1811 215 years ago Notable Births August 3 2 sources

Elisha Otis, American businessman, founded the Otis Elevator Company (died 1861)

On August 3, in the year 1811, Elisha Otis, American businessman, founded the Otis Elevator Company (died 1861). This event is recorded as a Notable Births event in the history of August 3, one of 437 recorded events on this date across all of history.

1 notable person is associated with this event, including Elisha Otis. Learn more below.

Elisha Graves Otis was an American industrialist and founder of the Otis Elevator Company. In 1853, he invented a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. On March 23, 1857, he installed the first safety elevator for passenger service in the store of E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on August 3, 1811 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Notable Births event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 2 Wikipedia articles.
  • 1 notable person is recorded as involved in or associated with this event.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 25 July 2026.

On This Date in History 437

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2025 Aug 3 Loni Anderson, American actress (born 1945)
Notable Deaths 2024 Aug 3 Yamini Krishnamurthy, Indian dancer (born 1940)
Historical Events 2023 Aug 3 Worst floods hit major parts of Slovenia.
Notable Deaths 2023 Aug 3 Mark Margolis, American actor (born 1939)
Notable Deaths 2023 Aug 3 Bram Moolenaar, Dutch software engineer (born 1961)
Notable Deaths 2022 Aug 3 Jackie Walorski, American politician (born 1963)
Notable Deaths 2020 Aug 3 John Hume, Northern Irish politician (born 1937)
Historical Events 2019 Aug 3 Six hundred protesters, including opposition leader Lyubov Sobol, are arrested in an election protest in Moscow, Russia.
Historical Events 2019 Aug 3 Twenty-three people are killed and 22 injured in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
Selected Events 2019 Aug 3 A mass shooting occurred at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others.
Historical Events 2018 Aug 3 Two burka-clad men kill 29 people and injure more than 80 in a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in eastern Afghanistan.
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 3 Robert Conquest, English-American historian, poet, and academic (born 1917)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 3 Mel Farr, American football player and businessman (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 3 Coleen Gray, American actress (born 1922)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 3 Margot Loyola, Chilean singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1918)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 3 Johanna Quandt, German businesswoman (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2015 Aug 3 Jef Murray, American artist and author (born 1960)
Historical Events 2014 Aug 3 A 6.1 magnitude earthquake kills at least 617 people and injures more than 2,400 in Yunnan, China.
Historical Events 2014 Aug 3 The genocide of Yazidis by ISIL begins.
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 3 Miangul Aurangzeb, Pakistani captain and politician, 19th Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 3 Edward Clancy, Australian cardinal (born 1923)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 3 Dorothy Salisbury Davis, American author (born 1916)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 3 Kenny Drew, Jr., American pianist and composer (born 1958)
Notable Deaths 2014 Aug 3 Lydia Yu-Jose, Filipino political scientist and academic (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 3 John Coombs, English-Monegasque race car driver and businessman (born 1922)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 3 Jack English Hightower, American lawyer and politician (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2013 Aug 3 Jack Hynes, Scottish-American soccer player and manager (born 1920)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 3 Frank Evans, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 3 Martin Fleischmann, Czech-English chemist and academic (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 3 Paul McCracken, American economist and academic (born 1915)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 3 John Pritchard, American basketball player (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2012 Aug 3 George Shanard, American politician and agribusinessman (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2011 Aug 3 William Sleator, American author (born 1945)
Notable Deaths 2011 Aug 3 Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (born 1945)
Historical Events 2010 Aug 3 Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85…
Notable Deaths 2010 Aug 3 Bobby Hebb, American singer-songwriter (born 1938)
Notable Deaths 2009 Aug 3 Nikolaos Makarezos, Greek soldier and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (born 1919)
Selected Events 2009 Aug 3 The last vessels involved in Taurus 09, a Royal Navy training deployment covering 20,400 miles (32,800 km), returned…
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 3 Skip Caray, American sportscaster (born 1939)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 3 Erik Darling, American singer-songwriter (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2008 Aug 3 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, dramatist and historian, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
Historical Events 2007 Aug 3 Former deputy director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following…
Notable Deaths 2007 Aug 3 John Gardner, English author (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2007 Aug 3 Peter Thorup, Danish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1948)
Notable Deaths 2006 Aug 3 Arthur Lee, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1945)
Notable Deaths 2006 Aug 3 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German-English soprano and actress (born 1915)
Historical Events 2005 Aug 3 President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of…
Notable Deaths 2005 Aug 3 Françoise d'Eaubonne, French author and poet (born 1920)
Selected Events 2005 Aug 3 Mauritanian president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya was overthrown in a military coup while he attended the funeral of…
Historical Events 2004 Aug 3 The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Elisha Otis

19th-century American industrialist and inventor of the Otis Elevator

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