What happened on 1 August?

20 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 527 Reign of Justinian I Eastern emperor who codifies Roman law, reconquers Italy and Africa, and builds Hagia Sophia.
2. 1960 The Beatles Liverpool band that became the most influential popular group of the 20th century.
3. 1936 Stalin's Great Purge Mass political repression in the Soviet Union; hundreds of thousands executed.
4. 1914 Germany declares war on Russia Begins WW1 on the Eastern Front.
5. 1904 Siege of Port Arthur Five-month Japanese siege of the Russian-leased fortress; combination of trenches, mines, machine guns foreshadows WWI.
6. 1944 Warsaw Uprising Polish Home Army rises against Nazi occupation; Soviets halt across the Vistula; 200,000 Poles killed; Warsaw flattened.
7. 1798 Battle of the Nile Nelson destroys the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, stranding Bonaparte's army in Egypt and reasserting British naval dominance.
8. 1714 Reign of George I Reign of George I (1714-1727) as King of Great Britain and Ireland.
9. 1589 Assassination of Henry III of France Eight months after Blois, a fanatical young friar gains an audience with the king and drives a knife into his belly. Dying, the last Valois formally recognises the Protestant Henry
10. 1981 MTV launches Music television channel launches in the US.
11. 1971 Ravi Shankar plays the Concert for Bangladesh Shankar asks George Harrison for help with refugee relief and the first large-scale celebrity benefit concert follows, opening with his own set at Madison Square Garden.
12. 1714 Hanoverian Succession Queen Anne dies and the crown passes over fifty Catholic claimants to George of Hanover — the Protestant succession made fact.
13. 1774 Priestley isolates oxygen Heating mercuric oxide with a burning lens, Priestley captures 'dephlogisticated air' — the gas Lavoisier would rename oxygen.
14. 1936 Berlin Olympics 1936 Nazi-hosted games at which Jesse Owens wins four gold medals.
15. 30 BCE Death of Mark Antony With Octavian's army at Alexandria and his troops deserting, Antony, falsely told Cleopatra is dead, falls on his sword and dies in her arms.
16. 1759 Battle of Minden An Anglo-allied army defeats the French in Westphalia, securing Hanover during the Seven Years' War.
17. 1291 Old Swiss Confederacy founded Three alpine cantons swear a mutual defence pact against Habsburg rule, the seed of modern Switzerland.
18. 1908 Old-Age Pensions Act 1908 Chancellor Lloyd George introduces Britain's first state pension — five shillings a week for the over-seventies — and pensioners call it the 'Lloyd George'.
19. 1954 Rear Window A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours' windows and suspects murder — Hitchcock's study of voyeurism, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.
20. 1664 Battle of Saint Gotthard Montecuccoli's imperial army throws the Ottomans back across the Rába — a major field defeat of the Turks by the Habsburgs, though the peace that followed gave the victory away.