Independence
day
Niger
Events
of the day
8 – Roman Empire general Tiberius
defeats Dalmatae on the river Bathinus.
435 – Deposed 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.
1031 – Olaf II of Norway is canonised as Saint
Olaf by Grimketel, the English Bishop of Selsey.
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 Guruslău.
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.
1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing 35,000
people.
1811 – First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest
summit in the Bernese Alps by brothers Johann
Rudolf and Hieronymus Meyer.
1852 – Harvard wins the first Boat Race between
Yale and Harvard. The race is also the first American
intercollegiate athletic event
1860 – The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.
1900 – The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company
is founded.
1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the
Kruševo Republic, which exists only for 10 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.
1913 – A major labour dispute, known as the Wheatland
Hop Riot, starts in Wheatland, California.
1914 – World War I: Germany declares war against
France.
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.
1929 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, tapped to be the messianic
"World Teacher", shocks the Theosophy
movement by dissolving the Order of the Star,
the organisation built to support him.
1934 – Adolf Hitler becomes the supreme leader
of Germany by joining the offices of President
and Chancellor into Führer.
1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter 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,
US.
1948 – Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of
being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
1949 – The National Basketball Association is
founded in the United States.
1958 – The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels
beneath the Arctic ice cap.
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 crashes
into the mountainside near Agadir, Morocco, killing
188.
1977 – The United States Senate begins its hearing
on Project MKULTRA.
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.
2001 – The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Ealing,
London, United Kingdom injuring seven people.
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.
2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of
Iran.
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.
Holidays
and observances
Anniversary
of the Killing of Pidjiguiti (Guinea-Bissau)
Armed Forces Day (Equatorial Guinea)
Christian Feast Day:
Lydia of Thyatira
Nicodemus
Olaf of Norway (Translation of the relic)
Stephen (Discovery of the relic)
Waltheof of Melrose
August 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Emancipation Day (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)
Flag Day (Venezuela)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence
of Niger from France in 1960.
For details, contact Datacentre
