August 6, 1945 – The first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan killing over 105,000 people. Another 100,000 die later from radiation affects.
August 7, 1947 – Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl captains the balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki to completion of a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to an island near Tahiti to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian Islands. His account of the journey became an international best-selling book and a film documentary of the journey would win an academy award in 1951.
August 9, 1974 – Effective at noon, Richard M. Nixon resigned from the Presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal.
August 9, 1936 – African American track star Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Berlin Olympics striking a propaganda blow against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler who was touting Aryan superiority.