TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2017

On this day in history:

1833 - The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was approximately 250.

1850 - A British Act of Parliament separating Victoria from New South Wales is signed by Queen Victoria. 1884 - On Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1914 - Australia enters the First World War.

1923 - Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim across the English Channel. 1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labour camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.

1944 - Japanese prisoners at Cowra, New South Wales, stage a breakout: 4 Australians and 234 Japanese are killed. 1953 - During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labelled Operation Big Switch.

1960 - For the first time two major league baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland’s Joe Gordon. 1963 - The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty banned nuclear tests in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere.

1989 - In Honduras, five Central American presidents began meeting to discuss the timetable for the dismantling of the Nicaraguan Contra bases. 1991 - Queensland Police Commissioner, Sir Terrence Lewis, is found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in jail.

1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading UN inspectors about secret biological weapons. 1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors. 2002 - The US closed its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The consulate was closed after local authorities removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the building to normal traffic.

2011 - NASA announced that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.

2011 - Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a mission to Jupiter. It was the first solar-powered spacecraft to go to Jupiter.