1945 – The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. About 74,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered August 14.
48 BC – Caesar’s civil war: Battle of Pharsalus – Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
0378 – Battle of Adrianople: Goth army defeats Roman forces under Emperor Valens
1173- Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins, and it takes two centuries to complete
1378 – Cardinals declare pope Urbanus VI lawless (anti christian/devil)
1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
1655 – Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell divides England into 11 districts
1666 – Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary, and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling, an act later known as “Holmes’s Bonfire”.
1790 – The Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage. It was the first ship to carry the American flag around the world.
1830 – Louis-Philippe formally accepts crown of France, following abdication of Charles X
1831 – The first steam locomotive began its first trip between Schenectady and Albany, NY.
1842 – The U.S. and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which solved a border dispute.
1848 – US Barnburners (anti-slavery) party merges with Free Soil Party nominating Martin Van Buren for president
1854 – “Walden” was published by Henry David Thoreau.
1859 – The escalator was patented by Nathan Ames.
1877 – Henry Morton Stanley’s party reaches Boma, Congo, after 999 days, losing half of the 228 members.
1902 – Edward VII of Great Britain crowned King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, succeeding his mother Queen Victoria
1936 – Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. He was the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.
1942 – Quit India Movement Begins in India, The civil disobedience movement against the British colonists was spearheaded by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
1942 – Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested Britain. He was not released until 1944.
1944 – The Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council created “Smokey the Bear.”
1945 – The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. About 74,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered August 14.
1945 – The first network television broadcast occurred in Washington, DC. The program announced the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.
1956 – The first statewide, state-supported educational television network went on the air in Alabama.
1960 – Race riot in Jacksonville, Florida
1965 – Singapore proclaimed its independence from the Malaysian Federation.
1971 – Operation Demetrius (or Internment) is introduced in Northern Ireland allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial; the security forces arrested 342 people suspected of supporting paramilitaries
1973 – The U.S. Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair filed suit against President Richard Nixon.
1974 – U.S. President Richard Nixon formally resigned. Gerald R. Ford took his place, and became the 38th president of the U.S.
1977 – Military-controlled Government of Uruguay announces the return to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 to democratically elect a President and Congress
1985 – Arthur J. Walker, a retired Navy officer, was found guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.
1996 – Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as president of Russia for the second time.
1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
2000 – South African President Thabo Mbeki unveils the Women’s Monument commemorating the role of women in the anti-apartheid struggle
2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush announced he would support federal funding for limited medical research on embryonic stem cells.
2004 – Donald Duck received the 2,257th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2004 – Trump Hotel and Casion Resorts announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2013 – 8 people are killed and 24 are injured after gunmen open fire on a Sunni mosque in Quetta, Pakistan
2017 – Giant inflatable chicken resembling US President Donald Trump placed outside US White House as a political protest
2017 – North Korea says it plans to fire rockets on US territory Guam in continuing escalation of tension between it and the US
2020 – Disputed Belarusian presidential election sees long time dictator Alexander Lukashenko officially win 80% of the votes but unofficially lose 60-70% of the votes to main opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Sparks widespread protests in Belarus and international condemnation.
2021 – Cholera outbreak in Nigeria has killed more than 800 people with 31,425 suspected cases since January 2021 according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
