1976 – Korean axe murder incident: 2 US soldiers tasked with cutting down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers are killed by North Koreans claiming it was planted by Kim Il-sung in the Korean Demilitarized Zone
293 BC – The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica (grape harvest festival)
1217 – First historical record of Scottish scholar Michael Scot, signs and dates his translation of al-Bitruji’s “On the Sphere” in Toledo, Spain
1587 – Saul Wahl is elected King of Poland, according to legend.
1587 – Virginia Dare became the first child to be born on American soil of English parents. The colony that is now Roanoke Island, NC, mysteriously vanished.
1612 – The Pendle witch trials begin, 11 people – 9 women and 2 men – are tried for practicing witch craft in one of UK’s most well documented and followed witch trials. The trial lasts for two days and 10 of the accused are found guilty and executed on August 20.
1634 – Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
1735 – The “Evening Post” of Boston, MA, was published for the first time.
1769 – A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy, ignites 90 tonnes of gunpowder, killing 3,000 people
1835 – Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
1862 – Sioux Indians begin uprising in Minnesota (it is later crushed)
1894 – The Bureau of Immigration was established by the U.S. Congress.
1909 – Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President William Howard Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.
1914 – The “Proclamation of Neutrality” was issued by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. It was aimed at keeping the U.S. out of World War I.
1917 – The Queen’s Hospital opens to provide pioneering plastic surgery for WWI soldiers, led by Harold Gillies in Sidcup, England
1919 – The “Anti-Cigarette League of America” was formed in Chicago IL.
1920 – Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Amendment guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.
1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The bridge connects the U.S. and Canada.
1940 – Canada and the U.S. established a joint defense plan against the possible enemy attacks during World War II.
1943 – Final convoy of Jews from Salonika, Greece, arrives at Auschwitz
1958 – Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” was published.
1963 – James Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi. He was the first black man to accomplish this feat.
1966 – The first pictures of earth taken from moon orbit were sent back to the U.S.
1976 – Korean axe murder incident: 2 US soldiers tasked with cutting down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers are killed by North Koreans claiming it was planted by Kim Il-sung in the Korean Demilitarized Zone
1979 – Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini demands Saint War against Kurds
1982 – The volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped the 100-million level for the first time at 132.69 million shares traded.
1984 – Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire
1987 – Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
1990 – The first shots were fired by the U.S. in the Persian Gulf Crisis when a U.S. frigate fired rounds across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker.
1991 – An unsuccessful coup was attempted in against President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Soviet hard-liners were responsible. Gorbechev and his family were effectively imprisoned for three days while vacationing in Crimea.
1997 – Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute’s 158-year history.
2000 – A Federal jury finds the US Environmental Protection Agency guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the No FEAR Act.
2004 – Donald Trump unveiled his board game (TRUMP the Game) where players bid on real estate, buy big ticket items and make billion-dollar business deals.
2005 – Indonesia suffers a Massive Power Outage, Thought to be one of the biggest power outages in recent history, the Java-Bali outage affected about 100 million people. Electricity was restored to most areas within 6 hours.
2011 – The “West Memphis Three” are released from prison after 18 years in imprisonment
2012 – Al-Qaeda militants kill 14 people in an attack in Aden, Yemen
2017 – Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes
2019 – US President Donald Trump confirms he is interested in buying Greenland for the US
2020 – Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigns amid a military coup condemned by the UN Security Council
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
