TODAY IN HISTORY

THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2018

1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.

1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London.

1899 – The first ship-to-shore wireless message is received.

1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.

1914 – World War I: Battle of Mons: The British Army begins withdrawal.

1921 – British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber estuary. Of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive.

1923 – Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

1938 – English cricketer Len Hutton sets a world record for the highest individual Test innings of 364 during a Test match against Australia.

1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) plus Finland, Romania and Poland are divided between the two nations.

1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

1944 – World War II: Freckleton Air Disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.

1944 – World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Ion Antonescu who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

1944 – World War II: The Allies liberate Marseille, France.

1948 – World Council of Churches is formed.

1952 – The security pact of the Arab League went into effect.

1954 – First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.