August 4th

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants tied Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs.

A mini-submarine carrying seven Russians became caught on an underwater antenna 600 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean; the men were rescued three days later with help from a British vessel.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in northern Israel during rush hour, killing nine passengers.

Serb-dominated Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the 300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia.

Rwandian Hutus & Tutsis sign peace treaty in Arusha.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and TV stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.

The Republic of Upper Volta is Renamed Burkina Faso. The West African country was first created in 1958 as a self-governing French colony. It gained its independence from the French in 1960. Between then and 1983, several coups dotted its political landscape. In 1983, a military coup installed Captain Thomas Sankara as the country's president. He changed the name of the country to Burkina Faso a year later on the coup's anniversary.

The Military Stages a Coup in Upper Volta. A military coup in Upper Volta installed Thomas Sankara, a captain in the Upper Volta Army as its president. A year later, he changed the name of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso.

President Carter signed a congressional act that established the Department of Energy.

The bodies of three civil-rights workers were found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson.

Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified.

1st train with Jews departs Mechelen Belgium to Auschwitz.

Denmark ceded the Danish West Indies, including the Danish Virgin Islands, to the United States for $25 million.

Britain declared war on Germany while the United States proclaimed its neutrality in World War I.

Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. (Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, though she was later acquitted.).

Thomas Stevens became the first person to bicycle across the United States. He later bicycled around the world.

Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen and Russian polar expedition returns to Kronshtadt after becoming 1st to circumnavigate Antarctica.

Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in Field Place, England.

The Coast Guard had its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service.

Printer John Peter Zenger, defended by Andrew Hamilton, was acquitted of libel in a case that helped foster freedom of the press.

1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah).