On 22nd August…

1138 - The Battle of the Standard took place just north of Northallerton, Yorkshire. A Scottish army of 16,000 men led by King David I of Scotland fought 10,000 English troops in an attempt to gain lands and overthrow King Stephen. David’s plan was to replace the English king with his niece Matilda, the daughter of the former King Henry I and rightful heir to the English throne. Despite King Stephen and the majority of the English army being occupied in battle in the south of England with , the English troops defeated the Scottish army in a short space of time.

On 23rd August…

93CE - Gnaeus Julius Agricola the Roman General and Governor of Britain died. During his rule of Britain, he conquered Wales and Northern England.

1914 - Japan declared war on Germany in World War I in respect of its 1902 alliance with Great Britain.

On 24th August…

1198 - King Alexander II of Scotland was born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. His father was King William I of Scotland. Alexander became king at the age of 16 and ruled for 35 years. He maintained peace with England during his reign and strengthened the Scottish monarchy.

On 25th August…

1688 - Henry Morgan, the Welsh pirate and privateer (pirate working for the government) died. Henry Morgan operated in the Caribbean seas with the unofficial support of the British government where he undermined Spanish authority, plundered their ships and raided their wealthy settlements on the Caribbean islands.

1875 - Matthew Webb became the first person to successfully swim the English Channel from England to France. He began his swim on the 24th August and finally touched ground in Calais on the 25th. It took him 22 hours.

1914 - At the beginning of World War I German troops began to burn and loot the Belgian town of Louvain. Their destruction and rampage continued for five days, killing a large number of its population including women and children.

1944 - After four years of Nazi occupation the city of Paris was liberated during World War II. On the 19th August Resistance fighters and ordinary civilians began a week of anarchy, rebelling against the Nazi occupiers in the anticipation of Allied troops arriving soon. Train drivers, policemen and other workers went on strike; men in small groups began attacking German soldiers; barricades started going up. Gradually entire neighbourhoods were reclaimed. Allied troops that were heading straight for the German border diverted their journeys via Paris and on the evening of 24th August the first troops arrived to help the resistance. By 2:30pm on the 25th August, the Nazi occupiers had surrendered and Paris belonged to the French once more.

On 26th August…

On 27th August…

1916 - Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary during World War I. Its main motivation was the opportunity to claim the region of Transylvania from Austria-Hungary which had a majority population of Romanians.

On 28th August…

1833 - Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act became law after the Act was given royal approval by King William IV.

 1994 - For the first time, thousands of shops across England and Wales opened legally for trading on Sundays. Large shops over 280m² in size are only permitted to be open for a maximum of six hours continual trading between the hours of 10am and 6pm, smaller shops can open for as long as they wish.