Today in History

70		The Temple of Jerusalem burns after a nine-month Roman siege.
1526		Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent crushes a Hungarian army under Lewis II at the Battle of Mohacs.
1533		In Peru, the Inca chief Atahualpa is executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro, although the chief had already paid his ransom.
1776		General George Washington retreats during the night from Long Island to New York City.
1862		Union General John Pope‘s army is defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1942		The American Red Cross announces that Japan has refused to allow safe conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American prisoners of war.
1945		U.S. airborne troops are landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
1949		The USSR explodes its first atomic bomb, “First Lightning.”
1952		In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bomb Pyongyang, North Korea.
1957		The US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957 after Strom Thurmond (r-SC) ends a 24-hour filibuster, the longest in Senate history, against the bill.
1960		A US U-2 spy plane spots SAM (surface-to-air) missile launch pads in Cuba.
1965		Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr complete 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5, marking the first time the US set an international duration record for a manned space mission.
1986		Morocco’s King Hassan II signs a unity treaty with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, strengthening political and economic ties and creating a mutual defense pact.
1991		The USSR’s parliament suspends Communist Party activities in the wake of a failed coup.
1995		NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
2003		A terrorist bomb kills Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, and nearly 100 worshipers as they leave a mosque in Najaf where the ayatollah had called for Iraqi unity.
2012		The Egyptian Army’s Operation Eagle results in the deaths of 11 suspected terrorists and the arrest of another 23.