^B{^#!16!1 August^N! National Day of Switzerland. Feast day of Saints Pistis, Elpis, and Agape (Faith, Hope, and Charity), St Peter Julian Eymard, St Ethelwold of Winchester, St Almedha or Aled, St Alphonse Liguori, and The Holy Macabees.
^B{1498^B} Christopher Columbus reached the American mainland, and named it Santa Isla, believing it to be an island. ^B{1714^B} George Louis, Elector of Hanover, was proclaimed King George I of Great Britain. ^B{1774^B} English chemist Joseph Priestley identified oxygen, which he called 'a new species of air'. ^B{1778^B} The first savings bank was opened, in Hamburg, Germany. ^B{1793^B} The kilogram was introduced in France as the first metric weight. ^B{1798^B} The English under Nelson destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, in Aboukir Bay. ^B{1834^B} Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. ^B{1936^B} The XIth Olympics, the last for 12 years, opened in Berlin. ^B{1975^B} Thirty-five nations, including the US and the USSR, signed the Helsinki Agreement on cooperation in human rights and other global issues.
^B{^I{^#!14!Born ^N}Claudius, Roman emperor, ^B{10 BC^B}; Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, French zoologist, ^B{1744^B}; Richard Henry Dana, US novelist, ^B{1815^B}; Herman Melville, US novelist, ^B{1819^B}; Jack Kramer, US tennis champion, ^B{1921^B}; Yves Saint-Laurent, French couturier, ^B{1936^B}.^B}
^B{^I{^#!14!Died ^N}Louis VI, King of France, ^B{1137^B}; Queen Anne, ^B{1714^B}; Robert Morrison, English missionary and translator, ^B{1834^B}; Theodore Roethke, US poet, ^B{1963^B}; Walter Ulbricht, East German politician, ^B{1973^B}; John Ogdon, English concert pianist, ^B{1989^B}; Alfred Manessier, French painter, ^B{1993^B}.^B}
