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States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).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)

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