August
5
Independence
Day
Burkina Faso : August 5 1960
Events
August 5
642 – Battle
of Maserfield – Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of
Northumbria.
910 – The last major Danish army to raid England is defeated
at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and
Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Earl Aethelred of Mercia.
1071 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year
siege of Bari.
1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against
England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported
to London where he is put on trial and executed.
1388 – The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the
Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near
Otterburn.
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony
in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.
1600 – The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland
(later to become King James I of England) takes place.
1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its
first attempt to reach North America.
1689 – 1,500 Iroquois attack the village of Lachine in New France.
1716 – The Battle of Petrovaradin takes place.
1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer
John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the
royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published
was true.
1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run – British forces led
by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1772 – The First Partition of Poland begins.
1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
1824 – Greek War of Independence: Constantine Kanaris leads
a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian ships
in the Battle of Samos.
1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic
telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will
operate for less than a month.
1860 – Charles XV of Sweden of Sweden-Norway is crowned king
of Norway in Trondheim.
1861 – American Civil War: in order to help pay for the war
effort, the United States government levies the first income
tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over
US $800; rescinded in 1872).
1861 – The United States Army abolishes flogging.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge – along the
Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops
drive Union forces back into the city.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Mobile Bay begins –
at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads
a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one
of the last major Southern ports.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Spicheren is fought,
resulting in a Prussian victory.
1874 – Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after
a similar system in the United Kingdom.
1882 – The Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on
Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back
in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as
the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
1901 – Peter O'Connor sets the first IAAF recognised long jump
world record of 24 ft 11.75 in (7.6137 m) The record will stand
for 20 years.
1906 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah
Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional
monarchy.
1914 – World War I: the German minelayer Königin Luise lays
a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) of the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft).
She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS
Amphion.
1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light
is installed.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Romani – Allied forces, under
the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman
army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein,
securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from
the Sinai Peninsula.
1925 – Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge
of the Welsh language that is at the time in danger of dying
out.
1940 – World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1944 – World War II: possibly the biggest prison breakout in
history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside
the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
1944 – World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor
camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1944 – World War II: The Nazis begin a three-day massacre of
anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 civilians and prisoners
of war in Wola, Poland.
1949 – In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills
more than 6,000.
1949 – The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana.
1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers"
by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time,
debuts on the ABC television network.
1960 – Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent
from France.
1962 – Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until
1990.
1963 – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet
Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft
from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North
Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in
the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers
cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.
1969 – Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of
Mars (3,524 kilometers).
1971 – The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South
Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with
the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries
of the Pacific Ocean.
1974 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar
limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
1979 – In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake an attempted military
uprising.
1981 – Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers
who ignored his order for them to return to work.
1989 – General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista
Front winning a majority.
1995 – The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured
by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated
in Croatia as Victory Day.
2003 – A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta
outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
2010 – 2010 Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean
miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground.
Holidays
and observances
Barsi Bhagat
Puran Singh (Sikhism)
Christian Feast Day:
Abel of Reims
Addai
Afra
Cassian of Autun
Dedication of Saint Mary Major (Roman Catholic Church)
Emygdius
Memnius
Oswald of Northumbria
August 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Burkina Faso
from France in 1960.
International Beer Day
The beginning of Bogotá's Carnival (Bogotá)
Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian
defenders (Croatia)
For details, contact Datacentre
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