August 17, 1998– Bill Clinton became the first sitting President to testify before a grand jury in which the focus of the investigation was the President himself.
August 4, 1964 – Three young civil rights workers were found murdered and buried in an earthen dam outside Philadelphia, Mississippi. They were participating in the Mississippi Summer Project organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to increase black voter registration.
August 23, 1927 – Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were electrocuted. The days leading up to their execution saw worldwide protests and accusations that the two were targeted because they were Italian and held radical political views.