Dashed left edge = started before August 1991 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond August 1991
Events in August 1991 6
1991Third World Championship gold -- Tokyo 1991Bubka wins his third consecutive world title at the 1991 IAAF World Championships in Tokyo. He is now competing for the Soviet Union for the last time -- the USSR dissolves in December 1991, and Bubka subsequently competes for the Unified Team at Barcelona 1992 and then for independent Ukraine. The Tokyo title is the last he wins under the Soviet flag. He clears 5.95m to win, continuing a run of dominance that sees him unbeaten at World Championships for eight years.
1991US Open 1991Men: Stefan Edberg · Women: Monica Seles
1991Metallica release MetallicaThe Black AlbumWith Enter Sandman — one of the best-selling albums ever.
1991August CoupHardline Soviet officials attempt to oust GorbachevA group of hardline Communist officials attempted to seize power from Mikhail Gorbachev and halt the Soviet Union's reforms. Boris Yeltsin rallied resistance from atop a tank outside the Russian parliament, and the coup collapsed within three days. Its failure accelerated the collapse of Soviet Communist Party authority and hastened the dissolution of the USSR later that year.
1991Linus Torvalds Releases the Linux KernelFree operating system kernel posted for public useFinnish student Linus Torvalds announced a free Unix-like operating system kernel he had been developing, posting the source code for public collaboration. What began as a hobby project grew into Linux, which underpins most of the world's servers, smartphones, and cloud infrastructure today. It became one of the largest collaborative software projects in history.
1991Pearl Jam release TenDebut albumWith Alive, Even Flow and Jeremy — a slow-burning bestseller.