Today:
70: The First Roman-Jewish War culminates in the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by Roman legions under Titus.
1533: Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca Empire, is executed by garrote by Spanish conquistadors under the command of Francisco Pizarro, marking a pivotal moment in the Spanish conquest of Peru.
1756: Frederick the Great of Prussia invades Saxony, initiating the Seven Years’ War, a global conflict that involved every major European power of the time.
1831: Michael Faraday demonstrates the principle of electromagnetic induction, showing that a changing magnetic field can create an electric current. This discovery is fundamental to the technology of electric generators and transformers.
1842: The Treaty of Nanking is signed, ending the First Opium War. The treaty ceded Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom and opened five Chinese ports to foreign trade.
1885: Gottlieb Daimler patents the first internal combustion engine-powered motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen.
1949: The Soviet Union successfully tests its first atomic bomb, code-named “First Lightning,” at the Semipalatinsk test site in modern-day Kazakhstan, ending the United States’ monopoly on nuclear weapons and escalating the Cold War.
1966: The Beatles perform their last official public concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California.
1991: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Communist Party, effectively ending its rule in the country, following a failed coup attempt earlier in the month.
2005: Hurricane Katrina makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the U.S. Gulf Coast, causing devastating flooding and becoming one of the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in American history.