ON THIS DAY

1498: Christopher Columbus lands on Isla Santa (Venezuela).

1589: Assassination of French King Henry III by friar Jacques Clément.

1714: Georg Ludwig becomes King George I of England.

1774: English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state.

1798: Battle of the Nile: British Royal Navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson attacks and decimates the French fleet at Aboukir Bay off the Nile Delta, Egypt.

1831: London Bridge opens to traffic.

1914: Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in WWI.

1944: Anne Frank’s last diary entry. Three days later she is arrested. Birthdays: Herman Melville, author Moby Dick (1819-1891); Sam Mendes, director (1965-).