AUGUST
That August time it was delight
To watch the red moons wane to white
Swinburne
Giant sunspots, August 30, 1839
August 1
1674 Tornadoes in Holland destroyed a number of church towers and part of Utrecht cathedral
August 2
1906 A 'phantom city' was seen in the sky for three hours at Ballyconneely on the west coast of Ireland.
August 3
1933 W. T. (Will) Hay discovered a white spot on the planet Saturn. By August 9 the spot was 29,800 miles (48,000 km.) long, 8,000 miles (13,000 km.) wide and had a period of 10¼ hours.
August 4
1831 A tornado at Glanfesk in Ireland destroyed John McCarthy's farm, killing seventeen persons.
August 5
1783 The great eruption of Asama-yama in Japan culminated in an avalanche of volcanic material which killed 1,162 persons. See here.
August 6
1885 A supernova in the Andromeda galaxy, M31, reached the fringes of naked-eye visibility.
August 7
1921 A bright 'star' was seen three degrees above the setting Sun in California. It was an astronomical body whose nature remained undetermined.
August 8
1786 Balmot and Paccard made the first ascent of Mont Blanc (14,807 m.), the highest mountain in western Europe.
August 9
1892 Hundreds of live freshwater mussels fell with torrential rain from a yellow cloud over Paderborn, Germany.
August 10
1944 A B-29 bomber near Sumatra was followed for eight minutes by an orange ball of light. The ball then turned and vanished in cloud.
August 11
1946 'Rocket bombs' or 'ghost rockets' were reported over Stockholm, appearing as smoke-trailing fireballs flying towards central Sweden.
August 12
1914 A temperature of 122° F. (50° C.) at Leeland, Nevada.
August 13
1849 A mass of ice 20 feet (6 m.) in circumference fell at Balvullich in Scotland, after a loud peal of thunder.
August 14
1919 Nine people were killed when a huge ice avalanche, estimated to weigh one million tons, fell from a glacier near Chamonix in France.
August 15
1950 A magnitude 8.7 earthquake in Assam killed over 1,000 people. Geysers of hot water and steam shot from fissures. Landslides blocked many rivers.
August 16
1848 After a long dry summer of intense heat, a fire destroyed the Yagh Kapan district of Constantinople in 7½ hours. 200 lives were lost.
August 17
1876 Thousands of small luminous globes were seen in the air above cliffs at Ringstead Bay, Dorset, during a sultry afternoon.
August 18
1769 Lightning exploded a powder magazine at Brescia in Italy, killing 3,000 people.
August 19
AD 733 In Europe, "the Sun darkened in an alarming manner…there appeared to be no eclipse by the Moon, but rather an interruption from some meteoric substance." (There was a total solar eclipse in Europe on August 14, AD 733)
August 20
1820 The first fatal accident on Mont Blanc occurred when three guides were swept into a crevice by an avalanche. 41 years later their remains were found in a glacier.
August 21
1794 A 'compact ball of fire' during a terrific thunderstorm badly damaged a house at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
August 22
AD 358 The great earthquake of Nicomedia was preceded by two hours of darkness.
August 23
1939 A temperature of 113.5° F. (45° C.) was recorded at Lezhe in Albania.
August 24
AD 79 A great eruption of Vesuvius shattered the volcano's cone and buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. See here.
August 25
1872 A tornadic waterspout appeared on Lough Neagh, Ireland, as a column of spray and clouds. It crossed the shore and became a tornado near Staffordstown.
August 26
1778 A meteor seen from Como in Italy moved by bounds and jerks. With each jerk there was an explosion.
August 27
1947 The temperature reached 80° F. (27° C.)at Cape Wrath in northern Scotland.
August 28
1893 Nine hundred persons were killed by a hurricane which struck the Sea Islands of Georgia, United States.
August 29
1936 One of the greatest temperature variations recorded in one day in Britain: 34° F. (1° C.) to 84.9° F. (29° C.) in the Rickmansworth frost hollow, Hertfordshire.
August 30
1930 Pofessor J. C. Jensen photographed ball lightning in Nebraska. A shapeless, luminous mass floated slowly down as a squall line approached.
August 31
1944 H. P. Wilkins, while telescopically observing the Moon, saw white spots dotted over the floor of the crater Schickard. They were gone next evening.
