History Notes this week of Aug 1

216 B.C. — Battle of Cannae
Carthaginian general Hannibal destroys a much larger Roman army at Cannae using his famous double-envelopment tactic, producing one of Rome’s worst military defeats.

30 B.C. — Battle of Alexandria
Mark Antony wins a brief tactical victory against Octavian at Alexandria, but his army subsequently deserts him, effectively ending his ability to resist Octavian.

30 B.C. — Death of Mark Antony
Following the collapse of his forces at Alexandria, Antony takes his own life. Octavian’s victory over Antony and Cleopatra clears the way for his eventual emergence as Augustus and Rome’s first emperor.

70 A.D. — Romans destroy the Second Temple in Jerusalem
Roman forces commanded by Titus capture Jerusalem and destroy the Second Temple, a defining event in Jewish and Roman history.

781 — Earliest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji
Japan’s Mount Fuji experiences its earliest historically recorded eruption. The volcano remains active, although its most recent eruption occurred in 1707-08.

1291 — Swiss Confederation founded
The Federal Charter establishes an early political alliance among Swiss communities and becomes a foundational document of the Swiss Confederation.

1305 — William Wallace captured
Scottish independence leader William Wallace is captured near Glasgow and taken to London, where he is later tried and executed for treason against King Edward I.

1492 — Christopher Columbus sails west from Spain
Columbus departs Palos de la Frontera aboard the Niña, Pinta and Santa María, beginning the voyage that would bring sustained European contact with the Americas.

1588 — Battle of Gravelines and the Spanish Armada
English forces attack the Spanish Armada near Gravelines after fireships disrupt its formation at Calais, effectively ending Spain’s immediate plans to invade England.

1607 — First performance of Macbeth
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, one of his best-known tragedies, is recorded as receiving an early performance during the reign of James I.

1620 — Mayflower and Speedwell leave Southampton
The Mayflower and Speedwell depart England carrying Puritan colonists toward North America, but problems with the Speedwell force the ships to turn back.

1704 — Gibraltar captured
An Anglo-Dutch fleet captures Gibraltar during the War of the Spanish Succession. The strategically important territory eventually becomes a British possession.

1742 — Birth of Nathanael Greene
Future Continental Army Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene is born. Greene would become one of George Washington’s most trusted commanders during the American Revolution.

1782 — Washington creates Badge of Military Merit
George Washington establishes the Badge of Military Merit to recognize soldiers for exceptional service. The award becomes the historical predecessor of the Purple Heart.

1789 — French National Assembly moves against feudalism
Amid the French Revolution, the National Assembly pledges to abolish feudal privileges, helping dismantle France’s traditional aristocratic social order.

1792 — Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley
English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is born. He would become best known for works including Ozymandias and exert a lasting influence on 19th-century literature and political thought.

1794 — Washington responds to Whiskey Rebellion
President George Washington invokes federal authority to mobilize militia forces against the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, demonstrating the new government’s ability to enforce federal law.

1803 — Birth of John Ericsson
Swedish-American engineer John Ericsson is born. He later becomes famous for designing the ironclad USS Monitor during the American Civil War.

1815 — Birth of Richard Henry Dana Jr.
Dana becomes a lawyer, politician and author whose Two Years Before the Mast provides a celebrated firsthand account of a sailor’s life in the 19th century.

1819 — Birth of Herman Melville
American novelist Herman Melville is born. His 1851 novel Moby-Dick eventually becomes one of the classics of American literature.

1864 — Battle of Mobile Bay
Rear Adm. David Farragut leads Union naval forces into Mobile Bay, helping close one of the Confederacy’s remaining major Gulf ports during the Civil War.

1876 — Birth of Mata Hari
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, later famous as Mata Hari, is born. The exotic dancer becomes one of World War I’s most notorious alleged spies before her execution by France in 1917.

1889 — First execution by electric chair
Convicted murderer William Kemmler is executed at Auburn Prison in New York in the first use of the electric chair, although the badly botched procedure raises questions about the supposedly more humane method.

1892 — Lizzie Borden murders discovered
Andrew and Abby Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home. Lizzie Borden is later acquitted but remains permanently associated with the sensational case.

1900 — Birth of Ernie Pyle
Journalist Ernie Pyle is born. His intimate reporting about ordinary American servicemen makes him one of the most celebrated correspondents of World War II.

1914 — Germany declares war on Russia
Germany declares war on Russia as Europe’s alliance system transforms the crisis following Austria-Hungary’s confrontation with Serbia into World War I.

1914 — Germany declares war on France
Germany declares war on France, further widening the rapidly escalating European conflict.

1914 — Germany invades Belgium; Britain enters the war
German troops enter neutral Belgium as part of their offensive against France. Britain subsequently declares war on Germany, while the United States announces neutrality.

1914 — Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia
The network of declarations continues as World War I expands, while German U-boats begin their first wartime patrols against the Royal Navy.

1924 — Birth of Carroll O’Connor
Actor Carroll O’Connor is born. He later becomes a television icon portraying Archie Bunker on All in the Family.

1926 — Houdini performs underwater escape
Harry Houdini spends 91 minutes inside a sealed tank before escaping, demonstrating the endurance and showmanship that made him the era’s most famous escape artist.

1928 — Birth of Andy Warhol
Pop artist Andy Warhol is born. He later becomes one of the central figures of the Pop Art movement and an influential figure in American popular culture.

1930 — Birth of Neil Armstrong
Astronaut Neil Armstrong is born. In 1969, he becomes the first person to walk on the moon during Apollo 11.

1934 — Death of Paul von Hindenburg
German President Paul von Hindenburg dies, allowing Adolf Hitler to consolidate the powers of president and chancellor and further cement his dictatorship.

1936 — Jesse Owens wins Olympic 100-meter dash
American sprinter Jesse Owens wins the 100 meters at the Berlin Olympics, one of four gold medals he captures during the Games held in Nazi Germany.

1940 — Germany annexes Alsace-Lorraine
Following France’s defeat, Nazi Germany incorporates the disputed Alsace-Lorraine region, which had repeatedly changed hands between France and Germany.

1941 — Göring directs Heydrich to prepare “Final Solution” plan
Hermann Göring instructs Reinhard Heydrich to coordinate plans for what the Nazi regime called the “Final Solution to the Jewish question,” a major administrative step toward the Holocaust.

1942 — Birth of Garrison Keillor
Writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor is born. He becomes best known for A Prairie Home Companion and his fictional Lake Wobegon stories.

1943 — PT-109 sunk in the Pacific
The patrol boat PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, is rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy helps lead the surviving crew to safety, an episode that becomes central to his later political biography.

1944 — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappears
French aviator and The Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappears while flying a reconnaissance mission from Corsica during World War II.

1944 — Anne Frank makes her final diary entry
Anne Frank writes what becomes the final entry in her diary shortly before the occupants of the Secret Annex are discovered and arrested by Nazi authorities.

1945 — Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The B-29 Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands immediately and many more later from burns, injuries and radiation exposure.

1948 — Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss
Former communist Whittaker Chambers publicly accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of involvement in Soviet espionage, launching one of the early Cold War era’s most famous political controversies.

1954 — First ascent of K2
An Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio successfully reaches the summit of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain and one of mountaineering’s most difficult challenges.

1955 — Death of Carmen Miranda
Portuguese-born Brazilian entertainer Carmen Miranda dies after becoming internationally famous for her music, films and flamboyant stage persona.

1958 — USS Nautilus crosses beneath the North Pole
USS Nautilus, the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine, completes a historic submerged transit beneath the Arctic ice and crosses the North Pole.

1961 — Birth of Barack Obama
Barack Obama is born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He later becomes the 44th president of the United States and the first Black American elected to the office.

1962 — Death of Marilyn Monroe
Actress Marilyn Monroe dies at age 36, ending one of Hollywood’s most famous and closely scrutinized careers.

1964 — Ranger 7 photographs the moon
NASA’s Ranger 7 sends back the first close-range American photographs of the lunar surface before deliberately crashing into the moon, providing valuable information for later lunar missions.

1964 — Gulf of Tonkin incident
USS Maddox exchanges fire with North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Reports of a second attack two days later remain disputed, but the events lead Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and greatly expand U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

1966 — China’s Cultural Revolution begins
The Chinese Communist government launches the Cultural Revolution, triggering years of political purges, persecution, social upheaval and violence across China.

1990 — U.N. imposes embargo on Iraq
Four days after Iraq invades Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council imposes a broad international trade embargo, an important step in the crisis that leads to the Gulf War.

1991 — Peugeot announces withdrawal from U.S. market
Facing declining American sales, French automaker Peugeot announces plans to leave the U.S. automobile market, ending its longstanding presence in the country.

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Wayne Creed

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