On August 5

United States Environmental Protection Agency personnel accidentally caused a spillage (aftermath pictured) of 3 million gallons (11 million litres) of mine waste water and tailings trapped inside the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.

A python killed two boys in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada.

An American white supremacist carried out a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding four others.

Radio Network House (pictured), damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, becomes the first building to be demolished by implosion in New Zealand.

NASA launched the Juno probe to Jupiter as part of the New Frontiers program.

Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering, the first trading card game.

A Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft crashed while attempting to land in Dhaka, killing 49 people in the deadliest aviation accident in Bangladeshi history.

U.S. president Ronald Reagan fired the 11,345 striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization en masse.

Due to an athletics scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association applied the death penalty to the basketball program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Police raided a screening of the film Lonesome Cowboys in Atlanta, Georgia, leading to the creation of a Gay Liberation Front in that city.

American actress and model Marilyn Monroe was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

An earthquake registering 6.4 Ms struck near Ambato, Ecuador, killing 5,050 people.

First World War: The British Empire's Sinai and Palestine campaign began with a victory at the Battle of Romani.

Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip, driving 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

Sir John Barrow, secretary at the Admiralty, rejected a proposal to use Francis Ronalds's electrical telegraph, deeming it "wholly unnecessary".

Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Austria began the First Partition of Poland, with the primary motive to restore the regional balance of power in Eastern Europe.

Austro-Turkish War: The Ottoman army were defeated in their attempt to capture the Habsburgs-controlled Petrovaradin Fortress despite having double the number of soldiers.

Beaver Wars: Aggravated by increased French incursions into their territory, a large force of Mohawk warriors substantially destroyed the settlement of Lachine in present-day Quebec.

Scottish nobleman John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, was killed during what was most likely a failed attempt to kidnap King James VI.

Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars at the Battle of Kletsk.