TODAY IN HISTORY

• 1071 Battle of Manzikert: Seljuq Turks led by sultan Alp Arslan beat and capture Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes

• 1346 Battle of Crécy, south of Calais in northern France; Edward III’s English longbows defeat Philip VI’s army, cannons used for first time in battle

• 1498 Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.

•1652 Battle of Plymouth: General-at-Sea George Ayscue of the Commonwealth of England attacked a convoy of the Dutch Republic commanded by ViceCommodore Michiel de Ruyter. Dutch victory

• 1745 Britain, Prussia & Hannover sign treaty

• 1748 The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• 1778 The first recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia.

• 1789 The National Constituent Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the beginning of the French Revolution

• 1846 Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” premieres at the Birmingham Festival in England

• 1907 Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 seconds

• 1914 Battle of Tannenberg begins (WWI): 8th German army defeats Russian Narev army

• 1939 Belgium mobilises

• 1939 Croatia gets autonomous status

• 1942 7000 Jews are rounded up in Vichy-France

• 1942 Japanese troops land on Milne Bay, New Guinea

• 1942 Soviet counter offensive begins in Moscow

• 1945 Japanese diplomats board USS Missouri to receive instructions on Japan’s surrender at the end of WWII

• 1951 “An American in Paris” with music by George Gershwin, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron premieres in London.