3 August 2024 (MIA)

1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain.

1527 – The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John’s, Newfoundland.

1601 – Long War: Austria captures Transylvania in the Battle of Goroszló.

1645 – Thirty Years’ War: The Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.

1778 – The theatre La Scala is inaugurated.

1795 – Treaty of Greenville is signed.

1811 – First ascent of Jungfrau, third highest summit in the Bernese Alps by brothers Johann Rudolf and Hieronymus Meyer.

1860 – The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.

1907 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana a record $29.4 million for illegal rebating to freight carriers; the conviction and fine are later reversed on appeal.

1913 – A major labour dispute, known as the Wheatland hop riot, starts in Wheatland, California.

1914 – World War I: Germany declares war against France, while Romania declares its neutrality.

1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 metre dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.

1936 – A fire wipes out Kursha-2 in the Meshchera Lowlands, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, killing 1,200 and leaving only 20 survivors.

1940 – World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.

1946 – Santa Claus Land, the world’s first themed amusement park, opens in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States.

1948 – Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

1958 – The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus travels beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1959 – Portugal’s state police force PIDE fires upon striking workers in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, killing over 50 people.

1960 – Niger gains independence from France.

1961 – The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded by the merger of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress.

1972 – The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1975 – A privately chartered Boeing 707 strikes a mountain peak and crashes near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.

1977 – The United States Senate begins its hearing on Project MKUltra.

1977 – Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers.

1981 – Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front – Suxxali Reew Mi.

1997 – Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria; a total of 116 villagers killed, 40 in Oued El-Had and 76 in Mezouara.

2001 – The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom injuring seven people.

2004 – The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.

2005 – President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid’Ahmed Taya is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.

2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran.

2007 – Former Deputy Director of the Chilean secret police Raúl Iturriaga is captured after having been on the run following a conviction for kidnapping.

2010 – Widespread rioting erupts in Karachi, Pakistan, after the assassination of a local politician, leaving at least 85 dead and at least 17 billion Pakistani rupees (US$200 million) in damage.

2014 – A 6.1 magnitude earthquake kills at least 617 people and injures more than 2,400 in Yunnan, China.