Today in History ...

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392 – Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor. 476 – Odoacer is named Rex italiae by his troops. 565 – Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland. 851 – Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland. 1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England. 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet. 1559 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy. 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers. 1642 – Charles I raises his standard in Nottingham, which marks the beginning of the English Civil War. 1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America. 1711 – Britain's Quebec Expedition loses eight ships and almost nine hundred soldiers, sailors and women to rocks at Pointe-aux-Anglais. 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia. 1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, and claims the east coast of Australia for Britain as New South Wales. 1777 – British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements. 1780 – James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage). 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue. 1795 – The Constitution of the Year III is ratified by the National Convention 1798 – French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid the Irish Rebellion. 1827 – José de la Mar becomes President of Peru. 1831 – Nat Turner's slave rebellion commences just after midnight in Southampton County, Virginia, leading to the deaths of about 60 whites and approximately 250 blacks. 1846 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established. 1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice. 1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America. 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention. 1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands. 1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded. 1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile. 1910 – Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II. 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War. 1932 – The BBC begins television broadcasting using John Logie Baird's system. 1934 – Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes. 1941 – World War II: German troops begins the Siege of Leningrad. 1942 – World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy. 1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces 1949 – The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's strongest since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake 1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis. 1952 – The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed. 1961 – Ida Siekmann dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. 1962 – The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle. 1963 – X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (107.96 km (67.08 mi) (354,200 feet)). 1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers. 1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America. 1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28. 1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies. 1973 – The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands that he resign or else be unseated through force and new elections. 1978 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupies national palace in Nicaragua. 1984 – PC Brian Bishop a British police officer is shot in the head by an armed robber in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. He dies from his injuries five days later. 1985 – Manchester Air Disaster sees 55 people killed when a fire breaks out on a commercial aircraft at Manchester Airport. 1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts. 1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. 1996 – Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing a major shift in US welfare policy 2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building. 2004 – Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway. 2006 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board. 2007 – The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history. The combined run total is also Major League record. 2007 – The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day 2012 – Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya's Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths.