This Day in History

[lordroel]

August 3rd

AD 8 – Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats the Dalmatae on the river Bosna.

AD 70 – Fires resulting from the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem are extinguished.

435 – Deposed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, is exiled by Roman Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.

881 – Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu: Louis III of France defeats the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied.

908 – Battle of Eisenach: An invading Hungarian force defeats an East Frankish army under Duke Burchard of Thuringia.

1031 – Olaf II of Norway is canonized as Saint Olaf by Grimketel, the English Bishop of Selsey.

1057 – Frederik van Lotharingen elected as first Belgian Pope Stephen IX.

1342 – The Siege of Algeciras commences during the Spanish Reconquista.

1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.

1527 – The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.

1601 – Long War: Austria captures Transylvania in the Battle of Goroszló.

1645 – Thirty Years' War: The Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.

1678 – Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.

1778 – The theatre La Scala in Milan is inaugurated with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.

1795 – Treaty of Greenville is signed, ending the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country.

1811 – First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest summit in the Bernese Alps by brothers Johann Rudolf and Hieronymus Meyer.

1829 – The Treaty of Lewistown is signed by the Shawnee and Seneca peoples, exchanging land in Ohio for land west of the Mississippi River.

1852 – Harvard University wins the first Boat Race between Yale University and Harvard. The race is also the first American intercollegiate athletic event.

1859 – The American Dental Association is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.

1900 – The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is founded.

1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists only for ten days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.

1907 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana a record $29.4 million for illegal rebating to freight carriers; the conviction and fine are later reversed on appeal.

1914 – World War I: Germany declares war against France, while Romania declares its neutrality.

1921 – Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis confirms the ban of the eight Chicago Black Sox, the day after they were acquitted by a Chicago court.

1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 metre dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.

1936 – A fire wipes out Kursha-2 in the Meshchera Lowlands, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, killing 1,200 and leaving only 20 survivors.

1940 – World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.

1946 – Santa Claus Land, the world's first themed amusement park, opens in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States.

1948 – Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

1949 – The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger, that would create the National Basketball Association

1958 – The world's first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, became the first vessel to complete a submerged transit of the geographical North Pole.

1959 – Portugal's state police force PIDE fires upon striking workers in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, killing over 50 people.

1960 – Niger gains independence from France.

1972 – The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1975 – A privately chartered Boeing 707 strikes a mountain peak and crashes near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.

1977 – Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.

1981 – Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front – Suxxali Reew Mi.

1997 – Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria: A total of 116 villagers killed, 40 in Oued El-Had and 76 in Mezouara.

1997 – The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction.

2004 – The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.

2005 – President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.

2007 – Former Deputy Director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following a conviction for kidnapping.

2010 – Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85 dead and at least 17 billion Pakistani rupees (US$200 million) in damage.

2014 – A 6.1 magnitude earthquake kills at least 617 people and injures more than 2,400 in Yunnan, China.

2018 – Two burka-clad men kill 29 people and injure more than 80 in a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in eastern Afghanistan.

[lordroel]

August 4th

367 – Gratian receives the title of Augustus under his father, Valentinian I.

598 – Goguryeo-Sui War: Emperor Wéndi of Sui orders his youngest son, Yang Liang (assisted by the co-prime minister Gao Jiong), to conquer Goguryeo (Korea) during the Manchurian rainy season, with a Chinese army and navy.

1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham: The army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.

1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.

1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir: The Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.

1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.

1701 – Great Peace of Montreal between New France and First Nations is signed.

1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.

1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people. The eruption causes a famine, which results in an additional 20,000 deaths.

1789 – France: members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.

1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).

1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.

1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.

1824 – The Battle of Kos is fought between Turkish and Greek forces.

1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.

1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.

1873 – American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.

1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.

1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She was tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.

1914 – In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.

1915 – World War I: The German 12th Army occupies Warsaw during the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and the Great Retreat of 1915.

1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.

1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.

1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.

1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.

1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.

1964 – Gulf of Tonkin incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1965 – The Constitution of the Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.

1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.

1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.

1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish Chargé d'affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.

1977 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.

1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.

1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".

1993 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.

1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.

2006 – A massacre is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).

2007 – NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is launched.

[lordroel]

August 5th

AD 25 – Guangwu claims the throne as Chinese emperor, restoring the Han dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin dynasty.
135 – Roman armies enter Betar, slaughtering thousands and ending the bar Kokhba revolt.
642 – Battle of Maserfield: Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria.
910 – The last major Danish army to raid England for nearly a century is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians.
939 – The Battle of Alhandic is fought between Ramiro II of León and Abd-ar-Rahman III at Zamora in the context of the Spanish Reconquista. The battle resulted in a victory for the Emirate of Córdoba.
1068 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year siege of Bari.
1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1278 – Spanish Reconquista: the forces of the Kingdom of Castile initiate the ultimately futile Siege of Algeciras against the Emirate of Granada.
1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.
1388 – The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near Otterburn.
1506 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Khanate in the Battle of Kletsk.[1]
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
1600 – The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England) takes place.
1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England, carrying would-be settlers, on its first attempt to reach North America; it is forced to dock in Dartmouth when its companion ship, the Speedwell, springs a leak.[2]
1689 – Beaver Wars: Fifteen hundred Iroquois attack Lachine in New France.
1716 – Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718): One-fifth of a Turkish army and the Grand Vizier are killed in the Battle of Petrovaradin.
1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.
1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run: British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1775 - Maharaja Nandakumar was hanged in Calcutta (now Kolkata). This was the last hanging for forgery by the British in India.
1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
1796 – The Battle of Castiglione in Napoleon's first Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars.
1816 – The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore.
1824 – Greek War of Independence: Constantine Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces in the Battle of Samos.
1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month.
1860 – Charles XV of Sweden of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim.
1861 – American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872).
1861 – The United States Army abolishes flogging.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge: Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops attempt to take the city, but are driven back by fire from Union gunboats.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Mobile Bay begins at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
1874 – Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
1901 – Peter O'Connor sets the first IAAF recognised long jump world record of 24 ft 11.75 in (7.6137 m), a record that would stand for 20 years.
1906 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional monarchy.
1914 – World War I: The German minelayer SS Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.
1914 – World War I: The guns of Point Nepean fort at Port Phillip Heads in Victoria (Australia) fire across the bows of the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer SS Pfalz which is attempting to leave the Port of Melbourne in ignorance of the declaration of war and she is detained; this is said to be the first Allied shot of the War.
1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Romani: Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.
1925 – Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge of the Welsh language that is at the time in danger of dying out.
1926 – Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1940 – World War II: The Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1944 – World War II: At least 1,104 Japanese POWs in Australia attempt to escape from a camp at Cowra, New South Wales; 545 temporarily succeed but are later either killed, commit suicide, or are recaptured.
1944 – World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp (Gęsiówka) in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1944 – World War II: The Nazis begin a week-long massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.
1949 – In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000.
1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.
1960 – Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.
1962 – Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
1962 – American actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home from a drug overdose.
1963 – Cold War: The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow: American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.
1971 – The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean.
1973 – Mars 6 is launched from the USSR
1974 – Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress places a $1 billion limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
1979 – In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake the Bala Hissar uprising against the Leninist government.
1981 – President Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
1984 – A Biman Bangladesh Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes on approach to Zia International Airport, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing all 49 people on board.[3]
1989 – General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista National Liberation Front winning a majority.
1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The city of Knin, Croatia, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated in Croatia as Victory Day.
2003 – A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
2010 – The Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground for 69 days.
2010 – Ten members of International Assistance Mission Nuristan Eye Camp team are killed by persons unknown in Kuran wa Munjan District of Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan.
2012 – The Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting took place in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six victims; the perpetrator committed suicide after being wounded by police.
2015 – The Environmental Protection Agency at Gold King Mine waste water spill releases three million gallons of heavy metal toxin tailings and waste water into the Animas River in Colorado.

[lordroel]

August 6th

135 – The Roman Empire lays siege to Betar, effectively ending the Bar Kokhba revolt.

1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.

1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.

1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.

1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1806 – Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, ending the Holy Roman Empire.

1819 – Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.

1824 – Peruvian War of Independence: The Battle of Junín.

1825 – Bolivia gains independence from Spain.

1861 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria.

1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Wörth results in a decisive Prussian victory.

1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.

1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.

1912 – The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum.

1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Atlantic: Two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.

1914 – World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.

1915 – World War I: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins.

1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

1926 – In New York City, the Warner Bros.' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.

1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York and disappears, never to be seen again.

1940 – Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.

1942 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.

1944 – The Warsaw Uprising occurs on August 1. It is brutally suppressed and all able-bodied men in Kraków are detained afterwards to prevent a similar uprising, the Kraków Uprising, that was planned but never carried out.

1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.

1960 – Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.

1962 – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.

1986 – A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

1991 – Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.

1996 – The Ramones played their farewell concert at The Palace, Los Angeles, CA.

1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.

1997 – Korean Air Flight 801 crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam killing 228 of 254 people on board.

2001 – Erwadi fire incident, 28 mentally ill persons tied to a chain were burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.

2008 – A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

2010 – Flash floods across a large part of Jammu and Kashmir, India, damages 71 towns and kills at least 255 people.

2011 – War in Afghanistan: A United States military helicopter is shot down, killing 30 American special forces members and a working dog, seven Afghan soldiers, and one Afghan civilian. It was the deadliest single event for the United States in the War in Afghanistan.

2012 – NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.

2015 – A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people at a mosque in the Saudi city of Abha.

[lordroel]

August 7th

322 BC – Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedonia.

461 – Roman Emperor Majorian is beheaded near the river Iria in north-west Italy following his arrest and deposition by the magister militum Ricimer.

626 – The Avar and Slav armies leave the siege of Constantinople.

768 – Pope Stephen II is elected to office, and quickly seeks Frankish protection against the Lombard threat, since the Byzantine Empire is no longer able to help.

936 – Coronation of King Otto I of Germany.

1420 – Construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore begins in Florence.

1427 – The Visconti of Milan's fleet is destroyed by the Venetians on the Po River.

1461 – The Ming dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.

1479 – Battle of Guinegate, French troops of King Louis XI were defeated by the Burgundians led by Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg.

1679 – The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.

1714 – The Battle of Gangut: The first important victory of the Russian Navy.

1782 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.

1786 – The first federal Indian Reservation is created by the United States.[1]

1789 – The United States Department of War is established.

1791 – American troops destroy the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present-day Logansport, Indiana in the Northwest Indian War.

1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

1819 – Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.

1858 – The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College.

1879 – The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester, England.

1890 – Anna Månsdotter becomes the last woman in Sweden to be executed, for the 1889 Yngsjö murder.

1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.

1927 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.

1930 – The last confirmed lynching of blacks in the Northern United States occurs in Marion, Indiana; two men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, are killed.

1933 – The Kingdom of Iraq slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Simele.

1938 – The building of Mauthausen concentration camp begins.

1940 – World War II: Alsace-Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal begins as the United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.

1944 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).

1946 – The government of the Soviet Union presented a note to its Turkish counterparts which refuted the latter's sovereignty over the Turkish Straits, thus beginning the Turkish Straits crisis.

1947 – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.

1947 – The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).

1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, sells its first transistor radios in Japan.

1959 – The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design, and was minted until 2008.

1959 – Explorer program: Explorer 6 launches from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1960 – Ivory Coast becomes independent from France.

1962 – Canadian-born American pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey awarded the U.S. President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service for her refusal to authorize thalidomide.

1964 – Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

1969 – Richard Nixon appoints Luis R. Bruce, a Mohawk-Oglala Sioux and co-founder of the National Congress of American Indians, as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.[1]

1970 – California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.

1974 – Philippe Petit performs a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 feet (417 m) in the air.

1976 – Viking program: Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars.

1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal due to toxic waste that had been disposed of negligently.

1981 – The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.

1985 – Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.

1987 – Lynne Cox becomes first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, crossing the Bering Strait from Little Diomede Island in Alaska to Big Diomede in the Soviet Union

1989 – U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.

1990 – First American soldiers arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf War.

1993 – Ada Deer, a Menominee activist, swears in as the head of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

1998 – Bombings at United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya kill approximately 212 people.

1999 – The Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade invades neighboring Dagestan.

2008 – The start of the Russo-Georgian War over the territory of South Ossetia.

[lordroel]

August 8th

870 – Treaty of Meerssen: King Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald partition the Middle Frankish Kingdom into two larger east and west divisions.

1220 – Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.

1264 – Mudéjar revolt: Muslim rebel forces took the Alcázar of Jerez de la Frontera after defeating the Castilian garrison.

1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1509 – Krishnadeva Raya is crowned Emperor of Vijayanagara at Chittoor.

1576 – The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on the island of Hven.

1585 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage.

1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England.

1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.

1647 – The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungan's Hill: English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.

1648 – Mehmed IV (1648–1687) succeeds Ibrahim I (1640–1648) as Ottoman Emperor.

1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the king of Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal.

1786 – Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard.

1793 – The insurrection of Lyon occurs during the French Revolution.

1794 – Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.

1831 – 400 Shawnee people agree to relinquish their lands in Ohio in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Wapakoneta.[1]

1844 – The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, headed by Brigham Young, is reaffirmed as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

1863 – American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).

1870 – The Republic of Ploiești, a failed Radical-Liberal rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.

1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight.

1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous Allied victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).

1919 – The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 is signed. It establishes peaceful relations between Afghanistan and the UK, and confirms the Durand line as the mutual border. In return, the UK is no longer obligated to subsidize the Afghan government.[2]

1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

1940 – The "Aufbau Ost" directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.

1942 – Quit India Movement is launched in India against the British rule in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for swaraj or complete independence.

1945 – The London Charter is signed by France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, establishing the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg trials.

1946 – First flight of the Convair B-36, the world's first mass-produced nuclear weapon delivery vehicle, the heaviest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft, with the longest wingspan of any military aircraft, and the first bomber with intercontinental range.

1963 – Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal £2.6 million in bank notes.

1963 – The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the current ruling party of Zimbabwe, is formed by a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union.

1967 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the iconic photo that becomes the cover image of the Beatles' album Abbey Road.

1969 – The Manson Family commits the Tate murders.

1973 – Kim Dae-jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped.

1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

1988 – The 8888 Uprising begins in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar). Led by students, hundreds of thousands join in nationwide protests against the one-party regime. On September 18, the demonstrations end in a military crackdown, killing thousands.

1989 – Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.

1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.

1991 – The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses.

1993 – The 7.8 Mw  Guam earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing around $250 million in damage and injuring up to 71 people.

1998 – Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan is raided by Taliban leading to the deaths of ten Iranian diplomats and a journalist.

2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence.

2007 – An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.

2008 – A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track near Studénka railway station in the Czech Republic and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others.

2008 – The 29th Olympic Games opened in Beijing, China.

2010 – China Floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people.

2013 – A suicide bombing at a funeral in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 31 people.

2014 – The World Health Organization declares a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in regards to the Western African Ebola virus epidemic.

2015 – Eight people are killed in a shooting in Harris County, Texas.

2016 – Terrorists attack a government hospital in Quetta, Pakistan with a suicide blast and shooting, killing between 70 and 94 people, and injuring around 130 others.

[lordroel]

August 9th

48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.

378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.

1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.

1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.

1428 – Sources cite biggest caravan trade between Podvisoki and Republic of Ragusa in 1428. Vlachs committed to Ragusan lord Tomo Bunić, that they will with 600 horses deliver 1500 modius of salt. Delivery was meant for Dobrašin Veseoković, and Vlachs price was half of delivered salt. 

1500 – Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503): The Ottomans capture Methoni, Messenia.

1610 – The First Anglo-Powhatan War begins in colonial Virginia.

1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.

1814 – Indian Wars: The Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.

1830 – Louis Philippe becomes the king of the French following abdication of Charles X.

1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden.

1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain: At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.

1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of the Big Hole: A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army

1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.

1896 – Glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal dies in a fatal crash.

1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.

1914 – Start of the Battle of Mulhouse, part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace and the first French offensive of World War I.

1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India

1930 – Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes.

1936 – Summer Olympic Games: Games of the XI Olympiad: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games.

1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island: Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.

1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.

1944 – Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.

1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.

1945 – The Red Army invades Japanese-occupied Manchuria.

1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo.

1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.

1969 – Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.

1971 – The Troubles: The British Army in Northern Ireland launches Operation Demetrius. Hundreds of people are arrested and interned, thousands are displaced, and twenty are killed in the violence that followed.

1973 – Mars 7 is launched from the USSR.

1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.

1991 – The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia while preparing the government's case in the final appeal of the Maxi Trial.

1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.

1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.

2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists were arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests were made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation.

2013 – Gunmen open fire at a Sunni mosque in the city of Quetta killing at least ten people and injuring 30.

2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city.

[lordroel]

August 10th

654 – Pope Eugene I elected to succeed Martinus I.

955 – Battle of Lechfeld: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats the Magyars, ending 50 years of Magyar invasion of the West.

991 – Battle of Maldon: The English, led by Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex, are defeated by a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon, Essex.

1270 – Yekuno Amlak takes the imperial throne of Ethiopia, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a 100-year Zagwe interregnum.

1316 – The Second Battle of Athenry takes place near Athenry during the Bruce campaign in Ireland.

1512 – The naval Battle of Saint-Mathieu, during the War of the League of Cambrai, sees the simultaneous destruction of the Breton ship La Cordelière and the English ship The Regent.

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second-in-command Juan Sebastián Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines.

1557 – Battle of St. Quentin: Spanish victory over the French in the Italian War of 1551–59.

1585 – The Treaty of Nonsuch signed by Elizabeth I of England and the Dutch Rebels.

1628 – The Swedish warship Vasa sinks in the Stockholm harbour after only about 20 minutes of her maiden voyage.

1675 – The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, England is laid.

1680 – The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico.

1741 – King Marthanda Varma of Travancore defeats the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Colachel, effectively bringing about the end of the Dutch colonial rule in India.

1755 – Under the orders of Charles Lawrence, the British Army begins to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the Thirteen Colonies.

1763 – The Maratha Empire defeats the Nizam of Hyderabad (and rebel Maratha factions) in the Battle of Rakshasbhuvan.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.

1792 – French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace: Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody as his Swiss Guards are massacred by the Parisian mob.

1793 – The Musée du Louvre is officially opened in Paris, France.

1809 – Quito, now the capital of Ecuador, declares independence from Spain. This rebellion will be crushed on August 2, 1810.

1813 – Instituto Nacional, is founded by the Chilean patriot José Miguel Carrera. It is Chile's oldest and most prestigious school. Its motto is Labor Omnia Vincit, which means "Work conquers all things".

1821 – Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state.

1846 – The Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000.

1856 – The Last Island hurricane strikes Louisiana, resulting in over 200 deaths.

1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Wilson's Creek: A mixed force of Confederate, Missouri State Guard, and Arkansas State troops defeat outnumbered attacking Union forces in the southwestern part of the state.

1864 – After Uruguay's governing Blanco Party refuses Brazil's demands, José Antônio Saraiva announces that the Brazilian military will begin reprisals, beginning the Uruguayan War.

1897 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann discovers an improved way of synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).

1901 – The U.S. Steel recognition strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers begins.

1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Russian and Japanese battleship fleets takes place.

1905 – Russo-Japanese War: Peace negotiations begin in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

1913 – Second Balkan War: Delegates from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece sign the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the war.

1920 – World War I: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres that divides up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.

1932 – A 5.1 kilograms (11 lb) chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least seven pieces and lands near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Guam comes to an effective end.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Narva ends with a combined German–Estonian force successfully defending Narva, Estonia, from invading Soviet troops.

1948 – Candid Camera makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone.

1949 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment, streamlining the defense agencies of the United States government, and replacing the Department of War with the United States Department of Defense.

1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdraws its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central Vietnam.

1954 – At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held.

1961 – Vietnam War: The U.S. Army begins Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover.[1]

1966 – The Heron Road Bridge collapses while being built, killing nine workers in the deadliest construction accident in both Ottawa and Ontario.

1969 – A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

1971 – The Society for American Baseball Research is founded in Cooperstown, New York.

1977 – In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") is arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year.

1978 – Three members of the Ulrich family are killed in an accident. This leads to the Ford Pinto litigation.

1981 – Murder of Adam Walsh: The head of John Walsh's son is found. This inspires the creation of the television series America's Most Wanted and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

1988 – Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.

1990 – The Magellan space probe reaches Venus.

1993 – Two earthquakes affect New Zealand. A 7.0 Mw  shock (intensity VI (Strong)) in the South Island was followed nine hours later by a 6.4 Mw  event (intensity VII (Very strong)) in the North Island.

1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the bombing. Michael Fortier pleads guilty in a plea-bargain for his testimony.

1998 – HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah is proclaimed the crown prince of Brunei with a Royal Proclamation.

2001 – The 2001 Angola train attack occurred, causing 252 deaths.

2003 – European heat wave: The highest temperature ever recorded in the United Kingdom, 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in Kent, England.

2003 – The Okinawa Monorail is opened in Naha, Okinawa.

2009 – Twenty people are killed in Handlová, Trenčín Region, in the deadliest mining disaster in Slovakia's history.

2012 – The Marikana massacre begins near Rustenburg, South Africa, resulting in the deaths of 47 people.

2014 – Forty people are killed when Sepahan Airlines Flight 5915 crashes at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.

2018 – A shooting occurs in Fredericton, New Brunswick, killing four people, including two police officers.

2018 – A Horizon Airlines Bombardier Q400 crashes on Ketron Island, Washington after being stolen by a mechanic. Oregon National Guard F-15 fighter jets intercepted the plane, but the pilot deliberately crashed before they could shoot it down.

2018 – An anti-government protest takes place in Victory Square, in Bucharest, Romania. However, towards the end of the protest, the protesters are attacked by the Gendarmerie, leading to 452 injuries.

[lordroel]

August 11th

3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Maya, begins.

2492 BC – Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.

106 – The south-western part of Dacia (modern Romania) becomes a Roman province: Roman Dacia.

355 – Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.

490 – Battle of Adda: The Goths under Theodoric the Great and his ally Alaric II defeat the forces of Odoacer on the Adda River, near Milan.

1332 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor: Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar are routed by Edward Balliol.

1473 – The Battle of Otlukbeli: Mehmed the Conqueror of the Ottoman Empire decisively defeats Uzun Hassan of Aq Qoyunlu.

1675 – Franco-Dutch War: Forces of the Holy Roman Empire defeat the French in the Battle of Konzer Brücke.

1786 – Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.

1804 – Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.

1812 – Peninsular War: French troops engage British-Portuguese forces in the Battle of Majadahonda.

1813 – In Colombia, Juan del Corral declares the independence of Antioquia.

1858 – The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.

1898 – Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens ends.

1920 – The Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty, which relinquished Russia's authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed, ending the Latvian War of Independence.

1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.

1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.

1945 – Poles in Kraków engage in a pogrom against Jews in the city, killing one and wounding five.

1952 – Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.

1959 – Sheremetyevo International Airport, the second-largest airport in Russia, opens.

1960 – Chad declares independence.

1961 – The former Portuguese territories in India of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are merged to create the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

1962 – Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.

1965 – Race riots (the Watts Riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

1968 – The Fifteen Guinea Special became the last main-line passenger train to be hauled by steam locomotive power on British Rail.

1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine following their liftoff from the moon.

1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam.

1975 – East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.

1979 – Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk and crash, killing all 178 aboard both airliners.

1982 – A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one passenger and injuring 15 others.

1984 – "We begin bombing in five minutes": United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

1999 - A rare tornado strikes downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, killing one and injuring at least 100 others. It was the first tornado documented in Utah to result in a fatality since 1884, and caused $170 million in damages.

2000 – An air rage incident occurs on board Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 when 19-year-old Jonathan Burton attempts to storm the cockpit, but he is subdued by other passengers and dies from his injuries.

2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

2003 – Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

2006 – The oil tanker MT Solar 1 sinks off the coast of Guimaras and Negros Islands in the Philippines, causing the country's worst oil spill.

2012 – At least 306 people are killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.

2017 – At least 41 people are killed and another 179 injured after two passenger trains collide in Alexandria, Egypt.

[lordroel]

August 12th

1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.

1121 – Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.

1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.

1323 – Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod Republic, which regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.

1492 – Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.

1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.

1624 – The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.

1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.

1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.

1765 – Treaty of Allahabad is signed. The Treaty marks the political and constitutional involvement and the beginning of Company rule in India.

1793 – The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.

1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.

1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.

1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.

1865 – Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performs 1st antiseptic surgery.

1883 – The last quagga dies at the Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.

1914 – World War I: The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.

1914 – World War I: The Battle of Halen a.k.a. Battle of the Silver Helmets a clash between large Belgian and German cavalry formations at Halen, Belgium.

1944 – Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people are killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.

1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.

1948 – Babrra massacre: About 600 unarmed members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement are shot dead on the orders of the Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province, Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, on Babrra ground in the Hashtnagar region of Charsadda District, North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Pakistan.

1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre: 75 American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.

1953 – The first testing of a real thermonuclear weapon (not test devices): The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb.

1953 – The 7.2 Ms  Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 445 and 800 people are killed.

1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.

1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.

1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War

1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

1977 – The Sri Lanka Riots:, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.

1978 - The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is concluded.

1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.

1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.

1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.

1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike, forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.

2000 – The Russian Navy submarine Kursk explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew.

2015 – At least two massive explosions kill 173 people and injure nearly 800 more in Tianjin, China.

2017 – Violence erupts at the Unite the Right rally between the Alt-right and counter-demonstrators, resulting in the death of one civilian, two police officers and numerous additional injuries.

2018 – 39 civilians, including a dozen children, are killed in an explosion at a weapons depot in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria

[lordroel]

August 13th

29 BC – Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.

523 – John I becomes the new Pope after the death of Pope Hormisdas.

554 – Emperor Justinian I rewards Liberius for his long and distinguished service in the Pragmatic Sanction, granting him extensive estates in Italy.

582 – Maurice becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

900 – Count Reginar I of Hainault rises against Zwentibold of Lotharingia and slays him near present-day Susteren.

1099 – Raniero is elected as Pope Paschal II.

1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis I of France recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.

1521 – After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés capture Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquer the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

1532 – Union of Brittany and France: The Duchy of Brittany is absorbed into the Kingdom of France.

1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyoto, Japan's Enryaku-ji temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout in what will be known as the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: 27th day of the 7th month of the 5th year of the Tenbun (天文) era).

1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland as a heretic.

1624 – The French king Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu as prime minister.

1645 – Sweden and Denmark sign Peace of Brömsebro.

1650 – Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards.

1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim: English and Imperial forces are victorious over French and Bavarian troops.

1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.

1806 – Battle of Mišar during the Serbian Revolution begins. The battle will end two days later, with a decisive Serbian victory over the Ottomans.

1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London, England.

1868 – The 8.5–9.0 Mw  Arica earthquake struck southern Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing 25,000+ deaths and a destructive basin wide tsunami that affected Hawaii and New Zealand.

1889 – William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut is granted United States Patent Number 408,709 for "Coin-controlled apparatus for telephones." 

1898 – Spanish–American War: Spanish and American forces engage in a mock battle for Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands.

1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.

1905 – Norwegians vote to end the union with Sweden.

1906 – The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged. (Their records were later restored to reflect honorable discharges but there were no financial settlements.)

1913 – First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.

1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha May Johnson is the first woman to enlist.

1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.

1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Shanghai begins.

1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.

1944 – World War II: German troops begin the pillage and razing of Anogeia in Crete that would continue until September 5.

1954 – Radio Pakistan broadcasts the "Qaumī Tarāna", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.

1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.

1961 – Cold War: East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West, and construction of the Berlin Wall is started.

1964 – Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the Murder of John Alan West becoming the last people executed in the United Kingdom.

1967 – Two young women became the first fatal victims of grizzly bear attacks in the 57-year history of Montana's Glacier National Park in separate incidents.

1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.

1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York City.[5] That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.

1977 – Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries.

1978 – One hundred fifty Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.

1990 – A mainland Chinese fishing boat Min Ping Yu No. 5202 is hit by a Taiwan's naval vessel and sinks in a repatriation operation of mainland Chinese illegal immigrants, resulting in 21 deaths. This is the second tragedy less than a month after Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident.[7]

2004 – One hundred fifty-six Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.

2008 – Russo-Georgian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori.

2015 – At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq.

[lordroel]

August 14th

29 BC – Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.

1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.

1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth day of the seventh month of the second year of the Juei (寿永) era).

1288 – Count Adolf VIII of Berg grants town privileges to Düsseldorf, the village on the banks of the Düssel.

1352 – War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.

1370 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Carlsbad which is subsequently named after him.

1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–85: Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese forces commanded by King John I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King John I.

1457 – Publication of the Mainz Psalter, the first book to feature a printed date of publication and printed colophon

1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.

1592 – The first sighting of the Falkland Islands by John Davis.

1598 – Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford: Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeats an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.

1720 – The Spanish military Villasur expedition is wiped out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.

1791 – Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking the start of the Haitian Revolution.

1814 – A cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, ended the Swedish–Norwegian War.

1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.

1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.

1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.

1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.

1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.

1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.

1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.

1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.

1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

1914 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive designed to recover the lost province of Moselle from Germany.

1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).

1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn; it is not fully extinguished until September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2).

1935 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.

1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last known public execution in the United States.

1937 – The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when six Japanese bombers are shot down by Chinese fighters while raiding Chinese air bases.

1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.

1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).

1945 – The Viet Minh launches August Revolution amid the political confusion and power vacuum engulfing Vietnam.

1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.

1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.

1969 – The Troubles: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland as political and sectarian violence breaks out, marking the start of the 37-year Operation Banner.

1971 – Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.

1972 – An Ilyushin Il-62 airliner crashes near Königs Wusterhausen, East Germany, due to an in-flight fire, killing 156.

1973 – The Pakistan Constitution of 1973 comes into effect.

1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens in London.

1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.

1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.

1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.

2003 – A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.

2003 – Project Thread, an operation launched by CSIS and other Canadian law enforcement agencies, saw the arrest and incarceration of 24 innocent Muslim men, most of them young Pakistani students.

2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.

2006 – Sixty-one schoolgirls killed in Chencholai bombing by Sri Lankan Air Force air strike.

2007 – The Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 334 people.

2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.

2013 – UPS Airlines Flight 1354 crashes short of the runway at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, killing both crew members on board.

2015 – The US Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off

2018 – A bridge connecting Genoa with Liguria in northern Italy collapses, killing 35.

2018 – A Colombian-registered bus hit another vehicle at high speed in Ecuador killing at least 24 people and injuring 19.

[lordroel]

August 15th

636 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The Battle of Yarmouk between Byzantine Empire and Rashidun Caliphate begins.

717 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik begins the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople, which will last for nearly a year.

718 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Raising of the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople.

747 – Carloman, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, renounces his position as majordomo and retires to a monastery near Rome. His brother Pepin the Short becomes the sole ruler (de facto) of the Frankish Kingdom.

778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed.

805 – Noble Erchana of Dahauua grants the Bavarian town of Dachau to the Diocese of Freising

927 – The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto.

982 – Holy Roman Emperor Otto II is defeated by the Saracens in the Battle of Capo Colonna, in Calabria

1018 – Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles blinds and captures Ibatzes of Bulgaria by a ruse, thereby ending Bulgarian resistance against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.

1038 – King Stephen I, the first king of Hungary, dies; his nephew, Peter Orseolo, succeeds him.

1057 – King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada.

1070 – The Pavian-born Benedictine Lanfranc is appointed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury in England.

1185 – The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia.

1237 – The Battle of the Puig takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Taifa of Valencia against the Kingdom of Aragon. The battle resulted in an Aragonese victory.

1248 – The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.)

1261 – Michael VIII Palaiologos is crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.

1281 – Mongol invasion of Japan: The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a "divine wind" for the second time in the Battle of Kōan.

1310 – The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquarters on the island and rename themselves the Knights of Rhodes.

1430 – Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan, conquers Lucca.

1461 – The Empire of Trebizond surrenders to the forces of Sultan Mehmed II. This is regarded by some historians as the real end of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor David is exiled and later murdered.

1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.

1511 – Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Malacca Sultanate.

1517 – Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.

1519 – Panama City, Panama is founded.

1534 – Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.

1537 – Asunción, Paraguay is founded.

1540 – Arequipa, Peru is founded.

1549 – Jesuit priest Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: 22 July 1549).

1592 – Imjin War: At the Battle of Hansan Island, the Korean Navy, led by Yi Sun-sin, Yi Eok-gi, and Won Gyun, decisively defeats the Japanese Navy, led by Wakisaka Yasuharu.[1]

1599 – Nine Years' War: Battle of Curlew Pass: Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.

1695 – French forces end the bombardment of Brussels.

1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz: Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst Gideon von Laudon.

1824 – The Marquis de Lafayette, the last surviving French general of the American Revolutionary War, arrives in New York and begins a tour of 24 states.

1843 – The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.

1843 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1863 – The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).

1893 – Ibadan area becomes a British Protectorate after a treaty signed by Fijabi, the Baale of Ibadan with the British acting Governor of Lagos, George C. Denton.

1907 – Ordination in Constantinople of Fr. Raphael Morgan, the first African-American Orthodox priest, "Priest-Apostolic" to America and the West Indies.

1914 – A servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright murders seven people and sets fire to the living quarters of Wright's Wisconsin home, Taliesin.

1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

1914 – World War I: The First Russian Army, led by Paul von Rennenkampf, enters East Prussia.

1914 – World War I: Beginning of the Battle of Cer, the first Allied victory of World War I.

1915 – A story in New York World newspaper reveals that the Imperial German government had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the war effort and diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production.

1920 – Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, so-called Miracle at the Vistula.

1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.

1939 – Twenty-six Junkers Ju 87 bombers commanded by Walter Sigel meet unexpected ground fog during a dive-bombing demonstration for Luftwaffe generals at Neuhammer. Thirteen of them crash and burn.

1939 – The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.

1940 – An Italian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos harbor during peacetime, marking the most serious Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in October.

1941 – Corporal Josef Jakobs is executed by firing squad at the Tower of London at 07:12, making him the last person to be executed at the Tower for espionage.

1942 – World War II: Operation Pedestal: The oil tanker SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.

1943 – World War II: Battle of Trahili: Superior German forces surround Cretan partisans, who manage to escape against all odds.

1944 – World War II: Operation Dragoon: Allied forces land in southern France.

1945 – Jewel Voice Broadcast by the Emperor Showa following effective surrender of Japan in the World War II, Korea gains Independence from the Empire of Japan.

1947 – India gains Independence from British rule after near 190 years of Crown rule and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

1947 – Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor-General of Pakistan in Karachi.

1948 – The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is established south of the 38th parallel north.

1952 – A flash flood drenches the town of Lynmouth, England, killing 34 people.

1954 – Alfredo Stroessner begins his dictatorship in Paraguay.

1960 – Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.

1961 – Border guard Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.

1962 – James Joseph Dresnok defects to North Korea after running across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Dresnok died in 2016.

1963 – Execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland.

1963 – President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown in the Republic of the Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.

1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock.

1969 – The Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.

1970 – Patricia Palinkas becomes the first woman to play professionally in an American football game.

1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.

1971 – Bahrain gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.

1974 – Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea, is killed during an apparent assassination attempt upon President Park Chung-hee.

1975 – Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is killed along with most members of his family during a military coup.

1975 – Takeo Miki makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.

1977 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.

1984 – The Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military with an attack on police and gendarmerie bases in Şemdinli and Eruh

1995 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).

1998 – Northern Ireland: Omagh bombing takes place; 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) killed and some 220 others injured.

1999 – Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria: Some 29 people are killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.

2005 – Israel's unilateral disengagement plan to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank begins.

2005 – The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia was signed, ending almost three decades of fighting.

2007 – An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.

2013 – At least 27 people are killed and 226 injured in an explosion in southern Beirut near a complex used by Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. A previously unknown Syrian Sunni group claims responsibility in an online video.

2013 – The Smithsonian announces the discovery of the olinguito, the first new carnivorous species found in the Americas in 35 years.

2015 – North Korea moves its clock back half an hour to introduce Pyongyang Time, 8½ hours ahead of UTC.

[lordroel]

August 16th

1 BC – Wang Mang consolidates his power and is declared marshal of state. Emperor Ai of Han, who had died the previous day, had no heirs.

963 – Nikephoros II Phokas is crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1328 – The House of Gonzaga seizes power in the Duchy of Mantua, and will rule until 1708.

1513 – Battle of the Spurs (Battle of Guinegate): King Henry VIII of England and his Imperial allies defeat French Forces who are then forced to retreat.

1652 – Battle of Plymouth: Inconclusive naval action between the fleets of Michiel de Ruyter and George Ayscue in the First Anglo-Dutch War.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.

1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden: The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.

1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.

1793 – French Revolution: A levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention.

1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.

1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.

1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.

1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.

1859 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany formally deposes the exiled House of Lorraine.

1863 – The Dominican Restoration War begins when Gregorio Luperón raises the Dominican flag in Santo Domingo after Spain had recolonized the country.

1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguayan battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the Paraguayan War.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.

1891 – The Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.

1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.

1900 – The Battle of Elands River during the Second Boer War ends after a 13-day siege is lifted by the British. The battle had begun when a force of between 2,000 and 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 Australians, Rhodesians, Canadians and British soldiers at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift.

1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people.

1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students.

1913 – Completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary.

1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed.

1918 – The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army.

1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.

1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution.

1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Radzymin concludes; the Soviet Red Army is forced to turn away from Warsaw.

1923 – The United Kingdom gives the name "Ross Dependency" to part of its claimed Antarctic territory and makes the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand its administrator.

1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.

1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.

1930 – The first color sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released by Ub Iwerks.

1930 – The first British Empire Games were opened in Hamilton, Ontario by the Governor General of Canada, the Viscount Willingdon.

1942 – World War II: A naval L-class blimp drifts in from the Pacific and eventually crashes in Daly City, California. The two-man crew cannot be found.

1944 – First flight of a jet with forward-swept wings, the Junkers Ju 287.

1945 – The National Representatives' Congress, the precursor of the current National Assembly of Vietnam, convenes in Sơn Dương.

1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours.

1946 – The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad.

1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.

1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.

1962 – Eight years after the remaining French India territories were handed to India, the ratifications of the treaty are exchanged to make the transfer official.

1962 – Pete Best is discharged from The Beatles, to be replaced two days later by Ringo Starr.

1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Dương Văn Minh with General Nguyễn Khánh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.

1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.

1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, the Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.

1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes after take off in Detroit, Michigan, killing 154 of the 155 on board, plus two people on the ground.

1989 – A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.

1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board.

2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in Machiques, Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.

2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level.

2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg.

2013 – The ferry St. Thomas Aquinas collides with a cargo ship and sinks at Cebu, Philippines, killing 61 people with 59 others missing.

2015 – More than 96 people are killed and hundreds injured following a series of air-raids by the Syrian Arab Air Force on the rebel-held market town of Douma.

2015 – Trigana Air Flight 267, an ATR 42, crashes in Oksibl, Pegunungan Bintang, killing all 54 people on board.

2017 – The Minamata Convention on Mercury enters in force.

[lordroel]

August 17th

309/310 – Pope Eusebius is banished by the Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies, perhaps from a hunger strike.

682 – Pope Leo II begins his pontificate.

986 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Battle of the Gates of Trajan: The Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron defeat the Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan, with Byzantine Emperor Basil II barely escaping.

1186 – Georgenberg Pact: Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria and Leopold V, Duke of Austria sign a heritage agreement in which Ottokar gives his duchy to Leopold and to his son Frederick under the stipulation that Austria and Styria would henceforth remain undivided.

1386 – Karl Topia, the ruler of Princedom of Albania forges an alliance with the Republic of Venice, committing to participate in all wars of the Republic and receiving coastal protection against the Ottomans in return.

1424 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil: An English force under John, Duke of Bedford defeats a larger French army under Jean II, Duke of Alençon, John Stewart, and Earl Archibald of Douglas.

1498 – Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first person in history to resign the cardinalate; later that same day, King Louis XII of France names him Duke of Valentinois.

1549 – Battle of Sampford Courtenay: The Prayer Book Rebellion is quashed in England.

1560 – The Catholic Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland.

1585 – Eighty Years' War: Siege of Antwerp: Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city and as a result over half of the 100,000 inhabitants flee to the northern provinces.

1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.

1597 – Islands Voyage: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.

1668 – A magnitude 8.0 earthquake causes 8,000 deaths in Anatolia, Ottoman Empire.

1712 – Action of 17 August 1712 New Deep naval battle between Denmark and Sweden.

1717 – Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18: The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.

1723 – Ioan Giurgiu Patachi becomes Bishop of Făgăraș and is festively installed in his position at the St. Nicolas Cathedral in Făgăraș, after being formally confirmed earlier by Pope Clement XI.

1740 – Pope Benedict XIV, previously known as Prospero Lambertini, succeeds Clement XII as the 247th Pope.

1784 – Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise of 12000 reals from his employer, the Infante Luis, Count of Chinchón.

1798 – The Vietnamese Catholics report a Marian apparition in Quảng Trị, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang.

1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

1827 – Dutch King William I and Pope Leo XII sign concord

1836 – British parliament accepts registration of births, marriages and deaths

1862 – American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Dakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.

1862 – American Civil War: Major General J. E. B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville: Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.

1866 – The Grand Duchy of Baden announces her withdrawal from the German Confederation and signs a treaty of peace and alliance with Prussia.

1883 – The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.

1896 – Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.

1907 – Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, opened.

1908 – Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris, France.

1914 – World War I: Battle of Stallupönen: The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Paul von Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.

1915 – Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched in Marietta, Georgia after a 13-year-old girl is murdered.

1915 – A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).

1916 – World War I: Romania signs a secret treaty with the Entente Powers. According to the treaty, Romania agreed to join the war on the Allied side.

1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

1942 – World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin.

1943 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.

1943 – World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

1943 – World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.

1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-weapon program.

1945 – Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.

1945 – The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.

1947 – The Radcliffe Line, the border between the Dominions of India and Pakistan, is revealed.

1953 – Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern California.

1955 – Hurricane Diane made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, and it went on to cause major floods and kill more than 184 people.

1958 – Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.

1959 – Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.

1962 – Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall.

1969 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.42 billion in damage.

1970 – Venera program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).

1977 – The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

1978 – Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

1988 – President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.

1991 – Strathfield massacre: In Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injures six others before turning the gun on himself.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; later that same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.

1999 – The 7.6 Mw  İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 17,118–17,127 dead and 43,953–50,000 injured.

2004 – The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Bože pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.

2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of Israeli disengagement from Gaza, starts.

2005 – Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh

2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.

2009 – An accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.

2015 – A bomb explodes near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing at least 19 people and injuring 123 others.

2017 – Barcelona attacks: A van is driven into pedestrians in La Rambla, killing 14 and injuring at least 100.