August is known for being a dead quiet month on Wall Street. Trading volumes evaporate as U.S. market participants hit the beach, Europe gives itself a solid four-week vacation and few major corporate events are scheduled.

But a quick check of history reveals that the month of August is littered with both positive and negative events that are, in retrospect, quite significant for investors.

For example, Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on New Orleans and oil markets in August of 2005 and Fed chief Ben Bernanke unveiled plans for a new round of quantitative easing in August 2010.

According to S&P Capital IQ, August ranks as the third-worst month for the S&P 500 since 1945, contracting an average of 0.07% and plunging as much as 14.6% in 1998.

"If you look at history, you have one major disaster after another in August," said Jim Rickards, a partner at New York-based hedge fund JAC Capital Advisors. "It just destroys the myth that we all go to the beach and see you on Labor Day."