This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1932 Adolf Hitler refuses President von Hindenburg's proposal to become vice-chancellor of Germany.

1940 Battle of Britain: Hermann Goering's "Adlertag" (Eagle Day) offensive happens, intending to destroy the Royal Air Force; 47-48 German aircraft shot down, the RAF loses 25 planes.

1942 The 'Manhattan Project' commences, under the direction of US General Leslie Groves: its aim - to deliver an atomic bomb.

[Jimbuna]

1945 V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)

1941 US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter.

1947 Pakistan gains independence from Great Britain.

1969 British Army deploys on the streets of Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of Operation Banner.

[Jimbuna]

1863 Submarine "HL Hunley" arrives in Charleston on railroad cars.

1906 King Edward VII of Great Britain visits German Emperor Wilhelm II to discuss the escalating rivalry between their nations' naval forces.

1936 Carla de Vries, an American tourist at the swimming event of the Berlin Olympics finds Adolf Hitler “so friendly and gracious” she shakes his hand and gives him a kiss.

1939 13 Stukas dive into the ground during a disastrous air-practice at Neuhammer. No survivors.

1944 German field marshal Günther von Kluge vanishes for one day; he killed himself on the 19th in the aftermath of the attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

1945 Victory over Japan Day, the Japanese surrender and the end of WWII is announced in Japan (due to time zones 14th Aug in the Americas)

1998 Omagh Bombing in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles, kills 29 people and injures about 220

[Jimbuna]

1943 1st Long Tom bombs on Italian mainland (from Sicily)

1943 Bulgarian Tsar Boris III visits Adolf Hitler.

1944 First flight of the Junkers Ju 287

1962 Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as Beatles' drummer, first official concert two days later.

1971 Over 8,000 workers go on strike in Derry, Northern Ireland, in protest at the introduction of Internment (allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial)

1984 Sunken liner Andrea Doria's safe opened.

2012 Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador.

[Jimbuna]

1940 Adolf Hitler orders a total blockade of Great Britain.

1943 498 British bombers attack Peenemunde (development base for the V weapons)

1945 Korea is divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel.

1947 The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.

1960 Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow.

1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony he had an "improper physical relationship" with the intern and on the same day admits before the nation he "misled people" about the relationship.

[Jimbuna]

1914 US President Woodrow Wilson issues "Proclamation of Neutrality"

1940 Battle of Britain: The air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; Luftwaffe lose approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF lose 68 in one of the largest ever air battles.

1942 Carlson's Raiders land on Makin, Gilbert islands, kill 350 Japanese.

1943 Otto Skorzeny's Heinkel-111 shot down at Sardinia.

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.

[Jimbuna]

1914 German army executes 150 Belgians by firing squad.

1914 German fleet bombs the English coast.

1915 British liner "SS Arabic" sunk by German submarine without warning leaving Liverpool for New York; killing 44. Creates diplomatic incident.

1919 After nearly 100 years of British control, Afghanistan declares itself independent.

1942 Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France.

1942 General Friedrich Paulus orders the German 6th Army to conquer Stalingrad.

1960 American CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident); sentence to 3 years in prison plus 7 in a labor camp, he served 17 months before being exchanged for a captured Soviet KGB spy.

1960 Soviet Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 2 rats, 40 mice, 1 rabbit and fruit flies into space, first animals to return alive from orbit.

[Jimbuna]

1908 America's Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to be greeted with a tremendous welcome; 221 American sailors desert to remain in Australia.

1940 1st Polish squadrons fight along allies in the Battle of Britain.

1940 British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"

1944 French General Charles de Gaulle returns to France.

1961 East Germany begins erecting 5' high wall along the border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13

1985 Israel ships 96 TOWs to Iran on behalf of US

[Aktungbby]

1831 Nat Turner launches a violent slave rebellion in Virginia, resulting in thr deaths of at least 55 white people; scores of blacks are killed in retribution in the aftermath of the rebellion. Turner is eventually captured and executed...the state license plates read: "Virginia is for lovers"...and his politically correct statue stands in Richmond!

[Jimbuna]

1945 US President Harry Truman ends Lend-Lease programme.

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th US state.

1968 Warsaw Pact forces complete their invasion of Czechoslovakia by arresting the Czech leader Alexander Dubček and forcing him to sign the Moscow Protocols.

1968 William Dana reaches 80 km (last high-altitude X-15 flight)

[Jimbuna]

1485 Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor's forces defeat English King Richard III during last battle in the Wars of the Roses. Richard is killed, the last English monarch to die in battle.

1864 First Geneva Convention adopted in Geneva "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field" signed by 12 nations.

1962 Failed assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle.

[Aktungbby]

1973: A bank robbery-turned -hostage-taking began in Stockholm, Sweden; the four hostages ended up empathizing with their captors... a psychological condition now referred to "Stockholm Syndrome"! I'd imagine the newly empowered Taliban might be hoping for a little more Kabul Syndrome; it would certainly save on ammo!??

[Jimbuna]

79 Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire (goes on to destroy Pompeii) [approx date]

1305 Scottish patriot William Wallace is executed for high treason by Edward I of England at Smithfield, London.

1942 Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes bomb Stalingrad (40,000 die)

1942 World War II: last cavalry charge in history takes place at Isbushenskij, Russia; the Italian Savoia Cavalleria charges Soviet infantry.

1996 Osama bin Laden issues message entitled "A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places"

[Jimbuna]

1814 British forces capture Washington, D.C. and destroy many landmarks (War of 1812)

1921 British airship R-38 crashes in River Humber, 44 die.

1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) goes into effect.

1968 France becomes the world's fifth thermonuclear power with a detonation on Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific.

1981 Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 yrs to life for John Lennon's murder.

[Jimbuna]

1875 Captain Matthew Webb makes the 1st observed and unassisted swim across the English Channel in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

1892 British naval officer David Beatty is promoted to lieutenant.

1943 Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten appointed Supreme Allied Commander in SE Asia.

1944 General Charles de Gaulle walks the Champs Elysees in Paris after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation.