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Old clock in sand with the words: It Happend in August

View Historical Events by Day: What Happened on August 3 in History?

Explore the historical events that shaped our world on August 3rd. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.

1108 CE, August 3

Louis VI is crowned as the King of France in the cathedral of Orléans. He succeeded his father, Philip I, who died on July 29, 1108. 

1492 CE, August 3

Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain, with three ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria. Searching for a westerly route to the Far East. Instead, on October 12th, he lands in the Bahamas, thinking it was an outlying Japanese island. More

1948 CE, August 3

During a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Whittaker Chambers, American writer and intelligence agent, accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the accusation but was eventually tried and convicted of perjury. More

1958 CE, August 3

The USS Nautilus, the first U.S. nuclear submarine, reaches the geographic North Pole traveling 1000 miles under sea from Point Barrow, Alaska and then on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe. More

1960 CE, August 3

Niger Independence Day - Effective date of the agreement with France signed on 11 July.

1975 CE, August 3

A 707 passenger flight chartered by the national airline of Morocco, Royal Air Maroc, flying in heavy fog crashed into a mountain on approach to Agadir Inezgane, Airport in Morocco. All 188 passengers and crew on board were killed. The cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error. More