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Today in History: August 1
0902
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 would later bring 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, Romania, 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 the 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
Conservative commentator 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.

Today in History: Born on August 1
0010
Claudius, Roman Emperor

1770
William Clark, American explorer, led the Corps of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis.

1779
Francis Scott Key, author of the "Star Spangled Banner."

1818
Maria Mitchell, the first female astronomer in the U.S.

1819
Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick


1936
Yves Saint Laurent, fashion designer

1942
Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead.

1944
Yuri Romanenko, Soviet cosmonaut who set the record for the longest stay in space with 326 days aboard the Mir Space Station

1951
Jim Carroll, musician and writer of The Basketball Diaries.

1952
Nancy Lopez, professional golfer.

JOTD
My wife told me that “sex is better on holiday”
Not the best postcard I’ve ever gotten