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

1942 British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle hit by 4 German torpedoes 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.

1972 Two IRA members are killed when a bomb they were transporting exploded prematurely.

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.

3 Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem.

1869 Self-proclaimed Emperor Joshua Abraham Norton of the USA issues edict abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties.

1883 The last quagga (a zebra subspecies with fewer stripes) dies at the Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam.

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.

1959 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation Island.

1981 Don Estridge unveils the company's first personal computer, the IBM PC, at New York’s Waldorf Hotel. Priced at USD 1,565 with 16 kilobytes of RAM, it helps bring computing to the masses.

1521 Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan, marking the end of the Aztec Empire.

1913 Otto Witte, German acrobat and fantasist, is purportedly crowned King of Albania.

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 with the aim of developing an atomic bomb.

1813 British warship Pelican attacks & captures US war brigantine Argus.

1885 British Criminal Law Amendment Act raises age of consent from 13 to 16, protects against child prostitution.

1885 Japan's first patent is issued to Zuisho Hotta for anticorrosive paint used on ship hulls.

1914 British Expeditionary Force led by Field Marshal John French and General Henry Wilson lands in France.

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 V-J Day, the Empire of Japan surrenders unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II (August 15 in Japan and other countries depending on the 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.

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

1914 Dinant, Belgium, destroyed by German bombs. Lt Charles de Gaulle (24), injured.

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 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.

1940 Heavy dogfights above England: 75 German aircraft damaged.

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

1945 Victory over Japan Day, Surrender of Japan marks the end of World War II (August 14 in the Americas due to the time zone difference)

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

1858 Britain's Queen Victoria telegraphs US President James Buchanan for the first time via transatlantic telegraph cable; he replies, "It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle"

1945 The last Chinese Emperor and ruler of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo, Puyi, is captured by Soviet troops while preparing to board a plane to escape to Japan.

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.

1808 French Emperor Napoleon asks his brother, the King of Holland Louis Bonaparte for a Dutch Brigade to fight on the French side against Spain in the Peninsular War.

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.

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.

1817 60-70 ft sea serpent sightings reported offshore in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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

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

1947 Naval torpedo & mine factory explodes at Cadiz, Spain killing 300

1971 New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake announces in Parliament that New Zealand’s combat force would be withdrawn from Vietnam before the end of the year, coinciding with a similar announcement by the Australian government.

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.

1914 In a message to the Senate, US President Woodrow Wilson urges the American people to be 'neutral in fact as well as name'

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

1941 Romania annexes the Transnistria territory from the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa.

1942 World War II: General Friedrich Paulus orders the German 6th Army to conquer Stalingrad.

1942 World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers are killed, wounded, or captured during a raid on Dieppe, France.

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, 1st animals to return alive from orbit.

1981 2 US Navy F-14 jet fighters shoot down 2 Soviet-built Libyan SU-22

Nuthin' good goes outta style....64 years later??!! :shucks::timeout::O:

1619 Slavery begins in America when the first known African Americans (approximately 20) land at Point Comfort, Virginia, before being sold or traded into servitude.

1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares the US Civil War over.

1882 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow.

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.

1918 WWI: Britain opens offensive on Western front.

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

1940 First Polish fighter squadrons fight alongside allies in the Battle of Britain.

1968 During the night, 250,000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to put down the Prague Spring.

1980 UN Security Council condemns (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital.

1808 Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War.

1879 The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.

1944 Battle of Falaise, Normandy, led by Polish Armoured Division and First Canadian Army - largest encirclement on the Western Front leading to surrender and capture of German 7th Army.

1945 US President Harry Truman ends Lend-Lease program.

1967 China reports downing of 2 US bombers.

1968 After 5 years Soviet Union once again jams Voice of America radio.

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

1976 "Operation Paul Bunyan" begins in retaliation for the "Korean axe murder incident" 3 days prior. 110 troops, 27 helicopters, 3 B-52 bombers are deployed to the Korean Demilitarized Zone to cut down a poplar blocking the view of UN observers.

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.

1775 King of Great Britain and Ireland, George III proclaims the American colonies to be in open rebellion and orders his officials to suppress it.

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.

1922 William T. Cosgrave replaces Michael Collins as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State after the later was ambushed and killed in a shoot out with anti-Treaty forces.

1944 Adolf Hitler orders Paris to be destroyed.

1962 Failed assassination attempt on French President Charles de Gaulle.

1972 IRA bomb explodes prematurely at a customs post at Newry, County Down - 9 people, including three members of the IRA and five Catholic civilians, are killed in the explosion.

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

1921 British declare a truce with Irish Nationalists Sinn Féin.

1923 Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

1942 Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes bomb Stalingrad, killing 40,000 people.

1942 Last cavalry charge in history takes place during World War II at Isbuschenskij, Russia, when the Italian Savoia Cavalleria charges Soviet infantry.

1943 Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, ends after 50 days as the Soviet Union defeats Germany; over 10,000 tanks take part, and nearly 250,000 combatants are killed.

1944 US B-24 crashes into school in Freckelton England, 76 killed.

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