1944 Liberation of Paris –
The battle to liberate Paris, which had been under Nazi control since 1940, began on August 19, 1944, and ended on this day. The battle was fought between Nazi soldiers and members of the French resistance group, who were helped by the American Armed Forces headed by General George Patton. The Germans provided little resistance and did not carry out Hitler’s orders of razing Paris to the ground. The Nazi Commander of Paris, General Dietrich Von Choltitz surrendered to the French and American troops. On August 26, General Charles de Gaulle entered Paris and headed a liberation march on the Champs d’Elysees before declaring the Provisional Government of the French Republic
0325 – First Council of Nicaea ends with adoption of the Nicene Creed establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
0450 – Roman Senate elects Marcian Eastern Roman Emperor, succeeding Theodosius II who died without issue
1212 – Children’s crusade under Nicolas (10) reaches Genoa
1330 – Antipope Nicholas V, having obtained assurance of pardon, presents a confession of his sins to Pope John XXII, at Avignon, who absolved him
1425 – Countess Jacoba of Bavaria escapes from jail
1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1558 – King Francis II of France marries Mary, Queen of Scots.
1580 – Battle of Alcntara. Spain defeats Portugal.
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1648 – Siege of Deal Castle ends in the surrender of Royalist supporters to Parliamentarians during the Second English Civil War
1689 – Montreal taken by Iroquois
1718 – Hundreds of colonists from France arrived in Louisiana. Some settled in present-day New Orleans.
1758 – Seven Years’ War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1802 – Toussaint Louverture imprisoned in Fort de Joux, Jura, France
1814 – The US Library of Congress and its 3,000 books is destroyed by British troops.
1825 – Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.
1830 – The Belgian Revolution begins.
1835 – NY Sun publishes Moon hoax story about John Herschel https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-moon-hoax
1862 – Secretary of War authorizes Gen Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb swam from Dover, England, to Calais, France making him the first person to swim the English Channel. The feat took about 22 hours.
1894 – Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
1902 – “Al-Hoda” began publication in New York City making it the first Arabic daily newspaper in the U.S.
1914 – German troops in occupied Belgium begin the 6 week “Sack of Louvain,” destroying historical buildings and killing hundreds of civilians
1916 – The National Park Service was established as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
1921 – The first skirmishes of the Battle of Blair Mountain, a civil uprising in Logan County, West Virginia https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/battle-blair-mountain-largest-labor-uprising-american-history-180978520/
1921 – The U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany.
1937 – Japanese fleet blockades Chinese coast
1941 – Soviet and British troops invaded Iran. This was in reaction to the Shah’s refusal to reduce the number of German residents.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill appropriating funds for construction of the Pentagon.
1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged
1944 – Paris, France, was liberated by Allied forces ending four years of German occupation. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paris-liberated
1945 – Ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by a portion of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1950 – US President Harry Truman orders the Army to take over the railroads to stop a possible strike.
1960 – Demonstrations against Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba
1972 – In Great Britain, computerized axial tomography (CAT scan) was introduced.
1978 – The Turin shroud believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ went on display for the first time in 45 years.
1981 – The U.S. Voyager 2 sent back pictures and data about Saturn. The craft came within 63,000 miles of the planet.
1983 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a $10 billion grain pact.
1987 – Saudi Arabia denounced the “group of terrorists” that ran the Iranian government.
1988 – Iran and Iraq began talks in Geneva after ending their eight years of war.
1990 – Military action was authorized by the United Nations to enforce the trade embargo that had been placed on Iraq after their invasion of Kuwait.
1991 – Byelorussia declared independence from the Soviet Union.
1992 – It was reported by researchers that cigarette smoking significantly increased the risk of developing cataracts.
1995 – Harry Wu, human rights activist, returned to the United States. He said the spying case against him in China was “all lies.”
1997 – The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.
1998 – A survey released said that 1/3 of Americans use the Internet.
2003 – 52 people killed in two terrorist bomb blasts in cars in Mumbai, India.
2006 – Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion
2012 – First Spacecraft to Enter Interstellar Space, NASA’s Voyager 1, which was launched on September 5, 1977, left the heliosphere — the part of space that is influenced by our Sun — on this day. In February 1990, the spacecraft took the first overview picture of the solar system. It is the most distant man-made object in space.
2013 – 41 people are killed in a wave of bomb attacks across Iraq
2017 – Indian spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is convicted of raping two of his followers in Panchkula
2017 – President Donald Trump grants presidential pardon to Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of contempt of court for racial profiling
2018 – Afghan Islamic State leader Abu Saad Erhabi and 10 others killed in an air strike in province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan
2020 – WHO announces that Africa has eradicated polio (defined as four years since last case)
2022 – California votes to ban the sale of all new gasoline-powered cars by 2035
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
