Events
70
– The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem
by the Romans.
367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian
I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated
to the throne aged eight.
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.
1532 – the Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the
Kingdom of France.
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, although he actually did
not have anything to do with sparkling wine.
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.
1789 – In 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 – Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday
Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1824 – The Battle of Kos is fought between Turk
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 – Indian Wars: whilst 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 Sioux
near the Tongue River; only one man on each side
is killed.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden
are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts
home.
1902 – The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River
Thames opens.
1906 – Central Railway Station, Sydney opens.
1914 – World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In
response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany.
The United States declare their neutrality.
1916 – World War I: Liberia declares war on Germany.
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. 100 are killed and 20,000
are left homeless.
1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is published for
the first time.
1964 – American 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 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 Xuan Thuy 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 – US 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".
1989 – Licence to Kill goes on general cinema
release in the United Kingdom.
1991 – The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sinks
off the Wild Coast of South Africa.
1993 – A federal judge sentences LAPD 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.
2002 – Soham murders: 10 year old school girls
Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from
the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
2005 – Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that
Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor
General.
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 spaceship is launched.
2007 – Airport police officer María del Luján
Telpuk discovers a suitcase containing the undeclared
sum of US$800,000 as it goes through an x-ray
machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos
Aires, sparking an international scandal involving
Venezuela and Argentina known as "Maletinazo".
2010 – California's Proposition 8, the ballot
initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed
by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by
Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Jean-Marie Vianney
Sithney, patron saint of mad dogs
August 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Coast Guard Day (U.S.)
Constitution Day (Cook Islands)
Johnny Cash Day (Arkansas)
Matica Slovenská Day (Slovakia)
Revolution Day (Burkina Faso)
The first day of Fiestas de la Virgen Blanca (Vitoria-Gasteiz)
For details, contact Datacentre
|