history at a glance

TODAY is Sunday August 13 the 225th day of the year. There are 140 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United

Provinces, is signed in London, England. 1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believes is a sign from God. Eight days later

he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia. 1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand. 1898 – Spanish–American War: Spanish and American forces engaged in a mock battle for Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands. 1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found. 1906 – The all black infantrymen of the US Army’s 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged. 1913 – Otto Witte, an acrobat, is purportedly crowned King of Albania. 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Battle of Warsaw begins and will last till August 25. The Red

Army is defeated. 1937 – The Battle of Shanghai begins. 1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the US Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the “Development of Substitute Materials” project, better known as the Manhattan Project. 1942 – Walt Disney’s fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters. 1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France. 1961 – East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to

thwart its inhabitants’ attempts to escape to the West. 1964 – Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the Murder of John Alan West becoming

the last people executed in the United Kingdom. 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel Georgios

Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens. 1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York City That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Richard Nixon. 1977 – Members of the British National Front (NF) clash with anti-NF demonstrators in

Lewisham, London, resulting in 214 arrests and at least 111 injuries. 1978 – One hundred fifty Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the

second phase of the Lebanese Civil War. 1997 – The first episode of the American animated series South Park premiered on Comedy

Central. 2004 – Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida, and devastates the

surrounding area. 2004 – One hundred fifty-six Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee

camp in Burundi. 2008 – South Ossetian War: Russian units occupy the Georgian city of Gori. 2010 – The MV Sun Sea docks in CFB Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada, carrying 492 Sri

Lankan Tamils. 2014 – Three train cars derail and 11 people are injured after a landslide hits a mountain train

in the Swiss Alps. 2015 – At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in

Baghdad, Iraq.