Events
30
BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler
of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide,
allegedly by means of an asp bite.
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 the Builder 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 (Russia), that regulates the
border between the two countries for the first
time.
1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead
800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam.
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 Ottomans.
1793 – The Rhône and Loire (Lêre) départments
are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire
is split into two.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers re-takes the city of
Buenos Aires 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.
1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra
zoo in Amsterdam.
1898 – An Armistice ends the Spanish-American
War.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from Iolani
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 Hawai`i to the United States.
1914 – World War I: the United Kingdom declares
war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British
Empire follow suit.
1944 – Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in
Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Leclerc,
the first city in France to be liberated from
the Nazis by French forces.
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent
Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow.
1953 – Nuclear weapons testing: the Soviet atomic
bomb project continues with the detonation of
Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia
in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake
measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
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.
1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train
Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham,
England.
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 Lankan riots of 1977, targeting
the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, 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 signed.
1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the
Latin American Integration Association, is signed.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1982 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its
enormous external debt, marking the beginning
of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin
America and the Third World.
1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into
Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing
520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
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.
This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World
Series.
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of
the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents
Sea during a military exercise.
2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman
Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper
at his home.
2007 – The bulk carrier M/V New Flame collides
with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost
tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Euplius
Herculanus of Brescia
Pope Innocent XI
August 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
The Feast of the Prophet and his Bride
Glorious Twelfth (United Kingdom)
HM the Queen's Birthday and National Mother's
Day (Thailand)
International Youth Day (International)
The first day of Awa Dance Festival (Tokushima)
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