Today in History for 1st August 2015 Historical Events Events 1 - 100 of 253 30 BC - Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic. 527 - Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire 607 - Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607). 649 - Pope Martinus I chosen successor of Theodorus I [or 8/7] 860 - Peace of Koblenz: Charles the Bare, Louis the German & Lotharius II 902 - Aghlabidisch emir Ibrahim II destroys Taormina, Sicily 1021 - Synod of Pavia: emperor Henry II convicts married priest 1086 - Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are historically contestable) 1177 - Peace Treaty of Venice: Emperor Frederik I & Pope Alexander III 1203 - Alexius IV Angelus appointed co-regent of Byzantium 1291 - Everlasting League forms, basis of Swiss Confederation (Independence) 1485 - Henry Tudor's army sails to England (future Henry VII) 1498 - Christopher Columbus lands on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela) 1589 - Assination of French King Henry III by friar Jacques Clément Explorer of the New World Christopher Columbus 1626 - Earl Earnest Casimir conquerors Oldenzaal 1628 - Emperor Ferdinand II demands Austria Protestant convert to Catholicism 1664 - Battle at St Gotthard: Earl Raimondo Montecucculi beats Ahmed Kiprulu 1690 - Battle at Staffarda: French army beats Victor Amadeus of Savoy 1711 - Surrounded Tsar Peter the Great flees Azov 1714 - Monarch Georg Ludwig becomes King George I of England 1715 - First Doggett's Coat and Badge race (Waterman's race) held on Thames River (London Bridge to Chelsea) 1732 - Foundations laid for Bank of England 1759 - Battle at Minden, Westfalen: Ferdinand van Brunswick beats France 1774 - Joseph Priestley, English theologian, chemist and author discovers oxygen 1780 - Sweden declares neutrality 1781 - British army under general Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, Virginia King George I 1785 - Caroline Herschel becomes 1st woman discoverer of a comet 1789 - US Customs begins enforcing Tariff Act 1793 - France becomes 1st country to use the metric system 1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania 1798 - Battle of Abukir on the Nile-Nelson defeats French fleet 1812 - Rare tornado hits Westchester County NY 1814 - Belgian King Willem I accepts blame in Southern defeat 1820 - London's Regent's Canal opens. 1828 - Bolton and Leigh Railway opens to freight traffic. 1831 - London Bridge opens to traffic 1832 - The Black Hawk War ends. 1834 - Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire - Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect Naturalist Charles Darwin 1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin returns to Bahia Brazil 1838 - Apprenticeship system abolished in most of the British Empire. Former slaves no longer indentured to former owners. 1840 - Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated. 1842 - Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames opens 1842 - Lombard Street Riot erupts 1852 - SF Methodists establish 1st black church, Zion Methodist 1855 - Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants 1861 - Brazil recognizes Confederacy 1863 - Battle of Little Rock, Arkansas; start of Chattanooga campaign 1863 - Cavalry action near Brandy Station-End of Gettysburg Campaign 1864 - Battle of Petersburg, VA 1867 - Blacks vote for 1st time in a US state election in the South (Tenn) 1869 - 1st voyage down Colorado River 1870 - Irish Land Act gives rights to tenants of landlords in Ireland. 1873 - SF's 1st cable car begins service 1876 - Colorado becomes 38th state of the Union 1881 - US Quarantine Station authorized for Angel Island, SF Bay 1883 - A papyrus offered to British Museum for £10,000 (forgery) 1883 - Amsterdam's Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky gets electric lights 1883 - Inland postal service begins in Great Britain 1886 - Great Britain annexes Kermadec-Island near New Zealand 1890 - Cecil Rhodes' colonies reach Lundi 1893 - Henry Perky & William Ford patent shredded wheat 1896 - George Samuelson completes rowing Atlantic (NY to England) 1901 - Burials within San Francisco City limits prohibited 1902 - Building begins on Dutch public housing 1902 - Mine accident in Wollongong, Australia (100 die) 1906 - Brooklyn Dodger Harry McIntire no-hits Pitts for 10 2/3 loses in 13th 1907 - Bank of Italy opens 1st branch at 3433 Mission Street, SF 1907 - Signal Corps of US army starts aircraft division 1907 - First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset 1909 - British SS Waratah disappears on Sydney to London, 300 killed 1911 - Omar N Bradley (18) begins education in West Point 1911 - Transportation workers begin a major strike in England; part of a wave of industrial unrest 1914 - British fleet reaches Scapa Flow German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II 1914 - Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II (WW I) of Russia in WWI 1914 - France & Germany mobilize their troops at outbreak of WWI 1914 - Trois Vierges: German 69th infantry regiment enters Luxembourg on outbreak of WWI 1916 - Hawaii National Park forms 1917 - Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, MT 1918 - British troops enter Vladivostok 1918 - Pittsburgh Pirates beat Boston Braves, 2-0, in 21 innings 1919 - Queen Wilhelmina opens 1st Air Fair in Amsterdam 1919 - Treffers soccer team forms in Groesbeek 1920 - Papendrecht soccer team forms 1920 - Peace of Riga-Independence of Latvia 1922 - Hendrikus Colijn becomes political editor-in-chief of The Standard 1922 - In Italy, the socialist 'Alianza del Lavoro' declare a national strike which collapses immediately and fascist forces destroy union and socialist headquarters 1925 - Shortwave-radio link between Kootwijk & Netherland East-Indies 1926 - Battles between Druze & French in Damascus 1926 - Failed assassination on General Primo de Rivera in Barcelona 1927 - Earliest date for a film to be considered for the Academy Awards Baseball Legend Babe Ruth 1928 - Babe Ruth hits HR # 42 & is 4 weeks ahead of his 1927 pace 1933 - Carl Hubbell sets record of consecutive scoreless innings (45 1/3) 1933 - Death penality for anti-fascists in Germany 1933 - Dutch colonial regime in Batavia arrests Sukarno 1933 - NRA (National Recovery Administration) forms 1936 - Adolf Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin 1936 - Benjamin E Mays named president of Morehouse College 1941 - Luftwaffe bombs German 23rd division 1941 - NY Yankee Lefty Gomez walks most (11) in a shutout (Yanks 9, St L 0) 1941 - The first Jeep is produced. Famous Birthdays Birthdays 1 - 100 of 267 Roman Emperor Claudius (10 BC) 10 BC - Claudius, Lugdunum Gaul, Roman Emperor (41-54) 126 - Pertinax [Publius Helvius Pertinax], Alba Pompeia, Roman emperor (Year of the Five Emperors) 1313 - Emperor Kogon of Japan (Ashikaga Pretenders) 1322 - Peter van Herentals, South Netherlands theologist/church historian 1377 - Emperor Go-Komatsu of Japan, 100th emperor of Japan 1495 - Jan van Scorel, Schoorl Holland, Dutch painter/architect 1520 - Sigismund II Augustus, Krakow, King of Poland (1548-72) 1545 - Andrew Melville, Baldovie, Scottish theologian and religious reformer 1555 - Edward Kelley, Worcester, English spirit medium 1579 - Luís Vélez de Guevara, Écija, Spanish writer 1626 - Sabbatai Zevi, Montenegrin rabbi, kabbalist, and founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement 1630 - Thomas Clifford, Ugbrooke, English statesman (1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh) 1642 - Ahmed II, 21st sultan of Turkey (1691-95) [or Feb 25, 1643] 1659 - Antoine Mouque, composer 1685 - Pietro Giuseppe Sandoni, composer 1686 - Benedetto Marcello, Venice Italy, Italian author/composer (Lettera Famigliare) 1713 - Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1780) 1714 - Richard Wilson, Welsh landscape painter 1738 - Jacques François Dugommier, French general (d. 1794) French Naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744) 1744 - Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine Monnet de Lamarck, Paris, French naturalist (Lamarckian evolution) 1753 - Charles, 3rd earl Stanhope, England, radical politician/scientist 1755 - Giuseppe Antonio Capuzzi, composer 1766 - Ignaz Anton Franz Xavier Ladurner, pianist/composer 1766 - Jeffrey Wyatville, architect 1770 - William Clark, Charlottsville VA, 2nd lt of Lewis & Clark Expedition 1779 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, poet and composer pf the lyrics to the "Star-Spangled Banner" 1779 - Lorenz Oken, German naturalist (d. 1851) 1786 - Louis C Luzac, judge/Dutch Internal minister 1808 - Henry Darwin Rogers, American Geologist (theory of mountain building, first geological mapping of Pennsylvania), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1814 - Maxcy Gregg, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1862) Explorer and Leader of Lewis and Clark Expedition William Clark (1770) 1815 - Richard Henry Dana, novelist/lawyer spent 2 years before mast 1818 - Maria Mitchell, 1st US woman astronomer on Nantucket Island 1819 - Herman Melville, New York, author (Moby Dick, Billy Budd), (d. 1891) 1824 - Edward Francis Fitzwilliam, composer 1837 - Mother Jones, American labor organizer (d. 1930) 1840 - Aldine Sillman Kieffer, composer 1843 - Robert Todd Lincoln, Capt (Union volunteers), (d. 1926) 1847 - Guido Papini, violinist/composer 1848 - Franti?ek Kmoch, Czech composer and conductor 1856 - George Coulthard, Former Australian rules footballer and cricketer (d. 1883) 1858 - Hans Rott, composer 1858 - Paul Barth, German philosopher/sociologist 1858 - Gaston Doumergue, French President