554 – Ravenna becomes seat of Byzantine military governor in Italy
1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan.
1457 – Oldest known exactly dated printed book (c 3 years after Gutenberg)
1585 – Queen Elizabeth I refuse sovereignty of Netherlands
1820 – 1st US eye hospital, the NY Eye Infirmary, opens in NYC
1846 – The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
1862 – Abraham Lincoln receives the 1st group of African Americans to confer with a US president
1885 – Japan’s first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1894 – Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge demonstrates wireless telegraphy (radio) using Morse code at a meeting
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University
1900 – 1st electric tram in Nether land (Leidseplein-Brouwers gracht)
1925 – Mount Rushmore 1st proposed
1938 – BBC’s 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague)
1941 – US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter
1945 – V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
1947 – Pakistan gains independence from Great Britain
1948 – 14th Olympic games close at London, Great Britain
1948 – Bradman’s last Test Cricket innings
1986 – Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto arrested
1987 – “Les Miserables,” opens at Rock Theatre, Szeged Hungary
