August 3

Independence Day
Niger : August 3 1960

Events

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