On this day

On this day...

August 11: Tu B'Av (Judaism, 2014); Independence Day in Chad (1960)

• 2492 BC – According to legend, Armenian culture hero Hayk slew the giant king Bel with a shot from a longbow near Lake Van (in modern Turkey).
• 1492 – The first papal conclave held in the Sistine Chapel elected Roderic Borja as Pope Alexander VI to succeed Pope Innocent VIII.
• 1786 – Captain Francis Light founded the British colony of Penang, beginning more than a century of British involvement in Malaya.
• 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr (pictured) and composer George Antheil received a patent for their "Secret Communications System", an early technique of frequency-hopping spread spectrum that later became the basis for many forms of today's wireless communication systems.
• 2012 – At least 306 people were killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.

• Events

• 3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins.
• 2492 BC – Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.
• 106 – The south-western part of Dacia (modern Romania) becomes a Roman province: Roman Dacia.
• 355 – Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.
• 490 – Battle of Adda: The Goths under Theodoric the Great and his ally Alaric II defeat the forces of Odoacer on the Adda River, near Milan.
• 1332 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Dupplin Moor – Scots under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar are routed by Edward Balliol.
• 1473 – The Battle of Otlukbeli: Mehmed the Conqueror of the Ottoman Empire decisively defeats Uzun Hassan of Aq Qoyunlu.
• 1675 – Franco-Dutch War: forces of the Holy Roman Empire defeat the French in the Battle of Konzer Brücke.
• 1786 – Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.
• 1804 – Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.
• 1812 – Peninsular War: French troops engage British-Portuguese forces in the Battle of Majadahonda.
• 1813 – In Colombia, Juan del Corral declares the independence of Antioquia.
• 1858 – The Eiger in the Bernese Alps is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• 1918 – World War I: the Battle of Amiens ends.
• 1919 – The constitution of the Weimar Republic is adopted.
• 1920 – The Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty, which relinquished Russia's authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed, ending the Latvian War of Independence.
• 1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
• 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.
• 1945 – Poles in Kraków engage in a pogrom against Jews in the city, killing 1 and wounding 5.
• 1947 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan, gives a speech to the Constituent Assembly, the contents and meaning of which remain contentious today.
• 1952 – Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.
• 1959 – Sheremetyevo International Airport, the second-largest airport in Russia, opens.
• 1960 – Chad declares independence.
• 1961 – The former Portuguese territories in India of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are merged to create the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
• 1962 – Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.
• 1965 – Race riots (the Watts Riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
• 1968 – The last steam hauled train runs on British Rail
• 1972 – Vietnam War: the last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam.
• 1975 – East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.
• 1979 – Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk and crash, killing all 178 aboard both airliners.
• 1982 – A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers.
• 1984 – "We begin bombing in five minutes" – United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.
• 1999 – The Salt Lake City Tornado tears through the downtown district of the city, killing one.
• 2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
• 2003 – Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
• 2006 – The oil tanker M/T Solar 1 sinks off the coast of Guimaras and Negros Islands in the Philippines, causing the country's worst oil spill.
• 2012 – At least 306 people are killed and 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.