490 BC The Battle of Marathon: The Athenians and Plataeans defeat a Persian invasion [Trad]

1213 Battle of Muret: Crusaders defeat the Albigensians

1396 Crusaders under the Count of Nevers reach Nicopolis

1609 Henry Hudson lands on a hilly island "as pleasant with grass and flowers, and goodly trees, as ever they had seen, and very sweet smells came from them" -- Manhattan

1683 Battle of Vienna, Day 2: Christian armies under Poland's King John Sobieski defeat the Turks, who lift the siege of Vienna

1733 War of the Polish Succession: Former King Stanislas Leszczynski of Poland (1706-1709), the father-in-law of Louis XV, is again elected king (1733-1736)

1740 Voltaire and Frederick the Great meet

1776 Nathan Hale leaves Washington's camp on Harlem Heights (at 127th St) on a spy mission

1814 Battle of North Point: Regulars & Militiamen prevent the British from capturing Baltimore

1861 Confederates invest Lexington, Mo (Falls 20th)

1861 Skirmish at Black River, Mo

1861 Skirmish at Cheat Mtn, WVa

1862 Battle of Harpers Ferry VA

1901 Arabs attack the Jewish settlement of Gedara, Palestine

1912 Cadet Dwight D. Eisenhower, of the West Point football squad, flubs a tackle of Jim Thorpe, who then scores a touchdown, helping the Carlisle Indian School thump the Military Academy, 26-6.

1917 Battle of the Bainsizza (11th Isonzo) ends (from Aug 19)

1919 Gefreiter Adolf Hitler joins the "Deutsche Arbeiterpartei -- German Workers' Party", becoming its 55th member

1938 Hitler demands self-determination for Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia1940Italian troops under Rudolfo Graziani invade Egypt

1941 Coast Guardsmen capture the German trawler 'Busko' in Greenland waters

1942 Guadalcanal, Battle of Bloody Ridge: Marines repulse the Kawaguchi Detachment

1943 New Guinea: Australian and U.S. troops capture Salamaua

1943 Otto Skorzeny's commandos liberate Benito Mussolini from the Gran Sasso

1944 John Blythe crash lands his USAAF Spitfire recon plane at Mount Farm Air Base, England

1948 The Indian Army initiates 'Operation Polo,' which brings secessionist Hyderabad under government control by the 17th

1974 Coup overthrows Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie

1983 USSR vetoes UN resolution deploring its downing of KAL Flight 007

1990 US, Britain, France, & the USSR agree to reunification of Germany

1995 Belarussian armed forces shoot down a balloon in an international race, 2 Americans die