Holidays Calendar for August 5, 2020
Croatia annually celebrates Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day on August 5. This holiday commemorates War of Independence, that was fought between Croat forces and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army from 1991 to 1995.
Independence Day is a major public holiday in Burkina Faso. Celebrated on August 5, it commemorates the day when the country gained full independence from France in 1960.
On August 5, the residents of Ceuta (a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa) celebrate Our Lady of Africa Day (Nuestra Señora de África). This holiday honors the patron saint of the city.
Tu b'Av is a minor Jewish holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Av. In modern Israel it has become a holiday of love, somewhat similar to Valentine's Day.
Financial Investigation Authorities Foundation Anniversary in the Republic of Belarus is celebrated on August 5 each year. It was established to commemorate the foundation of the Tax Investigation Department, which is the predecessor of the Financial Investigations Department of the State Control Committee.
Islamic Human Rights Day is an Iranian observance celebrated annually on August 5 (the 14th of Mordad in the Iranian calendar). It commemorates the adoption of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
New Yorkers annually celebrate National Underwear Day on August 5. This holiday promotes wearing your underwear in public. Usually, we wouldn’t do it, but on August 5 everything is possible.
August 5 is the perfect holiday for all you seafood lovers out there as it is National Oyster Day. This holiday celebrates a considerable number of different species of edible bivalve molluscs which are considered a delicacy.
National Couscous Day is observed annually on August 5. It celebrates a staple food of the Maghreb region (Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia) and the many dishes that can be made using it.
International Traffic Light Day, also referred to as simply Traffic Light Day, is celebrated annually on August 5. It was created to commemorate the installation of the world’s first electric traffic light in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914.
Festivals on August 5, 2020
- Locarno Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland
- Kyiv International Short Film Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine
- Salzburg Festival in Salzburg, Austria
- Beat Film Festival in Moscow, Russia
- Spicemas (Grenada Carnival) in St. George’s, Grenada
- BVI Emancipation Festival in Road Town, British Virgin Islands
- Qingdao International Beer Festival in Qingdao, China
- Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis, USA
- Jazz in Marciac in Marciac, France
- Verbier Festival in Verbier, Switzerland
- International Istanbul Film Festival in Istanbul, Turkey
- Taiwan International Balloon Festival in Luye, Taiwan
- Chartres en lumières (Chartres in Lights) in Chartres, France
- Highland Renaissance Festival in Eminence, USA
This Day in History
- 2024 Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned amid the Non-cooperation movement protest against the government of Bangladesh and fled to India.
- 2019 Died: Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Beloved and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
- 2019 The Government of India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The reactions in Kashmir Valley were effectively suppressed through the suspension of communication and with imposition of curfew.
- 2012 Died: Chavela Vargas (Isabel Vargas Lizano), Costa Rican-born Mexican singer best known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras.
- 2010 33 Chilean miners were trapped approximately 2,300 ft below the ground during the Copiapó mining accident in the Atacama Desert.
- 2010 Ten of the eleven members of International Assistance Mission Nuristan Eye Camp were killed in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan.
- 2008 Died: Neil Bartlett, American chemist and professor who is primarily remembered for creating the first noble gas compounds in 1962.
- 2006 Died: Susan Butcher, American dog musher. She is best known as the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
- 2002 Died: Matt Robinson, American actor, producer and screenwriter known as the first actor to portray the character of Gordon Robinson on Sesame Street.
- 2001 Born: Josie Totah, American actress. She is known for her recurring role on the series Jessie and supporting role on the series Back in the Game.
- 2000 Died: Alec Guinness, English actor of stage and screen known for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy.
- 1991 Died: Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and industrialist known for co-founding Honda Motor Co., Ltd alongside Takeo Fujisawa.
- 1984 Died: Richard Burton, renowned Welsh actor of stage and screen noted for his brilliant acting talent and his mellifluous baritone voice.
- 1983 Died: Joan Robinson, British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory and work on monetary economics.
- 1981 Born: Jesse Williams, American actor, director, producer and activist. He is best known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on the long-running medical drama Grey's Anatomy.
- 1971 Born: Jared Hasselhoff (stage name of Jared Victor Hennegan), American musician and actor, the bassist of Bloodhound Gang.
- 1970 Born: Leonid Stadnyk, Ukrainian man who was formerly listed as the world's tallest living man according to Guinness World Records.
- 1966 Born: James Gunn, American screenwriter, director, and producer best known for his superhero films for both Marvel and DC. In 2022, he became the co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios.
- 1964 The United States carried out the bombing campaign Operation Pierce Arrow during the Vietnam War, responding to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
- 1963 Born: Mark Strong, British actor known for his roles in Stardust, RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and many other films.
- 1962 Died: Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson), American actress, model and singer who was a major sex symbol during the 1950s.
- 1944 During World War II, over 500 Japanese prisoners of war escaped from a POW camp near the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
- 1940 The Soviet Union formally annexed Latvia and incorporated it as the 15th republic of the USSR. The president of Latvia was deported.
- 1930 Born: Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, aerospace engineer, naval aviator and test pilot. He was the first person to walk on the Moon.
- 1918 Born: Betty Oliphant, Canadian ballerina and ballet teacher best known as a co-founder of the National Ballet School of Canada.
- 1914 The first electric traffic light was installed on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. It had two colors.
- 1911 Born: Robert Taylor, American actor who was one of the most popular leading men of his time. He was married to Barbara Stanwyck.
- 1906 Born: Wassily Leontief, American economist of Russian origin who was awarded the 1973 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
- 1906 Born: John Huston, American film director, screenwriter and actor. Many of the films Huston directed are now considered classics.
- 1895 Died: Friedrich Engels, German philosopher, social scientist, political theorist and author who created Marxist theory together with Karl Marx.
- 1860 King Charles XV of Sweden was crowned King Charles IV of Norway. His coronation took place in the city of Trondheim, Norway.
- 1850 Born: Guy de Maupassant, French novelist, short story writer and poet who is considered one of the fathers of the modern short story.
- 1844 Born: Ilya Repin, Russian realist painter whose major works include Barge Haulers on the Volga and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.
- 1813 Born: Ivar Aasen, Norwegian lexicographer, philologist, poet and playwright who created Nynorsk, one of Norway's official languages.
- 1772 The First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began. Its territory was divided between Prussia, Russia, and Austria.
- 1620 The Mayflower and the Speedwell set sail from Southampton. However, the Speedwell sprang a leak, and the ships had to make a new start.
- 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.