This date in history

[Jimbuna]

1873 Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, US 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the 1st time with the Sioux near the Tongue River. 1 man killed on each side.

1900 An allied expeditionary force, made up of Japanese, Russian, British, French and American troops, sets off from Tientsin for Peking, China, to put down Boxer rebellion.

1914 WWI: Germany declares war on Belgium; Britain declares war on Germany.

1918 Adolf Hitler receives the Iron Cross first class for bravery on the recommendation of his Jewish superior, Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann.

1941 Winston Churchill departs on Prince of Wales to US

1942 German occupier orders all Dutch homing pigeons killed.

1943 British premier Winston Churchill travels on the Queen Mary to Canada.

1944 Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified.

1954 Boscombe Down 1st flight of supersonic P-1 Lightning.

1964 North Vietnam purportedly engage US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin for a second time, resulting in US Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting authority to assist any Southeast Asian facing "communist aggression"; later investigation deemed the second attack never happened as shipboard communications were misinterpreted.

[Jimbuna]

1305 William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.

1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, won by the Union Army led by Rear Admiral David Farragut with the cry "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" (US Civil War)

1884 Cornerstone for Statue of Liberty laid on Bedloe's Island (NYC)

1918 World War I: the last German air raid on England occurs, with four Zeppelin airships dropping bombs in the Midlands and North East England.

1944 German forces begin the mass killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish civilians in the Wola district of Warsaw during the uprising.

1963 Britain, USA and USSR sign nuclear test ban treaty.

1969 The UVF plant their first bomb in the Republic of Ireland, damaging the RTÉ Television Centre in Dublin.

1997 Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of world trade centre bombing goes on trial.

[Jimbuna]

1890 At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the 1st person to be executed by electric chair.

1914 Denis Patrick Dowd Jr. enlists in the French Foreign Legion, becoming the first American to fight in World War I

1942 Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine sinks U-210

1945 Atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"

1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

Didn't Al Gore invent the Internet?

[Jimbuna]

1588 English set alight eight fireships, with pitch, brimstone, gunpowder and tar, and cast them downwind towards the closely anchored vessels of the Spanish Armada, scattering the armada.

1782 Commander of the Continental Army, George Washington, creates two Honorary Badges of Distinction and a Badge of Military Merit (now the Purple Heart). First time military awards are presented to common soldiers.

1940 Churchill recognizes De Gaulle's French government in exile.

1954 Englishman Roger Bannister beats Australia’s John Landy in the mile at the Empire Games in Vancouver; first time 2 men run sub-4 minute mile in the same race.

1959 Explorer 6 transmits 1st TV photo of Earth from space.

1970 British keyboard playing singer-songwriter Christine McVie (née Perfect) joins rock band Fleetwood Mac.

1990 US deploys troops to Saudi Arabia beginning Operation Desert Shield.

[Jimbuna]

1786 US Congress unanimously chooses the dollar as the monetary unit for the United States of America.

1929 German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

1942 6 convicted Nazi saboteurs who landed in US executed in Washington, D.C.

1942 British Flower class corvette HMS Dianthus sinks U-379

1945 US, USSR, Britain and France sign Treaty of London which sets down procedures for the Nuremberg war trials of Nazi leaders.

1953 Soviet leader Georgi Malenkov reports possession of hydrogen bomb.

1974 US President Richard Nixon announces he will resign at 12pm the next day.

[Jimbuna]

1898 Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine.

1915 British naval officer David Beatty is confirmed in the rank of vice-admiral.

1945 US drops second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city.

1974 Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States and Vice President Gerald Ford swears the oath of office to take his place as the 38th US President.

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.

[Jimbuna]

1628 Swedish warship Vasa sinks in Stockholm, killing 30

1653 Battle of Scheveningen: Final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War, English fleet defeats a Dutch fleet led by Maarten Tromp who himself is killed by a sharpshooter in the rigging of William Penn's ship.

1776 American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.

1833 Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200

1893 Rudolf Diesel's prime model internal combustion engine, a single 10-foot iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany.

1914 At Liege, German 12"/16.5" guns reach Belgian boundary.

1914 German battle cruiser Goeben reaches Dardanellen/Turkey joins Germany.

1943 Adolf Hitler watches lynching of allied pilots.

1943 US General George S. Patton calls injured soldier "cowardly"

1945 Japan announces willingness to surrender to Allies, provided Emperor Hirohito's status remains unchanged.

1976 Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer shot dead by the British Army as he drove in Belfast; his car out of control and kills 3 children, sparking "peace rallies" throughout the month by the 'Peace People'

[Rockstar]

On this day in 1984, a hot mic records President Reagan joking with aides before a national radio broadcast: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

[Jimbuna]

1885 $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty.

1935 Nazi mass demonstration against German Jews.

1942 British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle hit by 4 German torpedoed and sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, 81 miles south of Mallorca.

1945 Allies refuse Japan's offer to surrender on the condition that Emperor Hirohito retains his status.

1970 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed by the Irish Republican Army when they set off a booby trap bomb planted in a car near Crossmaglen, County Armagh.

1971 4 people are shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast; three of them by the British Army, as violence continues following the introduction of Internment and Operation Demetrius.

1988 Al-Qaeda formed at a meeting between Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Dr Fadl in Peshawar, Pakistan.

2003 NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

[Jimbuna]

1833 The town of Chicago is incorporated (population 350)

1908 Henry Ford's company builds the first Model T car.

1941 French Marshal Philippe Pétain gives full support to Nazi Germany.

1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge.

1945 Emperor Hirohito of Japan informs the imperial family that he has decided to surrender.

1969 Battle of the Bogside: RUC officers, backed by loyalists, entered the nationalist Bogside in armoured cars and tried to suppress the riot by using CS gas, water cannon and eventually firearms; the almost continuous rioting lasted for two days.

2000 The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.

[Jimbuna]

1906 Black soldiers accused of raiding Brownsville in Texas; despite support from local commanding officers, President Theodore Roosevelt orders dishonorable discharge for 167 soldiers; all were cleared of wrongdoing in 1972, 165 posthumously.

1918 Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.

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.

1975 Bayardo Bar attack: Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers carry out a gun and bomb attack on a pub in Belfast frequented by Ulster Volunteer Force commanders; 4 Protestant civilians and 1 UVF member are killed.

[Jimbuna]

1915 British transport Royal Edward sank by German U boat kills 1000

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

1945 Japanese government notifies the Allies that it had accepted the Potsdam Declaration.

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

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

1971 British begin internment without trial in Northern Ireland.

1972 2 British soldiers are killed by an IRA booby trap bomb in Belfast.

1972 A Catholic civilian is shot dead during an IRA attack on a British Army patrol in Belfast.

[Jimbuna]

1620 Mayflower sets sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims.

1863 Confederate submarine "CSS H.L. Hunley" arrives in Charleston on railroad cars from Mobile, Alabama, where it was built.

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

1939 13 Nazi Luftwaffe Stuka dive bombers crash into the ground during a disastrous practice-demonstration at Neuhammer-am-Queis, Silesia, Germany (now Świętoszów, Poland) . 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.

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

2021 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flees the country as Taliban forces enter the capital Kabul and take control.

[Rockstar]

16 August 1956, the "Battle of Palmdale" occurred when the U.S. Air Force attempted to shoot down a runaway Navy F6F-5K Hellcat drone. USAF pilots fired 208 rockets without scoring a hit, instead starting fires that burned 1,000 acres. The drone eventually ran out of fuel and crashed.