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August 1
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The works of the Nigerian author Wole Soyinka comprise twenty-five plays, ten essay collections, seven poetry collections, five memoirs, three novels, and two translated works. His first major plays were The Swamp Dwellers (1958) and The Lion and the Jewel (1959), both of which were performed in Ibadan, Nigeria. After Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the independence of Biafra in 1966, Soyinka was arrested and accused of taking sides following his attempt to negotiate between the Nigerian government and the Biafran separatists. When the Nigerian Civil War ended, he was released in 1969 under an amnesty. Madmen and Specialists (1970) was his first play after his release. His arrest and prison experiences were detailed in his first memoir, The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka (1972), which along with Poems from Prison was written and smuggled out during his imprisonment. (Full list...)
August 4
The Swedish pop group Tages released six studio albums and 26 singles in their home country during their existence from 1963 to 1970. Their professional career began during the summer of 1964, when they won a contest awarding them a recording contract with Platina Records, an independent record label. Their debut single, "Sleep Little Girl", was released in October 1964 and became a large hit in Sweden. The band's debut album, Tages, was released in November 1965, reaching the top 10 of the Finnish Albums Charts. The band's fourth and fifth albums, Contrast and Studio (both 1967), were released by Parlophone, whereas their sixth and final album, The Lilac Years (1969), was released through Fontana Records. The Lilac Years and the band's final three singles were released under the name Blond, which was considered more internationally viable by their management. (Full list...)
August 8
Eighteen competition venues across Singapore were used for the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics from 14 to 26 August 2010. To accommodate the 3,600 athletes from 204 different National Olympic Committees, eleven existing sites were used, six temporary sites were built, and one new site was built for permanent use after the Olympics. Organised by the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee after winning the hosting bid in 2008, the Singapore Turf Club was the only venue constructed to host the equestrian events, while others like the Singapore Indoor Stadium and The Float @ Marina Bay (pictured) were upgraded for the Olympics. The largest venue was The Float@Marina Bay (the venue of the opening and closing ceremonies), with seating for 25,000, while the smallest venue was for the archery events at Kallang Field, with seating for 500. (Full list...)
August 11
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. Top grandmasters compete in the tournament, but regular club players are welcome to play in the lower groups. The Masters group pits fourteen of the world's best players against each other in a round-robin tournament, and has sometimes been described as the "Wimbledon of Chess". Of the fifteen undisputed World Chess Champions since the first tournament in 1938, only five have not won it. Magnus Carlsen holds the record for most wins at the tournament, with eight. Viswanathan Anand is the only other player to have won the event five or more times, with five titles to his name. R Praggnanandhaa is the defending champion after defeating Gukesh Dommaraju in tiebreaks in 2025. (Full list...)
August 15
There are an estimated two thousand ghost towns in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. These towns began for a number of reasons, often as liquor towns, boomtowns, or mining towns, with some pre-dating statehood. The population and activity later declined in these locations due to the exhaustion of natural resources, manmade or natural disasters, urbanization, the creation of a water source, or after being bypassed by highways and interstates. These places vary in their current states with some having completely disappeared while others still have small communities. A small number have also gained notability for other reasons, such as being part of the Tar Creek Superfund site, for existing in an unusual ___location, or for crimes. The earliest known ghost town in Oklahoma was said to have been one by 1839 while the latest were evacuated in 2010. (Full list...)
August 18
Slogans play an important role in North Korean propaganda, as they depict how citizens are expected to behave, think and dress. North Korean propaganda slogans are very similar to propaganda by other socialist states, such as Maoist China, in that they emphasise the strength of the military, the creation of a utopian society, and devotion to the state and its supreme leader. Despite hostile relations between North and South Korea, slogans and posters have been made in support of Korean reunification, while others were made to promote events in support of bilateral relations, such as the April Spring Friendship Art Festival. (Full list...)
August 22
American actor, director, and producer Philip Seymour Hoffman's career on screen and stage spanned numerous films, television series and plays from 1991 to 2015. He made his screen debut on the police procedural Law & Order in 1991, and his film debut later in the same year by appearing in a minor role in Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole. Hoffman followed this with supporting roles as a student in Scent of a Woman (1992), and a storm chaser in Twister (1996) before his breakthrough role as a gay boom operator in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama Boogie Nights (1997). Hoffman received the Academy Award for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in the 2005 biographical film Capote. In his New York Times obituary, he was described as "perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation". (Full list...)
August 25
There are 20 Grade I listed buildings in the City of Coventry. In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a building or structure of special historical or architectural importance. These buildings are legally protected from demolition, as well as from any extensions or alterations that would adversely affect the building's character or destroy historic features. Coventry is an ancient city and a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Like many of the city's Grade I listed buildings, Coventry's city walls were erected towards the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Of the 20 Grade I buildings in Coventry, 14 are in the city centre, and 11 date back to the 14th century. The oldest is St Mary's Priory and Cathedral, now a ruin, which was founded in 1043. Several other buildings date from the 12th century. The youngest is the current Coventry Cathedral, built in the 1950s to replace its 14th-century predecessor that was destroyed during the Second World War; its ruins (pictured) are also Grade I listed. (Full list...)
August 29
The Seattle Kraken throughout their history have been primarily televised on Root Sports Northwest and radio broadcast primarily on KJR-FM. The Kraken compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference and began play during the league's 2021–22 season. John Forslund serves as the team's television play-by-play announcer. J. T. Brown is the Kraken's primary television color analyst. In August 2022, the team hired Eddie Olczyk to be a television analyst alongside Forslund and Brown. Everett Fitzhugh serves as the team's primary radio play-by-play announcer. He is the first Black full-time play-by-play announcer in NHL history. Dave Tomlinson served as Fitzhugh's color analyst for the Kraken's first two seasons, before resigning in August 2023. The Kraken hired commentator Al Kinisky to replace him. (Full list...)