August 5 – Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated to the United States after the Korean War. August 8 – Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb. August 12 The 1953 Ionian earthquake of magnitude 7.2 totally devastates Cephalonia and most of the other Ionian Islands, in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries. Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4", the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon, is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR. August 13 – Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures. August 15–19 – Cold War: 1953 Iranian coup d'état – Overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, by Iranian military in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the support of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (as "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom. August 17 – The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5). August 20 – The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco, and exiles him to Corsica. August 22 – The last prisoners are repatriated from Devil's Island to France.Toth, Stephen (2006) Beyond Papillon: The French Overseas Penal Colonies, 1854–1952. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . August 25 – The French general strike ends. August – High Arctic relocation of Inuit families by the Government of Canada.
August 5 – Operation Big Switch: Prisoners of war are repatriated to the United States after the Korean War. August 8 – Soviet prime minister Georgi Malenkov announces that the Soviet Union has a hydrogen bomb. August 12 The 1953 Ionian earthquake of magnitude 7.2 totally devastates Cephalonia and most of the other Ionian Islands, in Greece's worst natural disaster in centuries. Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4", the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon, is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR. August 13 – Four million workers go on strike in France to protest against austerity measures. August 15–19 – Cold War: 1953 Iranian coup d'état – Overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, by Iranian military in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the support of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (as "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom August 17 – The first planning session of Narcotics Anonymous is held in Southern California (see October 5). August 20 – The French government ousts King Mohammed V of Morocco, and exiles him to Corsica. August 22 – The last prisoners are repatriated from Devil's Island to France.Toth, Stephen (2006) Beyond Papillon: The French Overseas Penal Colonies, 1854–1952. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . August 25 – The French general strike ends. August – High Arctic relocation of Inuit .families by the Government of Canada.