Today In History

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480 BC The Persian army defeats Leonidas and his Spartan army at the battle Thermopylae, Persia.

48 BC Julius Caesar defeats Gnaius Pompey at Pharsalus.

1483 Pope Sixtus IV celebrates the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, which is named in his honor.

1549 England declares war on France.

1645 Settlers in New Amsterdam gain peace with the Indians after conducting talks with the Mohawks.

1805 Austria joins Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the third coalition against France.

1814 Andrew Jackson and the Creek Indians sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the whites 23 million acres of Creek territory.

1842 The Webster-Ashburn treaty fixes the border between Maine and Canada’s New Brunswick.

1859 The escalator is patented. However, the first working escalator appeared in 1900. Manufactured by the Otis Elevator Company for the Paris Exposition, it was installed in a Philadelphia office building the following year.

1862 At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson repels an attack by Union forces.

1910 The first complete, self-contained electric washing machine is patented.

1930 First appearance of the animated character Betty Boop ("Dizzy Dishes").

1936 Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in track and field events at the Berlin Olympics.

1941 President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The meeting produces the Atlantic Charter, an agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the United States is still a neutral country.

1944 Fictional character Smokey the Bear ("Only you can prevent forest fires") created by US Forest Service and the Ad Council.

1945 The B-29 bomber Bock’s Car drops a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

1965 Singapore expelled from Malaysia following economic disagreements and racial tensions; becomes independent republic.

1969 Charles Manson’s followers kill actress Sharon Tate and her three guests in her Beverly Hills home.

1971 Le Roy (Satchel) Paige inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame.

1974 Gerald Ford is sworn in as president of the United States after the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

1975 First NFL game in Louisiana Superdome; Houston Oilers defeat New Orleans Saints 13-7.

1979 England’s first major nude beach established, at the seaside resort of Brighton.

1992 Twenty-fifth Olympic Summer Games closes in Barcelona, Spain.

1999 Russian president Boris Yeltsin fires his prime minister and, for the fourth time, fires the entire cabinet.

1999 The Diet of Japan establishes the country’s official national flag, the Hinomaru, and national anthem, "Kimi Ga Yo.".