01-08-2012, 13:32
1498 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
1740 - Rule Britannia was sung for the first time, for the then Prince of Wales's daughter's third birthday.
1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
1798 - The English (under Nelson), destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, in Aboukir Bay, stopping Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade the Middle East.
1800 - The Act of Union 1800 was passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1831 - New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It lasted for 140 years and was sold and rebuilt in Arizona.
1834 - Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force.
1914 – Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I.
1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President of Iceland and becomes the world's first democratically elected female head of state
1981 – MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles.
1984 - Commercial peat-cutters discovered the preserved body of a man they called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss in Cheshire. It is thought that he was deposited some time between 2 BC and 119 AD.
1740 - Rule Britannia was sung for the first time, for the then Prince of Wales's daughter's third birthday.
1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
1798 - The English (under Nelson), destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, in Aboukir Bay, stopping Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade the Middle East.
1800 - The Act of Union 1800 was passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1831 - New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It lasted for 140 years and was sold and rebuilt in Arizona.
1834 - Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force.
1914 – Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I.
1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President of Iceland and becomes the world's first democratically elected female head of state
1981 – MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles.
1984 - Commercial peat-cutters discovered the preserved body of a man they called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss in Cheshire. It is thought that he was deposited some time between 2 BC and 119 AD.