1485 – The War of the Roses ended with the death of England’s King Richard III. He was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field. His successor was Henry V II.

1567 – The “Council of Blood” was established by the Duke of Alba. This was the beginning of his reign of terror in the Netherlands.

1642 – The English Civil War began when Charles I called Parliament and its soldiers traitors.

1762 – Ann Franklin became the editor of the Mercury of Newport in Rhode Island. She was the first female editor of an American newspaper.

1770 – Australia was claimed under the British crown when Captain James Cook landed there.

1775 – The American colonies were proclaimed to be in a state of open rebellion by England’s King George III.

1846 – The U.S. annexed New Mexico.

1851 – The schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America’s Cup.

1865 – A patent for liquid soap was issued to William Sheppard.

1902 – In Hartford, CT, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first president of the United States to ride in an automobile.

1906 – The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, NJ began to manufacture the Victrola. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200.

1910 – Japan formally annexed Korea.

1911 – It was announced that Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” had been stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The painting reappeared two years later in Italy.

1932 – The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) began its first TV broadcast in England.

1941 – Nazi troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad during World War II.

1950 – Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to be accepted into a national competition.

1951 – 75,052 people watched the Harlem Globetrotters perform. It was the largest crowd to see a basketball game. 

1959 – Stephen Rockefeller married Anne Marie Rasmussen. Anne had once been a maid for the powerful and wealthy Rockefeller family.

1968 – Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America.

1972 – Due to its racial policies, Rhodesia was asked to withdraw from the 20th Olympic Summer Games. 

1973 – Henry Kissinger was named Secretary of State by U.S. President Nixon. Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.

1984 – The last Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off the assembly line in New Stanton, PA.

1986 – Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million to settle a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.

1989 – Nolan Ryan became the first major league pitcher to strike out 5000 batters. (MLB)

1990 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed an order for calling reservists to aid in the build up of troops in the Persian Gulf.

1990 – The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait would not be closed under President Saddam Hussein’s demand.

1990 – Angry smokers blocked a street in Moscow to protest the summer-long cigarette shortage.

1991 – It was announced by Yugoslavia that a truce ordered on August 7th with Croatia had collapsed.

1991 – Mikhail S. Gorbachev returned to Moscow after the collapse of the hard-liners’ coup. On the same day he purged the men that had tried to oust him.

1992 – In Rostock, Germany, neo-Nazi violence broke out against foreigners.

1996 – U.S. President Clinton signed legislation that ended guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanded work from recipients.

2004 – In Oslo, Norway, a version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and his work “Madonna” were stolen from the Munch Museum. This version of “The Scream,” one of four different versions, was a tempera painting on board.