Events

• 870 – Treaty of Meerssen: King Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald partition the Middle Frankish Kingdom into two larger east and west divisions.
• 1220 – Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.
• 1264 – Mudéjar revolt: Muslim rebel forces took the Alcázar of Jerez de la Frontera after defeating the Castilian garrison.
• 1585 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage.
• 1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada’s attempt to invade England.
• 1605 – The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.
• 1647 – The Irish Confederate Wars and Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Dungan’s Hill: English Parliamentary forces defeat Irish forces.
• 1709 – Bartolomeu de Gusmão demonstrates the lifting power of hot air in an audience before the king of Portugal in Lisbon, Portugal.
• 1831 – Four hundred Shawnee people agree to relinquish their lands in Ohio in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Wapakoneta.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
• 1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous Allied victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).
• 1919 – The Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 is signed. It establishes peaceful relations between Afghanistan and the UK, and confirms the Durand line as the mutual border.
  • In return, the UK is no longer obligated to subsidise the Afghan government.
• 1940 – World War II: The “Aufbau Ost” directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.
• 1942 – Quit India Movement is launched in India against the British rule in response to Mohandas Gandhi’s call for swaraj or complete independence.
• 1945 – The London Charter is signed by France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, establishing the laws and procedures for the Nuremberg trials.
• 1946 – First flight of the Convair B-36, the world’s first mass-produced nuclear weapon delivery vehicle, the heaviest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft, with the longest wingspan of any military aircraft, and the first bomber with intercontinental range.
• 1967 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
• 1988 – The 8888 Uprising begins in Rangoon (Yangon), Burma (Myanmar). Led by students, hundreds of thousands join in nationwide protests against the one-party regime.
  • On 18 September, the demonstrations end in a military crackdown, killing thousands.
• 1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq.
  • This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.
• 2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence.
• 2001 – Albanian rebels ambush a convoy of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia near Tetovo, killing 10 soldiers.
• Ceasefire Day (end of Iran-Iraq War) (Iraqi Kurdistan).
• Earliest day on which Defence Forces Day can fall, while 14 August is the latest; celebrated on the second Tuesday in August. (Zimbabwe).
• Signal Troops Day (Ukraine).

People (Births)

• 1720 – Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish general and politician (d. 1796).
• 1822 – George Stoneman, Jr., United States Army cavalry officer (d. 1894).
• 1839 – Nelson A. Miles, American general (d. 1925).
• 1879 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican general and politician (d. 1919).
• 1881 – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal (d. 1954).
• 1915 – James Elliott, American runner and coach (d. 1981).
• 1929 – Luis García Meza Tejada, Bolivian general and politician, 68th President of Bolivia (d. 2018).
• 1972 – Axel Merckx, Belgian cyclist.
• 1977 – Darren Manzella, US Army sergeant (d. 2013).
• 1977 – Nicolas Vogondy, French cyclist.
• 1989 – Hannah Miley, English-Scottish swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1604 – Horio Tadauji, Japanese daimyō (b. 1578).
• 1747 – Madeleine de Verchères, Canadian raid leader (b. 1678).
• 1887 – Alexander William Doniphan, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (b. 1808).
• 1944 – Erwin von Witzleben, German field marshal (b. 1881).
• 1944 – Michael Wittmann, German commander (b. 1914).
• 1971 – Freddie Spencer Chapman, English lieutenant (b. 1907).
• 1974 – Elisabeth Abegg, German anti-Nazi resistance fighter (b. 1882).
• 1979 – Nicholas Monsarrat, English lieutenant and author (b. 1910).
• 1980 – Paul Triquet, Canadian general, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1910).
• 1981 – Thomas McElwee, Irish republican and PIRA volunteer (b. 1957).
• 1991 – James Irwin, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1930).
• 2003 – Dirk Hoogendam, Dutch-German SS officer (b. 1922).
• 2005 – Dean Rockwell, American commander, wrestler, and coach (b. 1912).
• 2018 – Nicholas Bett, Kenyan track and field athlete (b. 1990).