1856) Charles Harold Davis was an American landscape painter. Read more
05 Aug 1929: Millicent Fawcett, English trade union leader and activist (born 1847) Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights association, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), explaining, "I cannot say I became a suffragist. I always was one, from the time I was old enough to think at all about the principles of Representative Government." She tried to broaden women's chances of higher education, as a governor of Bedford College, London and co-founding Newnham College, Cambridge in 1871. In 2018, a century after the Representation of the People Act, she was the first woman honoured by a statue in Parliament Square. Read more
05 Aug 1921: Dimitrios Rallis, Greek lawyer and politician, 78th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1844) Dimitrios Rallis was a Greek politician, founder and leader of the Neohellenic or "Third Party". Read more
05 Aug 1916: George Butterworth, British composer (born 1885) George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC was an English composer who was best known for the orchestral idyll The Banks of Green Willow and his song settings of A. E. Housman's poems from A Shropshire Lad. He was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry during the fighting at the Battle of Pozières in the First World War, and died during the Battle of the Somme. Read more
05 Aug 1911: Bob Caruthers, American baseball player and umpire (born 1864) Robert Lee Caruthers, nicknamed "Parisian Bob", was an American right-handed pitcher and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played primarily for the St. Louis Browns and Brooklyn Bridegrooms. The star pitcher on five league champions in a ten-year career, he was the top pitcher in the American Association, leading that league in wins and shutouts twice each, winning percentage three times, and earned run average once. His 175 wins in the Association were the second most of any pitcher, and his league ERA of 2.62 was the lowest of any pitcher with at least 2,000 innings in the league; he was also the only pitcher to have 40-win seasons for two different Association teams. His career winning percentage was the highest of any pitcher prior to 1950 with at least 250 decisions. Read more
05 Aug 1904: George Dibbs, Australian politician, 10th Premier of New South Wales (born 1834) Sir George Richard Dibbs KCMG was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales on three occasions. In 1857, he married Anne Maria Robey. He travelled abroad, and established a branch in Valparaiso in 1865, which involved running a Spanish blockade during the Chincha Islands War. Read more
05 Aug 1901: Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom and German Empress (born 1840) Victoria, Princess Royal was German Empress and Queen of Prussia as the wife of Frederick III, German Emperor. She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and was created Princess Royal in 1841. As the eldest child of the British monarch, she was briefly heir presumptive until the birth of her younger brother, the future Edward VII. She was the mother of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor. Read more
05 Aug 1895: Friedrich Engels, German philosopher (born 1820) Friedrich Engels was a German philosopher, social and political theorist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best known for his lifelong collaboration with Karl Marx, with whom he co-authored The Communist Manifesto (1848) and developed the political and philosophical system that came to be known as Marxism. After Marx's death, Engels served as the editor of his works, completing the second and third volumes of Das Kapital. Read more
05 Aug 1881: Spotted Tail, American tribal chief (born 1823) Spotted Tail was a Sichangu Lakota tribal chief. Famed as a great warrior since his youth, warring on Ute, Pawnee and Absaroke ('Crow'), and having taken a leading part in the Grattan Massacre, he led his warriors in the Colorado and Platte River uprising after the massacre perpetrated by John M. Chivington's Colorado Volunteers on the peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho camping on Sand Creek, but declined to participate in Red Cloud's War. Read more
05 Aug 1880: Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, Austrian physician and dermatologist (born 1816) Ferdinand Karl Franz Schwarzmann, Ritter von Hebra was an Austrian physician and dermatologist known as the founder of the New Vienna School of Dermatology, an important group of physicians who established the foundations of modern dermatology. Read more
05 Aug 1877: Robert Williams (known as Trebor Mai), Welsh poet (born 1830) Robert Williams, usually referred to by his bardic name Trebor Mai, was a Welsh language poet, born at Ty'n-yr-ardd near Llanrhychwyn, near Llanrwst, in the old county of Caernarfonshire, the son of a tailor. He was educated at a local Llanrhychwyn school and for a period attended the free school at Llanrwst. Around 1843, he moved with his family to Llanrwst and he applied himself to his father's craft. After he married on 13 October 1854 he commenced business as a tailor himself in Llanrwst, and remained there for the rest of his life. He died in 1877, aged 47. Read more
05 Aug 1868: Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, French archaeologist and historian (born 1788) Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, sometimes referred to as Boucher de Perthes, was a French archaeologist and antiquary notable for his discovery, in about 1830, of flint tools in the gravels of the Somme valley. Read more

Why is 05 August Important in History?

05 August is important because many political, cultural, scientific, educational and social events took place on this date. These facts are useful for students, exam aspirants and readers interested in daily history and general knowledge.

History of Today 05 August for Competitive Exams

Questions based on today in history, famous personalities, historical events and important dates are often asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, Defence and State PSC examinations.

👉 View complete History of Today archive

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on 05 August in history?

On 05 August, many important historical events, famous births and notable deaths occurred across the world.

Why is History of Today important for exams?

History of Today helps students remember important dates, events and personalities for competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway and PSC.

Where can I read daily history facts?

You can read daily history facts on this History of Today section, updated regularly with important events, births and deaths.