August 4th
1 – In 1327 during the first war of Scottish Independence, James Douglas led a raid into Weardale and almost killed Edward III of England.
3 – In 1912 Raoul Wallenberg, was born. A Swedish diplomat credited with saving nearly 100,000 Budapest Jews between July and December 1945 during World War II. While serving as Sweden’s envoy in Budapest. He issued passports and sheltered Jews in buildings he declared a Swedish Territory. On January 17th 1945 he disappeared. In 1957 Soviet authorities reported his death on July 17 1947 in Lubyanka, the prison in the HQ of Moscow’s secret police. Why he was held by the Soviets, and whether their reports was true or not is disputed. Many claim to have encountered him in Soviet prisons and psychiatric hospital until the 1980s. In 1981 in honor of his actions, he became the second person in history to be made an honorary U.S. Citizen. He also became an honorary citizen of Canada, Hungary, the UK, and Israel. In 1963 he was declared Righteous among The Nations by the Israeli agency Yad Vashem.
4 – In 1914 in response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declared its neutrality.
5 – In 1944 a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others. The group was transported to Auschwitz, where they were separated but spared from being gassed. In October the girls were moved to Bergen-Belsen. Edith Frank was left in Auschwitz, later dying of starvation and disease. Anne and her sister Margot possibly dying of typhoid. It is speculated that they passed only a few weeks before Bergen-Belsen was liberated, they’re death dates were not recorded. Only Otto Frank survived. In 1947 Anne’s diary was first published.
6 – 1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan was established. The successor of the Daishin-in, which was established in 1875 and re organized by the Meiji Constitution in 1889. It works independently of the government, and decides the constitutionality of statutes and administrative decisions.
7 – 1952 – Helicopters from the U.S. Air Force Air Rescue Service land in Germany, completing the first transatlantic flight by helicopter in 51 hours and 55 minutes of flight time.
8 – 1961 Birthday – Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States of America.
9 – 1971 – The U.S. launches the first satellite into lunar orbit from a manned spacecraft (Apollo 15).