UN
Day
International
Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence
Based on Religion or Belief
Events
of the day
392 β Arbogast has Eugenius
elected Western Roman Emperor.
476 β Odoacer is named Rex italiae by his troops.
565 β St. Columba reports seeing a monster in
Loch Ness, Scotland.
851 β Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles
the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland.
1138 β Battle of the Standard between Scotland
and England.
1485 β The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death
of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.
1559 β BartolomΓ© Carranza, Spanish archbishop,
is arrested for heresy.
1639 β Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded
by the British East India Company on a sliver
of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
1642 β Charles I calls the English Parliament
traitors. The English Civil War begins.
1654 β Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam.
He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
1711 β Ships from British Admiral Hovenden Walker's
Quebec Expedition founders on rocks at the mouth
of the Saint Lawrence River.
1717 β Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
1770 β James Cook names and lands on Possession
Island, Queensland and claims the east coast of
Australia as New South Wales in the name of King
George III.
1777 β American Revolutionary War: British forces
abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing
rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
1780 β James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns
to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii
during the voyage).
1791 β Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution
in Saint-Domingue.
1798 β French troops land in Kilcummin harbour,
County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United
Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.
1827 β JosΓ© de La Mar becomes President of Peru.
1831 β Nat Turner's slave rebellion commences
just after midnight in Southampton, Virginia,
leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and
several hundred African Americans who are killed
in retaliation for the uprising.
1846 the Second Federal Republic of Mexico is
established.
1848 β The United States annexes New Mexico.
1849 β The first air raid in history. Austria
launches pilotless balloons against the city of
Venice.
1851 β The first America's Cup is won by the yacht
America.
1864 β 12 nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
The Red Cross is formed.
1875 β The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between
Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the
exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
1902 β Cadillac Motor Company is founded.
1902 β Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President
of the United States to ride in an automobile.
1910 β Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing
of the JapanβKorea Annexation Treaty, beginning
a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted
until the end of World War II.
1914 β World War I: in Belgium, British and German
troops clash for the first time in the war.
1922 β Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of
the Irish Free State Army is shot dead during
an Anti-Treaty ambush at BΓ©al na mBlΓ‘th, County
Cork, during the Irish Civil War.
1926 β Gold is discovered in Johannesburg, South
Africa.
1932 β The BBC first experiments with television
broadcasting. (See also Timeline of the BBC.)
1934 β Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the
only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.
1941 β World War II: German troops reach Leningrad,
leading to the siege of Leningrad.
1942 β World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany
and Italy.
1944 β World War II: Romania is captured by the
Soviet Union.
1944 β World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete
by German forces
1949 β Queen Charlotte earthquake: Canada's largest
earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake
1950 β Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor
in international tennis.
1952 β The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently
closed.
1961 β Ida Siekmann died attempting to cross the
Berlin Wall.
1962 β An attempt to assassinate French president
Charles de Gaulle fails.
1962 β The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered
cargo ship, completes its maiden voyage.
1963 β American Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane
reaches an altitude of 106 km (66 mi).
1966 β Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to
become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee
(UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
1968 β Pope Paul VI arrives in BogotΓ‘, Colombia.
It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
1971 β J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce
the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
1972 β Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its
racist policies.
1978 β The Frente Sandinista de Liberacion or
FSLN occupies national palace in Nicaragua.
1985 β Manchester Air Disaster sees 55 people
killed when a fire breaks out on a commercial
aircraft at Manchester Airport.
1989 β The first ring of Neptune is discovered.
1989 β Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson
to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher
to record 5,000 strikeouts.
1992 β FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and
kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her
home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
1996 β Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into
law, representing major shift in US welfare policy
2003 β Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended
after refusing to comply with a federal court
order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten
Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme
Court building.
2004 β A version of The Scream and Madonna, two
paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint
from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2006 β Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612
crashes near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine,
killing all 170 people on board.
2007 β The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles
30β3, the most runs scored by a team in modern
MLB history.
2007 β The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the
Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails
in one day
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Immaculate Heart of Mary
Queenship of Mary
Symphorian and Timotheus
August 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Krishna Janmashtami (Hinduism)
Earliest day on which National Heroes' Day can
fall, while August 28 is the latest; celebrated
on the fourth Monday in August. (the Philippines)
Flag Day (Russia)
For details, contact Datacentre