On this day — August 4

At least 220 people are killed and over 5,000 are wounded when 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon.

This comes only 13 hours after another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expel the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Iraq–Syria border, concluding the second phase of the Deir ez-Zor campaign.

Seven people are injured when two drones detonate explosives on Avenida Bolívar, Caracas while president Nicolás Maduro is giving a speech to the Venezuelan National Guard.

killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).

the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence begins.

president of the military government of Upper Volta, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Captain Thomas Sankara.

Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.

American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.