11-08-2012, 13:44
3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins.
1858 - The Eiger in the Swiss Bernese Alps was ascended for the first time by Irishman Charles Barrington accompanied by guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.
1909 - The first recorded use of the new emergency wireless signal SOS.
1918 - World War I: The end of the Battle of Amiens that ultimately led to the end of the First World War. The battle is also notable for the large number of surrendering German forces. It was one of the first major battles involving armoured warfare and marked the end of trench warfare on the Western Front.
1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
1942 - Barnes Wallis patented his bouncing bomb, used successfully to destroy German dams in the 2nd World War.
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.
1965 – Race riots (the Watts riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
1992 - The Mall of America, the biggest shopping mall in America, opened in Bloomington, Minnesota.
1998 - British Petroleum stunned the money markets by announcing it had agreed to merge with Amoco Corp of the United States in a deal billed as the largest industrial merger.
1999 - Up to 350m people throughout Europe and Asia witnessed the last total solar eclipse of the century.
2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
1858 - The Eiger in the Swiss Bernese Alps was ascended for the first time by Irishman Charles Barrington accompanied by guides Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.
1909 - The first recorded use of the new emergency wireless signal SOS.
1918 - World War I: The end of the Battle of Amiens that ultimately led to the end of the First World War. The battle is also notable for the large number of surrendering German forces. It was one of the first major battles involving armoured warfare and marked the end of trench warfare on the Western Front.
1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
1942 - Barnes Wallis patented his bouncing bomb, used successfully to destroy German dams in the 2nd World War.
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.
1965 – Race riots (the Watts riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.
1992 - The Mall of America, the biggest shopping mall in America, opened in Bloomington, Minnesota.
1998 - British Petroleum stunned the money markets by announcing it had agreed to merge with Amoco Corp of the United States in a deal billed as the largest industrial merger.
1999 - Up to 350m people throughout Europe and Asia witnessed the last total solar eclipse of the century.
2003 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.