01|Mohammed Farah Aidid, the clan leader who claimed to be Somalia's president and who humiliated U.S. forces during the 1993 peacekeeping mission, dies from wounds received during street fighting in Mogadishu, the capital.|
02|Congress approves a minimum-wage increase that calls for a 90-cent, two-stage rise to $5.15 an hour. The first rise, 50 cents, goes into effect on Oct. 1, 1996. The second rise, 40 cents, kicks in on Sept. 1, 1997. The Senate passes a health-insurance reform bill, already passed by the House of Representatives, that will allow individuals to retain health insurance coverage if they lose or change jobs. The bill also provides for income tax deduction of health-insurance costs for the self-employed and provides for a four-year trial of tax preferences for individual medical savings accounts.|
02|Israel's newly elected conservative government lifts the four-year ban on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, reversing the previous government's policy that was designed to establish peace with the Palestinians.|
03|Japanese public health inspectors, searching for the source of the food poisoning epidemic that has left 7 people dead and more than 9,000 ill since June, announce that they have discovered E. coli 0:157, the highly virulent bacteria causing the epidemic, in beef carcasses at a wholesale market in Sendai, a city 190 miles (305 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.|
04|The centennial Summer Olympics in Atlanta close with a ceremony at which the legendary heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali is given a replacement medal for the gold he won at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.|
04|Followers of Somalia's slain warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid name his son, Hussein, who served with U.S. Marines in Somalia, as their new leader.|
05|After signing a bill that imposes sanctions on foreign companies that invest heavily in Libya or Iran, President Bill Clinton refers to the two countries as "the most dangerous supporters of terrorism in the world." On August 3, Clinton's defense secretary, William J. Perry, suggested in a radio broadcast that Iran was involved in the June 25, terrorist bombing of an American compound in Saudi Arabia.|
06|A National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator confirms that NASA scientists have identified compounds and minerals related to bacterial action on a meteorite that fell from Mars to Earth approximately 15 million years ago. The presence of the telltale compounds--polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's)--and minerals--magnetite and iron sulfide--offers evidence that a primitive form of microscopic life once existed on Mars. This is the first evidence of the existence of life beyond life on Earth yet discovered.|
06|Chechen rebels audaciously assault and retake Grozny, the provincial capital, from Russian control. The attack leaves scores of Russian soldiers dead, the Russian army humiliated, and the already-ruined city in flames.|
07|More than 6 million subscribers are stranded in Cyberspace when America Online, the nation's largest on-line computer network, goes off line for close to 19 hours. The shut-down is blamed on software problems and human error.|
08|The New England Journal of Medicine publishes the results of an international study that shows that bone marrow transplants can in some cases cure sickle cell disease--a group of inherited disorders that afflict millions of people, particularly those with ancestors who came from India, the Middle East and lands around the Mediterranean Seas, and Africa.|
09|Bob Dole chooses Jack Kemp, former professional football player, congressman from New York, and secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Bush Administration, as his running mate on the Republican ticket for president and vice-president of the United States.|
09|Boris Yeltsin is sworn in as the first democratically elected president of an independent Russia at a pared-down Kremlin ceremony before 3,000 dignitaries. Stiff and visibly shaky during the inauguration, Yeltsin speaks only during the oath of office, which he reads from a prompter; he does not deliver an inaugural address. The occasion is the Russian president's first public appearance since June 26.|
10|Sections of six western states experience intermittent power failures, which on a sweltering day shut down air conditioners from Texas west to California and north to Oregon. Utility companies blame the failure on high electrical demand triggered by the intense heat.|
11|Russian troops, after five days of heavy fighting, remain unable to retake from rebel soldiers the now nearly leveled city of Grozny, the provincial capital of the secessionist republic of Chechnya. Officials in Moscow acknowledge that at least 200 Russian soldiers have been killed and 800 wounded since the August 7 assault, launched by Chechen secessionists to mar the inauguration of President Boris Yeltsin.|
11|Heavy rains and renewed flooding in southern China leave 250 people dead and 100,000 homeless. Since seasonal rains began in late June, at least 1,100 Chinese have died and more than 2.5 million acres (1.1 million hectares) of crops have been destroyed.|
12|The 36th Republican National Convention opens in San Diego, California, with speeches by former Presidents Bush and Ford, former First Lady Nancy Reagan standing in for her ailing husband, and retired U.S. Army General Colin Powell.|
13|Scientists, releasing photographs of the Jovian moon Io taken from the Galileo spacecraft, announce that the moon may once have had or may still have a global ocean, suggesting the existence of liquid water capable of supporting life.|
14|Robert Dole, former majority leader of the U.S. Senate, is nominated as the Republican candidate for president of the United States at the party's convention in San Diego. Former pro-football player, New York congressman, and member of the Bush Cabinet, Jack Kemp is nominated for vice president.|
14|Minutes after a cease-fire, brokered by Russian security advisor Alexander Lebed on August 11, was to go into effect, Russian attack planes fire rockets at Chechen refugees attempting to flee Grozny, the capital of the secessionist state. While the Defense Ministry in Moscow announces that it is unaware of orders to end the fighting, a Kremlin spokesperson announces that President Boris Yeltsin has given Lebed full responsibility for overseeing the Chechen crisis. Lebed states that a political settlement can be found for the 20-month-old war.|
15|Robert Dole accepts the Republican nomination for president of the United States in a speech in which he characterizes himself as "the most optimistic man in America" for whom age is an advantage. The 73-year-old, World War II veteran is the oldest candidate for president in the nation's history.|
16|In the first test of the Clinton Administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals in the U.S. military, a 41-year-old, female Air Force major is acquitted of charges of sodomy and conduct unbecoming an officer by a seven-member jury at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The "don't ask, don't tell" policy, instituted in 1993, allows homosexuals to serve in the military if they keep their sexual orientation private.|
17|At a national convention in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Ross Perot is tapped as the presidential nominee of the Reform Party, the political organization that the 66-year-old Texas billionaire founded four years ago, during his 1992 race for the presidency.|
18|West African leaders meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, chose Ruth Perry, a former Liberian senator, as head of an interim government of Liberia. Liberia's leading warlords, in attendance of the meeting, agree to the appointment.|
19|Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders security adviser Alexander Lebed to end the fighting in Chechnya while "restoring the law and order situation in Grozny to how it was on August 5." Before August 5, the Russians were in control of Grozny. Since August 6, Chechen rebels have been in control, and Russian attempts to regain the now-ruined city have been futile.|
20|Health officials in Japan acknowledge that the source of the E. coli 0157:H7 food poisoning, which has left 10 dead and more than 9,400 ill, remains a mystery. No trace of what the Japanese now call 0157 has ever been found in the various foods--eel sushi, raw meats, and radish sprouts--that the government at various times in the last two months has pointed to as possible carriers of the deadly bacterium.|
20|India derails more than two years of international negotiations by vetoing a treaty that would have banned test explosions of nuclear devices by the eight nations--Britain, China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States--that are either known or believed to possess nuclear devices.|
21|The U.S. Defense Department acknowledges in a new report that tens of thousands of American forces may have been exposed to chemical agents during the Persian Gulf War. Traces of chemical weapons were detected at least seven times in the first week of the war around staging areas where American troops were housed in northern Saudi Arabia. While making the announcement, Pentagon officials continue to deny that conclusive evidence of American exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons exists. Until recently, the Pentagon was unwilling to acknowledge the existence of any evidence. More than 60,000 veterans of the Gulf War have requested that they be screened for possible ailments related to chemical warfare.|
22|President Bill Clinton signs welfare-reform legislation that ends the federal guarantee, or entitlement, of cash assistance for poor children, which has been part of the nation's social system since instituted during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Supporters claim the legislation will free millions from welfare dependency and save more than $50 billion. Liberal Democrats claim the measure will drag a million children into dire poverty.|
23|President Bill Clinton announces that the U.S. government now considers nicotine an addictive drug. After calling the smoking of cigarettes a "significant public health hazard," the president launches an assault on U.S. tobacco companies through a variety of restrictions intended to end the encouragement of smoking among children and young adults.|
24|Approximately 130 pilgrims, trekking in Indian Himalayan Mountains toward a shrine to the Hindu god, Shiva, die from exposure during a blizzard.|
25|Golfer Tiger Woods, a 20-year-old junior at Stanford University, wins his third, consecutive U.S. Amateur Championship at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.|
26|The first Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago in 28 years is launched with an evening session featuring not politicians, but social advocates. Sarah Brady, whose husband James Brady was shot during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, applauds Democrats for their commitment to gun control and thanks President Bill Clinton for signing the Brady bill, which placed restrictions on how guns are sold. Actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed during a horse-riding accident, makes an emotional appeal for greater government funding of medical research.|
26|Chun Doo Hwan, the South Korean president (1980-1988) who lead a 1979 coup and subsequently crushed all prodemocracy activists, is sentenced to death by a South Korean court on charges of corruption, mutiny, and treason. His successor, Roh Tae Woo--president from 1988 to 1993, receives a prison sentence of 22 1/2 years on similar charges.|
27|An intelligence report, long classified as top secret, reveals that President George Bush and high officials in the White House, Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, and U.S. State Department were alerted in November 1991 that 150 American soldiers had been exposed to chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin, while blowing up an Iraqi ammunition depot. Since 1991, the U.S. Defense Department has issued multiple statements denying the existence of evidence of American exposure to chemical weapons during the Gulf War.|
28|President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are nominated at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago as the party's candidates for president and vice president of the United States.|
28|A British court grants Charles, Prince of Wales, and Princess Diana a divorce. Diana, who will share with Charles equal access to their sons, William and Harry, receives a lump-sum settlement of $26 million. She retains her Kensington Palace apartment and the title of princess, but relinquishes the right to be Queen of England and the honorific HRH--her royal highness.|
28|Forty--five separate forest fires burn across nearly 240,000 acres (18,211 hectares) in nine western states--Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. All the fires are believed to have been sparked by dry lightning striking vegetation that was tinder-box dry.|
29|President Bill Clinton accepts the nomination for president of the United States by a convention of the Democratic Party, meeting in Chicago. Earlier in the day, political advisor and election strategist Dick Morris resigned from Clinton's reelection campaign amid rumors that Morris shared secrets and information about the Clinton Administration with a prostitute with whom he had carried on a year-long relationship.|
30|President Saddam Hussein of Iraq sends tens of thousands of his troops toward the Kurdish enclaves in northern Iraq that were set up to protects Kurds by the U.S. and its Western allies at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.|
30|Russian national security adviser Alexander Lebed, in Chechnya to conclude a peace agreement with the leaders of the separatist rebellion, announces that he and his Chechen counterparts have agreed that the future status of the rebel republic of Chechnya will be postponed until December 21, 2001.|
31|After Iraqi army divisions attack and seize a major Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq--set up by the U.S. and other Western nations following the 1991 Persian Gulf War--President Bill Clinton places American troops in the region on alert and calls up reinforcements.|
