Today in History ...

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870 – Treaty of Meerssen: King Louis the German and his half-brother Charles the Bald partitions the Middle Frankish Kingdom into two larger east and west divisions.

1220 – Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula.

1503 – King James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1576 – The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on the island of Hven.

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.

1786 – Mont Blanc on the French – Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard.

1793 – The insurrection of Lyon occurs during the French Revolution.

1794 – Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.

1844 – The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, headed by Brigham Young, is reaffirmed as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

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).

1870 – The Republic of Ploiești, a failed Radical-Liberal rising against Domnitor Carol of Romania.

1876 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.

1885 – More than 1.5 million people attend the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant in New York City.

1908 – Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight.

1918 – World War I: The Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).

1927 – The predecessor to the Philippine Stock Exchange opens.

1929 – The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.

1940 – 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.

1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo.

1963 – Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal £2.6 million in bank notes.

1963 – The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the current ruling party of Zimbabwe, is formed by a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union.

1967 – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

1969 – At a zebra crossing in London, photographer Iain Macmillan takes the photo that becomes the cover of the Beatles album Abbey Road.

1973 – Kim Dae-jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped.

1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.

1980 – The Central Hotel Fire occurs in Bundoran, Ireland.

1988 – The "8888 Uprising" occurs in Burma.

1989 – Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission: Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.

1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.

1991 – The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses.

1993 – The 7.8 Mw Guam earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing around $250 million in damage and injuring up to 71 people.

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.

2007 – An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.

2008 – A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track near Studénka railway station in the Czech Republic and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others.

2008 – Official ceremony of 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Bird's Nest.

2010 – 2010 China floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people.

2013 – A suicide bombing at a funeral in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 31 people.

2015 – Eight people are killed in a shooting in Harris County, Texas.