August 3

What happened that day?

• 2014: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake kills at least 617 people and injures more than 2,400 in Yunnan, China.
• 2010: Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85 dead and at least 17 billion Pakistani rupees (US$200 million) in damage.
• 2007: Former Deputy Director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following a conviction for kidnapping.
• 2005: President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.
• 2004: The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.
• 1997: Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria: A total of 116 villagers killed, 40 in Oued El-Had and 76 in Mezouara.
• 1981: Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front - Suxxali Reew Mi.
• 1977: Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.
• 1975: A privately chartered Boeing 707 strikes a mountain peak and crashes near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.
• 1972: The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• 1960: Niger gains independence from France.
• 1959: Portugal's state police force PIDE fires upon striking workers in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, killing over 50 people.
• 1958: US Nuclear submarine, Nautiluss, the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole.
• 1949: The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger, that would create the National Basketball Association
• 1948: Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.
• 1946: Santa Claus Land, the world's first themed amusement park, opens in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States.
• 1940: World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.
• 1936: A fire wipes out Kursha-2 in the Meshchera Lowlands, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, killing 1,200 and leaving only 20 survivors.
• 1936: Jesse Owens wins the 100 metre dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.
• 1921: Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis confirms the ban of the eight Chicago Black Sox, the day after they were acquitted by a Chicago court.
• 1914: World War I: Germany declares war against France, while Romania declares its neutrality.
• 1907: Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana a record $29.4 million for illegal rebating to freight carriers; the conviction and fine are later reversed on appeal.
• 1903: Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaim the Kruševo Republic, which exists only for ten days before Ottoman Turks lay waste to the town.
• 1900: The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is founded.
• 1859: The American Dental Association is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.
• 1852: Harvard University wins the first Boat Race between Yale University and Harvard. The race is also the first American intercollegiate athletic event
• 1811: First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest summit in the Bernese Alps by brothers Johann Rudolf and Hieronymus Meyer.
• 1795: Treaty of Greenville is signed, ending the Northwest Indian War in the Ohio Country.
• 1778: The theatre La Scala in Milan is inaugurated with the première of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta.
• 1678: Robert LaSalle builds the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.
• 1645: Thirty Years' War: The Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1601: Long War: Austria captures Transylvania in the Battle of Goroszló.
• 1527: The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.
• 1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.
• 1342: The Siege of Algeciras commences during the Spanish Reconquista.
• 1057: Frederik van Lotharingen elected as first Belgian Pope Stephen IX.
• 1031: Olaf II of Norway is canonized as Saint Olaf by Grimketel, the English Bishop of Selsey.
• 908: Battle of Eisenach: An invading Hungarian force defeats an East Frankish army under Duke Burchard of Thuringia.
• 881: Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu: Louis III of France defeats the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied.
• 435: Deposed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, is exiled by Roman Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
• AD 70: Fires resulting from the destruction of the Second Temple are extinguished.
• AD 8: Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats the Dalmatae on the river Bosna