TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2017
On this day in history:
1356 - Edward “the Black Prince” began a raid north from Aquitaine.
1789 - The first police force in the convict colony of New South Wales is formed.
1802 - Explorer Matthew Flinders arrives at Port Curtis in Queensland, now the site of Gladstone.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic. The remainder of his life was spent there in exile. 1844 - After the killing of Joseph Smith on June 27, Bringham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons.
1900 - In Boston, the first Davis Cup series began. The US team defeated Great Britain three matches to zero.
1893 - The Act to allow socialist-style village settlements to be established in South Australia is introduced to parliament.
1926 - The first aircraft produced by Qantas is turned out.
1940 - The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Great Britain.
1945 - During the Second World War the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.
1956 - Japan launched an oil tanker that was 780 feet long and weighed 84,730 tons. It was the largest oil tanker in the world.
1974 - US President Nixon announced that he would resign the following day.
1988 - It was announced that a cease-fire between Iraq and Iran had begun.
1990 - American forces began positioning in Saudia Arabia. 1991 - John McCarthy, a British TV producer, was released by his Lebanese kidnappers. He had been held captive for more than five years. A rival group abducted Jerome Leyraud in retaliation and threatened to kill him if any more hostages were released.
1991 - The UN Security Council approved North and South Korea for membership.
1994 - The first road link between Israel and Jordan opened. 1994 - Representatives from China and Taiwan signed a cooperation agreement.
1995 - Saddam Hussein’s two eldest daughters, their husbands, and several senior army officers defected. 2000 - The submarine H.L. Hunley was raised from ocean bottom after 136 years. The sub had been lost during an attack on the USS Housatonic in 1864. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a warship.