Today in History

902		The Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiyah (modern day Tunisia) capture Taormina, Sicily.
1096		The crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Constantinople.
1464		Piero de Medici succeeds his father, Cosimo, as ruler of Florence.
1664		The Turkish army is defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
1689		James II’s siege of Londonderry, Ireland, ends in failure. James’ force had suffered some 8,000 casualties to the defenders’ 3,600.
1740		Thomas Arne’s song "Rule Britannia" is performed for the first time.
1759		British and Hanoverian armies defeat the French at the Battle of Minden, Germany.
1791		Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner, frees all 500 of his slaves in the largest private emancipation in U.S. history. An 1839 mutiny aboard a Spanish ship in Cuban waters raised basic questions about freedom and slavery in the United States.
1798		Admiral Horatio Nelson routs the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay, Egypt.
1801		The American schooner Enterprise captures the Barbary cruiser Tripoli.Often venturing into harm’s way, America’s most famous sailing ship, the Constitution, twice came close to oblivion.
1834		Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
1864		Union General Ulysses S. Grant gives general Philip H. Sheridan the mission of clearing the Shenandoah Valley of Confederate forces.After nearly 10 months of trench warfare, Confederate resistance at Petersburg, Virginia, suddenly collapsed.
1872		The first long-distance gas pipeline in the U.S. is completed. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch pipe ran five miles from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1873		San Francisco’s first cable cars begin running, operated by Hallidie’s Clay Street Hill Railroad Company.
1880		Sir Frederick Roberts frees the British Afghanistan garrison of Kandahar from Afghan rebels.
1893		A machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal is patented.
1914		Germany declares war on Russia.
1937		The Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany becomes operational.The Nuremberg Trial brought high-ranking Nazis to justice.
1939		Synthetic vitamin K is produced for the first time.
1941		The Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane makes its first flight.
1942		Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sinks U-166 as it approaches the Mississippi River, the first U-boat sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard.
1943		Over 177 B-24 Liberator bombers attack the oil fields in Ploesti, Rumania, for a second time.
1944		The Polish underground begins an uprising against the occupying German army, as the Red Army approaches Warsaw.
1946		President Harry S Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission.
1950		Lead elements of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division arrive in Korea from the United States.
1954		The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel.
1957		US and Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1960		Singer Chubby Checker releases "The Twist," creating a new dance craze. The song had been released by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters the previous year but got little attention.
1964		Arthur Ashe becomes the first African-American to play on the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.
1966		Charles Whitman, shooting from the Texas Tower at the University of Texas, kills 16 people and wounds 31 before being killed himself.
1988		Wingnut blowhard Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show.
2004		In Asuncion, Paraguay, a fire in the Ycua Bolanos V supermarket complex kills nearly 400 people and injures 500.
2007		The I-35W bridge at Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.