AP US History This Day in American History August – At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name "First Lightning."

AP US History This Day in American History August – President Nixon sets December 1 as the target date for reducing U.S. troops strength in Vietnam by 12,000, to 27,000, an all-time low since the American troop buildup began in 1965.

AP US History This Day in American History August Nearly 30 years after the most famous plane crash in music history, Ritchie Valens, the youngest of that crash's three famous victims, made a return of sorts to the top of the pop charts when his signature tune, "La Bamba," became a #1 hit for the band Los Lobos, from Valens' own hometown of Los Angeles, California.

AP US History This Day in American History August – Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the United States, makes landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast, near New Orleans, Louisiana.