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Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded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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